Guitar Performance Coaching for Aspiring Musicians
Why Musicians Plateau
After years of working as a musician, performer and instructor, I have witnessed the same patterns over and over again. There are tell-tale signs with which musical output or success rates can be determined early on, even though the definition of success in music is fairly subjective and varied, too.
Preparation may follow different routes, sometimes outside of established norms, and often needs to fit into a given schedule of life. Nevertheless, given years of musical experience, quality of outcome can be predicted and preparation modified to achieve better results.
Hidden Constraints and Limitations of Early Education
The problem many players face is that they over-optimise specific aspects yet lose track and oversight of what is truly important and necessary, and hence get caught up in a loop of practising something to perfection, whilst ignoring other aspects – oftentimes those that are even more important.
Another problem is also lack of judgement, so that players cannot tell where the weaknesses are, or they are stuck inside a loop of trying to fulfill “old demands”, i.e. instilled yet no longer applicable wisdom from childhood teachers. “Try to play exactly on the beat!” “Never start a phrase on beat 1!” “The chorus should be in major, the verse in minor, and the bridge should start on the subdominant.” “Maintain perfect posture at all times.” “Practise with a metronome.” “Right notes vs. wrong notes.” “Stay in tune, stay in time…”
At some point these early ‘truths’ can become limitations. Instead of enabling high quality music performance, they lock players into an eternal state of a learner performer, like an ongoing high school experience, limiting a player’s potential to transition into adult-level performance practice.
The player continues to ask: Was this good? Was it in tune? Did I play and sing all the right notes?
Instead of asking: Was it compelling? Did it move the listener? Was it musically valuable? Did it resonate with me, make me feel good, did I enjoy it, did I feel aligned with the process?
Learned ‘false expectations’ can remain as a hurdle that is difficult to overcome without guidance. “Why do I not sound like so and so?” “Will I ever be able to do x or y like …?”
This problem causes many players to eventually give up as they struggle to overcome perceived differences between their performances and those of their music idols.
Yet, careful evaluation may reveal nuanced differences in approach, style and fashion which reveal differences in setting and thus lead to different, more individual results. Vocals for example need not be clearly enunciated like in the old days, use of autotune and music technology need not be hidden, timing does not need to be metronome steady, not all notes the same volume, etc. Once fundamentals become adaptable, there are many valid artistic approaches.
Even along simple, conventional dimensions there are typical failure points, which cause performers to reach a plateau or hit a wall, which impedes progress. Many times, a number of issues work together to inhibit progress, which basic tuition and method books cannot resolve alone, as a more holistic approach is needed to break the gridlock.
Performance Anxieties
A big one is performance anxiety, which can present itself in numerous forms and levels. For some players it is the epitome of nerves, insecurities whilst performing, the fear of playing wrong notes, missing parts, not hearing whether it’s good or bad, what other people may be thinking, etc. For others it’s the process that happens before reaching the stage, starting with choice of repertoire, and thoughts about whether a performance may be considered cool enough or not, what to wear, how to move, what to say in between the songs, the whole stage thing, different places, different studios, auditions, etc.
With a mind busy dealing with these uncertainties, minor technical weaknesses surface and become distracting.
For the jazz improviser it is being able to recall scales on the spot, for the vocalist the fear of being able to nail that interval, sing note x against an unusual chord, sing or play a phrase at odd times, stay in time with the drums, be able to hear the bass, lose track of the position in the song…
Just like performance anxiety may work on a subconscious level, a simple lack of music or harmonic knowledge can become a limiting factor. For example in songwriting not knowing the relationship of chords within a key will result in less interesting chord progressions and more basic melodic movements.
Timing and Groove Become More Relevant
Timing is another area where old habits often govern current musical output. Notions of what it means to be in time; only having a limited rhythm vocabulary and sounding repetitive. Rhythmic resolution at higher speeds falls apart; 16th notes on different parts of a beat can be played with ease at lower tempos, yet at higher tempos “e” and “d” of a “1 e & d” phrase become a blur.
Plus, timing is intrinsically linked to fashion and style. If you still phrase and place dynamics like it’s the noughties you’re trapped inside a style time capsule, which means it becomes harder as a performer to resonate with a modern audience.
Timing also reveals a level of musicality like no other aspect does. Basing melodies around a handful of notes is less of a limiting factor than a limited sense of rhythm and lack of rhythmic variability.
This is especially so because even with a simple time base of ⅛-note phrases, within just one bar of four/four there are at least 256! possible rhythms, for a two bar rhythm that grows to 65536(!) – in fact, millions with different note durations – possible rhythms, meaning, with so much variety possible, using only a limited set of rhythmic phrases becomes revealing.
At the same time, using too much variety can feel uncontrolled without artistic selection in place. Getting the balance right, requires judgement, without it feeling judgemental.
Groove, “you either have it or you don’t”, at least so the saying goes, but even this is achievable once you move outside the standard curriculum. Why? Because groove does not live in a curriculum. What moves has never been put on paper in a way that makes it reproducible for learner beginners. Hence, learners rarely experience what groove means, until later after lots of live and performance experience.
Groove is also highly relevant for vocal and improvised performances. Even slow songs have a groove!
Conventional tuition rarely cares about such details. Those require judgement and a producer’s ear, as well as the space to hone in on such details within a coaching framework.
Is Your Practice Schedule Holding You Back
Another stumbling block – albeit not an obvious one – can be the practice schedule itself. Because all too often these schedules are written with broad categories in mind that align with chapters of a method book but have little to no connection to the goals that matter.
For example, a typical 1 hour schedule may look like:
- 5 min. Warm up
- 5 min. Fretboard knowledge
- 5 min. Barre chords in different positions
- 10 min. “Jazz chords”
- 10 min. Major scales (caged)
- 10 min. Arpeggios
- 10 min. Blues scales with blues jam
- 5 min. Tapping exercise
Yet, the goals that matter to you may be:
- Learn repertoire for covers band.
- Organise material for jam session.
- Write and perform instrumental piece.
Hence, despite looking good on paper, practice becomes inefficient. The really important aspects are left to the last minute, or more often than not, done on the way to the gig.
Whereas coaching asks: Does practising these things make sense, is it going to yield the results needed or may even hinder such results? Are there better ways to practise, better ways to combine skill x with the goals planned?
For example, could you write a piece of music that incorporated arpeggios in different positions and hence enables you to practise these at the same time whilst playing within a musical context and generating material! Not as a means to an end, but as part of real lived musical and artistically valuable experience.
Imagine Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone
Last but not least, another limiting plateau sticker – perhaps THE biggest – is the comfort zone. And how far one dares to go beyond? And very often, this starts with imagination…. Can you imagine writing an instrumental piece today? Let alone perform it in public?
Hence can you “imagine”:
– writing a piece
– writing an exercise section for your own arpeggio knowledge
– learning new songs and auditioning for a new band
– performing at a wedding, a jazz gig, a tribute show, an open mic night, etc.
How far does your comfort zone reach, what is too far? Can you become comfortable with the idea of doing something, like playing faster than before, or learning all the notes of the fretboard, learning all the songs of your favourite band, memorising all the lyrics of a set, learning a new solo every week and really pushing to keep learning new material – even though perfection hasn’t been achieved yet?
Meaning, can you imagine surviving and thriving in an imperfect yet highly productive and fulfilling world, and thereby breaking boundaries and through the plateau?
Coaching ensures that leaving the comfort zone remains comfortable!
So, why not get in touch to discuss what’s limiting you:
Briefly describe your current goals,
frustrations, or performance challenges,
and I’ll get back to you personally!
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