Biblioteca de la Guitarra y Cuerda Pulsada

Over the many years that I have been teaching classical guitar, there have been numerous articles written about improving practice skills. Many of these articles used words such as “concentration “focus,” and coined phrases such as Aaron Shearer’s “Aim Directed Motion.” Although all of these share a common goal: to improve technique, these terms imply to the reader, performer, or student a sense that whatever difficulties they are having is a result of not doing something or not doing enough of it.

Obtaining proficiency on an instrument is difficult enough; any connection to negativity will have more detrimental than positive effects. Over the years I have come to realize that many, if not all, musical or technical problems can be improved through awareness. Whether as student or teacher, how many times have you encountered a situation where, when asked to sing the melody of a piece you are playing, can only sing the first few measures? If we were aware of how it sounded, wouldn’t we be able to sing it? The same is true for fingerings, the form, or phrase structure of a piece, to mention but a few. In this article I will present some techniques and approaches to increase awareness when practicing or performing...

Developing Awareness In Practice