Zombies. Zombies are bad. They’re mindless, life sucking creatures. They’re undead. Rumor has it they smell bad.
No one likes zombies.
Please, don’t be a (guitar) zombie.
A (guitar) zombie is a person who mindlessly plays guitar instead of being fully engaged in their practicing. Everyone struggles with this. I struggle with this. But admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?
Don’t get me wrong, I love to mindlessly play guitar. It’s fun and relaxing. But that’s no way to play if you want to make real, significant progress in your playing. If you want to make a lot of progress, make sure you’re staying fully engaged in your practicing. I’ve said a lot of this before, but it bears repeating.
Don’t playing in a room with the TV on. Play in a room by yourself, if possible. Turn off your phone. Play at your optimal time (as in, not when you’re tired, hungry, etc). Have a clearly written schedule. Track your progress.
All of these things are important, but it is also important to make sure you’re staying fully engaged.Even in an optimal environment, you can become a (guitar) zombie.
In order to insure you stay fully engaged, you need to know exactly what you’re going to practice before you begin. Take a few minutes and lay out a plan for each practice session. For instance, you might have something like this:
Major scale
Song xyz
Etude in Em
Right hand technique
Arpeggios
Next, allot 3-5 minutes for each item and rotate them either randomly or in a pattern, depending on how much you want or need to work on each item. For instance, if you want to really hit the major scale on a particular day, your schedule might look like this:
Warm up – 5 minutes
Major scale – 5 minutes
Song xyz – 3 minutes
Major scale – 5 minutes
Etude in Em – 3 minutes
Major scale – 5 minutes
Right hand technique
Major scale – 5 minutes
Arpeggios – 3 minutes
(repeat as necessary)
You get the idea. The exact amount of time is not as important as the rotation between each item. In the schedule above, you’ll get 20 minutes of work on the major scale without having to labor through 20 minutes of the scale all at once.
This type of routine will keep each item fresh and interesting, helping you stay engaged. Staying engaged will insure you get the most out of your practice sessions, which will help you see faster progress in your playing. Progress is what we’re after.
Also, it will also help you avoid becoming a zombie. That’s a good thing, for everyone.
