Hi Friend!
Welcome to the first issue of Fretboard Philosophy! If you’re wondering why I’ve dropped into your inbox it’s because at some point in the past three years you’ve signed up to the Olicana Music newsletter. This is that newsletter, albeit with a better name!
Before we get into the meat of the newsletter let me quickly explain why it’s taken so long to get an issue out. In short it’s because I didn’t know what to write about. Just like you I hate email spam and I don’t want to contribute the noise and clickbait of the internet. I’ve thought very hard about the content I’m including in Fretboard Philosophy and have tried my best to ensure you get something practical and actionable out of every issue.
In the spirit of getting out my comfort zone and starting Fretboard Philosophy this weeks issue is around the theme of developing from discomfort. Enjoy!
Something To Think About
Development occurs in discomfort
Whether it’s music, exercise, or life in general, the greatest periods of our development occur in discomfort. As musicians the biggest gains in our musicianship are always found in the music that pushes us. If you only play music within your comfort zone you’ll at best remain at your current level, and at worst you might even regress.
To improve at guitar you need to be working on something that you currently can’t do, and this is inherently uncomfortable. This is true whether you’re a beginner or a professional. You’ll always be able to find music that pushes you and as such you can always be developing.
Something To Practice
Use comfort as your guide
With developing from discomfort in mind here’s an exercise you can use to ensure you’re developing. It’s likely you’re learning a song at the moment. Next time you sit down to practice find the part of the song you find hardest and dedicate a portion of your practice session on that one thing. Break the part into the smallest version of the problem and master each of those sections in turn – similar to how I describe in my lesson on chunking. Keep a record of your progress so that you can be objective about whether you have improved or not.
Try getting started by using the tips in this video and applying them to something you are learning.
Something To Enjoy
Luke gets out of his comfort zone
This video is a great example of development occurring in discomfort. Follow Luke’s journey over his first year with the guitar. You can see straight away how out of his comfort zone he is with this new skill, and the the difference in his playing after a year of dedication is incredible!
That’s it for this one. If you want to help me improve Fretboard Philosophy simply reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.
See you in two weeks!
Alasdair 🤘
