The Grammar of Guitar Practice The hidden components of guitar practice

By Aditya Shukla, psychologist and guitarist

Your entire guitar practice can be considered a form of building your grammar. This helps because, in music, sequences matter, and grammar is a set of rules to make a sequence meaningful.

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Tone = Handwriting

Your tone is the equivalent of readability, aesthetics, and vibes of what music you make.

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Phrases = Sentence patterns 

They are patterns like 1. If only... but also 2. And then... 3. You won't believe what happened... Every phrase sets up the next.

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Rhythm = Context

The Rhythm, specially the chords in the rhythm sets expectations, mood, and general idea of meaningful sounds that will come ahead.

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Techniques = Verbs

You can use many verbs to describe things. The techniques you use often control the the type of notes you hear. E.g. Sweeps = arpeggio Finger picking = rhythm & melody Plus, the same sequences can be done with different techniques.

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Technique + Adjectives

The same melody can be played in different ways. Each way is an adjective. 1. Mountain = arpeggio, Big mountain = extended arpeggio

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How many ever notes you play, some are going to be the focus of attention. Those are your nouns. Those are what people remember.

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Note resolution = Nouns

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