Approach to Practice
As in all aspects of guitar and musical development the art of practising must be approached in a systematic and disciplined way. Of great importance is the beneficial use of practice time. The student should "map out" a daily programme consisting of work studied so far and try as much as possible to stick to the programme concentrating on the main problems troubling the student at any given point of time, (a check through "Section One Summary" will show what has been studied and a programme can be organized from this).
For instance, the right hand independence exercises (pg. 36) are good "warm up" exercises where the student can concentrate wholly on the right hand, its position, small movement of the fingers and thumb, clear strong sounds etc Next, practice right hand alternation exercises (as explained on pg. 26) on all strings, followed by the chromatic scales on pg. 41 making sure to keep the left hand correctly positioned.
The amount of time spent on each technique (and any subsequent technique added as the student progresses through the method) are dependent on the available time and concentration span of each individual.
Remember that the least mistakes made during practise means less work must be done to correct them, therefore think carefully and concentrate on all aspects of your practice, both musically and technically.
Speed is of no consequence or importance at this stage but will develop via a secure and organized technique.
It is also a good idea to get into the habit of writing down on music manuscript paper every piece as it is studied as this helps greatly to reinforce the learning of the piece.
Dionisio Aguado
