21 Day Challenge

If you don't want to read that whole thread, then I'll just explain it here.
The idea is that to practice anything, you should practice it perfectly for 21 days. When we apply that to learning/practicing songs, it comes down to practicing a song so slowly that you can TOTALLY accurately play it, without a single mistake. For 21 days. This way you psychologically make a habit of playing the song that way so you can easily play it faster.

Now I was wondering... would this really work?

Participate! Simply, follow these steps:
Pick a song, any song (preferably a fast one though) that you can't play real fast, but would like to be able to play (bass players, drummers, any other instruments, you can participate too!).
Get your metronome (if you don't have one, go to http://www.metronomeonline.com/) and find the fastest beat at which you can play the song, PERFECTLY.
Subtract 20 (or some other amount till you can easily play it) from this number, and practice at that beat every day for 21 days.
Record your learning experiences, what speed you used, and what song!

Ze_Metal has a great explanation of the phenomenon, which I fully support and believe:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ze_Metal
It's a mental thing. If your brain is so used to an activity, the activity will be like second nature.

Look at it this way, You brush your teeth every day (hopefully). When you are brushing them do you actually have to think to yourself and say "Now I should clean the sides of my teeth" or do you just do it?

That is the reasoning behind this method. It's 21 days because scientists belive that's how long the brain needs before it actually becomes a habit.

This also works on brand new guitarists. If you watch them progress 21 days, around that amount of time they will get one of those "Bursts" in skill. I'm sure this happened to you at some point, right? You suddenly realize that you got a little bit better.

I'm not saying this method WILL work, but it's just a more scientific way of practicing.


And these are Dr. Faustus's results so far (see page 2, last post):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Faustus
So I guess it is time for me to put up my results. For The Love Of God please read either this post or the video description to know what is going on.

I thought I would make it interesting and also compare it to a few other training methods. For each training method, I'll start at the speed I was able to play the lick at first then speed up until it becomes unnecessarily sloppy - so you can compare the gains made overall, and those made while retaining accuracy. I'll only play small sections of each song for the sake of time.

01. 21 Day Method - One Speed
01. I practiced the insane string skipping solo from Racer X's Scarified at a single speed for the 21 days.

02. 21 Day Method - Burst
02. I practiced the arpeggio section from Jason Becker's Altitudes mostly at a single speed, with a burst in speed - to the maximum possible - every 10 to 20 times through it.

03. Gradual Method - No Burst
03. I practiced one of Paul Gilbert's signature licks by gradually upping the tempo once I had played it cleanly five times.

04. Gradual Method - Burst
04. I practiced the Bach inspired section of Racer X's Scarified - as well as the rest of the song sans solo - sticking generally to the Gradual Method but also throwing in a speed burst every 10 to 20 times through it.

05. Noob Method
05. Just to really emphasize that all of these practice methods have their merits - which may not be apparent since I can't play in front of a camera at all, I decided to try learning the Iron Man solo with only full speed attempts - and it really sucks. I don't even bother to finish it since you guys get the point within a few seconds.

You guys can judge which one seems to be most efficient. To put things into context, I've been playing guitar for a little over 2 years and have practiced: alternate picking for 1.5 years, string skipping for 1 year, and sweep picking for 0.5 years