Why You Should Play Less

I think you should play less.

I don't mean you should spend less time playing guitar. You'll never hear me say that!

What I mean is you should play less music at a time.

I have said this to more than one guitar student this week:

"Play four measures at a time. Two measures at a time. One measure at a time."

Why? I'm glad you asked.

Reduced Cognitive Load

When we learn anything, it makes our brain work. The fancy term for this is “cognitive load”. When we take on more new challenges than our brain is ready for, the brain gets overloaded and doesn’t learn. For this reason, it is helpful to experiment with successively smaller sections of music until you find the amount that allows you to focus on needed improvement.

One Goal at a Time

Confucius reportedly said, “He who chases two rabbits catches neither.” If we focus on one goal at a time, we're much more likely to accomplish it. Trying to play a whole song straight through can involve different chord switches, different strumming patterns, different arpeggios, and so on. When we focus on only a few measures, we can accomplish one goal at a time.

Dopamine

When we achieve a small win like playing a few measures well, dopamine is released. That's the chemical in our brain that reacts to pleasure, motivation, and reward. By defining small wins, we get more frequent dopamine, which means more motivation. This makes it likely that we will spend more time playing guitar, which means we get better.

Do we always have to play small sections? No. When we play one measure well and the next measure well, then we can play the two measures together. When we play two measures well and the next two measures well, we can play four measures. And so on.

This may sound like it would take a long time. In my experience, it’s actually faster because you’re learning to play the music well instead of just repeating mistakes.

Don't believe me? Give it a try!

Let me know how it goes.

Keep making music!