I came across this quote reading an excellent article, “How Many Hours a Day Should You Practice?” at Bulletproof Musician.com:

“If you practice with your fingers,
no amount is enough.
If you practice with your head,
two hours is plenty.”

– Leopold Auer upon being asked by violinist Nathan
Milstein how long he should practice each day.

The rest of the article talks about the importance of being engaged while you practice and discusses the the pitfalls of the “typical” practice routine and the importance of breaking down your material into small bits and really analyzing your playing as you work on those small chunks.

First, however, I thought it might be helpful to discuss why one might want to practice without a guitar.

For me, the most obvious situation where one might want to practice without a guitar is when there isn’t a guitar available. When you’re on the bus, or at your kids’ soccer practice, or waiting at the doctor’s office, you may want to wile away the time by practicing without your guitar.

You may also want to practice without your guitar to build non-guitar-specific skills. You can work on rhythm or ear training very easily without having your instrument in hand.

Another reason you may want to practice without your guitar is to avoid (or recover from) injury. Repetitive stress injuries are common with the guitar and we can reduce our playing hours by finding ways to practice without actually playing.

So now that you know why you might want to practice without your guitar, stay tuned to learn how to practice without your guitar…

April’s Video-of-the-Month is another German guitarist, Timo Brauwers, who I discovered when Adam Rafferty posted a video link of Timo’s on Facebook. At the time of writing, the English version of Timo’s website did not yet have his biographical information and I don’t read German particularly well, so I can’t tell you much about Timo, other than that I really enjoy his playing.

Here he is playing “Breathe Deeply”:

Incidentally, I recently tried the same model guitar that Timo uses in this video – it may well be my next guitar!

Timo’s website: www.timobrauwers.de (English version – click on German flag at far right of navigation bar for German)

Timo’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/dabooti

“When I heard those bluegrass harmonies, I just lost my mind. And I also recognized that it was something I could do, which is a wonderful feeling. I thought, that’s how I play guitar, that’s what I do!”

–Gillian Welch, on hearing bluegrass for the first time

“Classical Gas” by Mason Williams is easily the most popular and successful instrumental guitar tune ever written. Written during a weekend break from his day job as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the tune was released in February 1968 and climbed to the top of the charts, winning three Grammy Awards that year. It has since been performed by countless people and ensembles playing a wide variety of different instruments.

Years ago, my guitar teacher tried to teach me how to play “Classical Gas”, but I was more interested in 3-chord rock at the time. Years later, after hearing Lisa Simpson playing it on an episode of The Simpsons, I decided that it was time to revisit the tune. Its not wildly difficult, but the timing is tricky as it changes time signatures several times throughout the piece.

Here is the original recording:

And here is Tommy Emmanuel’s take on the tune (note the nods to the Ventures and Elton John mid-way through):

And here is the official “Classical Gas” website:  ClassicalGas.com/home.html

Just a personal plug…

On Sunday May 6th, I will be the guest host of the York Region Fingerstyle Guitar Association monthly Open Mic. We meet at the Cornerhouse Restaurant in Stouffville (6403 Main St.) from 1:30 pm until 5 pm. I will be presenting a short workshop and there will be a feature set by D’Arcy Wickham.

I’m still trying to decide on a topic for the workshop. I’m thinking either “Working with a Metronome” or “Practicing Without Your Guitar”. Thoughts or suggestions?

I recently got an e-mail from German guitarist Michael Graefe suggesting that I use his tune “Cliffs of Moher” as a Video-of-the-Month. So here it is…

Michael is a self taught guitarist who bought his first guitar as a teenager after hearing a recording of Leo Kottke. He has released four independently produced CDs which are available on iTunes and CDBaby. In addition to being self-taught and producing his own CDs, he also builds his own guitars.

“Cliffs of Moher” will be available on Michael’s next CD.

Michael Graefe’s website (English version): http://www.relaxrecords.de/english/indexgb.htm

Michael Graefe’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/relaxrecords

So what do I have in common with Canadian music icons Gordon Lightfoot and Stompin’ Tom Connors? Not much. But last night I got to play a guitar that both of them (and thousands of other Canadians) have played.

I’ve written about the Six String Nation Guitar a couple of times in the past. It was born as a response to the separatist movement in Quebec and was built out of materials that represent the Canadian identity.

Well last night, it was back in Uxbridge at the Silverbirch Charity Concerts “Guitar Special” which featured Wendell Ferguson and a host of local guitar heroes.

And I got to play it!

Here is a picture of me playing a few bars of “Watermelon Sorbet”

Incidentally, you can catch the remaining two Silverbirch concerts this Friday and Saturday.

Six String Nation website: www.SixStringNation.com

Silverbirch Charity Concerts website: www.SilverbirchCharityConcert.ca

Today is International Women’s Day. Unfortunately, that has very little to do with guitars. For whatever reason, women do not seem to be drawn to play guitar. I don’t have official statistics, but anecdotally, I would guess that less than 10% of guitarists are female. (I am pleased to report that fully half of my students are female.)

In the past, I have featured a couple of female guitarists on this blog – notably, Macyn Taylor and Muriel Anderson. Today I give you someone that I’ve just recently discovered, Eva Beneke:

Eva was born in East Berlin and studied guitar at the Berlin University of Arts and the Franz Liszt Hochschule in Weimar where she graduated in 2007. She released her first CD, “Coming Home” in 2010.

A question for all of you women out there: Why don’t you play guitar? Or, if you do play guitar, why do you think that other women don’t?

Eva Beneke’s website: www.EvaBeneke.com

Adam Rafferty is a solo fingerstyle guitarist from New York City. He was featured in September’s Video-of-the-Month.