Comments on: Zen Guitar Practice Workout

By: Dewi

Dewi — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:52:30 +0000

I found this blog “incidentally” yesterday and I found it very interesting, educating and motivating.. I started playing guitar 4 months ago without any previous guitar experience. I juz fall in love with it but there seem to be many obstacle in practicing, mainly about not having enough time to practice beside of the techniques. I totally agree that practicing/playing guitar is the same as meditating itself. I think playing/practicing guitar need both to think/concentrate/focus and not to think in the same time, this sound very contradictive, but I feel that way in all of my guitar practice time. Losing concentration will ruin our guitar play as much as lots of thoughts while playing. I think solitude is mandatory in practicing, being alone while practicing lets us have less tension and help us to pay attention to every details without distraction. Practicing guitar with people around/ tv/ in public place is a big “no no” (that’s my thought).

My 22 months daughter seems to be interested in guitar, she always take my guitar while i’m playing it and start to strum/pick the strings. And to my surprise is that she call Steve Vai (when we watch him playing guitar on youtube) as “clever”, how come she knows about good guitarist and guitar play (????)

I have one question in my mind. In playing classics, should we (woman) also need to sit in classical position like male guitarist? coz the position looks quite ‘unpolite’ for woman.

Thanks for making this blog and I’m looking forward for more tips and thoughts… :-)

By: The Freeguitarvideos.com Blog » Blog Archive » Zen Principles for Practicing Guitar

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:06:06 +0000

[...] Guitar Habits site has a post on adding some Zen meditation principles to your guitar practice routine. “Guitar practice is in itself a form of [...]

By: Klaus Tol

Klaus Tol — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:57:46 +0000

Hi Scotty,

Let me know when you have tried.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and findings.

Klaus Tol

By: Klaus Tol

Klaus Tol — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:40:51 +0000

Hi Beekie,

You’re right, it applies to many things.
Slow is the way to go. I know the feeling of impatience,
but you will definitely create better results by going slow first.

Happy to hear you had a great holiday!

Klaus

By: Scotty Smith

Scotty Smith — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:33:26 +0000

Love the lesson Klaus. I have never tried applying zen or any form of meditation to my guitar playing, but this sounds great and I will give it a try for sure. Thanks!

By: beekie

beekie — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:36:21 +0000

Hi Klaus,
Thanks for reminding me for the tip of practicing the things slow…Thats what i often forget..Last week I had a skiing holyday which was great. By skiing counts also the Mantra: if you start skiing, ski slow, focus on your technique,and if your technique is good speed up bit by bit…
Thats what i am gone do more now..Practising on my guitar…:-)

By: Klaus Tol

Klaus Tol — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:51:11 +0000

Hi Laura,

Great to hear you managed to overcome this mental block.
It is something that happens to a lot of writers and song writers.

I hope you are on your way to a fresh start with your blog and your songwriting.

Thank you for the nice compliment.

Kind Regards,
Klaus Tol

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:57:22 +0000

I only discovered your blog a couple of days ago, via twitter. I’ve read a few of your more recent entries and have become very inspired by your words. Not only did it Inspire me to re-start my own blog but after reading about your thoughts on song writing and inspiration, I managed to overcome the mental block I had been suffering from after waiting for inspiration to come to me.
Over the next few days I’ll probably read some of the older entries, but, I look forward to future words of wisdom.