When you practice do you spend a lot of time looking for what you need? Where are my picks? Have you seen my music? Where’s my Guitar? Where’s my Ipad. May I use this chair? Can I use your Ipod player? Where’s the music stand? Is there a tuner somewhere? Well, keep reading for 15 things you need when practicing guitar.
What if you were a piano player, you want to practice, what do you do? You sit at the piano and start practicing – right? Your music is in the bench or up on the piano and the rest of the stuff you need is likely right there as well, the bench doesn’t get moved, the instrument is in tune and there might even be a metronome sitting on the top. No one is going to come along and move it or expect you to move, it is a fixed object, a music space.
There seems to be a Gypsy spirit that resides in the guitar, always wandering, its portability both its blessing and its curse. Let us therefore stop wandering in the desert and build ourselves a temple.
Let’s begin by using the piano model as the best case example for building this place for Guitar practice.
What You Need
- A Guitar that is ready to play
- A Guitar stand
- Ipad or Laptop or internet connected device
- Guitar picks (if you use them)
- Nail files and clippers if you play with your nails
- A music stand and notation paper, pencil, eraser
- A small table preferably with a drawer for music, similar to a night table.
- A comfortable armless chair
- A guitar tuner – (net)
- A metronome – (net)
- A music player – (net)
- Any recorded music you want to work on or with – (net)
- Any written music you are working on
- Footstool, Guitar strap
- An amp and cable if you are using an electric
The Temple
Now what have we missed, let us first have a moment of silence before discussing this next matter (silence ) We now need the place on which we will build our guitar sanctuary, no matter where this is it will remain untouched by unwashed humans. It is surrounded by an invisible protective force that is created by the power of your will, anyone who takes so much as a guitar pick from this place without express permission may be at risk of permanent excommunication.
This place is the guitar temple to which you bring your sacrifice of time and care and love and attention. This is your place and no one else’s place. The chair on which you sit is the throne and may not be repurposed for the dinner table for this would be sacrilege. The internet connected device is your portal to further knowledge and understanding and should be treated with respect. Hands other than your own touching the guitar that is cradled in the stand would be like handing your new born child to a stranger on the street. All other items are intrinsic to the ceremony of practice that is performed here and thus have great value and worth that is understood by you and you alone.
This place is YOUR sanctuary, it is the top of the mountain, the meditation room, a place of serenity, a place where you might in fact be able to reach another dimension provided it remains undisturbed by probing and unworthy contact.
If you have achieved this space you should notice that others make a wide berth around it with a look of fear and respect. If you have a room for this purpose others should notice that it is locked and there is only one key, if it is a space within a space it is virtually locked and your express permission is the only key to entrance. This space in terms of square footage does not need to be greater than 40 square feet but this space no matter how physically small is one of great magnitude because it is part of the music universe and is available to you and you alone for that purpose.
This is a sanctified place that you have built. It is the ark to the new world, it is a temple. It is not the couch, it is not an ever changing unused corner, it is not confusion. It is transcendent, it is peace, it is respect.
You Have Achieved This Result If
- You look for nothing
- You ask for nothing
- You look forward to entering
You Will Have Not Achieved This If
- You are still seeking
- You are involving others
- You are reluctant to enter
Therefore, make yourself a place and abide in that place and learn.
