Week 19: the hard bit, and no stopping

Week nineteen of a 32-week guitar practice path: fixing the one bar that beats you, then playing the whole thing through mistakes rather than restarting.

Week
19 of 32
Days
7
Played as
blues or rock

Every piece has one bar that costs more than all the others. Playing the whole thing from the top rehearses the parts that already work and practises the failure, which is why a piece can be played fifty times and still break in the same place. Name what fails precisely enough to practise it, loop the failing bar with the one before it, then rehearse the entry separately — almost every failure is a hand arriving from somewhere rather than a hand landing.

The second half is continuity. A piece is not learned until it survives a mistake, and stopping to repair a wrong note teaches your hands that stopping is what comes next, which is the single most reliable way to ruin a performance you were otherwise ready for. So you play it through, holes and all, and then get lost on purpose and find your way back using the map from week 17.

Blues treatment

Fix the one bar that beats you, then join the piece up and play through everything

Your choice of keyShuffle · ♩=88Fix it, then play on

Play what you have until it breaks and stop at the break rather than pushing through. Then name what failed in a sentence you could act on: not "the middle is hard" but "the shift up to the 8th fret in bar nine arrives late". The first cannot be practised; the second can be fixed this week. Loop that bar with the one before it at a tempo where it is clean every single time, then practise the entry separately, because almost every failure is a hand arriving from somewhere rather than a hand landing.

The second half of the week is continuity. Play the piece from the top, holes and all, and when something goes wrong keep going — stopping to repair a mistake teaches your hands that stopping is what happens next, which is the practice habit that most reliably ruins a performance. Then get lost on purpose: drop out for two bars and come back in on the right beat, using the form you counted in week 17.

The daily session · ~26 min

  1. Warm upHands, then last week's chunks4 min
  2. Name the hard barBe specific5 min
  3. Loop it, then rejoin itTwo bars, then two either side6 min
  4. Play it through, no stoppingThe first time end to end6 min
  5. Jam, recover deliberatelyGetting lost on purpose5 min

Check yourself

Reference

Rock treatment

Fix the one bar that beats you, then join the song up and play through everything

Your choice of keyStraight · ♩=100Fix it, then play on

Play what you have until it breaks and stop at the break rather than pushing through. Then name it in a sentence you could act on: not "the solo is hard" but "bar three of the solo, the string skip misses". Loop that bar with the one before it, strict alternate picking, at a tempo where it is clean every time even at half speed, and rehearse the entry separately — a lick can be perfect alone and collapse when it has to be entered at speed.

The second half of the week is continuity. Play the song from the top, holes and all, and when something goes wrong keep going; stopping to repair a mistake teaches your hands that stopping is what comes next. Then get lost on purpose: drop out for two bars and come back in on the right beat, using the section map from week 17.

The daily session · ~26 min

  1. Warm upHands, then last week's chunks4 min
  2. Name the hard barBe specific5 min
  3. Loop it, then rejoin itTwo bars, then two either side6 min
  4. Play it through, no stoppingThe first time end to end6 min
  5. Jam, recover deliberatelyGetting lost on purpose5 min

Check yourself

Reference

How the week runs

Whichever accent you pick, the material stays the same for all 7 days and the tempo and intent move. Day one takes it slowly, day two chases clean notes, day three brings it to target tempo and into the jam, day four pushes past comfortable, and day five drops back to tempo to record and listen. Days six and seven are yours.

You can switch accent any day without losing your place — it is the same week either way, so week 19 means the same thing in both.

Start today's sessionSee the whole path