Practicing Techniques

• Pray for:
• God's blessings in the following areas:
• Humility - Be humble; admit your mistakes and correct them.
• Discipline - Budget your time and stick to it.
• Patience - will keep the frustration level down.
• Perseverance - your not going to quit.

• Practice Every Day :
• Remember:
• when practicing, you must be your #1 fan and #1 critic.
• If you have a Great practice; you will play Great.
• If you have a Very Good practice; you will play Very Good.
• If you have a Good practice; you will play Good.
• If you have a So-so practice; you will play So-so.
• If you have a Bad practice; you will play Bad.
• If you have a No practice; you won't be playing at all.
• It would be good to practice 30 minutes to an hour or more everyday.
* Even if it is only 15 to 20 minutes a day, that is better than practicing only an hour before your lesson.
• Set a goal and practice to you reach it.
• Keep a practice schedule notebook.
• Write down the date and time period that you practiced. Also, write your goals for this practice and what you actually practiced.
• Build accuracy first; then speed.


• Finger Exercises:
• Scales
• Lesson 1   1st String   Video/Audio
• Spatials
• Lesson 1   1st Fret   Video/Audio
• Lesson 2   2nd Fret   Video/Audio
• Slurs
• Lesson 1   1st Fret   Video/Audio
• Lesson 2   2nd Fret   Video/Audio
• Lesson 3   3rd Fret   Video/Audio
• Lesson 4   4th Fret   Video/Audio
• Arpeggios
• Lesson 1   Video/Audio


• Mastering the piece of music:
• Practice the piece measure by measure:
• Mastering the measure:
• When sight reading and playing; try to pre-plant your left fingers and right fingers or pick as much as possible.
• Sight read it first - until you can do it right 3 times in a row.
• Then play it - until you can do it right 3 times in a row.
• Once you have mastered every measure, then start playing the piece from the beginning playing the 1st and 2nd measures correctly then play the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd measures correctly and so on until you can play the entire piece of music correctly 3 times in a row. This is how you must practice inorder to perform the piece correctly.
• After playing a measure or the whole piece of music, ask yourself:  What did I like about my playing and what did I not like about my playing.

Special Announcements

• Announcements:
• Checkout my Audio and Video/Audio presentations by going to the Composition webpage. Click on "E" or "L" and then choose which presentation you want. It's that EASY!


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• Birthdays:
* Don't forget to play your guitar at your birthday party for your quests. It is an excellent way to begin performing in front of people.


• Instruments For Sale:
* If you have a digital camera hooked up to your computer, we can connect over the Internet and I could show these items while we talk about them.


• Parties:
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• Recitals:
* The Christmas Recital is coming up and I need to know which students will be participating.
Please talk to me during your next lesson. We also need to pick a day for the Recital.


• The CHRISTMAS RECITAL



Steve J. Keskula:	Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
	Greensleves
Steve J. Keskula:	Angels We have Heard on High
	Hymn to Joy (Beethoven)
Steve J. Keskula:	La Guitarra Apasionado
	Written by Steve J. Keskula
Steve J. Keskula:	Española Danza No. 1 in E Minor
	Written by Steve J. Keskula
	Silent Night





• Special Events:
•