Measuring Your Progress

By Mike Philippov

Many students wonder about how they can measure their progress. After all it is natural to want to know if our hard work and the hours of practice are paying off. It is common for students to feel frustrated thinking that they are not making progress. Having gone through these periods of frustration myself I would like to offer some ways that you can measure the effect your practice is having (or not having) on your playing ability.

First of all, making progress learning an instrument can be made analogous to growing up. A child cannot really notice whether or not he/she is growing but after awhile, looking back it is obvious how much maturity and growth has taken place. Playing an instrument is exactly like that. When we start, we are anxious to make progress quickly and we become frustrated if it does not come. It is important to realize that progress takes TIME just like growing up does. If we keep at it and continue to receive proper instruction (through studying with a teacher, books, or going to a music school etc…) looking back it is often surprising to notice how much better of a player we have become. I often ask myself when I play: “Can I play more easily, cleaner or faster now than I could 2, 3 or 6 months ago?” Preferably the answer to the above question should be YES, which means that right now I am a better player than before. This means that growth HAS taken place even if we did not notice it.

So in general you want to compare your levels of ability about once every 2-6 months but certainly not every week. Troy Stetina described the way most people try to observe their improvement with an analogy of looking at the hour hand on a clock. The hand moves much too slowly. However, if one looks at it after 3 hours it is amazing how far it moved. So the bottom line is, keep practicing, find the music that inspires you to learn it and work on it without worrying yourself with the constant worry of “am I making any progress?” A lot of times, the “worrying” will just get in the way and waste the time that you should be spending practicing anyway.

In general, steady progress will come at a predictable rate, if the following conditions are met:

1. Proper instructions are given, to be followed during practice. (Preferably by an excellent teacher who knows what he/she is doing.)
2. You actually DO what is instructed.

If these conditions are not met, then the rate of progress will be much slower (or there won’t be any progress at all) than it could have been otherwise. Again, using our analogy of a child growing up, if the child does not receive proper guidance from someone (parents) then he/she will not develop into a mature adult. In our case, if the student is not receiving guidance from an expert teacher, then he/she will not develop into a good guitar player.

A big mistake that a lot of players make however is comparing themselves to OTHERS! I remember very well listening to my favorite guitar players tearing up the fret board and thinking: “Wow, they are so much more advanced than I am” and I would get really depressed and frustrated. Bottom line is, no matter how much you may admire someone like Yngwie Malmsteen or Jason Becker, you have to understand that these players have already invested many many years of practice into the art. So comparing yourself with a virtuoso would be similar to a fifth grader comparing him/herself to a college student. The student in college had to go through the same growth process in order to develop his intelligence to the point where he could succeed in doing college level work. Guitar players go through exactly the same growth process. And growth occurs overtime.

So if you are comparing yourself to someone, it should be yourself! Write down your short term goals, such as: “In two months I will be able to play this arpeggio 20 bpm faster” and come back to it in two months time and test yourself. Did you improve? You may or may not have reached your goal exactly, but you will be able to notice whether or not some progress has taken place. If after several months you still feel like you are stuck on a problem or you fail to get a certain technique down, it is time to ask your teacher for help. If you don’t have a teacher, get one!

Another good way to measure your progress is recording yourself. Record a phrase that you are having trouble playing cleanly now and then record the same thing again a few weeks later. Does it sound better? Is it feeling easier to play? Hopefully you will be able to answer yes to these questions, if not, then something is wrong with the way you are approaching your practice. When you play back your recording, REALLY listen with an ear of a perfectionist. Do not let yourself get away with some “little” mistakes. Remember its the paying of attention to details that separates the wannabes from the pros.

So hopefully this article gives you some insight on how to measure progress. Remember, progress takes time so don’t rush the process.

You can contact me at mikephilippov@yahoo.com I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I reply to all e-mails.

Visit Mike’s sites:

www.mikephilippov.com
www.enigmatheband.com
www.myspace.com/grimthesweeper