The #1 way to Improve Guitar Technique: The Etude
Etude (noun)
a short musical composition (typically for one instrument) written as an exercise to improve technique on a specific instrument, or demonstrate the skill of the player, and often limited to a single facet of technique
In the last blog post Learning Songs Is Overrated we talked about the benefit of focusing on one part of a song rather than the whole piece:
“Sometimes it’s impossible to learn a whole song, even if we practice it over and over for months. At the same time, it’s incredibly important to take on the challenge of learning a certain part of the song, even if we never play it as fast as the recorded version”
Today we’ll look at why that’s the case. To get right to the point:
an etude gets our hands to perform movements and sequences they’ve never done before
Historically, etudes evolved on the piano as exercises written to help the student learn a single technique by playing it repeatedly in various figures or phrases. When the popularity of piano expanded through the western world in the 1800s etudes emerged as a way for piano students to learn and refine their skill. The guitar enjoyed a similar emergence in the 2nd half of the 20th century (thank you Beatles, Hendrix, Page, EVH, et al) that continues to this day, and the etude was adopted by guitar players in similar fashion.
Enter the “modern day etude”, which steps away from the traditional “one size fits all” etude. In a traditional etude the student learns a piece that hundreds of thousands of others have learned over the years. Custom to the individual guitarist, the modern day etude can be thought of as
Taking a small section of a song, a solo, or a riff you love, and rehearsing it repeatedly to build your command of a certain technique
When we learn a small section slowly and play it repeatedly it expands our abilities on the guitar. It could be hammer-ons, sweep picking, alternate picking, or just unfamiliar chord changes. Yes, if you haven’t mastered hammer-ons and pull-offs, the intro to Sweet Home Alabama could be an etude in this case!
Our fascination fuels our desire to master a small musical excerpt. If we put the time in to learn it well, our technique levels up and we carry that skill forward, enjoying a larger skillset from then on. It might be difficult at first, then manageable, then eventually we play it fluidly and musically. The greatest part is it never needs to be played at the full speed.
In 2019 I spent a few months learning Julian Lage’s Etude #1. If you look at the tempo marking on the chart you’ll see “140 BPM” (beats per minute, the metric musicians use to measure the tempo [speed] of a piece). There might be a few hundred guitarists on the planet with the skill to perform Julian’s Etude #1 at that speed. Are they the only ones worthy of learning the piece? Absolutely not. I’ll never play it at 140 bpm. I don’t practice 5 to 10 hours a day. Even if I practiced it 10 hours a day for a year I still would not be capable of performing it at full speed. You get the point:
Playing music correctly (the right notes, technique, and rhythm) is the goal. The tempo we play at isn’t.
Carve out your personal goals and compare yourself against the person you were yesterday (or 3 months ago), not against the guitarist on the recording. Did you make progress? Those are the wins to measure.
Rob Wolfe is a jazz guitarist and instructor in Austin, TX. He teaches guitar, bass, and ukulele students in-person and throughout the U.S. on Zoom. Contact Rob to learn more about studying the guitar more deeply