Tommy Emmanuel's CASE AGAINST Practicing

I was listening to an interview with the great Tommy Emmanuel the other day and heard something really fascinating…

The interviewer asked him about what his practice sessions are like.

Let’s be honest, as guitarists we want to know these things. We want to peek inside the minds of these legends. Learn their hacks and get their secrets. There’s got to be some mystery or magic behind the curtain that we’re missing, right?

Many times there is. That’s why it’s super important to be careful who you listen to. But anyway, despite what many people might think Tommy would say like: 

Well, it’s 20 minutes of ear training, then it’s 15 minutes of major scales… blah blah blah

No…

What Tommy actually said was, he puts his guitar strap on, stands up, pretends there’s an audience in front of him, and just plays songs relentlessly without stopping.

His practice is like a show.

You see, there is this awesome feeling that you get when you play for people and sub-consciously it does wonders for your chops. Whenever I play long gigs the next day I pick up my guitar and think, “Wow! I’m sounding good today!” 

The reason why I say case against practicing is because this is not the conventional way we often think to practice.

But why not take this real-life experience, that actually supercharges your chops, and use it in your sessions? So instead of practicing…you focus more on playing.

Now, IMHO I think Tommy Emmanuel is one of the greatest guitarists on the planet. And many other world-class players won’t argue with me on this. While this practice approach works great for pros… It also works great if guitar is your hobby and you just want to be able to play some songs to friends and family occasionally. 

Give it a try and you just might be surprised at the response you get.

If you'd like to get started playing the blues as I demonstrate in the video above, get your hands on my free blues scale pdf guide at the link below:

https://jonmaclennan.com/bluesscales

Jon MacLennan