Mind Exercise No. 1

This is kind of a different concept, but I got to thinking about it, and I realized that sometimes some of the patterns that I figure out really make my head hurt. I also notice that when I set my guitar down, walk away, and then come back to it later, my mental processing skills have somehow refined themselves.

There's a good reason for that as well. Muscle memory is one thing, but mental memory is also important. I don't know if you realize this or not, but there are kids who will enter into combat video game competitions, be spotted by the "right" people, and then approached about joining a more elite division of the military. Seems ridiculous, but their hand/eye coordination is so perfect that the military takes it quite seriously. In other words they know that refined senses are always a good thing.

We can improve our senses and reflexes on the guitar as well and no, we don't do it by playing guitar hero. We're going to take a look at this exercise, and once you get it down, you will have accomplished two things. The first is that your memory skills will have drastically improved, and the second is that your ability to play fast, off the top of your head, and keep it going is not much of an issue. That is to say that the mind can keep up with where the fingers are going. Now don't be fooled, no single exercise can make you a guitar god over night, but when everything has its place, you know exactly what flaws to target.

I have two tips for you when approaching this exercise. One, try not to drool too much on your guitar. Two, take 2 aspirin.