Guitarists can give some pretty good advice every now and then, but you know when something they tell you for guitar improvement sounds a little screwy. You might actually be wondering how having your eyes closed when you’re trying to maneuver across an instrument with over twenty frets with six strings can be beneficial!
If you’re looking to be more productive, recognize more stylistic features of songs, and improve your playing habits quicker, closing your eyes at practice can help. Here are a few important reasons why this strange method might do you more good than you think.
1. You’ll improve your chord knowledge. Fumbling around the fret board is common for beginning guitarists, but if you want to get those chords ingrained in your head better, taking your eyes out of the equation might be what you need. Try relying mainly on how the chords feel to set off that muscle memory and allow your hands to recall the formations easier next time.
2. You can increase your understanding of the fret board. Flying all over the fret board can be overwhelming when you’re having a hard time keeping up, but learning to identify the frets without seeing them would probably help you out. Try doing some difficult runs that take you across a few frets without your eyes and see if it helps to recognize the subtle distances on the guitar neck.
3. Recognizing your mistakes becomes easier. There’s just something about hearing your mistakes loud and clear that makes you want to fix them right away. When you decide to close your eyes during a fairly easy song or lick, hearing your mistakes becomes simpler and it will drive you to perfect your style of playing.
4. Your memory will become better. Looking at the frets and where your fingers are going can sometimes cloud your memory when you have a few tunes to memorize. Without your sight, feeling your way through the song is much more effective and you’ll find your memory improving with each practice.
5. Stylistic features in a song will become clearer. It’s pretty easy to be able to copy the aspects of a song, but learning to play like the original writer or composer is difficult. Help your ability to recognize those small stylistic features in a song by shutting your eyes a few times.
6. You can adjust to the tempo of the music better. If you’re a guitarist that fights tempos by speeding up and slowing down without warning, playing with your eyes closed can improve your interpretation of the songs rhythms and tempos. Without your eyes to guide you, you’ll find that your listening skills will heighten and your adjustments to the song’s tempo will be more accurate.
Learning to connect better with your instrument in any fashion that you find reliable is a good thing. The next time that you have a guitar practice, see if you can improve upon your skills by taking your eyes away from the fret board and relying on your ears and fingers.
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