How to practice guitar - Sam Russel book

LewisJ

Has anyone read / tried Sam Russel’s book, how to practice guitar? The marketing blurb is interesting suggesting things we do as players that hold back progression etc and importantly ways to fix them … but that’s marketing maybe? Below is from the website; 

This book is based on over a decade of experience, teaching 100s of students, as-well as lessons I have personally learned on my journey from being the worst guitar player at school, to composing heavy metal albums, classical albums, instrumental rock and soundtrack music. 

You will learn how to:

• Plan practice time
• Specific ways to handle problems when practising
• The purpose of guitar practice and how this affects how we should practice
• Psychological tricks to help you practice more effectively
• How to learn more effectively
• How to improve your guitar tone
• What creativity is 
• How to develop your creativity
• How to become a prolific composer / songwriter
• Specific examples of being creative with songwriting and melody writing

The Facebook advert has some 250+ positive comments but again this isn’t always the best indicator of quality. 

Interested in anyone’s thoughts and if there’s no experience I’ll give it a go and report back! 

https://www.samrussell.co.uk/products/how-to-practice-guitar-and-train-your-creativity#:~:text=This%20211%20page%20book%20contains,not%20a%20%22creative%20person%22.

Gilly

I haven’t read the book but I believe he is a Tom Hess acolyte? That would be enough to put me off.

LewisJ

Ooooh sounds like I need to do some digging! 

sev112

For most, playing guitar is meant to be fun, not something that isnt

LewisJ

That isn’t what I asked. I asked if anyone had experience of the book before I shell out £15. 

It can be not fun if you’re stuck in a rut with your playing so looking for educational resources to help improve your approach to playing makes sense for some. 

Barney

I think I would be looking to check out his playing and see iff it's worked for him ...iff not I wouldn't bother 

Cranky

LewisJ said:

That isn’t what I asked. I asked if anyone had experience of the book before I shell out £15. 

It can be not fun if you’re stuck in a rut with your playing so looking for educational resources to help improve your approach to playing makes sense for some. 

Maybe just spend the measly £15 and then you can be one of those who lets us know how it works.

Something tells me it’s just another book that, as usual, will be only what the reader can make of it.

Rocker

No harm in spending £15 on a book so what is holding you back?  IMHO some activities such as guitar playing and golf, to name but two, can be played on your own but the real fun part is when you play with someone else. 

If you do buy the book, please give your opinion on it to us here. 

Kilgore

It's got the whiff of a dubious self improvement book. "TEN SECRET STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR..." etc, etc.

£15 though, no harm in trying. 

allen

I feel like I could answer (or at least suggest something) about every item on that list by doing some independent research.

e.g. it is well known in psychological research how people achieve greatness in sport etc. when practicing.

But I concur with a previous poster who mentioned fun. In other words, do you really know why you are playing the guitar? and if you do, do that. (sorry, for yoda-like comment).

joeW

Noah Kageyama has some psychological / practise / performance info on his website the bulletproof musician.  I’d check this out as it is free and very well researched.  

Roland

There’s a little more information on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Practice-Guitar-Train-Your-Creativity/dp/0993106846

LewisJ

joeW said:

Noah Kageyama has some psychological / practise / performance info on his website the bulletproof musician.  I’d check this out as it is free and very well researched.  

Thanks joeW, for now the hundreds of articles on that site will keep me busy and seems to be the sort of reading I was looking for and even cheaper than £15, free! 

Self help books make you introspective which can lead to improvement, I enjoy progressing my playing so naturally want to understand ways to improve my progression… Learnt this lesson recently through running so why not apply it to music! 

As for the Ghandi-Esq advice, thanks chaps. 

guitarjack66

Confucius say ' To find the path of enlightment,first you must find your lightbulb.' 
I'm not sure if he was telling you to put the 15 quid towards your Leccy bill or not though!

Dominic

" Become a Guitar Multi-Millionaire in 5 days .......ask me how "

CliveG

I have only started taking any notice of The Fretboard and find it’s a great resource… is already saved me £15! lol

allen

joeW said:

Noah Kageyama has some psychological / practise / performance info on his website the bulletproof musician.  I’d check this out as it is free and very well researched.  

Thanks for this tip. I have signed up for the emails and done some reading. It's really excellent.

guitarjack66

'From the worst player at school to producing heavy metal albums' is hardly a ringing endorsement!

Dr_Necessiter

If nothing else he can take credit for finding a way to market himself.

SamRussell

I was doing a quick google of my book and saw this thread come up. It's cool/weird to see people talking about my book, and wanted to clear up a couple of things.

Firstly, if you are happy with your playing, or an advanced player, you probably won't get anything out of this book. It's more aimed at the late beginner - intermediate players that get stuck. 

Gilly said:

I haven’t read the book but I believe he is a Tom Hess acolyte? That would be enough to put me off.

*former acolyte. I quit Tom Hess stuff several years ago. When I started, the lessons were quite useful, I did learn a few key things from him, especially with technique,  but over time the lessons were less useful and the whole culture with his community became downright weird and toxic. Learned some useful stuff, made some good friends, got fed up with the rhetoric and quit.

Moved on, found better teachers and started studying classical composition in some depth, which I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Now that I sell a book on guitar online, I'm probably permanently banned from rejoining his community, not that I'd want to 

Barney said:

I think I would be looking to check out his playing and see iff it's worked for him ...iff not I wouldn't bother

Pretty good advice. If you don't like my playing, don't take my advice on how to play! Here's a piece I did recently: 

Kilgore said:

It's got the whiff of a dubious self improvement book. "TEN SECRET STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR..." etc, etc.

£15 though, no harm in trying. 

I've tried to avoid that. All the guitar playing advice in the book is straightforward, practical things that are easy to implement and give results. I don't advise people on creating elaborate morning routines with ice baths, visualising their goals and journalling their way to being a better player 

I don't believe in secrets, just straightforward approaches. I studied astrophysics at university, so those "woo woo" improvement books irritate the shit out of me lol. 

joeW said:

Noah Kageyama has some psychological / practise / performance info on his website the bulletproof musician.  I’d check this out as it is free and very well researched.  

Totally agree, I've been reading his website for several years. It's a great resource. I'm quite tempted to check out his course sometime, I get brutal stage fright. The stuff in my book is a bit different what he covers (some small overlap in places, but not much).

allen said:

I feel like I could answer (or at least suggest something) about every item on that list by doing some independent research.

e.g. it is well known in psychological research how people achieve greatness in sport etc. when practicing.

But I concur with a previous poster who mentioned fun. In other words, do you really know why you are playing the guitar? and if you do, do that. (sorry, for yoda-like comment).

Yeah, if you sat down you could probably find out half of it. Some of it is less obvious. My ideas on creativity you won't find anywhere online. Plus the book is guitar specific, with examples specifically for guitar. 

I've avoided promising any form of "greatness" or outstanding achievement. I'm more about taking small consistent improvements rather than promising you'll be the next Yngwie. 

Dominic said:

" Become a Guitar Multi-Millionaire in 5 days .......ask me how "

This book has nothing to do with making money from guitar, no career advice, etc etc. No promises of becoming the next Van Halen or Steve Vai. Just some tips and ideas that hopefully help some people out and help them make some consistent progress.

guitarjack66 said:

'From the worst player at school to producing heavy metal albums' is hardly a ringing endorsement!

Maybe. My point with that quote was that I'm not naturally talented. I struggled a lot when learning (hell, I still do). Sometimes people worry that they're not "naturally talented" so they can't get too good at playing, when in reality it's not knowing what or how to practice, or having unrealistic expectations which holds them back. 

But I worked pretty hard at it over the years and you can hear the album in question here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0KNYbEfDGjmUiMdYca7l6r?si=mvxli6OwTgW9Jx8-Hev3OQ ;

You might not like it, but I think it's fair to say I can play. 

Dr_Necessiter said:

If nothing else he can take credit for finding a way to market himself.

Your signature made me laugh pretty hard! I've been pretty surprised at how well it's been going, but I'll take it!


So to wrap up, thanks for talking about my book, happy to answer any other questions, and if you buy a copy and think it's shit, I'll give you a refund. 


EDIT: And you can see some reviews here: https://www.samrussell.co.uk/pages/reviews-of-how-to-practice-guitar

LewisJ

SamRussell said:

I was doing a quick google of my book and saw this thread come up. It's cool/weird to see people talking about my book, and wanted to clear up a couple of things.

Firstly, if you are happy with your playing, or an advanced player, you probably won't get anything out of this book. It's more aimed at the late beginner - intermediate players that get stuck. 

Gilly said:

I haven’t read the book but I believe he is a Tom Hess acolyte? That would be enough to put me off.

*former acolyte. I quit Tom Hess stuff several years ago. When I started, the lessons were quite useful, I did learn a few key things from him, especially with technique,  but over time the lessons were less useful and the whole culture with his community became downright weird and toxic. Learned some useful stuff, made some good friends, got fed up with the rhetoric and quit.

Moved on, found better teachers and started studying classical composition in some depth, which I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Now that I sell a book on guitar online, I'm probably permanently banned from rejoining his community, not that I'd want to 

Barney said:

I think I would be looking to check out his playing and see iff it's worked for him ...iff not I wouldn't bother

Pretty good advice. If you don't like my playing, don't take my advice on how to play! Here's a piece I did recently: 

Kilgore said:

It's got the whiff of a dubious self improvement book. "TEN SECRET STEPS TO IMPROVING YOUR..." etc, etc.

£15 though, no harm in trying. 

I've tried to avoid that. All the guitar playing advice in the book is straightforward, practical things that are easy to implement and give results. I don't advise people on creating elaborate morning routines with ice baths, visualising their goals and journalling their way to being a better player 

I don't believe in secrets, just straightforward approaches. I studied astrophysics at university, so those "woo woo" improvement books irritate the shit out of me lol. 

joeW said:

Noah Kageyama has some psychological / practise / performance info on his website the bulletproof musician.  I’d check this out as it is free and very well researched.  

Totally agree, I've been reading his website for several years. It's a great resource. I'm quite tempted to check out his course sometime, I get brutal stage fright. The stuff in my book is a bit different what he covers (some small overlap in places, but not much).

allen said:

I feel like I could answer (or at least suggest something) about every item on that list by doing some independent research.

e.g. it is well known in psychological research how people achieve greatness in sport etc. when practicing.

But I concur with a previous poster who mentioned fun. In other words, do you really know why you are playing the guitar? and if you do, do that. (sorry, for yoda-like comment).

Yeah, if you sat down you could probably find out half of it. Some of it is less obvious. My ideas on creativity you won't find anywhere online. Plus the book is guitar specific, with examples specifically for guitar. 

I've avoided promising any form of "greatness" or outstanding achievement. I'm more about taking small consistent improvements rather than promising you'll be the next Yngwie. 

Dominic said:

" Become a Guitar Multi-Millionaire in 5 days .......ask me how "

This book has nothing to do with making money from guitar, no career advice, etc etc. No promises of becoming the next Van Halen or Steve Vai. Just some tips and ideas that hopefully help some people out and help them make some consistent progress.

guitarjack66 said:

'From the worst player at school to producing heavy metal albums' is hardly a ringing endorsement!

Maybe. My point with that quote was that I'm not naturally talented. I struggled a lot when learning (hell, I still do). Sometimes people worry that they're not "naturally talented" so they can't get too good at playing, when in reality it's not knowing what or how to practice, or having unrealistic expectations which holds them back. 

But I worked pretty hard at it over the years and you can hear the album in question here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0KNYbEfDGjmUiMdYca7l6r?si=mvxli6OwTgW9Jx8-Hev3OQ ;

You might not like it, but I think it's fair to say I can play. 

Dr_Necessiter said:

If nothing else he can take credit for finding a way to market himself.

Your signature made me laugh pretty hard! I've been pretty surprised at how well it's been going, but I'll take it!


So to wrap up, thanks for talking about my book, happy to answer any other questions, and if you buy a copy and think it's shit, I'll give you a refund. 


EDIT: And you can see some reviews here: https://www.samrussell.co.uk/pages/reviews-of-how-to-practice-guitar

Thank you for taking the time to reply Sam. Internet is full of opinions and sometimes it’s best to stay quiet, other times stand and make your point which you’ve done well. 

All the best with your venture(s).