No one plays perfectly all of the time of course (except Segovia, and he’s gone…), but you can attain a very high level of consistency through proper and plentiful repetition.
As a kid I read a Sports Illustrated article about Hall-of-Fame basketball player Jerry Lucas’ practice regimen as a youngster: He would shoot the ball from each of many designated locations on the court until he made 10 IN A ROW! If he made nine and then missed, he’d start over at one from that location. With this regimen and accompanying discipline, he achieved the highest level of his craft,
You can apply this approach to your guitar practice regimen. Choose a passage (two beats long, or one measure long, or a slightly longer phrase) and play it very slowly until you are making all the right moves to get the sound you want. Once you are there, play it 10 teams in a row, perfectly. If you screw it up before 10 perfect repetitions, start over at one and continue till you succeed.
This takes time and discipline — make sure your hands and brain are as relaxed as possible! — but this attention to detail will greatly benefit the delivery of your pieces.
And while you are repeating the passages, STOP LOOKING AT THE MUSIC! You will memorize it with this many repetitions — which is a GOOD thing!
Mark Hanson
April, 2025