Yngwie Malmsteen possesses superhuman levels of electric guitar speed that we mere mortals could only achieve if we practiced day in, day out, for a very, very long time.
As such, you’d probably expect Malmsteen to tell you that practice is indeed the key to achieving such fluid powers of fretboard navigation, and that he himself spent years chipping away at his own practice routine to reach the level he’s at today.
However, it turns out the Swedish speed demon doesn’t practice at all… and he never did.
Malmsteen made the admission in a recent interview with France’s United Rock Nations during the Hellfest Festival.
During a discussion of his practice regime as an up-and-coming shredder, Malmsteen casually says (via MusicRadar), “I didn't practice. I never practiced – never practiced ever.”
“I played as if I was performing,” he explains. “I wouldn't accept myself going [Yngwie hums what seems to be an illustration of playing a scale]. Never. I [would be] telling myself, 'Don't sound like you're fucking trying to do something. Do it.'
"[I committed to] mental focus so much that it became just every day more and better and better and better. I never practiced.”
Now, while Malmsteen was adamant that he “never practiced”, it’s important to caveat his claims with the observation that practice materializes in many different ways, and different players will have different definitions for what constitutes ‘practice’.
For some, practice on the guitar will involve going over scales, memorizing certain boxes, and learning the modes inside and out, front to back. Malmsteen, clearly, does not share this view.
Others, meanwhile, may see practice as a more fluid concept, and this is where Malmsteen’s own school of thought lies. As he admits, while he never bothered with regimented scale exercises, he did make the effort to improvise solos, licks and riffs – something that could indirectly be noted as ‘practice’.
“I mean, it's inadvertently practicing, because I played so much,” he continues. “But I improvised. And I would say, 'I wanna improvise in A harmonic minor,' for instance.
“[I was playing guitar] like crazy, improvising. Not scales. I mean, obviously scales. I'm very well aware of music theory – I know it super-well – but I would never practice. That's the wrong word.”
So, don’t let the takeaway from this story be, “You don’t need to practice.” You do, of course – you should just find a way to practice that you enjoy, and lets you develop the areas you wish to improve. A basic understanding of scales wouldn't hurt, though...
