slim
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Post by slim on Nov 3, 2020 19:05:53 GMT
I'd love to hear about your practice routines. Do you have goals you are working on? Do you split your time between learning pieces, developing your improvisation, composing, or practicing scales, chords and technique exercises? And what resources are you using: do you have a teacher; are there youtube lessons you follow etc.? Finally, what's made the biggest difference to your improvement?
For my part, I spent years not practicing. I would pick up the guitar and mess around or play the same old tunes - I had plateaued. But in the last couple of years I have been practicing with renewed enthusiasm. It coincides with discovering great lesson content on YouTube so now I always have something to work on and learning new music occupies around 50% of my playing time. I've been slowly working through YouTube content from David Hamburger, Active Melody's acoustic material, and have just started to work on Kris Drever's tutorial content. I've also discovered soundslice.com which is great for tabbing out complex parts. The problems I have at the moment is that I'll learn the first half of lots of pieces then I get excited to move onto something new. I need to develop the discipline to learn parts in full! And once we're all allowed to socialise again I could do with finding some musicians to play with.
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stringdriventhing
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Post by stringdriventhing on Nov 3, 2020 19:38:59 GMT
I've been practising guitar a lot since lockdown - at least an hour a day. I tend to get pretty fixated on learning to play a particular song "properly" and I hammer away on that until I can play it as well as I can, often driving my wife demented in the process. I know that's probably not the best way to approach it, but it seems to work for me and I tend to spend most of my playing time doing that. The rest of the time I'll just be messing about playing stuff I already know how to play, dusting down things I've semi-forgotten how to play or trying to come up with original song ideas. Before lockdown I'd be mainly practising songs for band gigs and sharing out practise time between guitar, mandolin, tenor guitar and sometimes banjo. I've barely touched the other instruments in months and I think my guitar playing has improved a bit from being able to devote more time to it.
I've pretty much taught myself. I had a couple of lessons about 10 years ago which concentrated on theory, but I had to pack them in because of other commitments. I sometimes look for a good YouTube lesson if I'm having difficulties working out how to play a particular song. It's a lot easier than trying to figure stuff out from listening to records like we had to do when I started playing.
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slim
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Post by slim on Nov 3, 2020 20:22:55 GMT
Thanks for sharing stringdriventhing. I've been playing a lot more since lockdown started too. I see it as a very modest silver lining.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Nov 3, 2020 23:10:54 GMT
I've always been v lax, and only ever play what takes my fancy. If that includes working out or writing a new tune or song then I'll obviously do that particular piece a fair bit, but in essence I'm extremely lazy. I've been playing since about 1963/4 and am in the self-taught category - mostly by copying from other people and listening to LPs. I'm a very bad example! Good luck, slim, in finding musical companions when it becomes possible again. I reckon I've learned a lot from playing with other people, espcially if they play instruments other than guitars! Very much missing playing with others now. Keith
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Post by scorpiodog on Nov 4, 2020 1:11:54 GMT
For me, the big challenge is in that word “routine”. I know it’s advisable, and I know I should do the recommended warm ups and then divide my practice time among the various processes that are the threads of what I’m trying to accomplish. But this is my hobby. I’d rather not set goals. I have to do that enough in my profession.
I am lucky in that I live in an area with an active musical community, and it’s not hard to find other musicians to play with. That gives me opportunities to stretch myself without having to self discipline. In fact today I’ve been recording a guitar part for a friend of mine for her new cd. It’s been quite hard and I’ve spent about 4 weeks developing and then perfecting the part using her vocal track. But it still took me 7 takes in the studio.
One thing I have found useful though is that for about a year before lockdown, I was taking lessons on a fortnightly basis. That’s led me into new areas, and, again, has given me discipline to work through tough and unfamiliar stuff that needs to be prepared for the next lesson. I miss it, and will resume as soon as we are free of this pestilence ( the disease, not the Prime Minister).
But I don’t do the routine thing. I guess I play 8 to 10 hours a week, and circumstance dictates what I concentrate on at any particular time.
I’m a very bad example, too.
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missclarktree
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Post by missclarktree on Nov 4, 2020 12:08:02 GMT
When I retired in September I planned a routine but haven't stuck to it at all. I realised I don't really need any kind of discipline as the motivation is there already, and I've only got myself to please.
Roughly, I run through half of the tunes I know, and the other half the next day, just to keep them in my memory. I'm not allowed to do anything else until that's done.
I've been following the whim of the moment, which has included practising short passages from tunes that I couldn't hope to play in full, eg bars 17-28 of the Prelude from Bach's 4th lute suite. I spent time trying to get it as smooth as possible, and then tried to improve control of the tone and volume. I enjoyed doing it, but then had to abandon it as the rest of it is way beyond me.
I usually have something proper that I'm trying to learn as well. Nine times out of ten, it never gets good enough to attempt a recording. I've had several months of repeated failures; for example, I tried to learn "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Started with picking at the chords in a basic way, but as soon as I tried to do the rhythm properly, I found I couldn't sing to it. I suppose the next step would have been to keep listening to the rhythm on its own, and to practise singing to it, but by that time I'd lost interest in it. This is a common pattern.
At the moment I'm working on Carcassi por Buleria, by Carcassi and Sal Bonavita (Hersoveela on Youtube). It starts out as a Carcassi study and changes into a flamenco-style piece, and I thought it was jolly good fun. It was one of the first tunes I heard on Youtube after I got broadband. I play it in front of the Zoom recorder (with no batteries in it), and that tells me where it tends to go wrong, so I practice those difficult bits at a slower speed until it eventually comes right. The next day, I'm back to square one, so it's doubtful whether I'll ever be able to play it reliably. It's terrible when you get three quarters of the way through, and thoughts go through your mind, like, "Maybe it's going to go well this time", and then it all collapses.
I've also been working on Canarios by Gaspar Sanz for about 12 months. I don't really know why I'm bothering, as there are some really good interpretations on Youtube and I could never do anything half as good as them. It doesn't seem to get any better.
One thing that has helped in the past is to create some variation, such as playing something at different speeds, volume, time of day, etc. Sometimes this causes a penny to drop, but not always.
Given this catalogue of failure it's amazing that I still have any motivation, but I suppose it's a welcome change from clinging to my chimney stack (which I will be doing yet again this afternoon).
I'm glad you're managing to keep up your enthusiasm - Youtube is a great resource. If you're succeeding with the first half of your chosen pieces, I hope you feel encouraged that you could finish the piece if you wanted to, and you might be more inclined to do that when you can meet up with other musicians again. Good luck with it.
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on Nov 4, 2020 15:02:31 GMT
I have nothing to contribute to this thread as I am unfamiliar with the original premise.
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Post by andyhowell on Nov 4, 2020 15:40:26 GMT
Routine is a very flexible term! When working from home (all the time now) I like to play for half n hour to an hour in the morning. Often this is just running through my existing repertoire (what a grand term) or something that I'm working on like a new song or tune or tune arrangement. Most importantly, if i don't feel like playing i don't. I can quite happily go for a few days without picking up the guitar.
But most days I will pick the guitar up later in the day. In these sessions I will often just noodle around and trying things that are new. Maybe a new type of tune. Maybe trying to play in a tuning with a key that is a bit unusual, say. C in DADGAD. When doing this I try to record little ideas of snippets although mostly I rely on the mind's editing ability — if I can remember the tune next day!
I don't try and learn new techniques any more other than things that I stumble on when noodling. Mostly, these days I am simply trying to get a clearer/cleaner and stronger tone.
Practice for me depends on whatever else I am doing. I have a new song that I felt was finished. But I've been trying to record the guitar part fr a couple of weeks and have ended up throwing everything away. I can get the guitar right and the vocal right but can't piece the two together. I think I have cracked it now bt it will be until the weekend that I can try again. The tune is a simple celtic melody but needs a lot of flexible singing and playing to make sure it doesn't sound (too) cliched. This song is in DADGAD. When finished I shan't go back to DADGAD for months !!!
Maybe after this damn thing is finished I can get back to experimenting with the guitar again.
For me the most important thing is that I want to enjoy playing every time I pick up the guitar. I will only look hard at a new technique when I feel curious. But as I'm a miserable old git I seldom feel curious any more !!!
I've recently developed an annoying shoulder pain. So, I spend most of my time changing posture and trying to find less painful ways of playing.
I often have a fancy to master flat picking but, hey, life is too short !!!
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slim
Sore Fingers
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Post by slim on Nov 4, 2020 18:23:44 GMT
Thanks for those very insightful replies everyone.
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Post by delb0y on Nov 5, 2020 1:27:33 GMT
I try and do a minimum of half an hour a day, every day. Only missed a couple of days in five months. I start off with a short warm up, then around five minutes of long tones, from the lowest note to the highest (the highest that I can play, that is. There are higher ones). I then move onto my scales. I'm up to 7 major scales and arpeggios so far, plus the G major and minor pentatonic, and the C major and minor pentatonic. That done, I spend a bit of time working on those aforementioned very high notes. This takes me to about the 15 minute mark. There was a time, only a few months ago when I'd have been dribbling by this stage, but now I'm good for another half hour. After the altissimo practice I commence work on the method book I'm edging through - A Tune A Day Book One. Getting towards the end, to be honest, but it's ever harder. On semi-quavers, dotted semi-quavers, and triplets at the moment. After a good and honest session doing these "lessons" I generally pick-up one of my "fun" easy jazz and blues books and mess around trying to play the stuff that I really want to play. All in all, it's going well, and I'm feeling quite pleased with my determination and self-motivation. This is all on the clarinet, of course, which I only picked up in June. On the guitar I just fart about.
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Post by martinrowe on Nov 5, 2020 7:37:48 GMT
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stringdriventhing
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Post by stringdriventhing on Nov 5, 2020 7:41:39 GMT
Yup! You had me going right till the end. Was I the only one wondering what a "long tone" is?
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Post by martinrowe on Nov 5, 2020 8:10:14 GMT
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Post by andyhowell on Nov 5, 2020 11:16:33 GMT
I try and do a minimum of half an hour a day, every day. Only missed a couple of days in five months. I start off with a short warm up, then around five minutes of long tones, from the lowest note to the highest (the highest that I can play, that is. There are higher ones). I then move onto my scales. I'm up to 7 major scales and arpeggios so far, plus the G major and minor pentatonic, and the C major and minor pentatonic. That done, I spend a bit of time working on those aforementioned very high notes. This takes me to about the 15 minute mark. There was a time, only a few months ago when I'd have been dribbling by this stage, but now I'm good for another half hour. After the altissimo practice I commence work on the method book I'm edging through - A Tune A Day Book One. Getting towards the end, to be honest, but it's ever harder. On semi-quavers, dotted semi-quavers, and triplets at the moment. After a good and honest session doing these "lessons" I generally pick-up one of my "fun" easy jazz and blues books and mess around trying to play the stuff that I really want to play. All in all, it's going well, and I'm feeling quite pleased with my determination and self-motivation. This is all on the clarinet, of course, which I only picked up in June. On the guitar I just fart about. Am quite impressed with that. Have been trying to forget crotchets and quavers for years ;-)
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Post by Gregg Hermetech on Nov 7, 2020 15:02:28 GMT
I have short term goals, medium term goals, and long term goals.
I change at least one thing in my routine every week to keep it interesting. It's been a constantly evolving thing since I started taking the guitar seriously about four years ago. As it currently stands, it takes me 2-3 hours a day, and I do it five days a week. It might not make sense as there is some short hand, so please ask if anything isn't clear! Some parts refer to other documents I use (my modes, strumming and fingerpicking practise). This is my "structured practise" that keeps my chops up, and hopefully improving. I also "dick about" for a further hour or two, playing songs, experimenting, later in the day.
- Wipe Down, Tuning & Finger Stretches - Spider Exercise 150 bpm - Finger Gym 80 bpm - Find CGDAEBF x 3 160 bpm - Modes: Play 1 & 2 string patterns 134 bpm (Get to 150 bpm) - Modes: Play all modes: Series 2.5 min x 2 & Parallel 150 bpm - Modes: Improv Daily Mode Lydian in Weekly Key GCD*A with drone - Modes: Name #s and bs in Modes - Modes: Name & play intervals in Modes - Modes: Name & play intervals in Chords (Open Strings & 6 Types) - Disappearing Metronome: 60 bpm 16/8/4/8/16 - Strumming: 5 x 2 min - Songs: Sulis 6 min 55 bpm, Julia Dream 10 min 60 bpm, LRL 5 min 60 bpm - Travis Book: The Water Is Wide - Fingerstyle Songs: 3 x 5 min - Ear Trainer & Note Trainer Apps: 2 x 5 min - IM Revision Lesson & Checklist: Make a list of stuff you forgot and practise again, e.g. triads
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