Musicians: How well do you practice?

[tapper mike]

Trust me, as I age I don't practice what I preach as well as I used to.

Many years ago I was reading The Inner Game of Music 

I was captured by the statement that mornings are the best time to practice. For a litany of reasons.  Most especially being that one can concentrate on the singluar study rather then having ones mind shift with both real and imagined distractions.  It worked for me. I began practicing slow and steady.  Focusing my mind and body to the task in front of me. 

I also developed certain regiments such as how long I should practice a given activity. And that I should give my mind and muscles a rest so that my muscle memory had a chance to process the data. I'd always learn a song all the way through. Not just the parts I liked.

I'd always have a guitar and a set list in my car.  Between work and school or work and work (as I frequently had two jobs) I'd have down time. Pick up my guitar and play from the setlist, not a song book and not noodling. I considered my playing time in public a performance even if it was to the birds.  Noodling was only done after I'd completed all my other practice stuff. I knew guys who spent more time playing thier instrument but accomplishing less because they didn't have a regiment.

These days it's harder for me to practice like I did before. Harder because I keep making  excuses instead of setting goals and completing them.

[Tricky-Loops]

I'd always have a guitar and a set list in my car.  Between work and school or work and work (as I frequently had two jobs) I'd have down time. Pick up my guitar and play...

You play guitar while driving?

[tapper mike]

Down time. Time when I wasn't driving or working.

[Aloysius]

Did you have certain goals?

Did you achieve them?

What style? Jazz, Classical, Pop, Shred?

Did you get any enjoyment out of it? Your approach seems a bit Religious (mechanical).

[ariston]

I hated practising, ever since I started playing the recorder at 4. I learned piano, then organ. I hated it, always. I never saw the point in practising something just to be able to play a piece that already existed. I used to practise an hour before my next lesson... it was usually "enough" to fake it, because I was talented at the piano, but talent will only take you 30% of the way, if that. My teacher was always quite nice about it, and didn't push me. Instead, he suggested that I could write something on my own.

I then started to improvise and write my own material, which always gave me an incentive to get better. It never felt like practising, although it was practising, after a fashion.

I guess I'm a bit like Zappa in that way (not that I'm comparing myself with him) - I can play some things really well, and I'm hopeless with other techniques. Once, a couple of years ago, I decided that it'd be nice to play some Bach. I learned a few Go(u)ldberg variations, which was an okay experience, but it didn't give me anything in terms of musical satisfaction. It was kinda nice to overcome a few technical obstacles, to prove to myself that I could do it if I wanted to, but that was it.

When I encounter people who've mastered their instruments, I'm never sure whether to admire them or to feel sorry for them. Probably both. It's just not for me, for better or worse. I'm concerned about the ability of my fingers to communicate what I'm feeling, preferably in an improvisational setting, and that is a practise unto itself.

[pljones]

I have four hours a week to play. I make a choice - practice or "just play". I'm not here to make my life as a musician - making music is sheer pleasure, so being better for its own sake has little value. It's nice to be able to play well enough that when I'm jamming other players aren't fed up with my time keeping... at least it's not too bad but it could be much better. Of course, I can hear so many faults in my playing when I listen back that that does take something away. But every time I play... the pleasure of just playing still easily outweighs the pain of practising. Improvement is very slow...

I think the idea of goals is probably key: I have none. I play "well enough", so... what's to really motivate the practice? If I really found a problem in my playing - that it was stopping me enjoy it - I might try harder. But every tiny improvement makes my will to seriously practice ebb!

[Frantz]

I am constantly practicing -- building up my finger strength and coordination. I feel that my left clicks are now effortless and completely fluid but my right clicks still need more work before I can be a mouse virtuoso.

[Tricky-Loops]

Practicing singing in the school choir was geared towards destroying my interest in singing... We always sung boring songs like "My Bunny Is Over The Ocean" and all that stuff. And (Christmas) carols. Too many carols! I was happy when I had my puberty vocal change, so I couldn't sing in the choir anymore.

But as I was an active writer & layout designer for our school magazine (and even chief editor), I hadn't time to engage musically, anyway. And my old keyboard was gathering dust in the cellar...

It was over a decade later when I rediscovered my interest in making music.

[Aloysius]

I am constantly practicing -- building up my finger strength and coordination. I feel that my left clicks are now effortless and completely fluid but my right clicks still need more work before I can be a mouse virtuoso.

Maybe that's why people use Macs. It's easier to be 'pro' when you only have to worry about one mouse button.

[Mister Natural]

not well enough

when I was working with a teacher, I enjoyed very much the exercises and the challenge of trying to impresse him with my work. I know that might not sound healthy but it worked for me & I moved forward as a musician pretty solidly.

since I've taken this new job; no time for lessons or much practice & I have to say, I miss it a lot. My chops are sloppier and less interesting. I have to find a way of getting back with my teacher . . .

[Frantz]

Maybe that's why people use Macs. It's easier to be 'pro' when you only have to worry about one mouse button.

There is no substitute for developing two-button mouse chops. You can quantize much faster when it is available from a right-click menu.

[tapper mike]

Did you have certain goals?

Yes both long term and short term ones.

Did you achieve them?

Yes, Professional session guitarists for commercials a few b movies and even a few aspiring artists who went on to greater fame such as Anita Baker. Paying gigs in cover bands and fusion ones. I've played and been paid well for everywhere from 100 seat bars to festivals.

What style? Jazz, Classical, Pop, Shred?

Rock, Soul/Funk, Jazz, Blues

Did you get any enjoyment out of it? Your approach seems a bit Religious (mechanical).

Practice was a discipline. I reaped the rewards of practice in performance and self confidence. It never diminished my creativity. If anything practice has enhanced not diminished my creativity.

[Aloysius]

Awesome.

[No_Use]

I've always found I have the best motivation to practice when I play in a band or having lessons.

(Having none of this atm, I rarely practice )

[jancivil]

When I was like 16, I played guitar most of the time, but I didn't know what practicing was for the guitar. A little later there were people in my neighborhood who did things like play Yes covers in a band and/or play classical guitar so I wanted to compete a little with that. The most technical guy in town referred me as 'the musical' or 'tasteful' player, though. I couldn't play much.

But then I had a teacher who acted like I was hot shit, I don't know why, so I started to get a certain idea about myself and I ended up in conservatory. I chose a couple of things that were ambitious, the thing for jury was the lute version of Bach 3rd violin partita and I just went full bore at it. I practiced all the f**king time. What I found during this time is that at least for me, abstract shit like scales was bullshit. The moves in the pieces, do that, there are only so many hours in a day. And I've seen a number of top people say that. I did a lot of time on slurs the first couple of years, and later as a rust-solvent I found that slow hammers and pulls really brings the muscles back in tone the fastest. But after I went all-electric, I got to where I like the lightest strings possible.

I was never going to cut that world, it's too competitive and it was absolutely too little too late for me to maintain it and the life is brutal.

I don't practice guitar. It doesn't do anything, there are things I can do and things I have no business doing. When I was 20, I had that notion about myself, about becoming a transcendental virtuoso but the world does not need my version of that anyway. I had an ulner nerve problem that closed the door on that anyway. I cut a lot of my losses and decided to be the best me musically I could. I'm not in competition with other people. If I was in a great tradition with a coherent path such as Indian Classical Music it would be a different matter for me but me vis a vis my music, I have a lot else on my mind and guitar is just a means to an end.