How much time in a day do you need to keep your hard earned skills

[pamosmusic]

That can be done in your head (the sentence in bold type), I certainly haven't mastered it but I've met people who have. I think Howard Roberts mastered it, I took a workshop from him and he talked about how he'd been doing it since he was very young. In fact he discusses and recommends it in his Praxis System books.

Well sure, but you didn’t actually bold a sentence. Just a clause. The rest of the sentence reads “and physically perform it on the instrument.”

You can’t play the guitar in your head.

[BreckerFan]

Well sure, but you didn’t actually bold a sentence. Just a clause. The rest of the sentence reads “and physically perform it on the instrument.”

You can’t play the guitar in your head.

Yeah you can practice the listening and conceptualizing in your head but you can't practice the getting it on the guitar which is a kind of important part of improvising on the guitar. And there's the added challenge of having to do all three at once.

[starjasmine]

Ok, let's cut to the chase: any "what's the minimum, what's the best, what's the quickest" question is going to have different answers from different people, all subjective. Meaning that they're all right and they're all wrong. What matters is the answer for YOU.

For me,

• If I am gigging every night, I don't practice at all. Practice amounts to wear and tear on hands that I need to be at their peak at the gig.
• If I'm not gigging, then what I practice, how I practice and how much I practice varies.

I've been playing long enough that I never forget mechanical technique or ear training at all. I may need to refresh my muscle memory or read a chart for something I haven't played in a while, but I don't forget scales, arps, chords, tunes I've played for years. I'm always using my ears, even if not playing, so aural skills don't decline even if I am away from the axe... I'll hear something on the radio that I think is cool and I will analyze it on the spot and file it away mentally for use later.

Sometimes I pick up the guitar after a month away and it's like I never left. Other times the muscle memory/aural memory isn't as finely tuned as I'm used to. Sometimes it takes an hour to come back, sometimes a week. Usually it's like it never left.

Again, all of this varies with the individual. YMMV.

[Mick-7]

Well sure, but you didn’t actually bold a sentence. Just a clause. The rest of the sentence reads “and physically perform it on the instrument.”

You can’t play the guitar in your head.

The point was that you can imagine it and then pick up the instrument and play it precisely as you heard it in your head - this of course assumes that you have the technical ability to play it.

[jim777]

For me it varies but about an hour over a two hour period.

[pamosmusic]

The point was that you can imagine it and then pick up the instrument and play it precisely as you heard it in your head - this of course assumes that you have the technical ability to play it.

yes mick. And how much daily maintenance will allow one to feel safe in that assumption?

[Mick-7]

yes mick. And how much daily maintenance will allow one to feel safe in that assumption?

Hey, it was just a suggestion, something to consider. It is a good thing to work on, as I said, Howard Roberts goes over it in his Praxis books.

Art Pepper said he had not played a saxophone in about 6 months when he recorded his "Meets the Rhythm Section" session, and had never played a few of the tunes they picked. I find that inspiring (although the reason why he hadn't touched his sax was not).

[pamosmusic]

Hey, it was just a suggestion, something to consider. It is a good thing to work on, as I said, Howard Roberts goes over it in his Praxis books.

Art Pepper said he had not played a saxophone in about 6 months when he recorded his "Meets the Rhythm Section" session, and had never played a few of the tunes they picked. I find that inspiring (although the reason why he hadn't touched his sax was not).

Right, but how much time does it take you to maintain the technique required to make the brain practice useful?

[Mick-7]

Right, but how much time does it take you to maintain the technique required to make the brain practice useful?

I don't quite understand those who say their chops decline noticeably if they don't practice regularly, once you get to a certain professional level of proficiency, it shouldn't affect you all that much - as Starjasmine said. That level will of course vary for each person, as he also suggested.

[pamosmusic]

I don't quite understand those who say their chops decline noticeably if they don't practice regularly, once you get to a certain professional level of proficiency, it shouldn't affect you all that much - as Starjasmine said. That level will of course vary for each person, as he also suggested.

Whew. Ask a guy a simple question.

[charlieparker]

I have a guitar lying next to me in my office which I pick up various times during the day, sometimes between meetings. I mostly just go through my own stuff, sometimes hear something new. Other than that, I just throw it a seitan burger from time to time. LOL

No raw meat?

[AllanAllen]

No raw meat?

They must have a vegan guitar.

[DawgBone]

I don't quite understand those who say their chops decline noticeably if they don't practice regularly, once you get to a certain professional level of proficiency, it shouldn't affect you all that much - as Starjasmine said. That level will of course vary for each person, as he also suggested.

My chops don't decline, but my ability to pull them off cleanly definitely does. I can feel my hand is noticeably tighter after two days without touching a guitar. I always step up my game when gigs are upcoming, especially good ones because more often than not it pays off.

[AllanAllen]

My chops don't decline, but my ability to pull them off cleanly definitely does. I can feel my hand is noticeably tighter after two days without touching a guitar. I always step up my game when gigs are upcoming, especially good ones because more often than not it pays off.

I don’t have a gig for a few weeks. Really happy to spend time on non-performance practice.

[Bob_Ross]

He said he needed 2 hours/a day to just KEEP the stuff that he had.

Coincidentally, the keyboard player in one of my bands just asked me the other night "How much do you play every day?"

I told him "If I don't have a gig or a rehearsal, I probably play 10 minutes a day."

He was gobsmacked, saying "Wow, I wish I had your command of the instrument with only 10 minutes a day."

Which prompted me to confess: I have always done the least amount of work required to get by. If it only takes 10 minutes a day to maintain my current skill level, I won't put in 11 minutes a day on the chance that I might improve my skill level. At this point in my career I've recognized that all the genuine "improvement" comes from those hours playing with an ensemble (either in rehearsals or on gigs), not from time spent alone in the woodshed.

When I was a kid it was just because I was lazy.

[Christian Miller]

Some things need to be maintained like sight reading.

Technique I think is mostly about warming up unless you are learning new stuff. Takes me about an hour I suppose.


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[emanresu]

Yeah. If sightreading is needed, you better bloddy do it every day. That's the one skill that tends to dissolve after a very short while.

[princeplanet]

For me, I'd say less than 10 hours a week and I'm going backwards. As for warming up on any given day, an hour if I've been practicing all week, 2 to 3 hours If not.

While I'm on the subject of warming up, here's a humbling story. Did a road trip through the US a few years ago with a good friend who is a top tier jazz pianist in his mid 30's, 2 weeks through California, Nevada, Arizona etc and ended up in NYC. We ended up at Fat Cat after bar hopping, we were both wasted. Anyhoo, my friend decides he wants to get up and jam, pretty bold thing to do as nobody there knew him. He hadn't touched the piano in at least 2 weeks, probably more, and the guy shreds the shit out of whatever the next 2 tunes were (I didn't recognise them, and as he later confessed, neither did he!). Made every change with a huge grin on his face, basically standing up and not even looking at his hands. Raised many eyebrows, even the older cats.

It was sickening...

[pauln]

...on the subject of warming up...

We have all seen a nature video of the deer at the watering hole while the cheetah moves in the tall grass. The deer has been standing for a while occasionally drinking water. The cheetah has been almost motionless, moving in super slow motion toward the deer. Neither the deer nor the cheetah are in any sense "warmed up", yet what is about to happen is an immediate full sprint by both the deer and the cheetah.
One might take this example of nature to imagine that the idea of warming up might not be necessary.










In the video I watched, the deer took off with such exertion pressure that it fractured a rear ankle in the first instant (horrible, floppy visible) and became cheetah dinner.

[Christian Miller]

We have all seen a nature video of the deer at the watering hole while the cheetah moves in the tall grass. The deer has been standing for a while occasionally drinking water. The cheetah has been almost motionless, moving in super slow motion toward the deer. Neither the deer nor the cheetah are in any sense "warmed up", yet what is about to happen is an immediate full sprint by both the deer and the cheetah.
One might take this example of nature to imagine that the idea of warming up might not be necessary.










In the video I watched, the deer took off with such exertion pressure that it fractured a rear ankle in the first instant (horrible, floppy visible) and became cheetah dinner.

Deer should have warmed up innit


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[BreckerFan]

We have all seen a nature video of the deer at the watering hole while the cheetah moves in the tall grass. The deer has been standing for a while occasionally drinking water. The cheetah has been almost motionless, moving in super slow motion toward the deer. Neither the deer nor the cheetah are in any sense "warmed up", yet what is about to happen is an immediate full sprint by both the deer and the cheetah.
One might take this example of nature to imagine that the idea of warming up might not be necessary.

A deer running and a human performing a mechanically complex and unnatural task that requires precise synchronization between two hands, while also improvising harmonically complex music, are not really comparable things.

[princeplanet]

A deer running and a human performing a mechanically complex and unnatural task that requires precise synchronization between two hands, while also improvising harmonically complex music, are not really comparable things.

Yeah, I gotta agree with this. But the point of my story was that some of us don't need any warming up! Or does it have something to do with piano players needing less warming up than guitar players? Any thoughts on this?

[AllanAllen]

It's a mental thing. If every time you pick up the guitar you warm up first, you mentally make yourself have to warm up. If every time you pick up the guitar you start by running a Parker head at speed, eventually you'll get used to pick up and go.

Maybe not when you're 70, but at 42 I can pick up the guitar and go.

[deacon Mark]

I need 90 minutes a day to stay up. Going 2 hours plus gives me gains. Missing a day is not s problem but 2 days take a toll. Sometimes it is actually wise to take a break but mentally practicing is mighty too.

[GuyBoden]

I remember reading that the great classical guitarist 'Fernando Sor' practiced guitar with only drawings/diagrams and no guitar, when he was at war for a few years.