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As a neighbour I'd hate that too, esp. at such an inhumane hour... What always confuses me is why people would let their dogs (remain) outside if they can't behave. We have a radio-controlled training collar for our dog for that purpose, which by now she seems to appreciate as an indication that she's not required to stress out and bark at anything ever so slightly out of the ordinary (= I rarely have to trigger it nowadays).
Originally Posted by Easy2grasp
To come back to the subject, I used to make time for 15-20 minutes of tone production and scale exercises back when I still played violin and as a post-doc researcher had sufficiently flexible hours to do that just after breakfast before I went to work (but all neighbours had already left). This was great because not only do things acquired at that time of the day seem more permanent, it also got me in a focussed state to work.
When I lost that flexibility I became worse and worse at making time and lack of people to play with eventually led to me stopping to play entirely (which took me years to admit to myself).Last edited by RJVB; 11-23-2023 at 08:02 AM.
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11-22-2023 05:25 PM
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I am fortunate in that I work from home. I play twice or thrice each day, for about thirty to fifty minutes each time. My method is to start playing and see what happens. Often I look out of the window to observe the increasingly peculiar behaviour of my fellow citizens, which distracts me from trying too hard.
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Gee, you found an upside to living in a populated area! Originally Posted by Litterick
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The latest trends are office workers carrying water bottles (as if water were unavailable in the city), couples who dress alike, and guitarists. Originally Posted by RJVB
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Or it's the result of a trend in employer gifts - seems branded fancy water bottles have replaced branded throwaway ballpoints in this domain. My guess would be that they don't contain pure water if being carried to and from work Originally Posted by Litterick
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Those plateaus in improvement can be very discouraging and difficult to ride out. But when it finally clicks and you move to the next hill one realises that there is no coasting - it's always going to be uphill. And yet we can't stop (or we lose our callouses). Originally Posted by fep
What I hate is when I accidentally discover some trick to improvise over a certain chord change and it is an epiphany so marvellous that I don't think I need to write it down. Then the next time I sit down to practice, I can't remember what it was. lol
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Originally Posted by fep
Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
I think another issue and perhaps a larger factor in my lack of motivation to practice is "what's the point of improving my jazz guitar skills?". Originally Posted by Easy2grasp
That is maybe a bit over dramatic, but it does illustrate my problem with motivation.
Given I don't play at a level where I can expect to develop a following among a jazz audience, I don't intend to ever gig again.
I can actually only think of a few jazz guitarists in San Diego County (population 3.4 million) that have a decent following (Peter Sprague immediately comes to mind and he's a world class player). These players are way, way, way out of my league. Even still, you can see them play sometimes at restaurants where only a handful of people are paying attention to the music and another handful of the patrons probably prefer that they would turn down so they can enjoy their conversations. Years ago, I even saw this scenario at Elario's with no less than Joe Pass and Bob Magnusson playing.
If I played anywhere near that kind of a level, I'm sure I'd enjoy gigging as a jazz guitarist. But I don't.
One can argue there still is a purpose... just the enjoyment of making some nice sounds. I can do that without practicing.
I much prefer making something than practicing. In that I mean recording music, writing music, songwriting. I find that more fulfilling/enjoyable than working on learning to play jazz standards or all the other forms of jazz guitar practice. This is pretty much in line with Kirk's comment about his experience with learning French.
Still, I think I should motivate to practice.
That's enough, now it's time to practice jazz guitar.
Circling back to the original topic, finding time to practice is mostly a matter of motivation and making it a priority.
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out of interest
Do any of us here that regularly
(or irregularly) play out ….
have a problem with the motivation
to practice ?
Not wanting to play bad on the gig
is a wonderful motivator , in my
experience
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Playing out is my only motivation. I want to play this music and my good attitude and willingness to book gigs will only carry me so far. Originally Posted by pingu
That being said, I think I had too much thanksgiving dinner to be upright tonight. No practice.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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I work from home these days, so usually practice during my 60 minute lunch break and then an hour or two in the evening. Sometimes whatever I’m professionally working on proves more absorbing than the music, and my practice time suffers.
My ear is bad (but better!) I’m clumsy and uncoordinated, and I’m probably too nervous to ever perform in public again (although I did a few times in my youth). So all of this makes me frequently wonder why the hell I spend so much time trying to do this. And yet, so far, I do.
Since beginning to learn jazz around 3-4 years ago I’ve never felt like I hit a plateau. It’s always clear to me what I need to work on next and I’ve always felt like I’ve been making consistent progress. But then I’ve had a teacher for nearly 3 years now.
I played a long time prior to learning jazz, and my most productive time was probably when I’d get up an hour early before going into the office and working on technique. I did a year or two of this and felt I made real progress in terms of just being able to play decently, alt picking and legato, at a decent speed. Much better doing this fresh in the morning compared with after work in the evening.
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This is me also... finding 15 minutes isn't the problem... RETAINING what I might accomplish in 15 minutes is. Especially if it's something I'm trying to learn because I want to (or have to) learn it, as opposed to learning it because I LOVE the song- THAT I can retain. But I have a hard time retaining anything from 15-minute sessions. Originally Posted by frabarmus
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I thought that's what everyone did. I've certainly done it my whole life, from the minute I started learning to play. Originally Posted by pauln
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100%. And many "gurus" agree- anything that requires laser focus "counts" as meditating. An empty mind isn't the real goal of meditation anyway... controlling your thoughts is. Originally Posted by frabarmus
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My meditation teacher once told us to take musicians (when they play) as a positive example/model for metitators. Originally Posted by ruger9
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Same here — unless I have another 15 minute session on the same day that strategically reviews or uses the stuff from the earlier session. Originally Posted by ruger9
This has been my “news I can use” takeaway from this thread so far.
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I have a lot of time to practice.. And I do practice a lot. Should be able to walk on water when playing the guitar by now.
But nah. Lot of time means very little focus. Been noticing it a lot - having only 10 minutes with full attention is worth more
than 100 minutes dillydally noodle doodle.
Yeah, work on focus first dam it! (telling that to myself here...).
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I have a lot of time to practice too but focus is something I struggled with as well. Practicing at home I get the least done unfortunatedly, my mind just gives up at most after just 2 hours or as soon as 20 minutes. For me its all about having a conducive environment to work with (which can be hard to find). Once I find the right place I can keep on going for hours and hours Originally Posted by emanresu
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Well, it is a special feeling when I have total focus when practicing. It never ever happens when I got 5 hours to spend.
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If I had 5 hours to myself I'd play for an hour and take a 4 hour nap.
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In the right "atmosphere" (quiet, no phones, no disruption etc.) I can handle 5 hours... with a couple of breaks to give tendons a rest, drink a glass of water, do a bit of stretching etc. If I get some hint of pain in my wrist, or something, I immediately stop.
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This seems to be how I get my "best work done" as well... a day with NO OTHER OBLIGATIONS, where I can play for awhile, then stop to let the dogs out and get another coffee, then play for awhile, then stop for lunch, then play some more, then take the dogs for a walk, then play some more... as much as I like the romantic idea of sitting there for hours practicing straight through (brings up memories of the practice rooms in college), I just don't have the attention span. I have the attention span to PERFORM (or full practice with a band), but not alone. Originally Posted by frabarmus
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Not having time to practice frustrates me. Sometimes I think about how to come up with some kind of training system for myself that uses short periods of time. But my status as an amateur musician, as well as the availability of a huge amount of music of different styles and educational materials, forces me to constantly reconsider the goals of practice (and its necessity as such). The result - is procrastination and frustration.
... But I understood something for sure - it is better to do at least something (what is within your power in the given circumstances) than to do nothing. And sometimes the results of practice exceed your expectations.
Unfortunately, I often forget about these things
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That does seem to be the the rub. A super productive flow state always seems to happen when I randomly pick up my guitar for a few minutes outside of normal practice time, only to have the meditative cord rudely pulled by life's little interruptions. Originally Posted by emanresu
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It does seem to always happen that way Originally Posted by StoneWaller
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This expresses my predicament spot-on. Too many choices. Not enough unbroken time to play and practice. Gotta make better use of short bursts of time. Need to prioritize. Very difficult to do thus far. Originally Posted by Kmatuhin
Not having time to practice frustrates me. Sometimes I think about how to come up with some kind of training system for myself that uses short periods of time. But my status as an amateur musician, as well as the availability of a huge amount of music of different styles and educational materials, forces me to constantly reconsider the goals of practice (and its necessity as such). The result - is procrastination and frustration.
... But I understood something for sure - it is better to do at least something (what is within your power in the given circumstances) than to do nothing. And sometimes the results of practice exceed your expectations.
Unfortunately, I often forget about these things
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