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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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Originally Posted by Litterick
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Originally Posted by RJVB
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Originally Posted by Litterick
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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 fepOriginally Posted by Kirk GarrettOriginally 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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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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Originally Posted by frabarmus
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Originally Posted by pauln
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Originally Posted by frabarmus
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Originally Posted by ruger9
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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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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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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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Originally Posted by emanresu
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Originally Posted by StoneWaller
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Originally Posted by Kmatuhin
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