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For people who work, have families, etc., how and when do you make time to play or practice? What works best for you? What doesn’t? Do you need long unbroken hours at a time, or can you achieve some things in smaller bits?
Any tips?
Just curious. For me, evenings provide the longest periods of time, but my energy is way higher in the morning. Which is tough because my mornings start early and are full.
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11-19-2023 12:26 PM
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I play almost every night from 8:30-9pm to 10pm. There is no way I can play in the morning except for sometimes on Sundays. But I like the consistency of my night playing. It's something I look forward to after a long day's work.
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FWIW, those of us who don't do not necessarily have nothing better to do than play or practise all day
Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
For me it's more finding the motivation to start, or to ignore other distractions are competing for my time and attention.
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You only need 15 minutes at the least to be productive. If you pick one topic and work it uninterrupted for 15 minutes, you'll make progress. If you work for an hour straight, you're cookin.
Last edited by Jimmy Smith; 11-19-2023 at 02:42 PM.
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That’s why I said “etc.” ;0) Originally Posted by RJVB
FWIW, those of us who don't do not necessarily have nothing better to do than play or practise all day
For me it's more finding the motivation to start, or to ignore other distractions are competing for my time and attention.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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What times of day do you find/create those 15 minute periods? Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
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Yes, I tend to make progress with long unbroken hours at a time. Small bits make me "interrupt" whatever I'm working on and generate frustration. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
Good thread! Looking forward to reading all coming replies... especially on how to make smaller bits work.
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That's encouraging, I'm gonna try that... Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
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I don't have a tight schedule so any time of day. But an example is if I get up at 6 to lift weights before work at 9 then I end up with a free 30 minutes, I think I can easily put in some practice and be productive. I find it's key to create a goal for the practice session like putting on drum genius and working time, working out a riff, or running scales, or chords. Also I meant to say 15 minutes at the least, not at the most. You wouldn't be that productive with 1 minute lol. Originally Posted by Kirk Garrett
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some may think this is a flippant
answer but I’m serious
Don’t watch the TV ….
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With long hours, whatever I'm working on gets "rooted", so to speak... and stays with me (for much much longer)... problem is I can only get long hours occasionally (not on a regular basis). Whereas it's easier to get 15 minutes daily (or almost)... so, I guess, organising work-materials in smaller bits in a way that doesn't diminish the efficacy due to the reduced working time is the key... ?
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...and, by all means: AVOID THE INTERNET!! Originally Posted by pingu
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P.S. I don't watch TV... I listen to the News (short version) on the radio, in the morning, while I get dressed. :-)
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and another thing
you may already do this
but people have very different learning patterns …
for me I found small chunks
work best
even tiny bits of motivated time here and there, are very beneficial
therefore I definitely
leave the guitar out and
in an accessible position
you should be able to pick it up
and play it in 2 seconds ….
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I think it depends what you're working on.
If I'm practicing a chart, I can make some progress in a minute or two.
If I'm trying to develop a new skill that requires some concentration, I need much longer practice sessions.
As far as motivation goes -- never an issue. I'd rather have the guitar in my hands than not.
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I wake up well before my wife to get in a couple hours or so before the day starts. I've found this routine to work well for me because the time is generally not consumed with the need to complete any other tasks.
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Hmm.
1. I get most of my practice late in the evening (9:00 to midnight) but also sometimes have an hour or two in the middle of the day while my son is at daycare and I have a break from work.
2. I think fifteen or twenty minutes is the minimum for me, but I can use that little for sure. Probably for maintenance type stuff, rather than for stuff that really challenges me, but still useful.
Extra … i find folks tend to be wildly inefficient with their practice. For a long time I would remove my phone from the room and then set a timer for two or three minutes. Most people (myself included) aren’t really wired to focus for much longer than that and any more takes a pretty concerted effort. Folks seem to find it might take them 25 or 30 minutes to complete that 15 minutes of actual practice. So I’d wager a lot of folks who practice for three hours a day are really probably getting 1.5-2 hours.
At this point I still remove my phone from the room, but I set the timer for maybe 15-20 minutes. Part of that is improved focus, I guess, but also that I’ve made peace with short stretches of noodling or staring at the wall as a part of practice.
The phone is the kicker though. Got to be gone.
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I haven’t in decades. Originally Posted by pingu
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Your time Is going somewhere. Decide what you can live without and cut it. YouTube, Instagram, this forum. It’s all eating your practice time. Don’t cut it all though, you still have to live.
For me, I practice 8-10pm. After the kids are in bed. The time I used to spend watching movies.
Whenever you practice, do it with intent (set a goal) and do it sober.
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For me the most effective/rewarding hours I've spent woodshedding have been those "in the dead of night"... when the rest of the world around me was quiet, silent, sleeping&dreaming. But that seems like a lifetime ago... I would like to be able to recreate that (after I retire, I guess...).
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There was a really good insight from Tim Lerch when he was on ‘That Pedal Show’ where he described the three frames of mind and concentration required for effective practice. Check it out.
In my case with 2 young teens being taken everywhere and office based work sometimes I find it impossible to scratch myself.
If I have 5 - 15 minutes I might only focus on scale fingerings or chord grips around a cycle of 4ths or something simple but important for focusing to get right.
If I have half an hour it might be triad exercises.
If I have an hour it might be running through 2 standards for half a dozen choruses as well as warmup scales.
But yeah finding time is any morsel possible. Energy and house volume dependant. I find my most effective time is after dinner when the family is settling into repeat episodes of Bull or NCIS I beat a strategic retreat for an hour. That’s if I’m not shuttling kids from music lessons or dance studios.
In the past I was known to retreat to the car park at work during a lunch break and shed away in the back of the car for 45 minutes with a strat plugged into ireal pro and a headphone preamp. That job wasn’t the most social experience anyway.
EMike
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"all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"
(although guitar can be hard work, as we all know...).
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I always practice by exploring and examining things until I discover or invent something new (for example, finding that two very different chords will substitute for each other in a tune). Then I play with "unit testing" within that tune and "integration testing" within other songs... finding out when it works, when it doesn't, and how to hear the difference and predict whether it will work for an untested tune, then test that.
If you always practice until you learn something new, it ensures you're learning. It also makes sure you finish your practice on an encouraging high note - motivation for next time. It takes me between 30 to 60 minutes to run across a new thing and play with it enough to usably internalize it; if your time is limited, set your level of "new thing" broad enough to find something within the time you have available.
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I can usually get an hour or so in in the evening around 9-10 pm or so, once the kids are in bed. Not my most productive time of day, but there it is.
There is often a 15 min lull in everybodys' morning routines where I can also play a bit. I usually spend that to check up on what I played the day before
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I like to do some physio exercises before sitting down to a long practice session, because I'm old. (Over 60)
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