Your One Best Bit of Practice Advice

**raylinds** · 08-03-2024, 08:39 AM

I had always read that you should always practice with a metronome, but didn't bother as I thought I didn't need to. I recently decided to try and was amazed at the effort it took to remain precisely in time! Not only did I learn about keeping in time, but it forced me to slow down to a tempo that allowed me to play the melody without pausing.

**princeplanet** · 08-03-2024, 10:03 AM

Narrow your focus on the precise jazz style or stylists that turn you on.
Tune everything else out. Don't be afraid to ignore 99.9% of all the advice you will read about (including this post!).

**Bobby Timmons** · 08-07-2024, 11:36 AM

Always make sure to be mad at theory. This will make you more musical.

**Christian Miller** · 08-07-2024, 01:02 PM

Spend less time practicing and more time arguing on JGO, obviously.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**pauln** · 08-07-2024, 01:16 PM

#1 Most Important - Confidence And Playing with Others
Don't wait or worry thinking you need to be "good enough" to practice, rehearse, play with, or perform with others - that's missing the fastest way to learning what is most important; get doing those things now.

#2 Practice Focus On Your Ear
Listen to tunes, remember how they go, recognize the sounds of their chord types and progression changes, and melodies, then play them... not being able to do this now is irrelevant; practice means you keep trying until you learn how.
Develop the habit of practicing until you hear the discovery of something new, then explore ways to make it musically useful, remember that, experiment with application in other tunes.

#3 Theory
Always make sure to be mad at theory.

**John A.** · 08-07-2024, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by raylinds

I had always read that you should always practice with a metronome, but didn't bother as I thought I didn't need to. I recently decided to try and was amazed at the effort it took to remain precisely in time! Not only did I learn about keeping in time, but it forced me to slow down to a tempo that allowed me to play the melody without pausing.

If you get bored or annoyed by the metronome, iRealpro and drumgenius are good alternatives.

**raylinds** · 08-07-2024, 01:23 PM

To steal a tagline from Nike- Just do it! I have never been a morning person. No matter what time I go to bed or how much sleep I get, I hate getting out of bed in the morning. I finally realized the hard part was getting out of bed. Once I did, I was fine and ready to go.

Sometimes I do not feel like practicing, so I just pick up my guitar. Once it is in my hand, I am ready to play. Even if it is just a half an hour, it helps!

**raylinds** · 08-07-2024, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

If you get bored or annoyed by the metronome, iRealpro and drumgenius are good alternatives.

I am looking into those- thanks!

**AJLo** · 08-17-2024, 10:03 AM

Record yourself, and listen back to it.

**benhatchins** · 08-20-2024, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by AJLo

Record yourself, and listen back to it.

Great advice! The learning process becomes so much more enjoyable, especially when you have all the support you need. I discovered that when I was dealing with my studies. I decided to use ukwritings.com/cheap-assignment, and it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. The assistance I received not only made the workload more manageable but also allowed me to really engage with the material and enjoy the journey

**GuyBoden** · 09-13-2024, 01:23 PM

**pingu** · 09-13-2024, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by raylinds

To steal a tagline from Nike- Just do it! I have never been a morning person. No matter what time I go to bed or how much sleep I get, I hate getting out of bed in the morning. I finally realized the hard part was getting out of bed. Once I did, I was fine and ready to go.

Sometimes I do not feel like practicing, so I just pick up my guitar. Once it is in my hand, I am ready to play. Even if it is just a half an hour, it helps!

yes !
and keep the guitar out and ready
(not in a case)

**wolflen** · 09-13-2024, 08:07 PM

learn a tune a week..it dosen't have to be "jazz"...but pick tunes you like!!

review the tune in week two..and so on..try this in clusters of ten

**AllanAllen** · 09-13-2024, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by wolflen

learn a tune a week..it dosen't have to be "jazz"...but pick tunes you like!!

review the tune in week two..and so on..try this in clusters of ten

This one really pays off. Sometimes I’ll learn two songs in a day now. Granted, it was Killer Joe and Equinox, but it was still two songs.

**paldubee777** · 10-12-2024, 11:05 AM

My one best piece of practice advice is to not read posts about the one best piece of advice.

Seriously, I agree with the metronome advice, with the goal of trying to practice along with a beat, either with a backing track or a metronome. The idea being I try to slow things down to where I can play along with minimal mistakes. Most times this is really really slow. Then as the muscles get memory and I start acquiring the finger technique, I start to speed it up. The main point is to try not to practice mistakes, and slow things down until I can actually get close to playing it without mistakes. I also break things down into small sections, and memorize them, so I don't have to process them from music to mind to fingers, but rather from mind to fingers.

What is really working for me now is to have more fun and joy in my playing. I am doing this by having multiple avenues of learning. So at this time I am doing three things: Learning a song (Misty), taking an online course, and learning some theory from a book. I jump around from these so I don't get burned out, as I can obsess over one of them and get frustrated.

Enjoy the journey!

Paul

**jumpnblues** · 11-04-2024, 02:24 PM

Learn the fretboard.

**jumpnblues** · 11-04-2024, 02:26 PM

I disagree!!!

**wolflen** · 11-04-2024, 03:43 PM

For me its a learning time..not just play what I already know..or think I do

So I will play in a new key and positions..(I can hear my teacher .."I thought you said you know this stuff..")

**DawgBone** · 11-04-2024, 06:10 PM

Practice advice for a newbie? A serious newbie or a hobbyist newbie?

If the newbie is serious and older than about 17 I would say find something better to do with your time cause you'll quit anyways. I've never known a single person who started beyond high school who stuck with it. You're wasting your time, which is a resource you cannot acquire more of.

If you're a hobbyist then disregard that. I have no valuable advice for hobbyists because expectations and goals are going to be much different for that person.

**AllanAllen** · 11-04-2024, 06:39 PM

I think guitar is a fantastic way to spend time. Much better than Football or drinking.

Which is apparently what other men care about.

**Christian Miller** · 11-04-2024, 07:40 PM

Know precisely what you are trying to do. Make it clear, limited and achievable.

Throw lots of small chunks of time at it until it is done.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Victor Saumarez** · 11-04-2024, 08:27 PM

A good "single" piece of advice to get the most out of practice is probably going to be something like 'practice with purpose'. It sounds obvious and boring, but I remember the hours and hours I put in of mindless repetition. I think anything you do with good focus, concentration, and a goal will get you there faster and more efficiently. Muscular memory is essential for jazz, but there's using it, and over-using it. The latter likely dullens the creative juices.

**Alter** · 11-05-2024, 05:19 AM

Always play with some time reference (metronome, music, drumgenius..), learn tunes, listen to A LOT of the music, and always try to be as musical as possible no matter what you play.