Daily exercise...tell the truth :-)

[Marinero]

Hi. Number of hours matters, but it is even more important to know how to take advantage of them. You can practice infinitum hours and wont get the results if your approach to learning is not the right one.
Also is important to try to make it the more entertaining as possible, as at the end of the day . Guitar must be something fun!Attachment 96299

Hi, D,
I suspect most contributors on this site are "Weekend Warriors" who have a 9-5 job, family, and obligatory lawn duties. And, if they can manage two hours daily, they're doing a great job. Your post is excellent since it defines how serious musicians practice.
Marinero

[AllanAllen]

I don’t like how you crawl all over the forum calling other people amateurs, posers and weekend warriors.

[Marinero]

I don’t like how you crawl all over the forum calling other people amateurs, posers and weekend warriors.

Hi, A,
I played full-time during the 70's**. After that, I left music completely for 10 years. Then, I retooled and became a weekend warrior for 30 years on solo CG. It was a great experience since it kept me involved in Music while I owned/ran a very high-energy, time consumptive business. I retired 6 years ago. As far as amateurs and poseurs, that's in your mind . . . not mine.
Marinero

**I was also a weekend warrior from '66-72 while attending school

[AllanAllen]

I think you are right and I'm adding subtext in my mind. Sorry man.

[KingKong]

My practice?
I've a few thoughts,

Just listening to jazz I think counts as practice. I've had it on pretty much all day as background music whilst working for a couple of years now. Mainly a 50/50 mix of guitar and trumpet players. It's definitely had an effect both consciously and subliminally. I found that since starting doing this I've got more creative, it's much easier to compose and improvise lines that sound ( to me) like good jazz.. Obviously some subconscious 'stealing' of material that's got into my brain through all the listening is going on.

I've never been interested in the kind of disciplined methodical practice people talk about in this thread. I can see it leading to great technical proficiency but unless you're out living life, working, playing, watching gigs, getting fucked over, etc etc I can't see it giving you much emotion and creativity. And to me it just sounds like work.

So what I do is:
- hear something that I like and seems to contain new ideas I've not tried, could be a new song, cool solo or some noteworthy comping on a tune I already know.

- focus on learning that thing by rote and overcome any technical issues it may present, e.g. a finger bending chord shape.

- figure out what is going on and what ideas and concepts are involved.

- bring them into the existing repetoir, which basically consists of a range of standards that I play over and over to you tube backing tracks.

In terms of time spent, if the 'thing of the week' is particularly interesting or challenging I can spend hours a day on it...
generally interspersed throughout the day in short stints, e.g. during a boring work zoom call, (whilst on mute obviously )

Another thing I work on is being fluent soloing and picking out 3 note chords in all of the 5 CAGED positions on the neck. That seems to be taking a while though...
One I'm amazing in,feels really fluent.2 aren't bad and the other 2 I've not even tried yet!

[supersoul]

during a boring work zoom call, (whilst on mute obviously )

haha, very good!

[Marinero]

1. "Mainly a 50/50 mix of guitar and trumpet players. "

2. "I've never been interested in the kind of disciplined methodical practice people talk about in this thread. I can see it leading to great technical proficiency but unless you're out living life, working, playing, watching gigs, getting fucked over, etc etc I can't see it giving you much emotion and creativity. And to me it just sounds like work."

3. "hear something that I like and seems to contain new ideas I've not tried,"
KingKong

Hi, K,
Some interesting things here for thought. #1: Yes. Guitarists must listen to linear players: sax, trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet since it will give you a great melodic sense and how they deal with chord changes. To this day, I listen to 75% horns/woodwinds and 25% guitarists(mostly Classical).
2: Yes and No. Musicianship like an MMA fighter comes from hard work, discipline, and a daily routine. Sadly, many cannot
maintain this schedule since Life gets in the way: Work, Family, Commitments. However, it should be your goal to play
every day. So, your quote about "living life" has, for me, equal importance since one can never speak poetry or reveal the human/artistic spirit playing scales/chords in your practice room. A musician who seeks Art must become the
proverbial sponge and taste life, good and bad, in all its varieties like a painter, poet, or novelist. And, you MUST play
LIVE since there is no substitute for that experience . . . period! A boring man is a boring musician. Their music is
everywhere.
3. All good/great musicians are thieves. It's how we develop our own personality however, at a certain point . . . the serious
musician must find his/her own voice and that is where much creativity and soul searching comes into play. It's O.K.
for people to say:" He sounds like Wes, he sounds like Grant, he sounds like Kenny" but finding one's voice, for me,
is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING A MUSICIAN CAN DO. It's there if you look for it but you won't get it from a vending
machine.
Marinero

[KingKong]

1. "Mainly a 50/50 mix of guitar and trumpet players. "

2. "I've never been interested in the kind of disciplined methodical practice people talk about in this thread. I can see it leading to great technical proficiency but unless you're out living life, working, playing, watching gigs, getting fucked over, etc etc I can't see it giving you much emotion and creativity. And to me it just sounds like work."

3. "hear something that I like and seems to contain new ideas I've not tried,"
KingKong.
.
.
.
it from a vending
machine.
Marinero

An excellent post, I can add very little to this.

2... Playing live
Yes! When I first started playing guitar live it completely changed my view on it all. In 2 main ways. First was working with other band members, big reality check on my own abilities. Second was playing to the average joe and realising that they're miles away from being music critics and just want to hear stuff that sound good to them. They have a preference over simplicity, melodicity and familiarity as opposed to complex virtuosity.

In short, i think that the whole experience of finding a band, rehearsing to get gig ready and then playing said gigs completely changes your opinion as to what is important and what isn't in guitar playing. And also, my what confidence it gives you, in life itself actually as much as in music.

3. Getting your own voice. I will controversially suggest that accepting and adapting to your own technical deficiencies helps with this. You can come up with very creative ways to get round them. I've brought in a fair number of licks that have basically come about by trying to copy someone else, finding it a pain and changing the lick slightly to something I could do. Or I've not been able to transcribe something correctly, so made my own approximation.

With jazz I run out of steam both mentally and physically trying to keep long fast lines going. So I've worked out a few ways of 'finishing them off' when this happens so I can start again fresh with a new thing a few seconds later. Or maybe hold a note for a bit to give time to regroup. Others have probably arrived at the same conclusions of course but I've not copied this from anyone directly and you won't find it in any books I don't reckon.
So you could beat yourself up about this approach, or you could look at it differently and positively: 'maaannnn,I like to give the music space and time to breathe......' and then explore that concept in more depth.

There are probably loads more examples of how technical deficiency can lead to creativity but the 2 above are what spring to mind right now.

So of course someone will say 'ah but do some structured technical exercises and the running out of steam will not happen and you'll be able to transcript and play those hard licks perfectly ' .....

Yeh yeh, whatevs.

[AllanAllen]

After doing it the hard way for 30 years I gotta say.

The more you work on the boring stuff the easier the fun stuff is. Learn the scales and arpeggios, then transcriptions just fall out of the guitar. Then take what you steal and try to use it on stage.