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Hi Folks Ed here
I practice every day but wonder if what i am doing makes sense or should be adjusted. So here goes i work on a mode 10 min, then arpeggios, 10 min, scales, one set of inversions for eg. min 13ths . I then work on some of the 5o tunes chord melody i have memorized ( on any given day). So lets say three tunes . I then work on improvization ( very basic ) and just starting comping . I have just picked up a BR600 and found it to be an excellent tool to practice with . Question am i on the the right path or should i simplify . Heck i'm tired out just reading this.
Yours in eternal amazement.
Ed. From the boonies in Canada
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09-04-2009 06:35 PM
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Hi,
it's pretty close to my own way of practising. It's one year from now and i made great progress !
Don't worry, time spend on practise will payoff.
Maybe two advices from my own experience :
- Always practise at low tempo (in order to make your muscles and you brain coordonate each others ...)
- Be good at comping ! working chords is the best way to learn your neck
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I used to have a very tight schedule a long, long time ago, which actually madly took 8 hours a day to complete. An hour each for the following:
- Scales
-Exercises
-Sight reading
-Chord work
-Composition
-Theory/Analysis
-Standards
-Transcribing
-pretty much forced myself. Nowadays I just focus much shorter sessions on certain key areas, places I feel I need work on, and I monitor how I feel. To me that is key. If I can't concentrate, or I do not feel good about working on the music, I stop.
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Oh, I don't know anymore. There is just too damned much to practice. TOO MUCH!! EVERYTHING must be practiced and there is no time for even one thing that is difficult, like Coltrane changes. I don't know.
If I really try to master the one thing, I will end up not knowing anything else. It's pointless...hopeless... impossible...Last edited by franco6719; 09-22-2009 at 02:44 PM.
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What your doing sounds good.
Just keep evaluating, keep experimenting and keep mixing it up. Changes in your practice routine are good, it means you're thinking about it and you're not getting in a rut.
I just spent an hour playing up and down the neck with one finger on one string, improvising to modal vamps... changed strings so I did the excercise on each string. BTW, this exercise is from the book 'The Advancing Guitarist' by Mick Goodrick. Try it, it will take you to another place.Last edited by fep; 09-22-2009 at 07:56 PM.
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Oh, absolutely, Franco. It is never ending.
Originally Posted by franco6719
But....
.....but......
rather than let that bully you into premature submission try to remember this: no one person can know, do, have it all - in musical terms at least. Name me one such artist. I can tell you that you are mistaken. There would be 'holes' in his/her abilities or knowledge.... AND THAT IS OKAY. HECK I WILL TELL YOU NOW, IT is *MORE* THAN OKAY.
Why?
Do you now want to be that artist who having scaled even the highest peaks of musical everests, and the object of envy of all who behold you (Britney fans not counting), and feel now that you have done it all, played it all, created it all? Just another day in paradise - even playing Giant Steps at 600bpm, taking 300 choruses, while cooking breakfast isn't as exciting as it once was?
There is always something more, something else to learn. Always.
But for me, I only study the things I am interested in. I try to edge in a few 'for everyone else' things - a few standards to please the jazz police, but at the end of my life, if I have not done the things I was supposed to do, from the being that I was made to be, than what would I have accomplished?
Coltrane lived. McLaughlin is. You are. And I am. We are all not the same person, and why should we be? =)
Trying to enjoy the process...
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Well-said, Catrinus! I know all of that myself very well, but everyone needs to be reminded now and then. No, no, I want to keep learning and keep growing in my own manner and eventually in my own directions, of course. What would be the point if not for the struggle and the extraordinary sense of challenge in so many aspects of life!! We must get up off the mat and get back into the ring or be counted out. (usually, I hate sports metaphors, but that's what came to mind anyway). (;
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Find your strengths and develop them. Find your weaknesses and keep them in check. Find your artistic purpose and pursue it.
Playing music is just that, play. Sometimes, you have to work in order to make play time better. That is the purpose of practice. Having a set schedule therefore detracts your goals. Before you go to bed each night, find out when you can practice during the day, and then schedule out what you're going to work on. Each day should be different to some degree, which means that you'll stay interested.
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My god, that reminds me of this amazing bebop guitarist I had as a room mate
when I was studying at GIT a long time ago. He arrived in America *already there*. He was already so good. He had his own sound, he could bop like the best of them, all he needed was a gig, wouldn't you say so?
But as the months rolled by, he kept practising all the material the school handed out, and pretty soon he was sounding weaker and weaker... his tone was the first thing, or was it his phrasing? I really don't know what happened to him as I had to leave the school and the USA after a few months, but he was devolving rapidly by doing music he did not like, trying to sound like something he wasn't, and getting there fast =)
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First, you're welcome, second my name is CATRINA. Originally Posted by franco6719
Third, no wonder you feel stressed. Music (despite what you may believe) is not a contest nor a sport. The music I do and believe in, anyway... =)
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Make goals - realistic ones - and just focus on that. Keep the basics in check, like scales/chords/arps etc., don't lose those, but decide what you want to be able to do one week from today, and make a plan on how to get there. Then do it.
Can't play over a minor ii-V-i? Make a goal to be able to do that in one week using only arps, only a certain scale, only superimposed triads etc.
Can't play over rhythm changes?
Don't know how to use the diminished scale?
etc.
And don't forget to spend a good deal of time just playing songs, using all the stuff you've been using/practicing.
You might find that you can learn more by just exploring what you already know than by learning yet another scale.
And don't stress. It's supposed to be enjoyable. You can't learn everything!
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Sorry Catrina! Alright, no offense intended. No, no, no! I don't think of music as a sport or competition at all. In fact, I generally don't follow sports anyway. I never thought of it that way. When it is at its best and most enjoyable, you forget about the egos and just do your best to play what you feel. Even from my limited "gigging" and especially jamming experience, I remember that.That's exactly the sensation that has drawn me back to music after many years. Every once in a while that sort of nonsense enters into your head, as with so many things in life, "I can't compare to that, etc.." This is some kind of childhood brainwashing or something. Originally Posted by Domina Catrina
Anyway, thanks for the tips.
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Good points. The set schedule thing can get too rigid, as well. You might be working on something that you really want to master and feel like you are finally getting somewhere, say, with a transcription or a certain tune or whatever. I think you might be fine to just go with that gut instinct, instead of the schedule. Originally Posted by Smitty
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Alright then: one week from today I will be able to play everything I hear and know all tunes in twelve keys. Originally Posted by abracadabra
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Originally Posted by Warkworth
BR600 - That's a leaf blower, right?
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Practising tunes specifically works well for me.
I like to
1) learn (or improve on) the head/melody
2) spend some time comping
3) think about how I have been approaching these chords for improvisation or composing solos.
4) work on specific chords that are giving me grief (that being, practice the arps or scales related to those few chords and find new ways to play through them )
5) run through the entire tune from head to comping to taking a solo and outro's.
6) review and take notes of what I need to focus time on
7) take a break.
8) come back and play through the tune again.
This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. It all depends on how much time and energy your willing(or need) to give it.
This approach seems to work better than learning a lick and then spending an hour getting it down in all positions in all keys.
Over time the chords and improv techniques you learn on different tunes will start to spill over into one another. At which point you can play more freely.
That's me anyway.
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Oh yea, Of course, you want to give yourself some time to stay up to date on your sight reading. Also transcribing, writing out and analysing sounds that you like from other players is valuable.
As little as 15 minutes of sight reading a day and transcribing 4-8 bars of a solo can be enough. Its all about your priorities as to how long you spend working on each task.
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Here are my thoughts that guide my practicing....
1. The end goal is to play SONGS. Be sure you are learning new songs.
2. Practice in SLOW MOTION with your hands TOTALLY RELAXED. How I wish I had started doing this decades ago. It has improved my playing dramatically. Also, when you practice, focus on your TONE and be sure every note rings like a bell (no muffed or buzzing notes).
3. You improve the most by practicing on your weak points. Its tempting to spend your practice time on stuff you can just fly on. Work on a weak spot until its no longer a weak spot - then move onto another weak spot.
4. LISTEN. Sometimes its easy to get side tracked into all the theory and chops and miss a totally beautiful riff or phrase that is made up of just 2 or 3 slowly played notes. Its about MUSIC more than it is about chops and theory.
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If you develop your sense of smell to just the right point so that you can actually distinguish different areas of the fretboard and chord formulations....
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I look at scales as exercises.
Think of a football player lifting weights. When he goes out on a field during a game, he doesn't take barbells out there with him, he just plays football. However, the fact that he's spent time pumping iron helps him be a better player. But most of his primary thoughts and goals are around playing football, not lifting weights. Increasing his bench press from 300 to 350 may be a secondary goal, but the primary goal is getting around out there on the field during a game. If he can bench press 1,000 pounds, but doesn't know the plays and can't immediately interpret what's going on around him on the field, then that strength is pretty much worthless.
Same with scales.
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So what should I practice right now at this particular moment, for example, so that I will be a better musician this time tomorrow afternoon? What is the SECRET FORMULA, in other words? How do you crack this puzzle once and for all and really achieve mastery, in less than 20 words? (;
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Sometimes I get frustrated and just feel like blowing out complete nonsense. Just ignore it. Thanks.
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It doesn't matter what you practice, as long as your fingers are bleeding when you're done.
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I found that on Google image :
It's close to what I'm living since 2 years, and it helped me to accept my "bad dayS"
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Thats a handy chart. ^
As with any thing, a good plan is in order. You ought to develope long term 'goals' and then short term stratagies and objectives in order to achieve them. You need to set benchmarks to assess your success/failure. You need to be able to rationalize your sucess and failure so you know what works and doesnt work. You need to have some sort of feedback, and you always need to be reviewing your goals for feasibility. Goals should be difficult to achieve, yet not impossible; THat is a fairly subjective guideline. Since you are reviewing your goals it becomes easier to assess what is too difficult or too easy.
For example: Your goal could be "To be able to play in the open jam at some club/bar"
Develope some stratagies and objectives to achieve this; learn chords/scales/tunes ect...
Further break down your objectives to find short term objectives; ex. Week 1, learn all the modes.
At the end of week one assess your progress in reaching this objective in terms of success or failure.
If you failed, why? For example: Did you spend enough time practicing? Did you not know what modes were? Did your house catch on fire and did your guitar burn along with it? After you discover the main reasons for not reaching the objective, you tailor your plan to better achieve it next time. For example you might say: the reason I cannot play these scales perfectly yet is because I have a weak pinky finger", now all of a sudden you have a new objective; 'Strenthen my pinky finger to better play scales'.
The same process applies to success. Why did I achieve this? Was it because the objective was too easy? Was it because I practiced alot? Was it because I got help via a teacher? Anything like that. Now you know what works for you.
So four months later; your pinky finger is strong and independant, you know your scales/chords/arpeggios, your getting pretty decent at playing and at improv. Now its time. You go to the bar, you sit in for a tune. This is the critical part! You have to objectivly assess your preformance. Self awareness is key.
I know thats a little convoluted, and the example somewhat simplistic, but I am a really good student; I know how to learn. Most of that is because I am very self aware. I know what I want. I make it my business to make sure I get it. I have found that this process works for me, whether it be playing music or aceing a theoritical finance mid-term. The goals you set are based upon what you want out of whatever your doing. If your goal is to be a top notch preformer in NYC, you must be far more aggressive about setting your objectives and planning your stratagies, then someone who just wants to learn a whole a lot and have a good time. Goal setting is not a linear process, its a giant circle.
After that giant tangent on my process of getting what I want:
So how much time should you practice? It depends on what you want and how fast you want it.
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