who wants to do a 40 day practice challenge with me?

[mc1]

i've got company coming this weekend and have to drive all day today. yesterday i stacked wood which left my hands aching.

looks like i'll have some catching up to do next week.

[DaddyRabbit]

Days 5 & 6. Got the 2 hours a day in (actually a bit more) but not so much focused practice as just trying out different fingering patterns in DADGAD and getting comfortable with the new guitar.

[jpd]

Putting together some interesting phrases. Working on tieing them into a coherent piece, enjoying the heck out of this. J.D.

[delb0y]

Day 8 and 9 - still more of the same...memorisation work. Still haven't got the whole thing retained yet. I'm there with the beginner's version, more or less with the intermediate, and am about half way through the Advanced.

Read this great interview with Steve Kaufman that illustrates the dedication needed to be a top player. He also outlines how he thinks the Parking Lot Pickers series should be used and says "If you cannot get a song off of a piece of paper and committed to memory in about 20 minutes, then it is too hard for you." Which is a little worrying as I'm on day nine of at least an hour a day and still not there yet. I know SK is talking about memorising just one of the versions, not all three, but it does reinforce one of the major problems I have with playing - memory. Whether it's learning a flatpicking piece, a fingerpicking tune, a transcribed solo, retaining it is my biggest issue.

Interestingly Tony Rice says he hardly plays anything the same way twice. I think one of the reasons learning Ragtime Annie is proving so hard is that I'm not just learning a tune and chords, but I'm learning someone's note for note arrangement, and often the lines are very similar with just one or two notes in different orders so I have to remember where in the tune each tiny variation appears. It's that which is making it so hard to learn. If I was just to go off and play the tune and improvise around it and not worry about every single eighth note then it would be easier. But then that's not the task.

Anyway, I'm aiming to play this at 180 bpm, and I've been practicing it at 160 so far. The main reason for this choice of tune was to work on my right hand and that' feeling good, too!

Onwards...

Kind regards
Derek

Day 6: practiced and then recorded this song: http://soundcloud.com/tripleohdoug/o...how-happy-i-am Not really happy with the way it turned out. I was up until 1:45 recording take after take. It needs to be faster with more swing but I posted it anyways. Sigh.

Days 7 & 8: more practicing. I worked some more on the new ragtime piece. Coming along nicely. Should be able to flip the page on the tab tonight and finish the first section. Yay!

Day 9: crashed and woke up at 1:30 am. Practiced until 3. Feel like a zombie this morning. Brains!!

To those still hanging in there, congratulations! You're doing great.

Onto day 10!

[delb0y]

Nice picking, Doug. Sounding good!

Thank you so much Derek. You're too kind!

[pete1960]

FWIW I did a similar thing last year. Although it was longer than 40 days.
The purpose?
To nail the intro to Albert Lee's Country Boy and work on fingerpicking phrases around a G C G D chord progression.
At least an hour a day as well as other stuff e.g. Brad Paisleys The Nervous Breakdown and Tony Rice's Salt Creek...
The last 2 tune were/are ongoing. They are respectable now but no video.
At the time I was thumb and fingers , I now use a thumbpick.
It was a worthwhile exercise.
If you have the time do it.
Here's my 14 year old sons video of one such practise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ism-_krmY

[Jimbolaya]

Hey guys. Love the challenge idea. Wish I was joining you, but I was on vacation when it started. Hopefully we can do another in the fall or something. Keep up the good work.

Hey Jimbolaya, there nothing that says it HAS to be a 40 challenge! Pick your own time span and goals and join in. You actually have enough days for a 30 challenge. This challenge is meant to be accessible and supportive, not a competition.

[delb0y]

Day 10 and Day 11 (today)...more of the same. It's not very exciting, is it? But I'm almost done with the memorisation element of learning Ragtime Annie. I have all three parts there (or thereabouts...). There's a little key change section on the end and I have half of that done, too. Another day or two and I'll be moving onto stage 2 which is the main focus - trying to improve my touch, syncopation, left hand - right hand co-ordination, right hand position, relaxing of the right hand and arm muscles, pick grip, and so on... All with a view of moving my flatpicking from the brute force and ignorance approach that I currently adopt to a more 'floaty' sound, which is probably not the adjective I'm really looking for, but I want to be dancing over the strings rather than bludgeoning them!

[delb0y]

Day 12 (yesterday) - finally got the memorisation work complete. I'm sure I'll forget lots of it over the next two weeks as I focus in on specific elements of the piece, but for now it's in there!

Day 13 (today, so far) Starting to get into the actual meat of the piece now and an early (but already known) observation that it is the cross-picking and string skipping bits that are going to be the limiting factor in how well I play this song. More specifically, the right hand when it comes to these elements... so I've rustled up a quick etude that focuses on just these elements.

Here it is. Comments welcome!

Kind regards
Derek

[Picking Moose]

I have been practicing at least 2 hours a day for quite a while already so there's no point in joining in but what I like to know is how any of you would define "practice".

To my students, specially the youger ones, I suggest to break the practice time into 3 sections:
1- warmup/exercises- these includes scales, arpeggios and studies
2- study a piece in detail
3- play whatever you love most without worrying too much about technique (just have fun)

The amount of time allocated to each section would vary according to needs, day schedule, feel, personal needs.

[clintj]

Update: making good progress on my songs. The flash cards are going well too in helping me learn some of the notes, at least to the point that I can more rapidly pin down a few and then know how far to move to get the desired note from there. Got my copy of "The Art Of Contemporary Travis Picking" and am working on the inside-out and outside-in patterns this week. Still feels awkward at the beginning of sessions but my speed and fluidity are improving by leaps and bounds. I'm also developing far heavier calluses than I had before. This was a good idea.

[delb0y]

I have been practicing at least 2 hours a day for quite a while already so there's no point in joining in

I'm similar, Picking Moose. I practice every day too. But I thought the 40 day challenge would be a nice way of taking time out from all the other scheduled songs, licks, chords, solos that I'm half way through and try something new, and more specifically focus on one thing for 40 days. Amongst many weaknesses I don't think I ever learn a song well enough (wasn't it TE who said you should never perform a tune until you know it so well that you can hold a conversation whilst playing it?) hence my taking this opportunity.

To me practice is what I do when I'm not aimlessly noodling....