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  #31  
Old 06-05-2013, 05:52 PM
Picking Moose Picking Moose is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J-Doug View Post
I don't know how you do it Picking Moose. If I tried to focus on all of those styles I'd snap.
Well... after all these years it is not much a "focus" issue.
I mean.. I've always been interested (and loved) the guitar sound but I've never thought of myself as a guitarist.
I grew up listening to Beatles, Stones, Doors, Simon & Garf, Zepp, King Crimson, Bee Gees, Platters, country music, then came Pink Floyd, C.S.N. & Y, Fahey, Grossman, Kottke, jazz... plus my love for classical music (I played pipe organ before guitar)...
So whenever some nice music was coming my way I would try my hands at it with guitar. And whenever my creative output hit the wall I would buy some records of guitar music I was not acquainted with and listened to them and nothing else for weeks... then some that music would find it's way into my own playing (a little).

Now it is just as simple as moving from this to that according to the feel of the moment. Of course it is still all hard work. It will take me a good couple of weeks to play well those Lauro pieces.
And the main "trick" now for me is not to focus too much for too long on anything.
By moving so much and so often from a music style to another I probably ended up not being good at any of them but who cares.. I play for fun.. I don't care how good (or bad) I am
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  #32  
Old 06-05-2013, 08:36 PM
Dark Eyed Junko Dark Eyed Junko is offline
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Checking in.
Even though I call myself a full-time professional musician (and DJ), I actually spend next to no time playing outside of gigs (except for pieces I've committed to have ready for a particular gig). Most of my work time at home is taken up with emails, website development, marketing, and other administrative-- i.e., annoyingly non-musical-- chores.
So, if nothing else, I'd like to take the next five weeks as an excuse to get back to sitting around on the couch and playing my guitar.
Anyway, my immediate goals are to practice a couple new tunes to use as samples for my website and promotional CDs, which I spent my time working on today.
My more selfish goals are to record two originals and to learn two tango pieces. I've always had the latter on my wish list but I could never justify spending that much time on something that is not likely to have any real payoff in the foreseeable future. Well, I can't forever, can I?
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  #33  
Old 06-05-2013, 08:51 PM
DriverZ DriverZ is offline
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Alright as I mentioned late last night, or possibly very early this morning, I am in for 5 weeks, 1 hour per day. I'm starting the count from today 5 June, which will puts the 5 week mark at 11 July.

I'm receptive to any guidance regarding the structure of the hour. I have a sales receipt for the 1st guitar that I purchased, and it's dated 8 August 2000. Which means I should probably be a heck of a lot better than I am. I've played a lot of hours, but I've rarely strung together more than 10 minutes of purposeful focused practice in all that time. I'm sure I've been averaging close to an hour a day lately, especially given the purchase of an HD-28 a couple of months ago. So, I don't mind the time... I love it actually, but I'd like to make it count in terms of progress.

Until I have more time to think about it or until someone weighs in with a suggestion or two about structuring the time, I'm planning to spend 20 minutes on technique & theory, 20 minutes working on Layla, and another 20 for misc./fun.

My plan isn't particularly detailed, but I'll work on it. I'm glad to be on board starting... now.
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  #34  
Old 06-06-2013, 05:17 AM
tcloud tcloud is offline
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I'll join in - starting today, June 6th. Only hiccup might be the week I'll be traveling, but I'll just take that as a challenge.

My main goal is becoming consistent with practicing, and making sure that practice is focused. For this period, I'm working on a habit. Next time, I'll work on something more specific.

So, technique and rep daily, plus some time for theory/ear training. I'll alternate between classical and acoustic... It won't be anything rigid, but at least it will be directed.
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  #35  
Old 06-06-2013, 09:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DriverZ View Post
Alright as I mentioned late last night, or possibly very early this morning, I am in for 5 weeks, 1 hour per day. I'm starting the count from today 5 June, which will puts the 5 week mark at 11 July.

I'm receptive to any guidance regarding the structure of the hour. I have a sales receipt for the 1st guitar that I purchased, and it's dated 8 August 2000. Which means I should probably be a heck of a lot better than I am. I've played a lot of hours, but I've rarely strung together more than 10 minutes of purposeful focused practice in all that time. I'm sure I've been averaging close to an hour a day lately, especially given the purchase of an HD-28 a couple of months ago. So, I don't mind the time... I love it actually, but I'd like to make it count in terms of progress.

Until I have more time to think about it or until someone weighs in with a suggestion or two about structuring the time, I'm planning to spend 20 minutes on technique & theory, 20 minutes working on Layla, and another 20 for misc./fun.

My plan isn't particularly detailed, but I'll work on it. I'm glad to be on board starting... now.
I'm probably no one to give practice advice but here is what I'm doing: I try to dedicate 2 hours a night, 1.5 hours reviewing/playing my repertoire (about 42 songs, etudes), 0.5 hours working on new material (which can be playing through the new piece, working on specific sections, watching the video, memorizing, reviewing the tab. It all depends on where I'm at in the piece). I'm trying to combine theory with the repertoire, i.e. thinking about what chord I'm playing off while playing, is that a 7th chord?, etc. I don't really practice scales. YMMV.
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  #36  
Old 06-06-2013, 12:33 PM
Guest 33123
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Day 4: good practice but I got started too late. It was my turn to put our son to bed so I crashed and never got started practicing until 11:30. My wife and I discussed this and agreed that I need to get started practicing earlier, like right after cleaning up the kitchen mess post-dinner. That's fine by me because late nights on a work night are starting to kill me. That said I felt really "on" last night and had a good practice as a result. I think Hudson River Boogie is ready to be recorded tonight. It's a really fun song to play. Time to pick the next song to tackle though. I have a couple to choose from so we'll see.

BTW maybe you guys might be getting a little sick of me describing my practices as "good", right? Like what does "good" mean? Generally "good" to me means "some" problems during the practice. Blown notes, timing, tone. Could be with any piece in my repertoire or new pieces. It unfortunately happens and I have never been able to figure out the rhyme or reason why. It seems to be random and not (as far as I can tell) a symptom of a lack of practice and preparation. Loss of focus maybe. Rarely is it chronic, i.e. it's (almost) never the same part in the piece night in night out. I try not to beat myself up about these "subspace anomalies" but I do take the time to go back over the problem section(s) after the piece is finished or in the worst cases restart the piece.

What does a "good" practice mean to you guys?

Last edited by Guest 33123; 06-06-2013 at 01:07 PM.
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  #37  
Old 06-06-2013, 09:30 PM
DriverZ DriverZ is offline
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Ok.... Day 2 for me, and I'll go with the preferred descriptor "good" as well, but not great. Good is good, though. I blew right through the hour mark, took at little break to visit the shop to chisel away on the neck of my first "real" guitar build. That's a different sort of practice, but I did manage to easily make the hour, with something related to the timeline I described initially. I spent the first 20 minutes or so doing exercises, and just generally limbering up the fingers and making sure that I was alternate picking, playing clean, etc.
Then I moved on to the song that I'm working on, Layla... specifically an unplugged version. I was mucking along through that when I gave in to the temptation of YouTube, which is dangerous, and decided to watch a video of Slowhand playing it. In the version I watched, Mark Knopfler joined him with a Gibson, and tossed a few electric licks in. Now, this doesn't count as practice necessarily, but since I'm learning the song, I tried to jump in as I could. I can't keep up with those fellas, but as I tried I did notice that even just hopping in and out, when I was able, my playing was a lot more "musical." I've been trying to work this out using a fake-book, and some youtube instruction, but I realized tonight that what I'd been doing was a fairly robotic, albeit sloppy, attempt. So... I did my best to play along, and what little I did manage to squeeze in sounded much better than what I'd been doing before. Same notes... same positions etc, but better nonetheless.
I moved on to some recreational playing, and as of right now, my right thumb is painfully raw. I read the thread here the other day about "playing with a thump", and it prompted me to start noodling around with a thumb slap/palm mute technique, while tapping the top between the slap with my fingers. I was having so much fun that I'm not officially in pain. I'm not complaining, except that I'll have to take a break from doing that... or not.
So good in my book is having made some progress on the song I'm learning, worked on technique, and had a lot of fun in the process.
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  #38  
Old 06-06-2013, 09:43 PM
Guest 33123
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Day 5: With the encouragment of my wife I started practice much earlier tonight ~7:30. Felt great, none of that wiped out feeling I've been having at practice time (which I guess is what happens when you start at 11:30pm!). Also I had a better than "good" practice tonight, things just clicked (not perfect though, never is, nor will it ever be) so yay! all around.

Tonight was also recording night so here is the fruits of my labor: Woody's Mann's wonderful Hudson River Boogie. I hope you like it.
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  #39  
Old 06-07-2013, 04:03 AM
Picking Moose Picking Moose is offline
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So much commitment from you all is really inspiring.
Thank you.

Listened to "Hudson River".. good work. In a couple of spots it does not flow as well as, but good work nevertheless.
__________________
L. Maggi 6 strings Custom
Guild G-37B
B. Dinsdale Custom
Ibanez Ragtime 460
Daion L999
Kinkade 12Strings Custom
L. Maggi 12Strings Custom
P. Bernabe E8
H. Godvinez
Fender Dobro
HB Resonator
Baton Rouge Tricone
Ovation Celebrity
Cort L900 Parlour
Epiphone Emperor
Epiphone Sheraton 2
Fender Tele
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  #40  
Old 06-07-2013, 05:31 AM
Guest 33123
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Thanks for the kind words Picking Moose!

Last edited by Guest 33123; 06-07-2013 at 08:17 AM.
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  #41  
Old 06-07-2013, 10:02 AM
Dark Eyed Junko Dark Eyed Junko is offline
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I have a hotel bar gig on Thursdays, and I decided to use it last night as my "practice" time. That is, instead of being on autopilot like I usually am, I tried to be very mindful throughout the set of certain things I've been wanting to work on. Specifically, I've never felt like my playing is very even, so I made a conscious effort to keep both my tempo and my plucking dynamics consistent and smooth. It was a real eye opener! With songs I've played a million times, I noticed sections that I was rushing or suddenly getting very aggressive.
Definitely looking forward to focusing on that more!
(I also concentrated on holding my notes out longer while singing, but that isn't to do with "acoustic guitar" so I won't discuss it here).

Hopefully this evening I can start looking at those two tango pieces I decided to learn.
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  #42  
Old 06-08-2013, 10:40 PM
Guest 33123
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Day 6: weekly night off.

Day 7: excellent practice. Wish they could all be like this. Felt totally fabulous and sounded pretty darn good if I say so myself. This was pretty surprising though since I spent the day outside shovelling and raking topsoil around my yard. I thought I'd be beat but surprise! Decided tonight which piece I'm learning next. It's a piece called Virgina Stomp that Woody Mann wrote and showed us at Fur Peace Ranch. Seems like a lot of fun. I'm excited to start something new! Just got to get the melody into my head now which is usually the hardest part.

How are things going for you guys?
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  #43  
Old 06-09-2013, 04:54 AM
Picking Moose Picking Moose is offline
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Been playing acoustics for hours no end all week and yesterday I got my Maggi 12 strings back from a neck reset so I "had to" play it 'till the fingers hurt, so to speak.
And the 2 classical pieces I've dug up from memory lane are nearly there too.

BUT... I hardly played the electric at all and this is not really my fault but that of the recently acquired AlaskaPiks!!!

I bought them 3 weeks ago at a guitar meeting and they made me "rediscover" the sound of all my guitars.
I have very thin fingernails. I can get a nice warm sound out of them but "loud" is out of the question. So when I need loud I use Propicks FingerTones (for the last 10 years.. before that I used Dunlops) but, with those, classical or jazz or any sort of gentle picking is out of the question.

Enter AlaskaPiks.
I now can be as quiet or as loud as I like will ALL music genres, even classical (although I would not use them with classical guitar).
When I use them the tone is brighter compared to my own fingernails but warmer compared to the ProPicks.

So I have been in heaven for 3 weeks... rediscovering old material, trying out new things, exploring the vast dinamic range I've never had before.... while the electrics are gathering dust.

How do I snap out of it??!!!!
__________________
L. Maggi 6 strings Custom
Guild G-37B
B. Dinsdale Custom
Ibanez Ragtime 460
Daion L999
Kinkade 12Strings Custom
L. Maggi 12Strings Custom
P. Bernabe E8
H. Godvinez
Fender Dobro
HB Resonator
Baton Rouge Tricone
Ovation Celebrity
Cort L900 Parlour
Epiphone Emperor
Epiphone Sheraton 2
Fender Tele

Last edited by Picking Moose; 06-09-2013 at 05:22 AM.
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  #44  
Old 06-10-2013, 09:00 AM
Guest 33123
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Day 8: early practice again. I'm finding I really like practicing early. But I'm just not used to it yet. I usually practice once everybody is in bed. Anyhoo, things went well except I had a really hard time with my first piece in my repertoire. I must have restarted the song 12 times. Strangely I didn't get frustrated. The rest went fine. I spent some time listening to my new piece to try to get it into my head. Not there yet. I'll try again tonight. I'd like to start the piece this week. Time is running out!
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  #45  
Old 06-10-2013, 10:14 AM
Picking Moose Picking Moose is offline
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I am unable to have/keep a practice schedule, like many of you seem to do.
I grab a guitar and play whatever comes to mind. True, if I am working on a new piece that will be played/practiced more, but there's no planning.

Still.. yesterday was a good day for practicing. Played nearly 2 hours the acoustics (and both 12 strings) and after midnight I managed 1 full hour on electric.
Funnily enough, on the electric things went far better than expected. I guess a few days off allowed by brain to regain focus and balance.
__________________
L. Maggi 6 strings Custom
Guild G-37B
B. Dinsdale Custom
Ibanez Ragtime 460
Daion L999
Kinkade 12Strings Custom
L. Maggi 12Strings Custom
P. Bernabe E8
H. Godvinez
Fender Dobro
HB Resonator
Baton Rouge Tricone
Ovation Celebrity
Cort L900 Parlour
Epiphone Emperor
Epiphone Sheraton 2
Fender Tele
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