Practice Blues

[nycbeijinger]

Would appreciate a few pointers on how to practice effectively. It seems that there is so much to work on for beginners and intermediates that if one tries to learn one thing well, like strumming or barre chords, for example, then that comes at the expense of not spending much time on other things like scales, chords or picking patterns. The result then seems to be being half-a**ed at a number of things and not really good at anything. Frustrating.

[richard1]

Why not just learn to play songs that you like. Practice a song until you have it the way that you want it, then go on to another one. You only need to practice all of the other stuff as and when you need to in order to successfully complete the song you are working on at any particular time.
The primary aim of learning guitar is to be able to play songs and tunes, isn't that the case ? If you waste excessive amounts of time practicing for the sake of practice alone, you will just delay the accumulation of songs or tunes that you want to play.
Practice the scales, arpeggios, barre chords and everything else, only when you need to in order to overcome your next hurdle.
Others might disagree, but the above has served me well over the years, and many others too.

[LeftArm]

I agree with richard1 about learning complete song and working on the techniques for that song.
It is also helpful to split your practice time. Even when I only have a 20minute slot I will try to do 10minutes of a song and 10minutes of more technique based stuff.

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by LeftArm

I agree with richard1 about learning complete song and working on the techniques for that song.
It is also helpful to split your practice time. Even when I only have a 20minute slot I will try to do 10minutes of a song and 10minutes of more technique based stuff.

I need to get better at this. I would practice hours every day, if I coukd. As a result, I focus my limited time on techniques. After a few days, I get tired of that and have a practice or two that is only songs. I think i would be better served doing both every practice.

[EoE]

You want to learn the Blues? go jam with blues players no matter what your level keep the tradition alive.

The song based approach has worked wonders for me. The only time I learn scales, techniques, chords, theory, etc. is in service of the song I'm learning. And after a while you have a repertoire you can play for your and others enjoyment!

So go make a list of songs you'd love to play on the guitar, find some videos, tabs, sheet music, etc. and learn some.

[nycbeijinger]

Thanks for the great suggestions! Am going to change my practice routine and get busy learning some songs.

[zrm]

and it seems to be working.

Daily:
- a few minutes of theory i get from my teacher
- i really like delta style acoustic blues so i'm always working on a new "song" - the songs I like are so similar that there's a ton of overlap but I try to learn one bar per day or "perfect" a previous days' bar
- play rhythm w a backing track or a song - nothing fancy, just rhythm. i do a different key each day
-Scales w a backing track - i try to find a long one, say 8" and do it 2xs, varying what I do - speed or a different sequence or whatever
- I'm working in E right now so I do a different scale position of it daily. I play just that position w a backing track and do different exercises, 1/4-1/8-1/16 notes, etc.
-In the same position as above I practice licks (right now I have about 3 licks per position) - I more or less noodle with them and find different ways to paly them, combine them, etc

If I'm really motivated and have time I'll noodle w a jam track

It sounds like a lot but it really isn't, although i left out some detail and the amount of repetition of do of each BUT if i buckle down and don't noodle and fart around too much I can do it in (2) 30-45" blocks - 1 before the gym and dinner and one after.
If pushed for time I'll wait until its TV and couch time to do the scales and licks.....they're so repetitive and never change that I can do them and not really think about it. if i need to brush up on them i'll really attack it on the weekends....

My theory is this:
do a little bit of everything on a very consistent basis and i'll get it faster than being all over the place even for long periods


just food for though....

[hovishead]

I only practice exercises as warm ups. I don't spend much time on them. Most of my time is divided between careful listening (an often neglected subject) /learning songs by ear/writing my own tunes.

You can usually learn far more by listening/watching/imitating your fav players than you can from any book.

[zrm]

Originally Posted by hovishead

I only practice exercises as warm ups. I don't spend much time on them. Most of my time is divided between careful listening (an often neglected subject) /learning songs by ear/writing my own tunes.

You can usually learn far more by listening/watching/imitating your fav players than you can from any book.

I'm really interested in this...do you think a certain level of physical skill and fretboard and scale knowledge is required before your strategy would be effective?

I'm feeling very comfortable w both yet still have a long ways to go before I'd feel I'm ready to drop the exercises and embark on your strategy.
However, I see myself doing it in a few years.....

[TBman]

I was doing scales and chord changing reviews when I started playing again back in mid-July after a few years off due to a medical issue, but now I primarily practice finger style blues songs - Toby Walker's arrangements and Stefan Grossman's. There's enough moving around on the fretboard and right hand work to increase my skills just by learning the songs. To push myself I purchased Toby Walker's arrangement of Freddie King's song - Hideaway.

Before I had gotten that medical issue that stopped me from playing for a while I was doing a lot of Tommy Emmanuel stuff, but it really was too hard for me and I could only play parts of songs. I was also constantly practicing right hand techniques and a couple of movable scale patterns up and down the neck (I could also play a few short classical pieces as well tho). This resulted in my technique getting a little better, but I couldn't play one of his songs all the way through. Now that I started with just songs in October that are closer to my skill level, I have learned 3 songs that I can play all the way through and I'm almost done with a fourth - Shenandoah, Darcy's Guitar, Deep River Blues and Mississippi Blues. I haven't managed to memorize them all, but I am very close on the last two as I play them every day.

The key is to pick a song, finish it, - that is play it fairly clean all the way through without song stopping errors and then start to learn another. As you do this you will build a song set and continue to get better at all of the songs that you play. By the time I get to 20 songs, it probably won't be possible to play them all on one day, but I'll practice any sticky points I may still have with them and rotate them on a day to day schedule while still adding songs. Once you get a song memorized its generally a done deal I believe.

One thing I have to add to my little soap box speech is that getting video lessons for songs from Toby Walker and Stefan Grossman has pushed my learning into warp speed. The videos give me the instant feedback I need and solve the "how do I approach this left hand fingering" aspect of learning which saves so much time it isn't funny.

[Toby Walker]

It seems that most of us wish we had just a little bit more time to sit down with our instruments to either learn that new song we’ve been meaning to get to or master the ones in our repertoire. Work, family, errands and just day to day life sometimes has a way of keeping those practice sessions consistent. Here’s a few tips on how to get the most out of the time you do have.

I’d also like to mention that I’m talking about Practice time as opposed to Playing time. Big difference. Practicing time means working on what you are currently struggling to master. Playing time is simply for enjoyment... doing what you already know and have fun with. Both are vitally important, but only the first one will put you on the road to improvement.

I believe these tips will work well on whatever you might be working on, whether that be one song at a time or a few different styles.


Finding the time: I figure I’d start out with the big one. As I previously said, many things can get in the way. However, most folks think that if they can’t get in between 30 minutes to an hour a day it may not be worth it. I disagree. Believe it or not you can still make progress with 15 minutes a day and who can’t find at least that amount of time? Ok.. maybe not every day but certainly at least 5 to 6 days a week perhaps. Of course we’re hoping you can find more during the week but this is strictly on those most challenging days. To the trick is what do you do with that minimal amount of time? I suggest taking that one phrase, lick or trouble spot in whatever you’re currently working on and do nothing else but hammer at that. In a day or two when you do have more time you can always work on the rest of list. But the idea here is being consistent as this type of daily practice is much more beneficial than cramming it all in on a weekend. 

Prioritizing your time: Ok... let’s say you have an hour to practice. What do you do? I suggest before you pick the instrument up have a clear idea of what you’d like to work on. A lot of time is sometimes spent just playing things we know and then maybe getting around to the hard stuff. You should think about what you’re trying to master here and having a clear plan on how to go about it. That turnaround in the Big Bill Broonzy song still giving you problems and you’ve really been meaning to nail it? Then that should be one of your priorities. Some folks like to work on scales, arpeggios, chords.. whatever. You get the idea.


Isolate the problem: Take a look at that problem area that you want to work on. Let’s say it’s the 3rd measure of the 2nd part of a ragtime instrumental. When I ask my students how they practice it they say that they play the whole piece up to the trouble spot... make the mistake they’ve always been making in that same place and then go straight through to the end. No good. I instruct them to isolate that one lick and play it slowly, in time, so it comes out perfect. Then do it repeatedly. Don’t waste time playing the rest of that piece over and over again.. you already know it! Isolate that area and give it your full attention. Once you can do it at a fairly decent tempo then play it after the preceding measure to make sure it’s locked into the piece. Using a metronome helps. Which brings us to our next point. 


The metronome: Make it your friend. Once you discover that problem area the first thing you could do is make sure your fingering is correct. Sometimes just changing one finger around makes the difference. Do you have that section memorized? That helps too. That being done, find a tempo where you can execute the lick PERFECTLY. I mean it. You’re training muscles here and while they don’t have a mind, they sure have a memory. Play that lick repeatedly - slowly and perfectly until it’s second nature. Got it? Good. Now increase your tempo to the next degree and repeat the process until you’ve found the tempo that starts to give you problems. Then back it down just a tad and practice it that way for a day or two. This whole process takes much less time than you think and yields incredible results.

[firefrets]

Originally Posted by nycbeijinger

Would appreciate a few pointers on how to practice effectively. It seems that there is so much to work on for beginners and intermediates that if one tries to learn one thing well, like strumming or barre chords, for example, then that comes at the expense of not spending much time on other things like scales, chords or picking patterns. The result then seems to be being half-a**ed at a number of things and not really good at anything. Frustrating.

Why don't you combine your rhythm and lead playing for each chord shape?

Scales are fine, but experimenting with chord shapes will make things much more musical and in the long run, you will be able to play over any chord, at any time.

Do questions and answers with rhythm and lead, so for example, if you are playing a 9th chord, come up with lots of different rhythmic approaches, be it in 3/4 4/4 or what have you, and then staying within a few frets of each chord shape, play around with the notes.

Always think of a melody rather than just noodle.

Anybody can play fast notes that mean little, but creating melodies will train your ear, and if you must play quickly do it with rhythm / percussion in mind, so the speed is at least meaningful.

Learning songs is great, but only if you learn to play them in various guises, otherwise you'll forget the songs over time and not have established any method or self expression.