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  #1  
Old 11-30-2012, 09:44 PM
kats45 kats45 is offline
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Default Not Playing Songs In Practice

I watched Pete Hittlinger's DVD, Principles For Better Practice, last night. He talked about how sometimes his practice did not include playing any songs. Lately, I have spent most of my time working with a metronome while practicing fingerstyle patterns. Since fingerstyle is new for me I lose a bit of my timing changing chords, even though I'm an intermediate player and changing chords goes without thought.

Do you find that exercises such as this are helpful to your playing? Have you experienced similar when moving into a different style or genre?
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Old 11-30-2012, 10:18 PM
oldhippiegal oldhippiegal is offline
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When I was improving rapidly, I mostly did exercises and phrases of new songs, songs that really were a bit beyond me but stretched me. Only once a week I sat down and played through old repertoire.

Other people here will say (and have said) otherwise, but to me, this is what practice is and it's the only way for me to improve significantly. For the past six months, other parts of life intervened and all I did was play four or five times a week, and I lost skill. The past month, I've gone back to practice and am getting a little better again. I spend perhaps 20 of 80 minutes on recently acquired/easy repertoire right now and only one session a week playing back through songs I acquired more than a year ago.

So, for me: practice, don't play--and it has to be at least an hour a day if I have any hope at all of improving.
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Old 11-30-2012, 10:33 PM
Kerbie Kerbie is offline
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I usually do not play songs when I sit down to practice. For many years, I just played through song after song until I finally realized I wasn't getting any better. Now, I practice all the time and rarely play songs... and I've probably made more progress in the last 3 years than I did in the past 20.

I find the exact same thing to be true for me on a golf course too. I can get a lot more done hitting on the driving range. Sometimes playing an entire round of 18 is practically a waste of my time. Strange, huh? Maybe that's not for everybody, but it works for me.
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Old 11-30-2012, 10:47 PM
kats45 kats45 is offline
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I enjoy the practice too, and practicing short parts of songs. I take it slow, though sometimes it feels too slow. There's a part of me that's discouraged though because ultimately all the practice and exercises have to apply to songs that become repertoire. My repertoire is severely lacking. I can play songs, but if repertoire means you can play it without music or a chord chart, then I'm really lacking.
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Last edited by kats45; 11-30-2012 at 10:54 PM.
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Old 12-01-2012, 02:43 AM
pgilmor pgilmor is offline
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I think there is a difference between practicing to acquire skills and practicing a song. You need to acquire the skills to be able to play the song, but just because you have the skills does not mean you can play the song musically well until you have practiced playing it the way you want it to be heard.

The most important thing about practice is that it needs to be directed toward a particular goal, whatever that is. Otherwise it's just messing around.
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Old 12-01-2012, 09:59 AM
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It will depend on the person, their current skills, what type of practice drills, and what type of songs.

The reason I play guitar is for fun. I enjoy playing songs way more than practice drills, so I spend almost all my time on perfecting songs.

I do practice scales a bit. If a song requires a new technique, or an old one I am rusty at, I will concentrate on that, either within the song or as a separate exercise.
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Old 12-01-2012, 10:26 AM
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Practice is such a huge word. It all depends...
What works for one player does not necessarily work for another, although, sometimes it does.
Personally, I mainly work on my own music, which creates challenges in that I have to play stuff I hear in my head. Usually, that entails working on new techniques at times, perhaps timing issues, unfamiliar scale positions and harmonic possibilities, etc. (keeps me busy)
I'd say it's more of exploration of the new...and I like it that way and it keeps my interest.
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Old 12-01-2012, 10:35 AM
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I can see both approaches, I mostly learn and practice new techniques as the need comes up in playing music. Never really been one the play scales or exercises in isolation, just because I determined early on that only a small fraction of techniques, exercises, scales, theory, etc would have any direct bearing on what I play and how. Basically, I got into this to play guitar, not be a guitar player.
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Old 12-01-2012, 10:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kats45 View Post
I watched Pete Hittlinger's DVD, Principles For Better Practice, last night. He talked about how sometimes his practice did not include playing any songs. Lately, I have spent most of my time working with a metronome while practicing fingerstyle patterns. Since fingerstyle is new for me I lose a bit of my timing changing chords, even though I'm an intermediate player and changing chords goes without thought.

Do you find that exercises such as this are helpful to your playing? Have you experienced similar when moving into a different style or genre?
Hi kats...

I think one needs a long view of his/her playing life. When we are new student, or switching genres, or learning new techniques, then of course it demands time and attention to technique.

Then as we begin to apply the new style/technique to songs, we need to practice those. Room can be made in a practice regime to do both. Practice is only as effective as our ability to not go brain numb from extreme repetition or boredom.


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Old 12-01-2012, 10:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Practice is only as effective as our ability to not go brain numb from extreme repetition or boredom.


I agree, Larry.
I hope a lot of people read this.
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Old 12-01-2012, 06:16 PM
kats45 kats45 is offline
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Today I spent more time learning scales, but I broke up my time by playing along to the CD in Mark Hanson's Travis Picking book.
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Old 12-02-2012, 02:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kats45 View Post
but I broke up my time by playing along to the CD in Mark Hanson's Travis Picking book.
Excellent book... one of the best I've found.
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Old 12-02-2012, 04:40 AM
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Guitarists can be seen as being on a ramp or a plateau. On a ramp you acquire technique rather than perform and on a plateau you perform rather than acquire technique. Perhaps an ideal is to combine the two, the ramped plateau.

After fifty years of playing I am now on a plateau. I mostly work on preparing pieces to perform. I have most of the techniques needed to play what I want but if a piece requires it I will work on that specific technique only as much as is needed. A certain amount of practice is to do with maintaining repertoire, but playing everything everyday serves no purpose. So currently I have about 5 or 6 songs I work on every day and maybe once a week I do partial back catalogue maintenance.
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Old 12-02-2012, 06:49 AM
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I feel there is a difference between practice and rehearsal. Practice to develope skill, rehearse to prepare for the show. Both are necessary and shouldn't be confused with each other.
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Old 12-02-2012, 08:46 AM
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Well yes and no. There is only a difference if you have no intention to perform. If you intend to perform then rehearsal is performance practice. There was a recent thread where I said that the ultimate goal for a guitar player was performance and I got a vehement rebuffal of every point in my post. If someone is not going to perform, presumably there is no reason to rehearse.

I used to teach performance in a pre university college. The students were required to prepare and then perform music in groups. Most of the time the students arranged themselves more or less in a circular format and used eye contact and directly visual means of signalling. In this way they prepared their material. Just before the performance the equipment and positioning in the room would be rearranged so that there was a stage area and an audience area. Now the singer would have his back to the drummer and be side on to other musicians and signalling had to be adjusted to suit. They would be encouraged to play as if performing and not to stop for any reason. There were two or three bands in each class and at the end of the last session they would perform for the other classes. Then within a day or so they would perform in the big hall with a remotely operated PA, amps they weren't used to in positions they couldn't control. They performed to the whole college, their friends and their parents and they were marked by staff.

Yes they would all practice their instruments separately and rehearsal was different and there were different types of rehearsal but rehearsal is always practice for performance.
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