Quote:
Originally Posted by fwellers
...
Please keep them coming if anyone has more useful answers. It's very appreciated.
|
Floyd, I'm similar to you, but maybe a step or two ahead of you. I'll share some tips that have been successful for me:
My number one tip is to play with other people on a regular basis. It may take a lot of effort to make this happen, but it is worth it. There are several ways to make this happen, but that's a subject for another discussion. Playing with others forces one to get good enough to not drag the others down. On the other hand nobody has to be perfect because the others will keep the music going even if one makes mistakes. So simplify your playing, but get the rhythm rock solid.You may have to learn music that is not your favorite. Bluegrass is a fabulous genre for social playing. So is Old-Time.
I decided that I want to learn how to play unaccompanied. That's when I fell into the conundrum that you are now in. One thing that was obvious to me: I am not good at concentration/focus. My friends recommended meditation. That did not work for me until I came up with the idea to meditate by concentrating on short bits of tunes and playing them in loop fashion while concentrating on my playing and try to not allow any other thoughts to arise. That is the first thing I do every morning. Start out with a modest goal of say two minutes of concentration, then stop playing and let your mind wander a bit, then go for another two minutes. Over weeks and months, endeavor to expand the amount of time that you can focus on just playing a short section of music and then start linking two short sections together. For me, that helped my playing and it helped my focus in all other aspects of my life.
For me, it is not possible to master a tune, or any part of a tune, if I need to be looking at TAB. So I work to memorize small bits at a time as soon as possible. Some people call this kind of memorization "muscle memory". As far as I can tell, muscle memory requires a lot of repetition. However, the more I am able to focus and concentrate, the less repetition I need. If I'm trying to memorize two different tunes, it will require between 640 and 6,400,000 times as much repetition as needed to memorize one tune.
I approach a tune like this: First, I say the name of the tune. Then I say the key that I will be playing in. The I say the chords that are in the section that I will be practicing that day. Finally, as soon as I can play the section without looking at the TAB, I start using a metronome at slow tempo, gradually increasing the tempo. I master the beginning of a song first, then the end of a song (not unusual to be the same as the beginning). Then I pick the most difficult measure, get it to 80%, then add the following measure, then add the preceding measure. Repeat until I've expanded to the beginning and end, Then I have the whole song at 80%.
Now to answer your question: "How many tunes to practice". I cannot memorize more than one tune at a time. So for the meditation and memorization phase, there will be just one tune that I am working on. That is hard work, so for relief, I will allow myself to spin off into related improvisational noodling. If I still have time, I may work on refining or maintaining another tune that I have 80% or better. And/or I might start the pre-memorization/familiarization phase of a new tune in which I work out the fingering and rhythm (motor skills) with the TAB. This phase is when I decide if I like the tune well enough to put it in the queue and if my skills have developed enough to tackle it next or to put it back up on the shelf for future exploration.