How do you practice?

[Glen.]

After reading Toby's thread about how much you practice, I wanted to see actually how people practice.

I've been spending an hour on exercises from my teacher, and hour on Moonlight Sonata (that I'm working on at the moment), an Hour on Anji by Davy Graham (another that I'm working on), an hour on a course I bought from Ulli Boegershausen, 2 hours on theory and transcription in an effort to get better at reading notation and the rest of my time polishing/refreshing my repertoire or just enjoying my repertoire.

Thats what I aim for, although I sometimes run out of time (3 kids, job, wife etc!)

What do you do?

[mr. beaumont]

I'll often rise early, before the rest of the family, to get to work...

My practice usually consists of a short warm up (some scales or chromatic finger exercises, to get the blood flowing) and then I'll play through a tune I'm working on, trying to get all the way through.

Then I dissect...I look at troublesome areas, and repeat them. A big part of what I do is improvising, so I'll often spend most of my time improvising on the song's form or a certain part of the song's form that gives me trouble.

I'll usually finish off a practice session by playing through a few tunes I already know start to finish, trying to make them performance worthy...I need to keep up on repertoire, as that stuff leaks out if you don't keep it fresh.

[BlueBird2]

I've been laying on the bed feeling weak and sick with a guitar on my belly. I've been just going through finger exercises this week. I wish I had a music stand designed for a bed play.

I normally does finger exercise, then work on whatever I've learned by reviewing materials my teacher gave me. Work on my weakness, then have little fun at the end. At my level, each session is very short somewhere between ten min. to an hr., put it away, and come back to it again few hours later.

I wish I could play many songs just to enjoy rather than practicing basics without any particular tune. I suppose it will all come together in the end.

[Paikon]

i break the piece down in phrases and work on a single phrase at a time and then i isolate the most difficult parts and work on them seperately with metronome...
with metronome i start with half speed and gradually i increase speed.

[oldhippiegal]

Lately, warmup, briefly scales, then four types of fingerstyle patterns (dead thumb bass, alternating bass, travis, and a randomly chosen fourth choice. Whatever songs pop to mind in those categories; I'm just trying to use it/not lose it). Then new song work--I have a few, and again, it's whatever jumps to the forefront of my mind, maybe just one song, maybe some each of three. Then play through some of the repertoire. At some other point in the day, perhaps aural training.

[Geof S.]

I usually practice between 60 and 90 minutes a day, sometimes a big longer on the weekend. I usually do it in multiple 20 or 30 minute sessions rather than all at once.

I warm up by playing a song or two that I already know, first slowly and then faster. This takes about 10 minutes.

Then I spend the bulk of my practice with a method book. I like method books because they are structured (someone has already done the organizing for me) and progressive (they start easier and get harder). Currently I am working through Ken Perlman's Fingerstyle Guitar, and the second volume in Flatpicking Essentials. I'm thinking about focusing solely on the Fingerstyle Guitar book for while though because it's started to get more challenging and my progress has slowed way down.

I usually spend the last 10 or 15 minutes of a practice sesson working on a song from one of my Pete Huttlinger DVDs. Right now I'm going through "The Songs of Gordon Lightfoot."

I have also been doing a little random practicing (a few minutes here, a few minutes there) doing hammer-ons with my pinky, because my pinky is a bit weak and I'm finding it hard to get enough volume.

[Fatfingerjohn]

Oh the joys of being retired! So I manage about 1 to 1.5 hrs most days.

I can't say that I 'practice' in the formal way. More a mixture of revisiting something I used to struggle to play; work on it a bit more; try a new song or two, preferebly with a different style or intro lick; polish some ones that are firmly in my repertoire but which can always be better. I spend in addition at least 20-30 minutes per day looking at youtube for new lessons, a few favorites, different tunings, and a lot of people whose style or music I likenwhere I have subscribed and to see what they have done new; they often become my next work-in-progress.

So its not really 'practice' but includes a fair amount of learning. Just wished I'd found the time for the 30 years when work, kids etc took over.

[Toby Walker]

I start out warming up my fingers slowly with licks. Some of those are little troublesome passages that I'll work on later and some are just improvised little ditties.

I'll spend the next couple of hours or so maintaining my repertoire. As I have tons of songs this generally can take 4 to 5 sessions so I space it out once a day over the course of the week. If I'm working on a plan for an upcoming tour I'll concentrate more on that group of songs.

After taking a break I'll go back to any troublesome passage that I'm trying to master and literally meditate on every movement, slowly.. playing it perfectly at a slow, even tempo. Eventually I'll bring that tempo up until the passage is mastered. These vary between single line licks and/or parts of fingerstyle arrangements.

At this point I'm going pretty well so I start working on anything new. Right now I'm arranging traditional songs that are in the public domain for fingerstyle guitar (Stephen Foster.. etc... ). I'm also increasing my bluegrass repertoire and technique so that's pretty demanding. Finally, I'm preparing what I'll be doing for the next Homespun Tapes instructional DVD.

This usually takes anywhere from 5 to 7 hours a day.... when I'm home. When I'm on the road it's abbreviated to about 3 hours depending on the time traveling and the shows I'm performing.

This also is in addition to my teaching schedule with is every other week on weeknights. For that I'm also writing out new lessons and/or planning upcoming ones.

I do all of this basically 7 days a week for 90% of the year.

The remaining time is spent hornet grooming, ring-tail raccoon wrangling and making female bank tellers nervous.

[GregB]

Toby, what a coincidence. That sounds a lot like my routine ...

Greg

[Irish Pennant]

I'm not disciplined when it comes to practice other than I play almost everyday. I have about 30 original tunes and most days I'll generally practice six to ten of them, I practice them as a performance. I work on the parts that give me trouble and I work on presentation. I'll work on that song set for a few weeks then switch to another song set of six to ten songs. When I'm not working on the song sets then I'll practice fret board dexterity with scales, improv and noodling. Sometimes I just play and make up stuff and see where it goes or try different tunings, a capo or effects, sometimes it leads into a new original tune or segments that get filed away for future use. Last year I bought a looper pedal and goofed around with it a little then put it away, recently I've been practicing with it and I'm liking it, some of those filed away segments are fitting in well with the looper.

[JerrysGuitarBar]

I had this question from a subscriber today. This isn't the only answer to the question of course, but maybe someone else here can recognise this guy's frustration:

Q
Do you have any suggestions for someone who has got the enthusiasim and time but lacks the motivation to pick up the guitar and keeping to one learning pattern,having a tendency to flit from piece of music/inf to another. Frankly it's very frustrating and dispiriting
desperate

A
Your question set me thinking because I couldn't quite imagine the state of mind that was both enthusiastic and lacking motivation at the same time! But let's assume that you really are motivated to learn some of the guitar music that you love.

I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to you to learn that practice is essential. But just picking up the guitar and playing something isn't practice. That'll be where your frustration is coming from. Instead you have to practice with purpose. Here's what to do:

Pick 3 songs or pieces that you want to learn and that you have the music or video for (in other words you have the info you need to learn it). One of these pieces should be at the level of your current ability. One should be just a little above your current ability. And one should be a long-term goal - a piece that you always wanted to play but was too difficult.

Divide whatever practice time you have each day into 4. Let's say you have an hour. Spend 15 minutes on serious, concentrated practice on each of the 3 pieces. Take care to look for the places where they aren't perfect and go over those many times, slowly, until you have them. Then spend the remaining 15 minutes on fun time. Play things you already know; mess about with other new pieces but without the serious intent (yet) to learn them.

As you perfect any of the 3 pieces in your current schedule, replace it with an equivalent one.

Make sense? Learn to enjoy getting better Happy picking!

Jerry
www.jerrysguitarbar.com

[jwing]

Jerry: Your subscriber was looking for ideas on how to stay focused and your advice was, in other words: "Just stay focused most of the time." Which was essentially no advice at all.

To your subscriber, who is looking for motivation to stay focused, I might say: "Find somebody else to play music with. Being accountable for your portion of a musical arrangement is a powerful motivator to concentrate on certain tunes."

I would probably also suggest that the student learn several pieces that are non-challenging to play, and be able to play them from beginning to end by memory, without mistakes and without rhythm break. Once accomplished, start embellishing these pieces by adding a fill lick or a legato technique, one at a time.

I might also suggest that some people should worry less about focus and getting entire tunes memorized. I'm one of them; my job involves lots of focused concentration. When I get home, I don't feel like focusing on music learning plans. I like to grab a beer and a guitar and let my mind and fingers wander. I've become more satisfied by letting go of my percieved need to be able to play songs and tunes. I think instructors should give their students permission to do the same and some guidance/tools for undisciplined noodling. It's not what everybody wants, but it works for me.

[JerrysGuitarBar]

Hey Jwing
I agree about the kind of free form practice you're talking about at the end of your post. But I think guys below a certain level of experience just don't have the options under their fingers to do that. I think they need more structure to their practice.

Your point about playing with others is a good one. Practice has to be fun. If it isn't you're never going to do it and if playing with others helps to make it fun - go for it. I'll send him a follow up sharing your point.

At the same time I don't think that's the whole answer. You don't get good without at some point acquiring focused practice on your own. If he can learn to enjoy that (and nothing helps you enjoy it like seeing yourself improve), he'll see the lack of motivation begin to disappear.

My 2 cents

[jwing]

Originally Posted by JerrysGuitarBar

Hey Jwing

You don't get good without at some point acquiring focused practice on your own.

Agreed, absolutely.

I'd like to be a very good guitar player, but I don't want to do what it takes to get there. So I've adjusted my desire. I'm happier and much less frustrated since I've resigned myself to be a noodler and occasional bluegrass player.

My instructor understands that about me and teaches accordingly. I recommend that other instructors consider guiding less-focused students into the type of playing that requires less focus but is nonetheless a satisfying endeavor. No sense trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

[jcmccorm]

I agree with everyone

I've had a guitar since I was 16 years old (I'm 48 now) and never progressed beyond strumming the cowboy-chords and knowing the beginning few measures to a half-dozen rock songs. You know the type I enjoyed having access to the guitar though and it was always relaxing to play it here and there at my leisure.

I've learned way more about playing guitar in the last year though than I have in the previous 30. Why? Because I joined a band. Very informal and nothing fancy, but, I refuse to be the guy that holds us back. That's the motivation.

From that, comes focused practice.

Cary