Practice question

General · 6 replies · 1456 views · 4 followers

guitarplayer33_1999

almost 8 years ago

With so much to practice sometimes I wonder if I'm going about it wrong. Usually I'll practice each topic for an hour then move on to something else, sometimes i think I should stick to one topic and hammer for 2 or 3 hours so i can to really ingrain?
thoughts
Thanks
ken

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Robert

almost 8 years ago

At the moment I'm feeling like the more I learn, the more there is to learn. I'd love to hear from Barry and others about strategies for practice (for novice to intermediate players). What should a daily 2 hour practice look like?

Barry Greene Mod

almost 8 years ago

As long as you take some generous breaks to clear your mind, I think that kind of time is fine. I've had success doing it the way you've described and also doing each topic for 15 minutes and then moving on. The important thing is to not lose sight of your practice goal and end up not getting what you need at of all of that time. Also, a topic can be just listening to some music, playing along with memorized solos, practicing tunes in different keys and so on. Not all of your practice needs to be intensive, you will burn out. The ingrain process really happens when you play with other musicians, don't skip on that one!

guitarplayer33_1999

almost 8 years ago

What I've come to realize after starting this jazz journey 7 years ago is that even 2 hours a day is nothing when it comes to jazz. I've been out of work due to job relocation so I've been doing 3 to 4 hours. But I believe to get really good you probably need 6 or more hours a day. There are so many areas to focus on.

Robert

almost 8 years ago

I get that 2 hours/day isn't enough time, but with a day job, some days it's all I have. I can usually get 6 hours in on a weekend day -- 6 am to noon on Sat/Sun. I generally run through the scales/arps related to whatever tune I'm working on in the morning for about 30 minutes. Then off to work. Then a couple hours in the evening improvising and working on other skills.

Barry Greene Mod

almost 8 years ago

Yes, but don't leave out playing with people, that's when you discover what you really need to work on. I have a friend who says if you practice for three hours, play for three hours. Many people skip this step and then get wiped out on a gig.

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Robert

almost 8 years ago

I"m years away from a gig ;-) But that's okay!

guitarplayer33_1999

almost 8 years ago

I agree, I was in a jazz band for several years with a singer, we did mostly standards but made me a much better musician

Kurt in Austin

almost 8 years ago

What are your goals? I don't have any illusions about my place in the history of music. I play for personal enjoyment. An hour noodling in front of the TV is therapeutic. I may get to the point where I'm confident enough to play out with a small combo, or duet setting, or maybe not.

Everyone learns differently. The key is to not burn out. I would suggest to always try to apply what you learn to tunes. Running up and down scales and arps is good just enough to get the muscle memory down. If you are really serious, you need to identify how long you're going to practice, and then break that time up into the different areas. Scales, Arps, Chords, Improv, Sight Reading, Transcription, Performance ... etc. Most will say that one hour of targeted practice time is better than two hours of noodling around different things. It's also better to know fewer tunes really well, then to know many not so well.

For tunes, learn a basic standard, a bossa nova, a blues, a tune with rhythm changes and a ballad. That's a set right there and those forms are stepping stones for the majority of vocabulary you will need to build your repertoire.

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guitarplayer33_1999

almost 8 years ago

I wanted to be great at Jazz and didn't start getting serious til I was 51, I never realized that it was going to be so difficult to really be fluent in the Jazz language . I grew up playing Southern rock and blues and thought this would be no different to learn....I was wrong!!!

Kurt in Austin

almost 8 years ago

It's kind of funny because I've actually heard some accomplished Jazz guys in a rock/blues setting who really didn't have good feel. I thought if you could master jazz, you can play anything. Not true. Every style has a language and feel. If I had to do it all over again (and I'm approaching 50), I would have focused more on a single style (jazz). I can play many different styles of music, but really don't have a feeling that I've mastered any of them. At least from an improvisational approach. As far as technique and learning to play a tune, I can do that in most styles, but that's not really rewarding to me anymore. It's kind of like painting by numbers.

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Robert

almost 8 years ago

I have good friend who is an actively gigging jazz bassist. We jam a little and work on tunes. He's way beyond me in jazz but he can't really play rock or blues. I think he has a problem with the idea of a back-beat and pulsing rhythm. He also doesn't have the attention span or desire to play steady rock/blues bass patterns -- an underrated skill, in my opinion.

I can pretty much learn any rock tune at this point and I can play traditional electric and finger-style and Delta blues very competently. But, like you Kurt, that's become paint-by-numbers. What feels awesome is expressing ideas/feelings/moods on the guitar. That's what I enjoy doing and that's what I want to get better at.