Practice methods question (teachers jump in!)
Rbsoul
Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. It was an intensive period of masterclasses,
workshops and ensemble work. As an amateur I was somewhat intimidated (even tho
I’ve played guitar 30+ years) but managed to meet what was required of me to
make my ensembles work. The range of students in age ran from 15 to over 60
although the younger group was the majority (15 - 21 high school and college
students). The range of ability was pretty high (an audition tape was
required). I’ve been a student of music but never applied myself to
practising in the proper manner to make the musical strides I need to master
the instrument. And I realize this now more than ever. During the master guitar
classes (with Andy Green and Rick Stone, both of NYC) we talked a little about
practice schedules and I was wondering what other people here on the group use
as their daily template, to help me figure out a discipline for myself. It was
suggested in class that a schedule be drawn up with the days of the week in a
column at the left. And then at the top of the page create headings over the
following columns. The headings could be:
Reading, Scales, Reportoir, Chord voicings, Arpegios, Theory and so on. As you
work through each topic, you update the schedule weekly and keep notes on what
you’ve covered. The list could become quite long (especially in my case!). So
the question is how to decide what is most important on the list and how break
down the amount of time needed to spend on each topic for daily practice. A
practice session could become a marathon experience. Lets say you limit it to
only 6 topics and spend 10 minutes on each, there is your hour. Most amateurs
will find it difficult to give more than one hour a day to the instrument,
especially if you have a day job and a family with kids. So how do you make the
best use of your practice time? And what have you (collective) found to be the
best thing to focus on in your practice.
Thanks,
Ken Willinger
Joe Finn
news:20020720120759...@mb-ch.aol.com...
Ken: The compartmentalizing of the practice routine is a good idea. It's
also good to prioritize things. My personal bias is to spend more time on
the repertoire and improvisation. This is a performance based bias. These
two areas will naturally include other things like reading, voicings and
certain theoretical topics. So even if you have only an hour a day to devote
to music my advice is to work on the actual music itself: learn the
melodies, harmonies and accompaniment patterns to a collection of tunes and
get comfortable with taking several improvised choruses over the
progressions. Many students find it is more rewarding to work on actual
music than some of the more abstract scalar and theoretical topics.
Did you get to play with Greg Caputo and Genevieve Rose at Amherst?
......joe
--
Visit me on the web. www.JoeFinn.net
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Bob Russell
rbs...@aol.com wrote on 7/20/02 12:07 PM:
> Most amateurs
> will find it difficult to give more than one hour a day to the instrument,
> especially if you have a day job and a family with kids. So how do you make
> the
> best use of your practice time? And what have you (collective) found to be the
> best thing to focus on in your practice.
If you've only got an hour a day, I'd say that learning new tunes would be
the best thing to focus on. Pick one tune a week, maybe. Spend your first
couple of sessions getting familiar with the melody and changes; then spend
the rest of the time "zeroing in" on it: improv, harmonization, etc. Any
technical problems you encounter during this process become exercises to
work out; budget some time for this. This approach might not give you
"bullet-proof" technique, but as an amateur, your priorities (IMO) should be
directed towards enjoying the music and keeping things interesting.
-- Bob Russell
http://www.bobrussellguitar.com
ben
the years, and it sounds to me like youve got the right idea. The problem i
come across is that the list is endless, and changes from day to day so i
try to keep the 'headers' fairly loose..ie 'improvisition' or 'technique'
rather than 'enclosures around the third' and 'economy picking' this alows
me to work on excersizes etc that are relevant at the time. My 'headers at
th moment are Reading, Improvisation, Technique, Repatoire, Transcribing and
chord/scale/arp knowledge. under each of these i have a little sub heading ,
so under reading ill have '16th notes' and 'keys of ....' etc, under
technique ive got picking, sweeping, lagato and so on. I spend as long as i
can on each of these sub headings, usualy half an hour or so.BTW i NEVER
spen more than half an hour practising without standing up/making a coffe
etc etc for two reasons, one is that my mind is always fresh (i believe that
is very hard for the brain to concentrate fully for more than 40 mins) and
it also stops me suffereing from RSI (Which i did in the past due to long
periods of sitting in a bad position wiggling my fingers!). This can lead to
a fairly marathon practise session ... i try to do 4+ hours a day, however
if you want to do less my advice is to just cut the time you spend on each
sub heading.
i hope this is all of some help
ben
"Rbsoul" <rbs...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020720120759...@mb-ch.aol.com...
jimb...@cox.net
I did; i.e. I've collected just about every jazz guitar book that has
been published since 1970; also fell into the jazz guitar collecting
thing; now am trying to learn tunes basically with the time that I have
which is at the most an hour a day or so; I try to incorporate some of the
licks, etc. that are in the zillions of books that are out there but
basically it has come down to learning tunes along with Mark Stefani's
amazing stuff. Jim in San Diego P.S. Sometimes I think that it was a hell
of a lot easier when there was basically just those seven Mel Bay books
which it seemed every guitar teacher used during the 1960's!; now with
computers, CD tutorials, etc, the possibilities are absolutely endless
Rbsoul
They are one hell of a rhythm section. I got to sit in with Greg who is a great
drummer with some really sweet ideas. Unfortunately for the instrumentalists in
the Jazz in July program, we are relegated to playing most of the time with the
other members of our respective ensembles. Greg and Genevieve get to play the 2
weeks with the vocalists enrolled in the program. A great deal for the
vocalists as they work with Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton as coaches and
professional rhythm sections. However everyone is involved in the workshops
which were really great including people like George Cables, Chip Jackson,
Charles Ellison, Winard Harper, Jeff Holmes, Joanne Brakeen, Andy Jaffe, Ralph
Whittle, Dave Shapiro and Mark Holovnia. Andy Green taught guitar the first
week and Rick Stone the second. All these folks were very approachable and
happy to talk and help with any issues. Some fabulous music was made during the
workshops and faculty concerts.
Ken Willinger
Jurupari
>Whittle,
Used to jam with Ralph on Sundays at Theodore's in Springfield now and then.
Gentleman, scholar and fine tickler of ivories. Hope he's well. I always
liked the way he played.
Ralph's also a perfect example of a jam session host who was always supportive
and and never tried to cut people. He's really fun to play with - to me he has
a good sense of interplay with guitar, and understands us and our instrument
pretty well.
Clif Kuplen
Tony Beltran
Bob's advice is really good. David Sudnow, in his
paino course, admonishes people to "learn everything
within the context of songs". When we have limited
time, I think that focusing on playing songs is
good. Then, we pick and choose what we will work
on to enhance playing songs. Otherwise we end up
with a lot of excercises, but not the ability to
really play anything. It can be really difficult
to stay motivated when that happens.
Tony B
Scott McLoughlin
--
Scott McLoughlin, Chairman
The Adrenaline Group, Inc.
Nazodesu
<jimb...@cox.net> wrote:
> Just curious how many other people on this list fell into the same trap that
> I did; i.e. I've collected just about every jazz guitar book that has
> been published since 1970; also fell into the jazz guitar collecting
> thing; now am trying to learn tunes basically with the time that I have
> which is at the most an hour a day or so; I try to incorporate some of the
> licks, etc. that are in the zillions of books that are out there but
> basically it has come down to learning tunes along with Mark Stefani's
> amazing stuff.
That's a heck of a sentence. I'm not sure what the "trap" is above, in
any of the clauses. I too have bought a crate of books over the years,
not just guitar but other instruments as well as theory and
composition, etc. I find them excellent. If I'm not playing music, I
might as well be reading/thinking about it. I never got into
collecting guitars, fortunately. That can get expensive.
I guess you mean you've misspent time that might have better been used
learning tunes? Yeah, me too. But I'm not sure it was the
book-larning that got in the way.
> Jim in San Diego
>
> P.S. Sometimes I think that it was a hell
> of a lot easier when there was basically just those seven Mel Bay books
> which it seemed every guitar teacher used during the 1960's!; now with
> computers, CD tutorials, etc, the possibilities are absolutely endless
Lack of information or coarser varieties of same just made me spend
more time scratching my head and inventing pet theories that imploded
with in a few months or years.
Thom_j.
on in an instant when I read. Even after hours on end of playing
I feel stumped! Then it will appear in something I read and it all
fits! "reading is *truely* fundamental" :) thom_j.
Nazodesu
Thom_j. <thom_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "Nazodesu" wrote:
> > If I'm not playing music, I might as well be reading/thinking about it.
>
> Naz, I'm a heavy reader and I find many times that my light goes
> on in an instant when I read. Even after hours on end of playing
> I feel stumped! Then it will appear in something I read and it all
> fits! "reading is *truely* fundamental"
That's a familiar story. Some people carp about others reading too
many books, or they say "it's the same stuff that's in XXX's book, and
his is better" or something like that.
The difference is you just didn't pick up on it when teacher X gave it
to you but when teacher Y says it is makes perfect sense. I've gone
back and read/played through old books and found stuff I encountered
before only now I GET it!
At the worst these books keep you trained on the topic. Not all of us
have the coordination to actually play while seated on the toilet, but
most can read through a few pages of Leavitt.
Max Leggett
remember getting a free copy of "Secrets of Rock Guitar" from some
German heavy metal shredder.
Most of the book was how to _really_ ace the minor pentatonic [woo
hoo!] but he had some good ideas for warming up and developing finger
dexterity, plus it was a sight reading exercise.
I'd never recommend the book, unless you, too, got it for free, but it
wasn't a waste of time by any means. No knowledge is.
On Sun, 21 Jul 2002 05:54:04 GMT, Nazodesu <mus...@adelphia.net>
wrote:
Joe Finn
It's a great group the have there on the faculty. I've played with or at
least met most of them and they are first class people. ........joe
Thom_j.
"Nazodesu" <mus...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:210720020834219770%mus...@adelphia.net...
eXaCtLy :) ole thom_j.