How much do you Practice?

[Inventor]

How much do you or did you practice to get where you are in guitar or banjo skill?

I ask because I'm having a tough time as a beginner llearning guitar. Right now my guitar is primarily a signal source for my experiments as I irarely practice. This is because practice is boring. Sometimes I get on a guitar urge and practice a lot, but then there are dry spells in between.

Now, to me this is OK. Now that I've actually *got* ag guitar and amp I will have them forevermore and I can return to them over the years and slowly gain skill. It's just that when I practice I make such slow progress at this stage.

I think what I need is a song, something fun to play, then I could play that song over and over again. I bought online video lessons for Johnny B. Goode and Purple Haze, but they are way too difficult to learn for me. What I maybe need is a song with slow chord changes of just a few chords.

What do you recommend?

[BobTheDog]

Well the best idea is to make practice fun rather than boring.

When I first started I also found practice very boring until I found other people to practice with then it all got a bit more fun.

First I must say that I am not educated in any way about music or how to teach the guitar but why don't you learn a few chords well and just put them together in different orders until you can move from one chord to another on time and easily. Play against a drum track or metronome to get the timing right. How about Am, C, G and Dm for starters you can do quite a bit with just these basic chords.

Also I think learning any instrument takes time, there are no quick results.

Concerning how much I practice, I play the guitar for 1-2 hours a day But it's not really practice, just doodling.

Cheers

Andy

[Inventor]

OK Andy, I will do that. I know E, A, and D chords so I can learn the others you suggest and just make up my own practice songs. That sounds like a good start.

I was also thinking of making up a slide practice. Chuck Berry and Jimmi Hendrix used a lot of slides and in learning their songs I had trouble sliding to a specific fret. So in slide practice you just do random slides, trying to hit a particular fret but not caring if you miss. Then I can work on sliding followed by a few nearby notes with adjacent fingers, etc. Maybe that's a good one too.

[Antimon]

I play guitar while watching TV. I have a comfy chair that leans back and is perfect for random plucking. Sometimes if I watch a movie I make my own mindless soundtrack, acting out emotions on the strings when the plot gets tense. When watching sport I usually turn off the volume so I won't have to listen to the mindless commentators, and play guitar instead.

This probably works best when watching TV alone - a relationship and/or guitar could easily get broken otherwise.

/Stefan

[DrJustice]

I think the kind of structured doodling suggested is a good idea. My own situation is that I'm (re)learning an instrument again for the first time in 30 years. When I was younger, practise was boring but skills came quickly. Now practise is OK, but the skills come slowly... it ain't fair! However, the doodling fun makes up for it.

My plan is to have at least a one hour sitting every day. I'm awaiting a DVD based guitar course in the post - I don't know what to expect of it, but I hope it will help to keep me focus on practising, as opposed to just doodling.

DJ
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[Oskar]

When I was younger I practised a lot, both structured and noodling. The structured bit was a combination of learning melodies, riffs, chords and whatnot and specific techniques, picking, fingering, dexterity, vibrato etc.

Nowadays I mostly get my practice through gigging, but I have 4 guitar students, and that keeps me on my toes! Also, I got a bouzouki, which I tune in fifths, as opposed to the guitar, which is usually tuned in fourths (albeit with one third interval between the g-string and the b-string). I also play around with various tunings, but not so much for technique and suchlike anymore, I tend to listen for how chords sound, how different voicings sound, how my picking influences the textural information in a chord or a chord sequence; I also work a bit on my timing and fiddle around with my amplified sound - which is an oxymoron, as I play mostly acoustic gigs, but I rely on my PA system, so I make small adjustments to the various components in the signal chain.

Also, I work on specific songs, and since I'm a troubadour, my guitar and my voice are of equal importance.

Sometimes I practice without an instrument to hand, when I'm out driving or walking, trying to imagine how certain things I imagine myself playing will sound in actual fact.

[GovernorSilver]

I'm currently playing half of Bach Cello Suite #1 Prelude on guitar on a daily basis. I'm learning the piece at roughly the same rate that I learned in on viola - slowly adding a couple of measures a week.

I also pick one jazz tune to work on, each practice session. I work on a walking bass line, the chords, and the melody line. I then take a crack at soloing. I'm still a ways from soloing in real time, but making progress with my time-slice training idea.

[BobTheDog]

Are you using standard tuning on the Bach Prelude?

[Wout Blommers]

I do it a bit like Oskar...

When I have to learn a certain bass line (I am in most musical groeps the Bass player) and let's say I have to do it on a double bass bowing, I also try the same thing plucking and even slapping, do it on the bass guitar, then I try it on my single string 'tea-box-bass', on a bambu bass flute, on the piano and last but not least on a synthesizer. Because it has all different problems it will keep the mind open.

Wout

[GovernorSilver]

[BobTheDog]

I looked around for tab ( i don't read standard notation ) and couldn't find any in standard tuning that didn't require at least a five fret span, something I don't find fun.

I have one here with weird tuning that is easy to play.

See what you think.

Andy

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[BobTheDog]

Also as a good practise aid I use Guitar Pro http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/forums.html which is a tab editor/player. You can get many tabs of the net that it supports.

I think it is very good and pretty cheap at €59, there is a demo to try out.

Thats what the tab I posted was printed with.

Andy

[blue hell]

[DrJustice]

I got my DVD guitar course today. After the first session and browsing through the accompanying book I realize two things:
1 - it is clear that having a tutor, even one on DVD, is going to make a difference to the pace and solidity of the learning. Obviously the best thing is that there is a proven structured program to follow, but the best help I'd had so far is looking at the teacher playing; that makes me try to keep good form - I needed that.
2 - I have a lot to learn and need a lot of practise. It says on the box that one should count on spending a year going through the course. Only time will tell

DJ
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[GovernorSilver]

[Inventor]

[GovernorSilver]

Inventor, I appreciate the compliment, but as my favorite music professor once told me, "reading standard notation is like reading the English language". You'll get better at it the more you read it, especially if you sight-sing it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pushing it on those of you who'd rather stick to tablature. I work on my standard notation skills for the fingering reasons that I previously posted, and also because I play other instruments. It's easier to implement musical ideas from Bach pieces and other source on multiple instruments if I can "hear" the music that I see on the sheet - because then I can play it by ear on any of my instruments.

I still have a long way to go, btw - I was greatly humbled by how fast other musicians sight-read Copland, Bernstein, etc. when I played viola with community orchestra. In case you're interested in developing this skill ( I got my first serious start with sight-singing (and thus being able to hear what's on the sheet) here:

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Sight-Singing-Ear-Training/dp/088133720X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224535216&sr=1-2

There might be a book or two, more recently published, that might be better. Our music prof used the above book.

Another idea, since it's getting close to that season, is to pick up a book of Christmas carols and practice sight singing the melodies out of them, then playing them on guitar (by ear, if you like).

[Oskar]

Although I don't follow anything near as disciplined regime as GovernorSilver, I would gladly advice any student of mine to follow his path - my mistake, (and I'l readily admit it's still rectifiable) was not learning to sight-read at an early age. What I have done, though, is working on my harmonic knowledge and my ear, so that I am able to a certain extent to hear a melody, then play it or sing it. Also, I sometimes used to have fun using my voice as an auxiliary melodic intrument, playing harmony parts to the melody lines I was playing on my guitar. As I've mostly stopped playing electric lead guitar I don't do that much anymore, but I still have fun whenever I try it.

Anyway, sight-reading skills, ear traing, sight-singing skills and so on are all terrific additions to any musician's arsenal, as is trying to master everal instruments, even if you don't come close to the skills you have on your main instrument - in my case, the geetar!

[Antimon]

Just spent an hour in front of my "piano", I'm up to the chord progressions part of this brilliant set of online lessons:

http://www.free-online-piano-lessons.com/index.html

I've heard several times people talk about the piano as "the most difficult instrument". This is complete bullshit. The truth is that probably some of the most difficult music has been written for the piano, because it is the easiest and most powerful solo instrument around.

I lived with the depressing thought that I probably wouldn't be able to learn any piano stuff, since if you didn't start with it as a kid the chance is gone (granted I did take some electric organ classes in my teens). A gorgeous little 8-page sheet called "Twelve variations on Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman" (actually "Twinkle twinkle little star") by W.A. Mozart convinced me otherwise. Even though it's difficult at first, this stuff is actually possible to learn how to play. To boot you get those immensely satisfying moments where suddenly you see your fingers dance around and this wonderful music comes out of the speakers.

Practice definitely makes perfect, but it's got to be fun!

/Stefan

[Inventor]

Cool man, I know you guys from the posts on electro-music.com, but I didn't know about each of your individual talents and stuff. Rock on!

I'm wondering if my instrument might be the drums. I tried guitar and I like it but I haven't taken to it like i would a natural thing. Yet when I make electronic drums in ChucK and make a drum program on my keyboard, I can tap out a cool drum beat or sequence, or so it feels. I dunno, maybe it's my thick skull or lack of dedication that drives me to drums, but it's only been a realization in the past day or two. Perhaps this too will change. Time will tell as we say...

[Oskar]

[BobTheDog]

Also Inventer the guitar is not an easy instrument to learn but it is well worth it.

When I started I also did not take to it but I persevered and now it feels like part of me, the joy I get out of the guitar now seems far greater than the pain it cost me in the beginning.

One of my friends sons has been learning for a couple of years now and he still gets a little annoyed that he cannot play the things I can, I keep telling him that I have been playing for over 25 years and that practise is everything. Even though he still feels this way he has never given up and is getting better now, give him 5 years and he may be better than me!

Andy

[BobTheDog]

Stefan - That link looks good, I have always meant to learn to play the piano.

Inventor - Lets make a deal, you keep up with the guitar and I will try to learn the piano.

Andy

[DrJustice]

[Inventor]