Bump for this thread!!! It seems more and more difficult to find the time to properly practice every single day! And, you know if it's important to you, because you begin to feel guilty about it. I know that having 2 rehearsals a week with the odd gig thrown in keeps the chops somewhat limber, but nowhere near what they could be with daily practice. At the end of the Insect's European tour this past Summer, I remember thinking how strong my hands were and that I wanted to keep it that way at all costs! Oh well, life gets in the way. Having said all this, and while on my crazy Iron Maiden binge right now, my new plan is to play "Phantom Of The Opera" at least once every single day. We'll see how many days in a row I make it and if it makes any difference. Now, go practice!!!

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Insect Surfers
The Tikiyaki Orchestra
The Scimitars
Lords Of Atlantis
Fiberglass Jungle - Surf Radio

May I suggest an easy alternative to days you don't want to practice (many for me)? Critical listening. We can all learn much from comparing songs between different writers, or the same writer in different time periods. Or songs that work for you vs songs that don't. You'll gain valuable insight into your own personal musical vision.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

I wonder if the pros here follow any sort of practice routine. As an amateur hack, I've been fairly haphazard, but I have begun to try to impose a little structure. As often as time permits, I try to do 15-20 minutes working on something technical (for instance, a scale or a new lick), then I run through my repertoire, playing along to backing tracks or recordings, then I work on learning a new song (or, if I've got one cooking, a composition). That would be about a two-hour session.

My problem, especially as someone trying to improve, is when my available time gets shorter I tend ditch precisely the things I should be working on! So, first to go is usually the technical stuff, then the work on new songs. Consequently, a lot of my "practice" sessions boil down to a simple run through of songs I already know. Not entirely useless, but not exactly helping me improve.

Anyway, it would be helpful and interesting for me to get some insights on how accomplished players go about things.

When I wake up each morning, I practice for at least an hour. That usually extends to four hours throught the day. I practice in a very systematic way;
First I run through major, minor, diminished, and dominant 7th arpeggios. Then I move on to scales and phrases for a bit. I'll then run through some chord progressions, which I'll record and then improvise over for a while. Then I move on to whatever songs I'm working on at the moment. Reading some of the replies, I know this must seem excessive, but I don't think it's enough! Mastery of any given instrument requires an obscene amount of practice. The amount of practice is directly related to the level of mastery one achieves. There is no such thing as over practice. When you practice, the first 20 mins or so will only get you to the point you left off at the last practice session. You have to push past this point for any gain to occur.

Conssider this: If you practice for an hour a day, in a year you will have accumulated 365 hours of practice. At four hours a day, you will have practiced for 1,460 hours! At that rate you WILL master the instrument in short order. Of course you have to avoid staying in your comfort zone and always push a little further each day. A good method is to use a metronome and increase the tempo one click each day to where it's hardly noticeable, before you know it...

Practice SLOWLY. I impose the three time rule on myself, that is I'll play each thing three times through perfectly before I move on. If I make a mistake I start over. The point of this is so that you don't practice mistakes. Only play as fast as you're able to play mistake free. Don't worry about speed, it will come by itself before you know it. Use a metronome; you'll develop good tempo and increase accuracy. Always strive for eveness and accuracy.
My ultimate goal is to be able to play and improvise anything in any key with as much ease as I can formulate a sentence with when I speak. That's what music is after all, a language. You just have to master the grammar and vocabulary. Now excuse me, I must go practice.

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I'm sort of piggybacking on psychonaut's thoughts.

Practice itme is important, but so is the quality of the practice. As an extreme example, if I played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star 4 hours a day for years, I would master playing that song. But I wouldn't master the instrument.

And when I'm practicing playing a sing, if I make a mistake, I do not stop and start over. I play to the end, then start over. I've found that it's important to be able to play through the bad notes. (If I'm doing some sort of technical practice, I might stop in the middle of a rouh spot, but I'm not practicing the song at that point).

I think part of mastery, and nearly all of talent could be better described as interest. Or obsession. The guys most interested are going to put in the most quality time. The guys with talent focussed their time better than those without.

i would love to have the same dicipline !but not enought time in a day !
the more is 1 hour by day (there are days where i haven't the time )
but i try to be more applicated on week end (more than ten hours )
but week end are too short too

psychonaut wrote:

When I wake up each morning, I practice for at least an hour. That usually extends to four hours throught the day.

I share the admiration for your full post, Victor - this is great on so many levels, and particularly the truth - for most people this is the kind of commitment necessary to be a musician. A desire held by many, achieved by a comparative few - getting there is no small commitment. At that level, it really is a lifestyle, not a hobby.

psychonaut wrote:

I practice in a very systematic way; First I run through major, minor, diminished, and dominant 7th arpeggios.

I also wanted to comment on this part specifically. The arpeggio approach through scales/chord shapes has proven to be a really big benefit to me in ear training (among other things). It has helped my hearing of intervals and in turn picking stuff off records - particularly chords. Not to say I'm that all that great at it yet, but starting to spend time on these variants specifically (major, minor, diminished, dominant 7th) without a doubt has made a direct and significant improvement on my "ear".

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

Spent three hours behind the drums today. Working on using my double kick in a way that feels natural and sounds tasteful. Picked up a couple cymbals and a real nice Gibraltar kick and this kit sounds fantastic. I still need a little work before I'm ready to start playing out again.

IMO.

LordWellfleet wrote:

I wonder if the pros here follow any sort of practice routine. As an amateur hack, I've been fairly haphazard, but I have begun to try to impose a little structure. As often as time permits, I try to do 15-20 minutes working on something technical (for instance, a scale or a new lick), then I run through my repertoire, playing along to backing tracks or recordings, then I work on learning a new song (or, if I've got one cooking, a composition). That would be about a two-hour session.

My problem, especially as someone trying to improve, is when my available time gets shorter I tend ditch precisely the things I should be working on! So, first to go is usually the technical stuff, then the work on new songs. Consequently, a lot of my "practice" sessions boil down to a simple run through of songs I already know. Not entirely useless, but not exactly helping me improve.

Anyway, it would be helpful and interesting for me to get some insights on how accomplished players go about things.

Well, one thing I do is consider what I'm doing playing, not practicing. That may not seem like much, but to me it makes a difference. Another thing I do is to learn to play tunes. I spent most of the 60s, 70s and 80s learning how to go 'dwiddley-dwiddley-dwiddley over what ever chord progression presented itself. Now I like learning a tune and then figuring out another way to do it. For example, most of us play 'Perfidia' out of the open position, like the Venture's version. Try finding the same notes in a different place on the neck and play the melody there. Doing that really gets you to know the neck one hell of a lot better. At this time of year I play a lot of Xmas carols. I try to learn a new one every holiday season. First I'll learn the basic melody and chords and then find different ways (and places on the neck) to play it.
Nothing wrong with learning scales, modes, chords etc. But don't forget that the end result of what we are doing is to play music. After almost 50 years of being a musician I'm still amazed at the beauty and complexity of what is simply organized sound.
Don't forget what Bach said: 'Playing music is easy; it is simply a matter of playing the correct note at the correct time.' Yeah, right - thanks, Johnny-boy.

Last edited: Dec 10, 2013 11:18:48

I have been recording a lot lately both originals and covers with a drummer friend of mine. We upload files to the Sky drive (which is awesome by the way- no more sneakernet thumb drives or FTP sites).

It really makes you work on precision and technique and timing when you know you are about to upload a track that others will rely on to record over. It is nerve wracking but really good practice.

I also pick one of my favorite lead riffs surf or not and emulate the playing style of the artist. This gets me to branch out a bit on technique and doesn't get stale.