Practising

[Jeff Reinhart]

Hi all,
I need some advice on practising. I play almost exclusively fingerstyle. I did have an instructor for a while that was classically trained at MacMaster University in Hamilton Ont but have recently been using You Tube and shelf teaching.I consider myself a novice.

I find that I know parts of many songs but very through all the way through. Questions,
1. Do you practise 1 song at a time until you get it or have multiple on the go?
2. Do you only practise songs or drills as well?
3. Do you have a routine for practise simply play for enjoyment.
4. any other advise would be appreciated.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Jeff Reinhart

Hi all,
I need some advice on practising. I play almost exclusively fingerstyle. I did have an instructor for a while that was classically trained at MacMaster University in Hamilton Ont but have recently been using You Tube and shelf teaching.I consider myself a novice.

I find that I know parts of many songs but very through all the way through. Questions,
1. Do you practise 1 song at a time until you get it or have multiple on the go?
2. Do you only practise songs or drills as well?
3. Do you have a routine for practise simply play for enjoyment.
4. any other advise would be appreciated.

1. On a new tune I usually work on just it (woodshed) until I have memorized it and can play it at a decent tempo.
2. Songs 98%.
3. For enjoyment, at least between recording something.
4. Learn each tune well, not a lot of half baked, half completed tunes.

[HHP]

First step for me is to have the tune in my head. As I begin to work on it for an instrument, my first efforts are to memorize it. Once memorized, I play it all the way through as I would performing it, if I make mistakes, I keep playing till the end. I go back to the areas that were rough and work those measures on their own. Whenever I start the tune at the beginning, I play it to the end. If the tune calls for techniques I am unfamiliar or weak on, I work this separately.

When I play the tune subsequently, I play it through at performance speed and volume. At this point, I might start the process of developing variations or embellishments but that is more of an on-going process.

[Steel and wood]

Practicing was never a chore for me.

Just about all of my early practice work involved learning to play the guitar itself (I used songs and other things more as a vehicle to be able to play guitar if that makes sense) so repetition and muscle memory, technique, understanding the fret-board, ear training, theory, etc. to me was more important than learning a song.

Good luck!

[vindibona1]

Sadly, I do not have a routine for practicing. But to answer your questions (in no particular order)....

I can have one or a few songs on my stand at any time. I usually learn one part at at time and sometimes end up not learning the entire thing, but have a basis to come back to. I do practice exercises, but usually with one purpose at a time. One can work on left hand movement, familiarization of the fingerboard in different positions with major, minor, diminished or pentatonic scales.

Most recently I've been working on cleanliness. I'm trying to make every note sound the same as the note before it and after it. I want a clean attack on every note, so I'm working on changing how I move my left hand and how I'm attacking with my right, again really focusing on clarity and uniformity. I'm finding that my speed is improving significantly as a result as well.

I'm not the type to be discliplined enough to schedule 15 minutes for exercises, 15 minutes for learning new stuff, then 15 minutes for refining old stuff. My practice is more random than that, but I'm trying to get back to having more intention in every practice session.

Hope that helps.

[sutherland]

If you are teaching yourself and not bound to theory, it's good for your 'practice' to have a purpose where you can easily see your progress. Songs are a fantastic way of showing improvement as you can always compare your progress to a recording.

My practice typically consists (in order):
- warm ups (alternate picking my way up the neck and strumming of some familiar chord patterns )
- work through a few songs to focus on (in varying difficulty)

I break up my songs into segments. I don't progress to the next segment' until I am satisfied and can consistently play the current segment.

The 'varying difficulty' is important as some sessions I just want to cruise through something enjoyable and not get frustrated by the complexity of some of the other pieces I am learning.

[j3ffr0]

Originally Posted by Jeff Reinhart

Hi all,
I need some advice on practising. I play almost exclusively fingerstyle. I did have an instructor for a while that was classically trained at MacMaster University in Hamilton Ont but have recently been using You Tube and shelf teaching.I consider myself a novice.

I find that I know parts of many songs but very through all the way through. Questions,
1. Do you practise 1 song at a time until you get it or have multiple on the go?
2. Do you only practise songs or drills as well?
3. Do you have a routine for practise simply play for enjoyment.
4. any other advise would be appreciated.

1. Multiple.... always. Some I'm just beginning to learn, some big pieces I have memorized and am polishing and everything in between.
2. These days the trouble spots in the songs usually inform the drills.
3. Routine is a sure fire way to find a rut... at least for me. Glad I outgrew that little comfort.
4. Keep a spreadsheet with an honest inventory of songs you play and how well you play them. You might find that it helps you get a few more songs across the finish line.

[Riverwolf]

Originally Posted by Jeff Reinhart

Questions,
1. Do you practise 1 song at a time until you get it or have multiple on the go?
2. Do you only practise songs or drills as well?
3. Do you have a routine for practise simply play for enjoyment.
4. any other advise would be appreciated.

1- A hot debate here, myself, I keep a chart on my computer with 25 songs that I want to learn to play or that I don't want to forget.
2- 99% songs of different skill levels and different chords, runs, notes, etc...
I will add a difficult or new for me chord change or run but only if it is needed for a song.
3- I am borderline OCD, so yes, I have some rather strict structured charts to be signed off daily. But also sometimes just pick up a guitar and play old 3-4 chord songs for simple enjoyment.
4- Try a search here on the forum, this comes up often.

[TBman]

I have a 2 groups of songs that I will work on together more or less as "sets" even though I just play at home. I will work the songs hard until I get them good enough for a recording most of the time, other times I will just play them for fun. Sometimes I'll get tired of working on the same things so I'll switch it up and play a few things from a different genre from what I usually do. For sections of tunes that give me a hard time I will put it into GuitarPro, set repeat bars for 30 reps and then do 3 or more "sets."

99.9% of the time though I just practice songs, with no scales.

Sometimes I wish I could sing (without harming innocent bystanders) so I could relax, sing and strum. Take some of the pressure off and just kick back and enjoy it. So I sort of did that today by going through an old book of finger style stuff that I haven't looked at in years.

[s2y]

My job is rough. Makes even the toughest practice feel that much more rewarding.