Deciding What To Practice Options

[Larry F]

My practice routine has almost always been based on my playing in gigs and rehearsals. In theory, if there is something that I try to play, but flub or tighten up, I work that into my practice routine. At the next rehearsal or gig, if I play it well, then I move onto something else. If I still flub or tighten up, I go back to the woodshed with it.

Now, I qualified the paragraph above by say "in theory." In reality, the situation that I described does not actually come up very much. Instead, something much, much worse happens: I don't even try to play something. When there is something that I imagine or pre-hear onstage that I don't even try to do, then it's to the woodshed.

Oh, no. Even the paragraph above is not exactly what happens. The real scoop on this, is not that I try something and flub it, or I imagine playing something, but don't even attempt it, but that I don't even imagine it or pre-hear it in the first place. Here is what really happens, and I bet most of you, the readers, experience this, too. Instead of starting the practice routine by first analyzing what I play onstage, I will start lying in bed at night. Lying there, my mind will drift and I will imagine myself playing something that sounds a certain way. Alternatively, I will listen to music and hear some things that I would like to do in a solo. So, I devise a practice routine to address that. After a period of time, I'll be on the bandstand and suddenly, I will start playing in a new way. I will imagine or pre-hear things I have never even considered before. It is as if I am a different person. Just by having some moves under my fingers, I will start having ideas that I had never even considered before.

This seems somewhat backwards, and maybe to many readers here, an inadvisable way to practice. But this is what happens.

Anyone experience this?

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Darius Wave]

Larry You have already answered Your own question 1 hour practice with full concentration is worth more than 10 hours of random playing and thinking about how great it would be to play like You never did before. Also another good point...sometimes You have to risk some flaws to make music possible to come out from the deepest imagination. I have solos played with absolutely no feel and solos i felt I play things a would be never able to play...but i tried i did some flaws and I'll be doing more and more but this is all in the name o music

Playing on stage has to do much with things that disturb Your concentration...like:
- 30 degrees heat from the sun
- mosquitos eating You alive at some warm evenings
- p.a problems
- switching the presets before solo
- guitar that goes out of tune cause of catching the temperature

Many of those things happen no matter how well prepared You are so...

...I found what works for me - try to think about how Would You start the solo already while You play some backing guitar (let's say a chorus before solo). You can also arrange the first few bars of the solo to be constant. Then You'll have amount of time need to do all the switching, go to the front of the stage and let yourselft dig in to the solo. This arranged headroom for te unavoidable isseus makes difference! Sometimes it's good to have all solo arranged just in case You're

1. Tired of being 8 or more hours in the bus
2. Your simlply...sick /ill
3. You have one of THOSE days, that nothing comes to Your head
4. You don't feel the mood cause something is wrong on stage


Consider this

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by Darius Wave: May 17 2013, 09:39 AM

[Cosmin Lupu]

Mate, our mind functions in mysterious ways, aye? It is a normal thing I guess. I for one, am hearing things all the time, but this is not a frustration to me, it is just proof that music is in there and at the right time it will come out, under a form or another. Don't worry too much, just enjoy the ride As a side note, in college, I always used to run in the back of a laboratory or so, in order to record an idea I just heard in my head using my phone and my voice

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[klasaine]

This is sort of a tangent but here goes ...

I've stopped worrying about what I didn't play on a gig or a session.
After I'm done recording something, whether for my self or someone else, I don't listen back for at least 3 days (unless I have to make a production decision w/in a time line). I need/want to hear the music I actually made - not my intent.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Gabriel Leopardi]

This topic is interesting. In my case, having organized practice routines based on the techniques and topics that I wanted to improve has been the most effective way of getting real results. I always try to train myself to be ready to play whatever I want or imagine. However guitar playing and music is limitless and there is always something new to learn and that requires practice. So, as Cosmin said, enjoying the ride is very important because the road is endless if you love music and guitar.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Cosmin Lupu]

This topic is interesting. In my case, having organized practice routines based on the techniques and topics that I wanted to improve has been the most effective way of getting real results. I always try to train myself to be ready to play whatever I want or imagine. However guitar playing and music is limitless and there is always something new to learn and that requires practice. So, as Cosmin said, enjoying the ride is very important because the road is endless if you love music and guitar.

Indeed, thinking that you will be able to play everything is an utopia which will consume your energy, instead of you channeling it towards making music

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!