Organize your practice time

[ericwall]

This subject is always of interest to me. How do you spend your practice time? At best, I get an hour a day, about 5 days a week. I'm also practicing guitar before mando so usually my fingers are warmed up. Currently I'm spending about 15 minutes on scales, exercises, etc. About 10 minutes on a tune I've just got down. For both of these, I occasionally use a metronome. And about 30 minutes on working on a new tune for my instructor.
Is there a better way?
I'm not playing with others which I know would greatly improve my playing. Band in a Box?
Best,
Eric http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[John Flynn]

I have been playing guitar for 30 years and mando for 12+ (And boy are my fingers tired! Badum-bump!) I don't practice, I play. I know the purists will disagree, but I find playing fun and practice not fun and life is too darn short. I learn 2-3 tunes a week and I spend my hour or more "practice" time a day either working up tunes or brushing up old tunes. I do drill on techniques, but only techniques that enable the tunes I am working on. So if there is a quick "hammer-on-pull-off" in one of tunes I am working on that I want to perfect, I will drill on that over and over. If a tune requires a cross-picking roll that I don't do well enough, I will drill on that roll. It works for me.

[Emmiemando]

To make practice less of a "chore", I do scales and stuf for about 5 minutes, then switch to just messing around for ten. then, I do more scales for 5, and then learn a song. Then I mess around some more. It's kind of like I practice and then give myself a reward...

[Bluegrasstjej]

I do mostly like Johnny. I play tunes and breaks or I play back-up. If I have problems with a certain technique in some part of a tune, I play that particular part over and over. I've been practicing arpeggios for a while to use as back-up instead of chopping or strumming, and I do that by playing different songs. This works well for me. I just need to focus on tunes I don't know so well, or to increase difficulty all the time, in order to improve.

I downloaded Band in a box but I don't understand how to use it. I play to cDs instead.

[mandodebbie]

I practice about two hours every day or second day, depending on my time allowance. (And yes my fingers are tired!) I start with scales, chords, then play from my music books. Since I have no instructor, as I am solely teaching myself through a Mel Bay manual. This can be boring, so I find myself improvising a lot. I pick out nursery rhymes, Sunday school hymns, TV comercial jingles, whatever I can by ear. I, as the others on this thread, do not make my practices a chore.:cool:

[mandonewbie]

I am a beginner (about a month and a half) who wants badly to play well, so I try to be diciplined in my approach to practice...I spend about 10 mins on scales to warm up my old fingers.....15 mins or so practicing moving between the differnent 4 finger chop chord positions....then 1/2 to 1 hour learning fiddle tunes...then I spend some time just noodling around and playing notes all over the fingerboard, just listening to them and seeing how they fit together (I just started doing this ex. as a way of learning the notes on the board).......I try to do this routine at least 3 time per week....but will pick up the mandolin to play acales or parts of the fiddle tunes whenever I get a chance almost everyday.

[LilCreekster]

I've changed my practice schedule after getting some advice from the big guys at the symposium... so far it's worked out really well.

First of all, I got myself a timer. I know that may sound strict to those who love to sit and just have fun... but one of my problems early on was some joint pain (knuckle and elbow), and a combination of regular breaks and working on less tension over all has made a HUGE difference.

The timer is so I don't go over without giving my body a break (as I am prone to do when I get into something) I may go a bit over if I'm REALLY into something, but it makes me more aware of how long I've been pushin' them fingers.

my "routine" is something like this...

I do warmups/exerises for 15 min, right & left hand

Then I work on scales for 15 min

Then a take a short (like 5 min) break

The rest of the time I play in 45 min intervals with 5-10 min breaks inbetween. (as many I can fit in before real life and all it's reponsibilities rears it's ugly head LOL)


I don't have a really strict routine for the rest of my practice, I try to get a mix in of working on peices I know (especially on the rough spots) reading music, learning new pieces, working on chords & rhythm (the area I most need work in http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif ) and I'm trying to set aside some time to work on improv too. I can get 3 hours a day in (if I'm lucky), so obviously not enough time to work on ALL of that, but I try to make sure I get some of each in on any given week.

I know lots of people don't like "practice" but, as a beginner, I really see the difference in my playing if I spend real practice time as opposed to just playing through stuff I know. Maybe it's less essential as you get better, but something that stuck with me from the Symposium was nearly all of the artists said that they felt they needed to practice more... and if it's important for them to play better, heck... it's GOTTA be important for my beginner self hahaha.

[ericwall]

Thanks for all the replies. The term "practice" seems to have a very negative connotation for some. I didn't mean it that way. Obviously a number of you have had negative childhood experiences of enforced practice (as I did on piano). I find even playing scales and arpeggios on the mando kind of zen-like- especially if I add a metronome. After spending a week of lessons recently with Steve Smith, I am starting my sessions with right hand and left hand exercises/warm-ups that are scales/arpeggios. Some have said that working in one key (say A) all over the fingerboard is a way to go. Major, minor, dom7 keys...Currently, I trying to work out the "harmonized" scale and arpeggios. I certainly work on my fiddle tunes and more recently am trying to work on picking up fiddle tunes from fiddle recordings. Not easy but sure challenging.
Thanks again,
Eric