Long Term Practice Plan

[FodForThoought]

I was just wondering how you guys approach practicing on the long term. When you set goals for your playing do you usually have an idea of when you want them achieved by? If so, how do you choose your time frame? When you start practicing something new (song, technique) what are the first resources you turn to to learn? Do you find it better to focus on making it so you consciously understand everything your fingers are doing, or just keep practicing until you gain a "feel" and let muscle memory do its work.

Sorry its a loaded question, and even if you can only answer part, all advice and tips are still greatly appreciated. I'm starting to practice more seriously, and find myself really overwhelmed

[Jim Bevan]

I have goals, but no time-frame for them -- I just keep plugging away, confident that I'll achieve them eventually.

I've listened to lots of players, so I know the styles, but when learning something new the only resource I turn to is myself, because I know what I want a technique or a tune to sound like.

Yes, I focus on making it so I consciously understand everything my fingers are doing, but also yes, I just keep practising until I gain that muscle-memory feel.

There have been quite a few dead-ends where I've re-thought and re-learned many a technique and tune, but as far as considering a "long-term" practice plan, well, ya, it's going to take me my whole life to get where I want to get to, 'cuz where I want to get to just keeps moving ahead of my abilities.

[greg_tsam]

Long term goal - To be able to entertain myself when I'm an old man sitting alone.
Mid-term goal - Have a band or two that plays frequently and be an established "talent". To sing leads.
Short-Mid goal - To be comfortable sitting down in any jam and being able to contribute. To sing harmonies.
Short term goal - Have a set song tunes, scales, exercises I'm working on with deadlines for learning. These deadlines might be "by the end of the week, next month, six months, etc. Eventually after consistently reaching these s/t goals I'll find myself magically transported to reaching my mid-term goals.

As I accomplish my s/t goals, I add more. The point is to keep learning, keep enjoying and never stop.

This is what I have floating around in my brain and the first time to write them in this much detail but they were there nonetheless. The long term goal was the first goal I had and the short term ones came next as a way to get there. The mids came along later as I realized it wasn't going to happen overnight. I've been playing mandolin seriously (at least one hour a day/avg) for 8.5 years. About 4.5 years of that I had no mid-term goals and just aimlessly learned this tune and that tune, stuck with the same group of people and didn't advance a great deal.

I'm self taught and never took a lesson except one. I wish I would have had more money and better access to some in the beginning. Since then I've branched out, played with different people, formed the mid goals, reevaluated and rededicated myself to learning the mandolin at a relaxed but steady pace with some focus and direction. It's helped quite a bit.

[Paul Busman]

Maybe it's just me, but the idea of a long term practice goal gives me the heebie jeebies. Sounds more like a chore than fun. When I pull out the mandolin, or any other instrument, I rarely have a specific goal in mind apart from maybe trying to learn a new song for our band. I noodle around, play a bunch of tunes I already know, experiment with music in other genres (Led Zeppelin on mando anyone?). I have a good time and when I get tired of it, I put the instrument away. This unstructured approach, over a period of years, has allowed me to achieve greg_tsam's excellent short-mid, mid, and long term goals. Sorry Greg-- your short term goal still sounds too much like work to me
Remember, we call it PLAYING music...your results may vary.

[Adam Sweet]

I studied classical violin for 15 years before picking up the mandolin in 1980. Since then I've pretty much stuck to my classical method of learning:

1. break out the daily practice into 10 minute "chunks": scales/arpeggios, exercises, new material, old material, free play
2. practice every day without fail even when sick, take my instrument when I travel or rent one when I get there

I don't have goals per se. I play in 3 bands and mostly we play stuff we all know, but every once in a while someone brings something new or we have a gig where we're asked to play something new. How I learn that new piece is a topic for another discussion, but bottom line is, practice at home, not at the rehearsal. That's for working on arrangements, band sound and playing together.

[pickloser]

Six months after I started playing mandolin, I went to Kaufman Mandolin Kamp. My first goal was to be able to play enough fiddle tunes and chords to be able to play with others. I left there with goals to meet by the next camp, so it's worked out since then that I set yearly goals after I get home. After my first Kamp, my long term goal became (and continues to be) the same as one of Greg's: "To be comfortable sitting down in any jam and being able to contribute." This is a constantly moving target. As soon as I became a little comfortable with a jam situation, I wanted to be able to jam at a higher level. (I'm not talking about the playing level of the other jammers, but my level of contribution.)

In furtherence of this "big" goal, learning to improvise breaks and fills and support others with good rhythm playing, I have set what I think of as building block goals, without really putting a time limit on getting these accomplished. These smaller goals have included learning and exploring the application of specific techniques--double stops, pentatonic scales, ffcp scales, blues scales, scale patterns, speed, arpeggios, harmonized scale arpeggios; learning repertoire--specific songs and tunes; working up a repertoire of licks; learning theory and how to apply it; and getting out and finding jam opportunities as often as I can, as well as playing along to chord patterns I have recorded or playing along to CDs.

I have found that although I like major goals, I do best tackling them in very small pieces and, although I admit to frustration with progress sometimes, I try to have no expectations as to when I will achieve a goal. For example, when I set out to learn arpeggios, I started with the Tim O'Brien exercise. I worked on the first set of I, IV, V arpeggios for maybe five minutes. The next day I spent five minutes on the next set and just ran thru the first set. I continued until I could play all of them, slowly and painfully. Then I would just play them once a day, with maybe a little extra work on the shapes that were tripping me up, and lo and behold, slowly and painfully just became slowly, which became less and less slow, until now I can just rattle them off. This of course didn't make me the master of arpeggios, but it was a start. Then I made another arpeggio goal and whittled away at it. I am now whittling away at harmonized scale arpeggios, starting on different chord tones of the arpeggio.

I guess now you are sorry you asked. But I suggest you identify what you want to be able to do on the mandolin, and start whittling away. If you are fairly new to music or the instrument, I think you should complete a basic method book. This will introduce you to the many techniques you will want to master. (Or not.) I warn that with every technique you learn or piece of information you acquire, a half dozen more technique and knowlege voids become apparent. Also, as soon as you get to one level, if you're like me, you become dissatisfied with playing it that way, and think all your stuff is trite, half-baked, or overdone. There is no end to it, but that's okay, because I'm having a blast trying to get to wherever "there" is.

I realize that my way would not be fun for everyone. But I can't imagine not trying, almost every day, to get better. I enjoy the trying as much as the playing, and I get a thrill out of every aha moment and every technique acquisition.

[greg_tsam]

BTW, I still enjoy it every bit as much as I ever did, even more the better, more fluid and well versed I become and better developed my ear gets. It's not like I have to force it or even think about doing all the things I outlined (except in the beginning but now it's mostly unconscience). I never wrote it all out until I answered this question.