How do You Make Practice More Fun?

[JeffD]

I really like practicing for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then I want to get on to playing something. Playing I can do for hours.

So I use the playing as the promised dessert, only available after I eat the veggies for half an hour or more.


As I said in aonther thread: I practice enought to keep the playing fun, and I play enough to keep the practice relevant.

[fred d]

Thats one of the oldestand stupidist statement ever JONZ as a former coach if it hurts than you doing something wrong. Enjoy the trip not the destination.

[Bertram Henze]

After all, think of the millions of words published on "How to spice up your sex life". I want to know what people do to spice up their mandolin life.

Ever tried to play fast melody on an OM? It's exhausting, but you mustn't tense up. Timing must be right. I wouldn't dwell on more parallels, but it doesn't get any more spicey

[journeybear]

I really like to practice. I'd be more inclined to ask: How Do You make The Rest Of The Day More Fun?

For both issues, two words come to mind - inebriants and nudity. Just be moderate with both, especially in combination. And public.

Kidding aside, practice is going to resemble work, so break it up the same way. Literally - take a break when you get wound up, then return to it. Also, keep open to accidental discoveries, even if they arise from error.

[mando.player]

One word...iPad!

[journeybear]

Hmmm ... I saw one of these on The Today Show or something and it looked just great. I see there's already a thread about them, so that means it's gonna be the latest thing. $500 now, bound to drop some soon.

[OldSausage]

I don't want it to be more fun. The duller it is, the more satisfying I find it. Life isn't all about having fun, you know, and neither is playing the mandolin.



[drunken laughter]

[SincereCorgi]

After all, think of the millions of words published on "How to spice up your sex life". I want to know what people do to spice up their mandolin life.)

Well, sometimes I'll practice the mandolin in a naughty outfit, or light candles and put them all around the room to create atmosphere. Once, I surprised my mandolin by opening the case 'in the altogether'...

[JonZ]

I don't want it to be more fun. The duller it is, the more satisfying I find it. Life isn't all about having fun, you know, and neither is playing the mandolin.



[drunken laughter]

I'm glad you clarified that you were talking about mandolin playing.

[mandroid]

My attention span drifts , scales quickly become whatever tune is stuck in my head .
a simple one, both my head and the tunes in it.

[Bertram Henze]

I don't want it to be more fun. The duller it is, the more satisfying I find it. Life isn't all about having fun, you know, and neither is playing the mandolin.

Marvin? Is that you? Cheer up, little robot!

(isn't it funny how just when you think life couldn't get any worse, it suddenly does? Marvin the paranoid android)

[OldSausage]

Marvin? Is that you? Cheer up, little robot!

(isn't it funny how just when you think life couldn't get any worse, it suddenly does? Marvin the paranoid android)

It's all right for you, you don't have this terrible pain in all the diodes down your left side.

[Dan Johnson]

oh man I wish I had the wit to leverage the loads of potential hilarity currently available on this thread...

but I just wanted to lend my support for the idea that growth hurts... any time I've been learning anything on the mandolin it's been hard... but practice for me is just repeating what I've learned until it's reflexive and natural...

[farmerjones]

I just wanted to lend my support for the idea that growth hurts... any time I've been learning anything on the mandolin it's been hard...

Dan you speak the truth.
Making new synoptic connection can and does actually hurt. Does anybody suppose curious people are sort of addicted to the feeling? Heaven knows it's been proved that the more you know really doesn't lead to happiness.
I'd like to talk more about it but i found a place where you can learn to make software to fly a miniature aircraft with an iPod touch.

[Bertram Henze]

Growth hurts - interesting. I found that every time I learn a new tune, older tunes I already could play get worse; I have to re-practise them all. I guess all this music is fighting for room in my head like sardines in a can. The more tunes I can play, the easier I learn new ones, the easier I forget old ones.
From this angle, the fun of practising comes with a hangover.

[lgc]

whisky.

[fishtownmike]

I put a big funny hat on.

[Miss Lonelyhearts]

While there's no use denying that some skills are hard won, it helps me (ymmv) to frame the learning process in positive terms. So I tend to avoid "hard" and easy," favoring instead "unfamiliar" and "familiar." The basic idea is that once a technique or tune becomes familiar, it will feel "easy."

I also tend to think of obstacles as our friends--without them, we would never improve. We progress in our abilities by encountering the unfamiliar or tricky stuff and figuring out how to do it. Sure it sounds like platitudes, but a positive attitude has kept me playing music for 35 years, despite all sorts of physical ailments and scant natural ability.

We play music, after all, not work it.

[groveland]

...You've got to have something to practise forward to, like a jam, a session, a gig... "No risk, no fun" ...

I would say that sums it up. I retain the most, and learn fastest when I am at risk of looking really, really stupid in front of a lot of people.

[JonZ]

I would say that sums it up. I retain the most, and learn fastest when I am at risk of looking really, really stupid in front of a lot of people.

Then I would suggest attending jam sessions without any pants.

[OldSausage]

Then I would suggest attending jam sessions without any pants.

Who jams with pants? No-one. Pants are for banjer players.

[Bertram Henze]

Then I would suggest attending jam sessions without any pants.

That wouldn't be the first time that people remembered a very good player without being able to tell what clothes he wore...

Be warned that adding risk to performance is a bottomless well, which I do not endorse:

[Andy Fielding]

Practice can become drudgery...

Are you kidding?? We must be a lot different. When I'm not practicing or playing, I feel like I'm waiting for everything else to finish so I can pick up that mandolin again.

Music is magic, and the more you practice, the more of a magician you become. It's magic just being able to pick up an instrument and play a simple scale, much less a whole tune.

If practicing bores you, it's not the practicing that's the problem—it's how you've come to take for granted something so amazing and alive, and probably the closest any of us will ever come to experiencing the divine while we're here on Earth. (Well, maybe aside from playing kissy-face with that Special Other.)

If this doesn't make sense to you, well, there's always a big demand for accountants. ;?)

While there's no use denying that some skills are hard won, it helps me (ymmv) to frame the learning process in positive terms. So I tend to avoid "hard" and easy," favoring instead "unfamiliar" and "familiar"... I also tend to think of obstacles as our friends--without them, we would never improve.

Right on, right on. It's not the goal, it's the journey, and so forth. Besides, when you tell yourself something is "hard", your ever-obedient brain says, "Oh, okay, it's hard!" Sheesh, why do that?

As with everything else, the more fun you have, the better you do. So instead, keep telling yourself how fun it is to be learning this new thing. It's fun even when you can't quite do it yet, because you're having the fun of watching yourself go from someone who can't do it to someone who can. Otherwise, why bother?

[John Flynn]

If this doesn't make sense to you, well, there's always a big demand for accountants. ;?)

Haven't you been watching the news? Accounting is magic also!

[Denny Gies]

If, and I say if, I get bored practicing I like to put in a CD like "The Dreadful Snakes" or David Grisman's "Home Is Where The Heart Is" and just play along. This seems to work for me.