What is your practice routine?

[makoto]

I also like the idea of playing Bach for scale practice, and the Baldassari layout is sort of what I was trying to achieve. I always use a metronome when I practice techical studies and scales etc and have found it useful when learning a new piece or working through a difficult passage of a piece of music. I am intrigued by the idea of "practicing what you play". I think I will shift my emphasis in that direction and see what happens. I also think it is important to practice with other players as often as possible. These are all great suggestions.

[groveland]

I just thought of something. Remember that scene in "Glory" right after the 54th got their guns, and that squirrel-hunting kid is showcasing some fancy bottle target practice? Then Hayes comes over and commands "Load. Faster. Faster!" and shoots a gun behind the kid's head? And the kid falls apart, can't hit the target literally to save his life.

I guess it's obvious what I'm getting at. It's good to woodshed, but you have get out and jam or perform.

[Brad Weiss]

Great to read these ideas!. I work on two areas, and would love ideas for a third.

First, technique. I start with John Moore's right hand exercises, then I play scales in twelve keys - usually playing in broken thirds. Then arpeggios in a circle of fifths, including, major, minor, m7, dom 7th, 9th, diminished and augmented arpeggios. I used to work on playing through the LIMDAPL modes, less rigorous about that now.

After "technique" I work on different genres. Good ol' reliable Bach, for clarity, dexterity, and some cool harmonic ideas; then usually some choro (which can be pretty close to Bach in all sorts of ways) Then, I work on my jazz repertoire. I lay down rhythm tracks and play heads and improvise over a range of standards, bossa nova, some bebop. What I'd really like to improve on - and what I'd love some exercises for- is building a better jazz vocabulary, and playing more lyrically- more conversationally. Transcribing tunes has been good for that- so has all of those arpeggios ( I do think practice is different form playing- and good practice gives you good stuff to play!!) but I wish I could just play what I'm hearing on the fly, and know where I'm going as I play (all relevant to jazz improv).

Keep the ideas coming! I'm a sucker for useful exercises - just playing may be fine for David Grier- but that's why he's DAVID GRIER!! - but some discipline is needed for us mere mortals.

[mandodebbie]

Thanks to this post I have been digging out my Bach to warm up before chording/picking my usual Bluegrass/Oldtyme tunes. I was cutting down my practice time to one hour a day because I was getting so BORED with picking tuneless arppegios, chording to the same 4 or five songs, and picking out another 4 or five tunes, then putting the little mando "to bed" with a grumble. A little change to one's routine can really refresh the spirit. I am currently digging through all my old music and re-playing the stuff I first learned when I picked up the mando in April, 2004.

[Peter Hackman]

This is from marcusmiller.com. Sounds like a very productive approach. It's a different instrument, but I think
it translates to any instrument or genre.


How do you practice?

These days I usually begin practicing by improvising - just playing whatever comes to my head and enjoying that for a while. Usually, in the course of improvising, I'll find myself attempting to play something that I can't really execute well. At that point I'll make up some exercise involving whatever that problem is and try to work it out until it's more fluid. Then I'll usually move on to some related patterns and make sure that they're ok too. This assures me that I'm working on techniques that are important for me, since in the course of improvising I found myself needing them.
I play a lot of bebop lines when practicing, figuring if I can play that stuff, technically, I shouldn't have a problem with anything else (As a kid I did this too - just learning John Coltrane solos, Sonny Rollins solos, Wynton Kelly, anything that caught my ear.)
Then I turn on a drum machine and just get my groove on - just playing all sorts of bass lines - simple, crazy, all eighth notes, all triplets, anything.
For me the most important thing is to have fun. When in the course of having fun you find yourself lacking in some technique that's preventing you from really having fun, take that technique to the woodshed and work it out........... then go have some more fun!!!

[DryBones]

messing with some basic scales practicing the up down pick pattern, simple Soldiers Joy from Tab, simple Blue Moon of Kentucky from Tab...and some "Wild Thing" G-C-D 2 finger chords. And if really inspired I try to squeeze in some 4 fingered chords to practice the "chops" dang I need a tutor...

[makoto]

By way of updating this thread and thanks to all of the replies, especially from jmcgann and Peter's last post, I have lately been practicing more "musically", i.e. ear training and improvisation on chord changes. I have been using Roland White's bluegrass book to hear the tune and play it without looking at the tab, then using the tab to check myself, and listening to songs then playing the melody. This seems to be getting easier as I do it. I am trying to free myself from the printed page as most of my repertory is arranged music. Also, lately when we have group practice for our ensemble we have been focusing our collective concentration more on how the group sounds as a whole than on "getting the notes right", and this has been very beneficial. I still use scales and exercises to warm up, and I have also been playing and improvising on chord melodies and the harmonized scale. Thanks so much for all the great ideas so far.

[mandolinkid]

I know most of the simple chords should i focus on mastering the chop or start to learn picking and trying to learn songs.

[earthsave]

sit on the front porch, lite a cigar, pet the dog and entertain the neighbors.

f-d

Now yer talkin. I need to get me a routine. Right now I leave my cheapo mando out, so I will be inclined to pick it up.

I need to work on scales a bit. I am a chordal player and picker for the most part.

[250sc]

I'm impressed by how organized some of you are but can relate to Fatt-dads post above.

I don't have any regiman other that I get up an hour early for work and play either mando or accoustic guitar (or a bit of each)while drinking my coffee and listening to npr. After work I set aside a couple of hours to play too. Normally I don't do drills but work on learning new material but a couple days a week I do a quick run through of all the songs I play. Right now its about 53 songs that I'm comfortable with on both instruments, playing the rhythm, the melody and a few solos.

It seems to me that the most important part of playing music is hearing it in your head. If I can hear it I can find a way to make my hands do it.

[AlanN]

I know most of the simple chords should i focus on mastering the chop or start to learn picking and trying to learn songs.

Do everything you said.

[Kevin Briggs]

When I practice I always start with teh fiddle tunes I know best, and which I deem to be the hardest songs I can play and conformatbly improvise on.

For example, I usually start with Blackberry Blossom and Whiskey Before Breakfast. I play them through in standard fashion to get my tone and loosen up my fingers, then I play them through a bunch of times improvising on the melody a bunch here and there.

Next, I run through a bunch of fiddle tunes I know well, like "Cotton Patch Rag," "Red Haired Boy," "Dixie Howdown," "Fire on the Mountain," etc. Just standard fiddle tunes really.

Then, I work on tunes I am trying to get uo to speed, like "Ragtime Annie," or any songs I'm learning for the first time, like "June Apple," the other day.

I always end by just singing some songs and workign out touchstones for breaks. I never work the breaks out too much though, because I don't want to feel like I'm screwing up when I play live. To me, the fun part is the improvising, and memorizing notes and things is for building vocabulary and dexterity.

I want to learn some Bach songs, and am hoping to get some instructional material to help me do so. I've only been playign about five years now, so I'm still young in the game, so to speak.

My biggest challenge is using traditonal licks and things that I know are good to use in bluegrass music. I've listened to Monroe pretty closley, but mostly just on beginnings and endings, same with Skaggs, and Bobby Osborne. I love Grisman, of course, and Sam Bush (who I use for fiddle tunes), but I don't see much point in memorizing all of their improvising. They are so awesome because they studied the classci stuff so closely, then did their own thing with it, and more. I guess I want to emulate that process a bit.

I've also used Steve Kauffman, when I was building my fiddle tune vocabulary, but I would skip that part if I could do it all over again. It's basically paying money to listen to songs and figure them out.

I want to get into scale work, but it gets boring for me, which I know is no excuse. I should suck it up and study some scales. I just need to find something other than the Alonzo's or whatever. They are too rote for my ADD brain, I guess. Maybe the Bach tunes will help with that.

[bsimmers]

Great info. I can understand why I'm not improving at an alarming rate. I like to practice the Jeopardy theme, Andy Griffith's Fishin' Hole song, and whatever commercial tunes I hear.
On serious nights I like to put the metronome on about 80 bpm and do a bunch of tunes as a medley in the same keys, i.e. Huckleberry Hornpipe, Big Sandy, Salt Creek, Red Haired Boy, Bill Cheathum; Soldier's Joy, St Ann's Reel, Arkansas Traveler, Liberty; Blackberry Blossom, Wheel Hoss, Dixie Breakdown, then C tunes,etc. Then I move it slowly up to 140 bpm, or as fast as I can get it clean. Then I really work on trying to get precise melodies of specific tunes at different places on the mandolin. I'm working hard at trying to come with bluesy sounding "ghost notes" in between the melodies. And that's about it.
Thanks for the kick in the pants. I've printed a lot of the tips in this thread. I can see that I really need to start some kind of meaningful practice, and also learn some new stuff. Thanks again for all the good info.