Practice- How much and what motivates you?

juno75

and how long do you practice your instrument per week/day/month?
And what motivates you?

When I started, way back in the day, I was a confused grommit teenager and a bit fekless, didn’t dig the school thing and all that but did dig my music.
My mother played in bands for years and 've always been around musicians but never had the urge to pick up anything and play.
One day, for some unknown reason, I picked up me muvva's crappy awful acoustic and started to twang, I was just walking past it..
For the next 3 years or so it became an obsession, I was sh!te but I couldn’t stop and I suppose being young, no gf or anything I was able to stick maybe 5-8 hours on a good day (weekend) or more normally 2 hours+ a night after school and then college. No distractions....
THEN
I got in my first band, utter tripe for a year, learned the band basics though.
Did first gig and bombed big time. went back into bedroom, another year in the bedroom practicing like demented chicken and got another band going
Which this time was kinda OK
I was a bit older by now and more distractions -girls,beer,gigs etc
SO I praccy like mad till I was 18 and then I was basically just playing when gigging and rehearsal.
I think I learnt loads initially, got going to a certan standard and did not learn anything for years.
Then Drum and Bass and Cubase poised my mind for a few years and I stopped playing g tar basically.

Last 2 years have seen a rebirth, started learning new stuff which really blew cobwebs away and I have to practice an hour and a half a night, I try to do at least 4 nights a week with maybe a 4 hour session at the weekend. Split between maybe an hour jamming/warm up along wid CD's and then 2+ hours learning what ever I learning at that mo..

It’s hard to do sometimes after a day at work ,ye just want to veg but I wished I'd done this a long time ago. I know a ton of stuff I did not know this time last year, BUT YOU GOTTA PUT THE HOURS IN!!

So to cut a long post short:

In the beginning - every night for hour and hours

In the middle bit -only playing when I’m with band

Blue period- Electro poison in my brain -zero hours per year

Now - Hour and a half if I’m lazy ( I feel too guilty if I don’t) Up to 3 hours if I got the energy . 3-4 time a week. No band or GF at mo (sniff)

I find you need to set goals in order to motivate.
My goal is a new band this summer when I’m back in Dublin, playing diff music to wot I use to play and at a higher

Sorry for the blurb, its dead in the Office today, I bored

OLP

i'm 14, i started playing bass a bit over a year ago, my friend played guitar and my other mate had just got a drum kit, so we started a band...with two people new to their instrument.

i'd say we where absolute crap

i get lessons every week, and i know a lot of theory and styles

i think i'm a really good bass player, from listening to myself and a lot of people have told me.

i jam with the drummer from above, every week, we're best mates and i practicly live at his house,

from listening to use on crappy tape recordings, i think our timing and rythem is damn good for musicians who have been playing as long as us

i compose all our own stuff and i write lyrics

we dont have a guitarist (not too botherd with one, fecking showoffs) and we're looking for a singer,

thats about it

Zapp Brannigan

when i started practise for me, consisited of just playing songs i knew over and over again. And it stayed that way for a long time.
But now 3 years in im starting to work on all the theory and scales, modes, all that stuff.
But ive gotten lax in practise so thats why im looking for a teacher so i can leanr in a structured schedule.

Waltons

Playing drums.
At the start I had lessons every week and practised twice a week with the lads and once a week on my own - the kit's kept up in my dad's place where we practise. Too loud to play in the house *sigh*
I've only been playing since 4th year in school (in 6th year now) and, as a result, now I only get one practise a week with the lads and once a week by myself, which is annoying since I can't get at the kit for most of the week, so I spent time at home with the practise pad working on my grip, rudiments and speed playing. It's rather a treat when I get onto the whole kit and, strangely enough, pretty helpful!

Fusion251

Proper practice generally isn't fun at the time you're doing it. It only becomes fun when what you've practiced comes into your playing. For me that's the best motivation.

I would do around 3 hours a day with scale patterns, chord progressions, rhythmic patterns, ear training and transcription.

It's good to focus one 1 thing at a time, when the thing you've focused on comes out in your playing then it motivates you to practice more.


Fusion

John

Two band practices a week (about four/five hours in total), mostly guitar but some drumming too

About two hours on my own throughout the week (guitar/bass)

juno75

Proper practice generally isn't fun at the time you're doing it. It only becomes fun when what you've practiced comes into your playing. For me that's the best motivation.

Amen to that. I m kinda floundering the last few weeks, been practicing for months but im working outta dublin till July and no jammin till then.
You get kinda fed up soemtimes with praccy praccy praccy.

Waltons - Man being adrummer must be a mare, big time. I mean to play , ye have to practice but how do you practice drums without being evicted??

Bitsie

Thats My Problem, I Play Drums But Becasue I Haev Nowhere To Practice I Only Get To Play When Im Rehearsing Witht He Band In Studios Which At The Moment Is Only Once A Week.

I am MAN

I have no routine at all and pick it up on and off everyday but I really want to start applying.

What would be a good routine to do for practice? for example scales then ? then ?.

juno75

What would be a good routine to do for practice? for example scales then ? then ?.

Read the Complete Guitarist thread from the start, its starting to be a pretty good pool of all our amazing guitary related leet skillz.

And hence forth thou shall rockith verily :cool:

juno75

Thats My Problem, I Play Drums But Becasue I Haev Nowhere To Practice I Only Get To Play When Im Rehearsing Witht He Band In Studios Which At The Moment Is Only Once A Week.

Aaaa, the age old problem. I think this is why drummers (good ones) are as rare
hairs on homers head.
Maybe if you rent a cottage in the west of ireland?

Seriously though, what a drag. Must be frustrating as fuk man.
I can practice with headphones, so I have no helpfull advice

Zombienosh

I remember the first year or so of playing, I played up to 8 hours a day at some stages, then after a few years it went down to an hour max (was a very unmotivated time) then after a few months of that i got back on track, these days I play 2-3 hours or pretty much whenever I have the time, but only because I want to, If I ever felt I needed to rather than wanted to I wouldn't bother.

BossArky

Best thing to do is have a guitar lying around the sitting room / pc / where-ever you relax... so that you can always pick it up and mess around whilst day dreaming. I find it pretty relaxing to just stare into space and let the fingers roam on the strings. Dosen't have to be any deep thought behind the practice.... when you come across something that sounds good you'll snap out of the trance and remember it.

I am MAN

BossArky wrote:

Best thing to do is have a guitar lying around the sitting room / pc / where-ever you relax... so that you can always pick it up and mess around whilst day dreaming. I find it pretty relaxing to just stare into space and let the fingers roam on the strings. Dosen't have to be any deep thought behind the practice.... when you come across something that sounds good you'll snap out of the trance and remember it.

That's exactly what I do but some structure is needed in my learning

Paligulus

I read recently that when Joe Satriani was younger he used to work so he could take a few months of and practice for 12 hours a day!!!!! The thing was though, when he was working he practiced 4 hours a day!!! That's serious going!!!! I suppose it sorta shows too...!!!

juno75

wow.
Satriani is hardcoe.
Must be some deep physcological insecurity.
Na , he cool. He should'nt sing though...

I remebre Vai on about his 10 hour guitar work outs, just finger exersices man.

I wonder when these guys got time to loose thier virginity?

Paligulus

Yeah, thank God I have no rigerous practice regime that will hold back my prolific sex life...(looks at feet nervously)



Seriously, the whole playing guitar while watchin' TV can be great. Especially for stuff like alternate picking(tremolo picking)

Paligulus

Oh, and Here's that Steve Vai 10 hour workout for anybody who want's it. It's power tab so you'll have to download powertab (great bit of software)

Waltons

juno75 wrote:

Amen to that. I m kinda floundering the last few weeks, been practicing for months but im working outta dublin till July and no jammin till then.
You get kinda fed up soemtimes with praccy praccy praccy.

Waltons - Man being adrummer must be a mare, big time. I mean to play , ye have to practice but how do you practice drums without being evicted??

Well, mostly I just use my practise pad. I had the kit in my house for a total of TEN MINUTES before everyone in the area was complaining. Apparently I'm allowed practise up until a certain time, but I don't want a kind of "Bollocks to what you think, I'm legally entitled to play" relationship with my neighbours.
It's annoying not being able to practise on a full kit, but being on a pad makes one concentrate more on grips and hand technique and then when I get to practise on my kit it's almost like a present, so it's kinda easy to think up creative things. All-in-all I'm not that pissed off with the current situation though

I am MAN

Paligulus wrote:

Oh, and Here's that Steve Vai 10 hour workout for anybody who want's it. It's power tab so you'll have to download powertab (great bit of software)

Do you have a link to that powertab software. Googling just brings up useless results and says that the software is no longer made.

Paligulus

Here's the link:

http://www.power-tab.net/downloads.php

Here's a link for the best places to get the tab's

http://www.powertab-central.net/