Practice goals

Phil_aka_Pip

• "write 5 long term goals"
• "write 5 short term goals for each long term goal"

- advice in a Practice Guide, which seems to make some kind of sense

but tbh, my mind goes blank about such things. Maybe it shouldn't, maybe it wouldn't have 20 years ago, but it does now.

Sambostar

Honestly don't have time for that anymore.  In fact not siure I ever did.  I don't do self discipline very well apart from knowing what I like.  If I love something that much, I'II listen to it back to back for a month, by which time it will be memorized, including the tone and intonation, otherwise I only practice if my tone starts to suck, but it's more an unconscious thing.  I'II never be great, but some people who are far better than me think tone that I like sucks and vice versa so it's very subjective I suppose.  If I can't achieve a sound then I will work on it, other than that there is no technical or musical motivation, apart from improving fingerpicking maybe and forward rolls, but that sort of comes under the former, especially with the banjo.

Barney

it sounds to much me .
..i cant really concentrate on much more than 2 or three things at a time....and probably spend months on the same things

octatonic

I'm teaching myself to drum- I've been doing it for the last 3 years off and on.

Since getting a full-blown E-kit I've been diligent about practice- so I will talk about how I approach drum practice having already done it with guitar.

Practice goals- good to have but goals by themselves are useless without a path to achieve them.

At the moment I am working on my rudiments, independence exercises, groove playing an transcription.

Rudiments:

I might set a goal of "I want my double stroke roll (DSR) to be smooth playing 16th at 160bpm.

Let's say I can only do it at 120bpm at the moment.

I set weekly exercises where I practice my double stroke roll to increase up to 5 bpm per week.

Up to is the operative word here- it isn't mandatory to progress by 5bpm per week- you shoot for that goal but you don't allow an increase in speed to be the most important thing.

Playing it smoothly is the goal- so if I sit down and practice my DSR at 125bpm in week one and it feels great then the following week I try for 130bpm.

If it isn't quite there then I stay at 125bpm until it does.

So, how much do this exercise?

I play a 4 bar pattern.

I do 20 repetitions of that 4 bar pattern once or twice a day.

There is no point in doing it any more than that- your muscle memory can only progress so far.

I have about 10-15 things in a list that I practice each day- I write them down on an A4 sheet of paper, and tick them off each practice session.

It takes discipline to stick to it- it is more fun to just jam along to backing tracks (which I do as well) but you simply don't progress as quickly just jamming along to tracks.

Isolating specific exercises and working them up to speed is the most efficient way to do it.

Then I can work in incorporating them into my 'general playing'.

The same with independence exercises- I work a bunch of individual exercises up to speed and work on incorporating them into my playing.

Then there is a separate session of transcription, and finally jamming along to backing tracks.

The whole thing take about 2 hours- I do it at least once a day, 6 days a week, I usually have a day off.

@Barney - having gone through music school, we are taught to pay 20 repetitions of *a thing* for 20 days.

In that time it gets committed to memory and you don't forget it, provided you top it up from time to time (with a bit of a refresher).

Spending months on the same things is an inefficient way of working- if it works for you and you are happy with it then I won't argue you out of it- but professional musicians don't work this way, serious music students learn not to work this way either.

Playing the same thing over and over is a trap, especially if it is something you are already decent at.

For instance, playing 3 note per string patterns can be brought up to 16th at 130 bpm in a few weeks.

To get it up to 150bpm will take a lot longer, to get it from 200bpm to 210 might take 6 months.

The body can only progress so fast at this speeds.

Just as with drumming, it is good to have about 10-15 things you are working on at once, at least it is a more efficient way of working.

Granted not everyone can work this way, but it works for many people, music schools teach this way (in fact we were given a lot more than 15 things, probably about 30) and you progress very, very quickly when you stick to it.

Barney

octatonic 

@Barney - having gone through music school, we are taught to pay 20 repetitions of *a thing* for 20 days.

In that time it gets committed to memory and you don't forget it, provided you top it up from time to time (with a bit of a refresher).

Spending months on the same things is an inefficient way of working- if it works for you and you are happy with it then I won't argue you out of it- but professional musicians don't work this way, serious music students learn not to work this way either.

to be honest this is exactly how I'm practising now i do spend a bit of time on things because i need to absorb them........but the repetition thing is a great way to actually get stuff into your playing 

iv been really enjoying playing with the I real player so got loads of chord progressions to work with so iv been sort of disecting some awkward jazz tunes I'm struggling with and working with just them parts that i find hard ....basically the same as you said...putting it on a loop and playing melodic lines over them....i think..:) but really doing a lot of repetition until they become part of my playing and i can hear them....but yeah repetition is where its as long as you know the cut off point of when to move on..

GuyBoden

octatonic said:

I have about 10-15 things in a list that I practice each day- I write them down on an A4 sheet of paper, and tick them off each practice session.

It takes discipline to stick to it- it is more fun to just jam along to backing tracks (which I do as well) but you simply don't progress as quickly just jamming along to tracks.

Isolating specific exercises and working them up to speed is the most efficient way to do it.

Then I can work in incorporating them into my 'general playing'.

The same with independence exercises- I work a bunch of individual exercises up to speed and work on incorporating them into my playing.

Then there is a separate session of transcription, and finally jamming along to backing tracks.

The whole thing take about 2 hours- I do it at least once a day, 6 days a week, I usually have a day off.

@Barney - having gone through music school, we are taught to pay 20 repetitions of *a thing* for 20 days.

In that time it gets committed to memory and you don't forget it, provided you top it up from time to time (with a bit of a refresher).

Spending months on the same things is an inefficient way of working- if it works for you and you are happy with it then I won't argue you out of it- but professional musicians don't work this way, serious music students learn not to work this way either.

Playing the same thing over and over is a trap, especially if it is something you are already decent at.

For instance, playing 3 note per string patterns can be brought up to 16th at 130 bpm in a few weeks.

To get it up to 150bpm will take a lot longer, to get it from 200bpm to 210 might take 6 months.

The body can only progress so fast at this speeds.

Just as with drumming, it is good to have about 10-15 things you are working on at once, at least it is a more efficient way of working.

Granted not everyone can work this way, but it works for many people, music schools teach this way (in fact we were given a lot more than 15 things, probably about 30) and you progress very, very quickly when you stick to it.

Good stuff......

Phil_aka_Pip

@Octatonic U R a wise man, Sir. It's high time I got back on the case

Clarky

I tend to set my students one specific goal.. and I try to make it an acheiveable one too..

then I choose songs / solos / riffs / etc for them to learn that have strong emphasis on that objective..

after nailing a few songs they really start to get it.. then I pick no another aspect of their technique that could use some work and we go again with new songs..