jazz guitar pages - practicing

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practicing

How long should you practice? As long as possible? Should you practice every day? Should you stick to a strict schedule, as for example four hours a day? Or does it pay to practice when you feel up to it, even if it means to skip a day, sometimes even a week (uahh, after such time I begin to feel restless, my fingers tremble, where's the next guitar ;-)

Some humble opinions of mine.

First of all, you need to be aware there are different areas of practicing:

Physical, i.e. movement and skill of your fingers, manual precision
Intellectual, i.e. learning to learn theory, apply theory, integrate it into your vocabulary
Creative, i.e. learning to express yourself, what you hear in your head, through your instrument, and, also important, through your musical compositions and/or concepts
Communicative, i.e. learning to hear precisely, learning and practicing to exchange musical ideas and feeling with the other musicians you play with, and often also with your audience.

Obviously, then, there are different situations where you actually can practice and improve in each of these fields. Of course, also, all of these are mutually dependent.

Next, I think it important to recognize that practicing is aimed at keeping your skills on the one hand, and improving your musical skills and competence on the other.

To achieve actual improvement, which is a process happening in your mind (unless you don't feel comfortable with your instrument yet), it does not make sense to practise when you do not have an open mind and concentrate on what you are doing.

Consequently, I think it a waste of time to actually force yourself to keep practicing until your time limit is reached, if you can not concentrate and your mind is busy with something else (such as thinking you still haven't paid this months rate for your insurance). Actual learning takes place in the here and now, and that's impossible when your mind is busy with the future. On other days, you will note that you could go on and on and not feel tired.

The most fruitful time I experienced was when I wanted to learn something, and did not have to stick to a schedule, instead found that I had been practicing (every possible amount) from two to seven hours a day, simply because I did not notice time going by (it certainly felt a little strange walking down the streets after such a strait and see actual people). The point is, imho, that interest or fascination is what keeps your mind open, and the latter is - to me at least - the prerequisite for practicing effectively.

It follows, just as it is the case in any other area of life, where your interest and appetite rarely is constant over lengths of time, that it is appropriate to adapt to this changing circumstances. When I feel uncomfortable with a certain fingering, for example, I choose not to waste my time forcing myself to learn it anyway, but instead reduce my practicing in that area to the minimum necessary to keep my level, and on the other hand use my stamina to improve in another area, where I feel my practicing will be much more effective because that's what has been most interesting to me in the past week or months (for example, when I had listened to some really beautiful playing in a concert or on a record).

Then, as I stated above, there are different areas of learning, and hence, different topics of practicing. Apart from warming-up exercises it makes no sense to practice what you already know (paraphrasing Jamey Aebersold). I try to choose a topic (such as a new scale, arpeggio, a new tune, or a musical concept), and set myself a goal. Both of these are important. I think you should limit your practicing to a simple problem you want to deal with, and then set yourself the goal to improve in this area. It only complicates things in your subconscious if you try to achieve many things at the same time.

Therefore I choose a few simple topics for practicing every day, and concentrate on one until I feel my mind is no longer open, which can take anything from ten minutes to half an hour depending on my fitness that day. Then I relax my mind (just as I would relax my body after practicing a certain sport). After pausing a few minutes, I go on with the next topic.

Finally, I think it important not to try to make music while practicing. It is the goal to improve when you practice, therefore you will sound bad or forced, and less musical. This is normal (just as you sound awkward when you learn a new language and try to speak).

Practicing is about tools. Music is what you do on the bandstand.

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