Practice.. Your perspective

[JLT]

I tripped upon this website a couple of weeks ago and have learned from and enjoyed the topics a ton. Many of the questions and concerns are similar to mine. But on to my question..

Between work life, family and other things. How do you strcuture your practice to improve musicianship on top of learning the songs you need to play on Sunday?

Glad to have found this community.

God Bless,

JLT

[Fenix]

I'm not married so my time is mine to do with as i please.

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

 

[JLT]

That's cool. But besides that I'm more interested in how you guys approach your instruments when practicing.

Nice laugh..

[trackman]

I try to get an hour a day in. If I can't play that often, I'll try to at least listen to the songs that we have to know and familiarize myself with the "important" parts of the song guitar-wise. Breaks, solos, intros, places where the guitar have to stand out. For the most part that's how I practice also. I don't worry about the in-between stuff...

If I'm not practicing for the P&W, I'm going thru scales or trying to learn new chord progressions. One of my fav's is to pull up some of Uriah's licks and run over them (I've a loooong way to go!)

[arthur59]

Welcome to LGM. What I do is three times a week I get up about one hour befor everyone else,and work on scales and chord progressions.
when I get home I spend 1 hour a day  on learing the songs for sunday service.

[Donta M Jones]

 I just work on chords and scales at home becuase its hard for me to play without the rest of my group. But I plan to start using my looper to help with that ploblem. Like trackman replied, I also try to focus on getting the most important parts of the songs such as the intros, the pocket riffs, lead/solo parts, and learning the lyrics to help with expressing the licks.

[ubc_rown]

Practice,are you talking about practice man.

[jlynnb1]

most important practice tool you can ever purchase is a metronome. this is non-optional. focus on areas you struggle in. if you ignore them and just do what's easy you will always struggle. study theory and learn how it applies to songs. this also is NON-optional. if you are too arrogant/ignorant to admit you need to know it, then you are handicapping yourself from the beginning. study players who's style you'd like to incorporate into yours, and pay attention to the small things they do...phrasing, attack, dynamics. draw from everything and don't worry about how original you are....everything is derivative of something else. striving to be totally original has nothing to do with originality and everything to do with self and ego.

[funkStrat_97]

My schedule is pretty tight.  I'm married, have three girls and work two jobs.  For me, practice is pretty limited and since I'm part of the worship team at church, I try to practice the songs that we are scheduled to play.  The thing is that although we do have a Thursday night practice (we have two teams that alternate Sundays), we are expected to know the material prior to rehearsal.  The purpose of rehearsing is to iron out any kinks and pretty much sound like the recorded version of the song. 

[JLT]

I really am appreciating the pointers, perspective and humor (@UBC). This is definitely stuff I will incorporate.

[JayP5150]

I really am appreciating the pointers, perspective and humor (@UBC). This is definitely stuff I will incorporate.

That's not humor, he actually forgot what we were talking about  (just kidding, Rown).

I'm not currently a part of the music at church, but it's all I can do to touch a guitar every day. It honestly ends up being an every other day thing, and I just noodle for a few.

I guess that's not practice lol.

I'm no help...

[funkStrat_97]

So here is my agenda for the week (by Thursday):

E-Again I Say Rejoice (New) - Israel Houghton

B-My Savior Lives

A-I Know Who I Am

C- To Worship You I Live

C-You Reign

It really helps that I basically know these songs as my "practice" time will be about a 30 minute sesson after work on Thursday and then it's off the rehearsal I go.

[jivejong]

I find that the best practice is playing out live.

[jlynnb1]

I find that the best practice is playing out live.

it's an important aspect....but you can't work out your weaknesses in anything but dedicated woodshed time, especially when it's a technique issue...

[jivejong]

it's an important aspect....but you can't work out your weaknesses in anything but dedicated woodshed time, especially when it's a technique issue...

I'll agree, you don't want to work out a technique never played before during a performance, but in my experience, I was at my best the more I played out. The pressure, the learning on the fly, the on-the-job ear training, the concentration, the communication with other musicians, the time makes for practice that shedding alone cannot do. Plus, the performance gives you a goal and focus for your practice.

[jlynnb1]

definitely two sides of the same coin....but someone who is just trying to learn chords and scales and how they fit should probably get a grasp on fundamentals before they try and play live...will save a lot of frustration and embarrassment

[Joey2426]

Practice an hour a day. First half hour I practice scales and chords. Second half hour work on new song or learn new song.