How to get yourself to practice more?

[Maniacal]

I do agree with that, but that depends what technique you are working on.

If you are a beginner and just starting to work on alternate picking, your best bet is to focus purely on that technique until you are comfortable with it. Then incorporate the other hand and make it musical. Eventually you could work on riffs, etudes etc that will kill two birds with one stone as you say.

My opinion of course, but I have used these methods to teach plenty of people with great results.

 

[celticelk]

Bullshit? Really?

Okay go practice for an hour, work on the following:
alternate picking
legato
tapping
sweep picking
major modes and arpeggios
harmonic minor modes and arpeggios
melodic minor modes and arpeggios
pentatonic scales
arpeggio and chord inversions
jazz and blues comping
phrasing
learning songs
playing over backing tracks

Practicing smart for 8 hours a day will always be better than practicing smart for 15 minutes day.

If you get tendonitis from that 8 hr/day, I think it would be objectively worse. You're also making a whole lot of assumptions about what one needs to know or be able to do in order to be "really good" on guitar, as well as assuming that working on everything every day is necessary to advance. What if you actually progressed faster by focusing intently on one thing for 15 minutes instead of trying to do everything in 8 hours?

(And who the hell has 8 hours a day to practice? Some of us have to make a living, you know.)

 

[Maniacal]

Well 8 hours was just a number picked at random. Although lots of young guys do seem to manage these sort of hours for daily practice.

"Really good" is a matter of opinion, therefore this is a pointless discussion. In my opinion, if you want to be a good all rounder, you need to have a grasp of 80% of that stuff I mentioned.

What does making a living have to do with it? Stupid comment.

 

[80H]

Hey guys, calm down. The answer is somewhere in the middle. Everyone has differences and the human body has its limits. Yes, there is an impossibly long list of things to practice, but there is also a natural upper limit to the amount of work that the human body can do.

Yes, tendonitis sucks the hugest, cheesiest dick on the planet. No, it should not stop you from doing the best that you can and want to do within reason and with respect to your body.


Efficiency of practice is the great equalizer, but even efficient practice has its limits. There is no way to conquer every piece of music on the planet if you lived a thousand times over and played music every moment of every day. You could always just cut the tempo in half and change a few notes of any song.


I believe that I get more per minute out of practice than 9/10 people in the world, and I'm practicing 4-5x as much as them to boot. That is -NOT- an accident. I have already had the argument with myself that you two are having now, and both of you are choosing either black or white without recognizing that they are both aspects of growth.

Take a step back and think about it. Do you want to work hard, do you want to work smart or do you want to do both?

 

[Maniacal]

That's what I am saying.

Smart, fun, long practice is better than smart, fun, short practice.

I don't see why some people need to get angry about this? It's not a competition.

 

[guitareben]

i have bass guitar and piano lesspns, but i don't seem to play or practise inbetween them very much, like max 1 hour a day. Any one have some tips on how to practice more?

Sit down and do it.

 

[InfinityCollision]

What does making a living have to do with it? Stupid comment.

The need to make a living generally imposes a limit on the amount of free time a given person has in a day. Not a universal consideration, but that would be the reasoning behind it.

That's what I am saying.

Smart, fun, long practice is better than smart, fun, short practice.

I don't see why some people need to get angry about this? It's not a competition.

Because that's not the root of my disagreement, as I'm sure you're aware but unwilling to acknowledge. You advocated unsmart practices, then advocated long practice, without any qualifying statements attached to the latter until after the fact. Practicing smart should take priority over practicing for an extended period of time, with a combination of the two obviously being ideal if it does not cause any issues.

 

[celticelk]

That's what I am saying.

Smart, fun, long practice is better than smart, fun, short practice.

I don't see why some people need to get angry about this? It's not a competition.

In my case, I'm objecting to your blanket statement that to be "really good" you need to (a) practice 8 hrs/day and (b) work on all the stuff you mentioned. I see that you're trying to walk it back by saying "to be a good all rounder," and if that's what it means to be "really good" to you, then I hope that's working out for you. I personally think it's a ridiculously narrow definition. Being "really good" to me means exactly one thing: when you play, it moves someone. I could go on at length naming really good guitarists that didn't know 90% of the stuff on your list, and I've heard a few guys who obviously know all of it whose playing is utterly uninteresting to me.

 

[Maniacal]

I agree with you regarding being "really good". I am a working guitarist though, so it is important to me that I can play whatever style is thrown at me.

And yes, just because someone can play every style/chord known to man does not mean they "moving".

 

[Idontpersonally]

Coffee and cigarettes have been working for me lately. But now im addicted to both, but playing too sooo..idk

 

[groovemasta]

Not trying to further an argument but I don't really see how you can oppose manaical.

Assuming you are focusing on technique practise, it's really going to a take a very long time to shred if that's your goal if you don't put in long sessions.

Do olympic athletes train one 'focused' hour a day?

 

[Handbanana]

Quit my job and get a divorce.

 

[celticelk]

Not trying to further an argument but I don't really see how you can oppose manaical.

Assuming you are focusing on technique practise, it's really going to a take a very long time to shred if that's your goal if you don't put in long sessions.

Do olympic athletes train one 'focused' hour a day?

First: yes. The first runner to break a four-minute mile ran an hour a day. There are significant studies showing that you can get an equivalent amount of fitness-building from a very short period of intense training as from a longer period of less intense training.

Second: if he'd said "to shred," I might not have objected so strongly. What he said was "to be really good" which is a much different proposition.

 

[InfinityCollision]

I agree with you regarding being "really good". I am a working guitarist though, so it is important to me that I can play whatever style is thrown at me.

And yes, just because someone can play every style/chord known to man does not mean they "moving".

How's your rasgueado? I kid. I'd debate the importance of some of the things you listed, but I think our approaches to music as a whole, nevermind guitar, are sufficiently different that we'd almost be speaking different languages.

Not trying to further an argument but I don't really see how you can oppose manaical.

Assuming you are focusing on technique practise, it's really going to a take a very long time to shred if that's your goal if you don't put in long sessions.

Do olympic athletes train one 'focused' hour a day?

Off the top of my head, this has been covered at least twice already by both myself and Celticelk with our respective disagreements on the issue.

 

[Brill]

Bullshit? Really?

Okay go practice for an hour, work on the following:
alternate picking
legato
tapping
sweep picking
major modes and arpeggios
harmonic minor modes and arpeggios
melodic minor modes and arpeggios
pentatonic scales
arpeggio and chord inversions
jazz and blues comping
phrasing
learning songs
playing over backing tracks

Practicing smart for 8 hours a day will always be better than practicing smart for 15 minutes day.

Assuming you play guitar as well, that's three instruments you're learning?

I'd say focus on one of them until you get quite proficient, then bring other instruments into the mix. Better to do one thing full-on, than three things half-assedly.

I'm actually just learning bass and piano. No guitar.

 

[phugoid]

Another aspect I haven't seen discussed here is raw talent. Some people might be able to progress with one hour per day, but I don't think I can.

If I put in 100 hours, what I get out depends a lot on my natural aptitude/talent. Talent is a multiplier of your efforts.

 

[guitarguyMT]

...Any one have some tips on how to practice more?

I play guitar, not bass or keys, but I imagine this works the same with any instrument you could play. About two or three months ago recently was wondering the same thing about practicing more myself. Outside of rehearsing with my band once a week, I was averaging 30 to 40 minutes a day, every other day, with an occasional Sunday where I got an hour or two in. It was really pissing me off how stagnant my progress had become. Like quitting cigarettes, I quit wasting time cold turkey.

I essential forced myself to practice whenever I wasn't doing something important, even when I didn't want to. For instance, instead of surfing the internet or watching TV for a little while before bed/work/etc, I played guitar. Just finished class and have 30 minutes before work? Guitar. Not out with friends and don't wanna go to bed for a few hours, play guitar. Even though there's a "Star Trek Marathon" on the BBC, guitar; asking myself which is more important to me, The Federation's shenanigans or mastering a new riff? The choice is easy.

Eventually, practicing guitar just became what I did whenever I was at home, without thinking about it. It became equally an impulse and a force of habit. So much so even I was choosing sober weekend nights alone just to fit in a couple more hours of practice, without hesitation. My level of progress is faster and more rewarding than it has been in the last 4 years.

Also... just purchasing and using a metronome at all times forces you to practice more. Forces you to want to be more accurate, even when just noodling around.

 

[leoseanster12]

Find a facet about your guitar/bass/piano playing that inspires you, dig down to that inspiration and structure a practice regiment based on your goals and your available time.

It helps that the guys on here are suggesting things for you. In the end though, if you want it bad enough you will do it; those practice hours will just fly by.

 

[redstone]

Do olympic athletes train one 'focused' hour a day?

According to some studies, it takes at least 15m to be focused, the focus lasts about 50m, and the minimal rest time is 10m before starting a new cycle.

 

[MeriTone Music]

i have bass guitar and piano lesspns, but i don't seem to play or practise inbetween them very much, like max 1 hour a day. Any one have some tips on how to practice more?

two words... BE INSPIRED.

Whatever you need to do to get inspired... that's it