Practice routines

[Joe G]

Trumpet for me is a bit of a "knack"--if its feels good--I practice with the mindset of keeping it feelin' good--if I lose it--my practice takes me on the search---

Now that rings true as well. Music practice really forces you to be new everyday in a certain way. I might be playing a particular piece that feels great one day, then when I try to repeat the experience the next day, it falls flat.

Also, your post reminded me that the word we use to describe what we do is "play". It's work, yes, but it should be uplifting and invigorating.

[The Pillar of Flame]

Hey Joe:

That's a cool practice routine. Since I play a different instrument, drums, my practice regimen doesn't involve scales and chords. But I work on similar things that pertain to the drums. Stickings, for instance, are kind of like scales--they allow you to move around the kit, making different patterns. I practice those for a couple of hours a week, at least. Also, I work on rudiments all the time--but that's more out of compulsion than anything else.

Here's something that you may find applicable: putting a metronome on its slowest setting and dividing into different subdivisions--that is, the "one" can be chopped up into 3, 5, 6, 7, or 9 beats. I find it challenging to solo against that single click in the different time signatures. Also, I'll set it to 20 bpm and play in double and triple time against it, alternating back and forth. Since I'm always playing fast bebop tunes with Andrew Speight, I play along with Max and Clifford's version of Cherokee everyday, as well. While I play with that tune, I try to incorporate some of the stickings that I had practiced when I was doing the metronome exercise.

Cool discussion.

--Matt

[Michael Weiss]

Joe,

I don't know if what I practice adds anything substantial to this discussion, but since you asked:

My own time at home on the piano is spent playing classical music - *Szymanowski's Mazurkas, Four Polish Dances and Valse Romantique, Scriabin sonatas and etudes - or working on my own compositions. Every now and then I might take a little something through the keys, or blow on a tune for a while. Just playing the instrument for a couple of hours is all I need before a performance.

There are several exercises I recommend to my students which deal with scales, fingerings, technique, keys, transposition, problem solving, etc.

*These are some of the hippest pieces I've come across in the classical repertoire. I strongly recommend any serious pianists out there to check this stuff out.

Marc-Andre Hamelin CD on Hyperion.

Edited March 6, 2005 by Michael Weiss

[Joe G]

Here's something that you may find applicable: putting a metronome on its slowest setting and dividing into different subdivisions--that is, the "one" can be chopped up into 3, 5, 6, 7, or 9 beats. I find it challenging to solo against that single click in the different time signatures. Also, I'll set it to 20 bpm and play in double and triple time against it, alternating back and forth.

I was doing something very similar to that, but had forgotten about it. I'm glad you mentioned it.

[Joe G]

Thanks for posting Michael. Everyone is dealing with different needs and issues, and I find it interesting to get a peek into the process, whether I can apply it to my own search or not. And thanks for the tip on Szymanowski.

[Shawn]

My practice routine usually involves, picking up the guitar, plugging it in, turning on the amp, play for 30 minutes or so, get frustrated, turn off the amp, put the guitar back on it's stand....turn on the stereo.

[tonym]

My practice routine usually involves, picking up the guitar, plugging it in, turning on the amp, play for 30 minutes or so, get frustrated, turn off the amp, put the guitar back on it's stand....turn on the stereo.

Sounds familiar

Mine is: look at case, think about how underwhelmed I am everytime I play. Stop looking and do something else instead.

[Joe G]

That's part of the game, too (see my second post)...

[AllenLowe]

well, Chico Marx used to practice piano by soaking his hands in warm water - and that was it. But he was too busy gambling and womanizing - I've been teaching (or trying to teach) myelf guitar (from saxophone previously) over the last 4 years - I find myself just playing - trying to invent, to play lines, to avoid patterns, to learn to always find a tonality no matter where it falls on the neck, to be able to start from any position on the fretboard and construct a scale or line. To play chromatics, to be able to jump intervals, to play anywhere necessary to vary texture and sound. To, really, try to play something fresh and to avoid cliches and to try and get in an out of chords and scales. Don't know if this is orthodox but it seems to work well for me -

[Joe G]

I've been teaching (or trying to teach) myelf guitar

You have a lot of fun with that little guy, don't you?

[AllenLowe]

he uses a short scale guitar -

[Joe G]

[sal]

Sometimes I'll chose four notes and adapt exercises from Stick Control for the snare drummer by George Lawrence Stone.

As an intermediate drummer, I swear by this book. It doesn't get much better than this for building chops on the kit, or as impossible mentioned, the mallet instruments. Especially once you start incorporating bass drum patterns, such as salsa, into the stickings. Or even changing it around to play the ride cymbal and hi-hat as well as the snare.......I could go on and on about this book.

[Jim Alfredson]

Wow... I feel so... non-regimental. I don't really sit down to practice anymore. Part of the reason is I'm playing regularily, in different styles. A lot of times I won't have anything to do on breaks with the r&b band I play with, so I'll sit there and run through organissimo tunes or teach myself standards from ear memory. That is usually my practice for the week.

If I do sit down to practice, it's usually to learn a specific thing, like a cool Jimmy Smith lick or a Don Patterson tune or something.

I've actually taken to thinking about music rather than doing it lately, since my hands have been tired from playing a lot. I'll think about certain tunes (usually our originals) and what I want to do on them and then the next time we all rehearse, I try it out.

I guess one reason why Joe and I write so well together is that he is very structured and analytical and I am very spontaneous. Like this past rehearsal, we had been discussing for weeks how a certain original needed a complete overhaul... we needed to do something completely different with it rhythmically, to separate it from some of our other stuff. No sooner did those words come out of my mouth at rehearsal... I came up with this groove and that was that. It still needs some tweaking, but that stuff just pops out of me for some reason. I have no idea where it comes from.

[Free For All]

I do pretty much as Phil (Trumpet Guy) does.

For brass players (at least for me) there are basically two kinds of practice- what I refer to as "maintenance" and "constructive".

Maintenance consists of all the long tone, intervallic, scale, flexibility etc. exercises that are required (on a daily basis) just to stay in shape. These require focused attention to be sure, but I will admit I frequently do some of these things while watching sports (or something where I can have the TV sound off).

Constructive practice usually consists of more developmental concepts- working on new *shit* (and various aspects of improvisation) by playing with and without accompaniment (the accompaniment usually being some sort of play-along).

When I get busy with teaching or other things it's often all I can do just to keep the maintenance stuff together. I tend to practice for shorter sessions spread over the entire day, although it is important to get some longer sessions in to improve endurance.

There is a book that I use for teaching as well as my own practice; it's by Hal Crook and it's called How To Improvise (Advance Music). Hal Crook happens to be a trombonist, but it's by no means a *trombone* book.

Crook deconstructs the elements of improvisation and creates exercises to work on very specific things. I tend to jump around in the book- I just pick the thing that I'm most bored with in my own playing and attack it.

That's enough of that for now.

[Joe G]

I've been following Fareed Haque's advice and playing along to CDs with a shaker for a couple of weeks now. Haven't seen any immediate changes in my guitar playing, but it's fun, and it can't hurt! One interesting thing I have noticed is that when I'm playing along, keeping that shaker rhythm centered and finding the right accents, I become aware of rhythms, melodies, and harmonies in the recording which for some reason had escaped my attention previously. Shit just jumps out at me, and I'll say, "I never heard that before!" So I recommend this practice for that reason alone.

Here's Fareed's article, from his website:

A Natural Approach To Chops, Speed and Virtuosity

The Nature of Virtuosity

ON Virtuosity, Technique and Rhythm

There are a few basic principles that need to ALWAYS be applied to avoid injury, and develop virtuoso technique.

What is Virtuosity?

One of the most striking examples of virtuosity on the classical guitar is John Williams' Version of "El colibri"(The Hummingbird) by Julio Sagreras. [sony Classical]

As a young guitarist I wore this track out, so moved was I that I played it over and over again. Williams playing took my breath away. SO FAST!! WOW! SO AMAZING!!

Soon I was playing classical guitar myself and collecting records - checking out different guitarists - AND different versions of the same pieces. ESPECIALLY my favorite - El colibri. I found recordings of almost every other fine guitarist playing this short 'virtuoso'piece. NOBODY played it as well or as fast as John Williams. I found all of the other versions competetent, but they didn't have that 'thing' that WOW that took my breath away. What did those other versions lack???

Soon my inner nerd took over. I began practicing 'El colibri myself. Comparing different versions I timed them all to see who played the fastest. Imagine my SHOCK and SURPRISE to find that Williams' version was the SLOWEST version of all of them.

This blew my mind, shattered all of my illusions, and raised the right question, "What is it about Williams' version that moved me, WOWED me every time, even after hundreds of listenings????

The answer, after years of playing and experimenting, finally came. Williams' version GROOVES! Simple as all that. Williams plays with RHYTHM.

It was not the speed that wowed me. It was the rhythm that created the feeling of speed that wowed me.

[ Did you ever notice that almost all great jazz virtuosi play drums or percussion??? Chick, Jaco, Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin….and many many others…]

SO I began to work on my Rhythm not speed. I practiced accenting…GROOVING…the notes. I also picked up some percussion toys, egg shakers and the like and I started out playing along with the radio.

I practiced some with a metronome…but mostly I just tapped my foot and accented the notes that were important to the phrase…making them groove. All the while Id practice my shakers everyday through a couple of songs on the radio.

Suddently I found two things happening:

1 - after playing with my shakers my SPEED on the guitar was increasing…almost exponentially - all by itself. HUH? NO hard work?? No hours in the practice room? Just a few minutes a day jamming along with the radio with an egg shaker - and my GUITAR chops are finally getting better. WHY???

Well in retrospect the answer is simple. For every note played a signal needs to go from head to hand, right? The better one knows WHEN to play that note [rhythm] the less confusion between hand and brain.

2 - I ALSO found that I could GROOVE my [by this time] old favorite El colibri and get that same WOW that I loved about the Williams version at any tempo. I could make it feel' Virtuosic' - I could make it feel fast - just by grooving - playing with good rhythm and accenting the important notes - at almost any tempo - even slowly.

This for me was a huge realization. Think about the implications. You get off the plane, hands cold, no warm up and must play a recital. How do you play vi\rtuoso music???

Before I'd just pray. NOW I know that virtuosity is Rhythm not speed…so all I have to do is find a comfortable tempo for THAT room, Those cold hands and frazzeled nerves…I just play it slower…make sure it grooves….and the people still get their breath taken a way…they get that WOW at any tempo…and I now sit down to play with CONFIDENCE knowing that not speed but groove will get my message of music to my beloved audience.

[GregN]

I've been following Fareed Haque's advice and playing along to CDs with a shaker for a couple of weeks now. Haven't seen any immediate changes in my guitar playing, but it's fun, and it can't hurt! One interesting thing I have noticed is that when I'm playing along, keeping that shaker rhythm centered and finding the right accents, I become aware of rhythms, melodies, and harmonies in the recording which for some reason had escaped my attention previously. Shit just jumps out at me, and I'll say, "I never heard that before!" So I recommend this practice for that reason alone.

Here's Fareed's article, from his website:

A Natural Approach To Chops, Speed and Virtuosity

The Nature of Virtuosity

ON Virtuosity, Technique and Rhythm

There are a few basic principles that need to ALWAYS be applied to avoid injury, and develop virtuoso technique.

What is Virtuosity?

One of the most striking examples of virtuosity on the classical guitar is John Williams' Version of "El colibri"(The Hummingbird) by Julio Sagreras. [sony Classical]

As a young guitarist I wore this track out, so moved was I that I played it over and over again. Williams playing took my breath away. SO FAST!! WOW! SO AMAZING!!

Soon I was playing classical guitar myself and collecting records - checking out different guitarists - AND different versions of the same pieces. ESPECIALLY my favorite - El colibri. I found recordings of almost every other fine guitarist playing this short 'virtuoso'piece. NOBODY played it as well or as fast as John Williams. I found all of the other versions competetent, but they didn't have that 'thing' that WOW that took my breath away. What did those other versions lack???

Soon my inner nerd took over. I began practicing 'El colibri myself. Comparing different versions I timed them all to see who played the fastest. Imagine my SHOCK and SURPRISE to find that Williams' version was the SLOWEST version of all of them.

This blew my mind, shattered all of my illusions, and raised the right question, "What is it about Williams' version that moved me, WOWED me every time, even after hundreds of listenings????

The answer, after years of playing and experimenting, finally came. Williams' version GROOVES! Simple as all that. Williams plays with RHYTHM.

It was not the speed that wowed me. It was the rhythm that created the feeling of speed that wowed me.

[ Did you ever notice that almost all great jazz virtuosi play drums or percussion??? Chick, Jaco, Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin….and many many others…]

SO I began to work on my Rhythm not speed. I practiced accenting…GROOVING…the notes. I also picked up some percussion toys, egg shakers and the like and I started out playing along with the radio.

I practiced some with a metronome…but mostly I just tapped my foot and accented the notes that were important to the phrase…making them groove. All the while Id practice my shakers everyday through a couple of songs on the radio.

Suddently I found two things happening:

1 - after playing with my shakers my SPEED on the guitar was increasing…almost exponentially - all by itself. HUH? NO hard work?? No hours in the practice room? Just a few minutes a day jamming along with the radio with an egg shaker - and my GUITAR chops are finally getting better. WHY???

Well in retrospect the answer is simple. For every note played a signal needs to go from head to hand, right? The better one knows WHEN to play that note [rhythm] the less confusion between hand and brain.

2 - I ALSO found that I could GROOVE my [by this time] old favorite El colibri and get that same WOW that I loved about the Williams version at any tempo. I could make it feel' Virtuosic' - I could make it feel fast - just by grooving - playing with good rhythm and accenting the important notes - at almost any tempo - even slowly.

This for me was a huge realization. Think about the implications. You get off the plane, hands cold, no warm up and must play a recital. How do you play vi\rtuoso music???

Before I'd just pray. NOW I know that virtuosity is Rhythm not speed…so all I have to do is find a comfortable tempo for THAT room, Those cold hands and frazzeled nerves…I just play it slower…make sure it grooves….and the people still get their breath taken a way…they get that WOW at any tempo…and I now sit down to play with CONFIDENCE knowing that not speed but groove will get my message of music to my beloved audience.

Thanks for posting this Joe! It makes sense. On a similiar note, I believe dancing helps musicianship too.

Go ahead make fun of me... I don't care. But I am serious.

What you doing Saturday night?

[Joe G]

Talk to Sangrey. He's the one who started the dancing thread.

[Robert J]

Just a few minutes a day jamming along with the radio with an egg shaker - and my GUITAR chops are finally getting better.

Sounds like a Thighmaster ad: "Lose weight while watching TV".

OK - Maybe I'll try it out. I just won't tell my Gripmaster.

[GregN]

Talk to Sangrey. He's the one who started the dancing thread.

I have a feeling Sangery would want to lead all the time.

[GregN]

Just a few minutes a day jamming along with the radio with an egg shaker - and my GUITAR chops are finally getting better.

Sounds like a Thighmaster ad: "Lose weight while watching TV".

OK - Maybe I'll try it out. I just won't tell my Gripmaster.

Dude the gripmaster in one hand, the shaker in the other....

you could be on to something.