practice regimes

[spaceboy]

just curious as to what you guys practice. i'm kinda chilling at the mo, but after the summer when I'm off to Uni i'm gonna really buckle down and get lessons, books etc. for now, just wanna expand my horizons a bit.

most of my excercises are purely left hand work outs trying to recover some strength i lost by not practicing during exam times.

a good one is

---------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------3-----34---345--3456----
------3-----34----345--3456--456---56-----6-----------
-3456--456----56-----6----------------------------------

etc. just over and over til my hand can't take it any more.

then it's just some hammer-on and pull/off excercises i made up to the same effect as the above excercise

then if i have time i have a grade 8 book that I'll look at and work on some pieces.

pretty dull, so you see why i want to get some more ideas.

oh, arpeggios and sweep picking and tapping are practiced to limited degrees.

thanks for sharing!

[gimmejava]

I'm currently busting my butt on the material in "Sheets of Sound", by JZucker. I'll have my hands full to come for the next few years. But mind you, if I get through the book, I"ll be one bad Mofo!!!! :D

[spaceboy]

yeh, i'm thinking i might just have to get a hold of that book myself. seems like the best way...

[matte]

Originally posted by spaceboy
yeh, i'm thinking i might just have to get a hold of that book myself. seems like the best way... I strongly recommend it.:)

[spaceboy]

well, consider it well and truly ordered! so yay for me.

[spaceboy]

but does no one want to share their favourite excercises/practice techniques/etc? no one at all?

[matte]

Originally posted by spaceboy
but does no one want to share their favourite excercises/practice techniques/etc? no one at all? I don't have time to type it in.

[AlexT]

For starters:

1234, 4321, 121, 212, 131, 313, 1231, 1321, 3213, 3123, 1235, 1345, 5321, 5431 patters up and down scales in all positions and all keys (bonus: without looking at the fretboard.)

Alex

[spaceboy]

very nice. for the 121, 131, 313, 1231 etc. (the ones where you start and finish on the same finger) is there a special technique to moving strings? or do you just have to kinda flatten your finger down/slide it up sorta thing? or can you bar?

and what about for the main course? ^_^

[AlexT]

Spaceboy,

For the few cases where it's needed, I always move fingers, never bar.

The main course is an other story....

Cheers,

Alex

[matte]

Originally posted by AlexT
For starters:

1234, 4321, 121, 212, 131, 313, 1231, 1321, 3213, 3123, 1235, 1345, 5321, 5431 patters up and down scales in all positions and all keys (bonus: without looking at the fretboard.)

Alex What relationship do these numbers have to do with playing music?

[AlexT]

Matte,

If you think about it, a lot.


Up or down seconds, thirds of any scale you know.

Partial pentatonics.

Playing mostly inside.

Quasi arpeggios.


....you name it.

[matte]

Originally posted by AlexT
Matte,

If you think about it, a lot.


Up or down seconds, thirds of any scale you know.

Partial pentatonics.

Playing mostly inside.

Quasi arpeggios.


....you name it. Why not simply play through pieces that address specific technical issues? The whole idiomatic approach to guitar thing is pretty unconstructive if the objective is to play music.

Learn to play a half step whole step scale, displaced over three octaves. Forget about all the closed interval sequential motion line goes up/line goes down rubbish. Learn to play some music. Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes. You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

[Mark C]

I'm gonna have to agree with Matte. If you are building technique, might as well learn some cool music while doing it. Not that my technique is all that good!;)

[matte]

Originally posted by Mark C
I'm gonna have to agree with Matte. If you are building technique, might as well learn some cool music while doing it. Not that my technique is all that good!;) How often have you gone to see a horn player perform, with someone yelling in your ear:"Did you SEE what he/she just played?

[rwe333]

Originally posted by Matte
Why not simply play through pieces that address specific technical issues? The whole idiomatic approach to guitar thing is pretty unconstructive if the objective is to play music.

Learn to play a half step whole step scale, displaced over three octaves. Forget about all the closed interval sequential motion line goes up/line goes down rubbish. Learn to play some music. Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes. You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

MANY excellent points throughout this thread, Matte...

[rh]

Originally posted by Matte
How often have you gone to see a horn player perform, with someone yelling in your ear:"Did you SEE what he/she just played?

Never. But I went to see Holdsworth one night with another guitarist who must have said exactly that three or four times in every tune Allan played.

Like Allan has said, lots of people "listen" to him with their eyes.

[matte]

Originally posted by rhuddleston
Never. But I went to see Holdsworth one night with another guitarist who must have said exactly that three or four times in every tune Allan played.

Like Allan has said, lots of people "listen" to him with their eyes. Are you coming up here anytime soon? Your name comes up often with Nicky and Matt. I'd love to meet you.

Best,

Matte

[matte]

Originally posted by rwe333
MANY excellent points throughout this thread, Matte... Thank you, Wayne. :)

[rh]

Originally posted by Matte
Are you coming up here anytime soon? Your name comes up often with Nicky and Matt. I'd love to meet you.

Best,

Matte

The feeling's definitely mutual, Matte. I'd love to get my family up to 'stock to meet you and hang with Matt and Lorenza, and have open plans to as soon the schedule opens up enough. It's been a sad and very busy year so far.

Mo' best,

Richard

[spaceboy]

Originally posted by Matte
Why not simply play through pieces that address specific technical issues? The whole idiomatic approach to guitar thing is pretty unconstructive if the objective is to play music.

Learn to play a half step whole step scale, displaced over three octaves. Forget about all the closed interval sequential motion line goes up/line goes down rubbish. Learn to play some music. Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes. You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

aha! now that's the kind of reply I was wanting!

I've always been looking for "idiomatic" excercises, i guess, but because i always thought that they were what guitarists were supposed to practice, but now you mention it like that, i have always improved much faster when learning pieces that are quite far above my own ability, most recently this cheesy metal piece from a Grade 8 book - just a load of arpeggios and tapping excercises anyway really.

but yeh, that's a great way to lok at it - IF you can find all this music. Classical does sound like a very good way to start though... I'll gve it a try.

cheers

[matte]

Originally posted by spaceboy
aha! now that's the kind of reply I was wanting!

I've always been looking for "idiomatic" excercises, i guess, but because i always thought that they were what guitarists were supposed to practice, but now you mention it like that, i have always improved much faster when learning pieces that are quite far above my own ability, most recently this cheesy metal piece from a Grade 8 book - just a load of arpeggios and tapping excercises anyway really.

but yeh, that's a great way to lok at it - IF you can find all this music. Classical does sound like a very good way to start though... I'll gve it a try.

cheers
If I might make a suggestion, start off with the Bach Solo Violin Partitas. They are beautiful, require a modest amount of facility and feature some brilliant harmonic devices and compound melodies.

[spaceboy]

cool, I'll have a look for it. either an internet tab, or I'll see if mum has the score, and transcribe something for it myself. cheers!

[AlexT]

Originally posted by Matte
Why not simply play through pieces that address specific technical issues? The whole idiomatic approach to guitar thing is pretty unconstructive if the objective is to play music.

Learn to play a half step whole step scale, displaced over three octaves. Forget about all the closed interval sequential motion line goes up/line goes down rubbish. Learn to play some music. Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes. You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

Matte, I would agree with you if exercise is all you play.....

<I find them great for fretboard visualization, for focusing on specific technique, vocabolary build-up ....>

... but don't spend more than 15% - 20% of my practice time on them.

Alex


BTW, Coltrane and Parker did plenty of idiomatic practice - it's a matter of what works for you.

[matte]

Originally posted by AlexT
BTW, Coltrane and Parker did plenty of idiomatic practice - it's a matter of what works for you. Would you say that you have achieved the same results with"idiomatic practice" as Trane and Bird? I know that Trane worked out of the Slonimsky tome, "Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns", as did I for most of my tenure as an MFA candidate.

It all comes down to one's objectives, I suppose. I, for one, want to play music and my chosen instrument(prior to my G4)has been guitar. I ceased being interested in idiomatic players back in the mid to late "70s, when I first heard Holdsworth. It's been all downhill since then, with Paganini, Bach, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok, Kodaly, Berg, L Shankar, Rais Khan, Kevin Burke, etc. leading the way, with long glances at cats like Fripp, Belew and Torn keeping my interest in the guitfiddle realm.

This is not an absolute but a perspective.

[AlexT]

Originally posted by Matte
Would you say that you have achieved the same results with"idiomatic practice" as Trane and Bird? I know that Trane worked out of the Slonimsky tome, "Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns", as did I for most of my tenure as an MFA candidate.

It all comes down to one's objectives, I suppose. I, for one, want to play music and my chosen instrument(prior to my G4)has been guitar. I ceased being interested in idiomatic players back in the mid to late "70s, when I first heard Holdsworth. It's been all downhill since then, with Paganini, Bach, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartok, Kodaly, Berg, L Shankar, Rais Khan, Kevin Burke, etc. leading the way, with long glances at cats like Fripp, Belew and Torn keeping my interest in the guitfiddle realm.

This is not an absolute but a perspective.

1. I wish... did you?

2. I agree, it's a matter of perspective.

[matte]

Originally posted by AlexT
1. I wish... did you?
Have I met my objectives as a musician? Hell no. Am I communicating with intention on my instrument? I'd say that I'm batting @ about 93% there(i.e. the distance between thought and action/accuracy in playing what I'm hearing).

[Lucidology]

How often have you gone to see a horn player perform, with someone yelling in your ear:"Did you SEE what he/she just played?


Whoa ... good one!!

[lalaland]

So what else do y'all practice after the technical stuff is over?

I've always found this difficult...

Jamie

[Lucidology]

Learn to play some music.

Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes.

You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

Wow,ya know... this is great advice...

Still have never done this & really should...

Now where to get this music
& are there versions out there specifically adapted for guitar study .... :confused:

[gh1]

cool, I'll have a look for it. either an internet tab, or I'll see if mum has the score, and transcribe something for it myself. cheers!
.....Now where to get this music
& are there versions out there specifically adapted for guitar study .... :confused:
Paganni (http://imslp.org/wiki/24_Caprices_for_Solo_Violin%2C_Op.1_%28Paganini%2C _Niccol%C3%B2%29)
Bach (http://imslp.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_Partitas_for_Solo_Violin%2C_BWV_1001-1006_%28Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian%29)
Chopin Op. 10 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Etudes_Op.10_%28Chopin%2C_Frederic%29) and Op. 25 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Etudes_Op.25_%28Chopin%2C_Frederic%29).

_____
gh1

[Lucidology]

Paganni (http://imslp.org/wiki/24_Caprices_for_Solo_Violin%2C_Op.1_%28Paganini%2C _Niccol%C3%B2%29)
Bach (http://imslp.org/wiki/Sonatas_and_Partitas_for_Solo_Violin%2C_BWV_1001-1006_%28Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian%29)
Chopin Op. 10 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Etudes_Op.10_%28Chopin%2C_Frederic%29) and Op. 25 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Etudes_Op.25_%28Chopin%2C_Frederic%29).

_____
gh1


Thank you very much gh1

[dkaplowitz]

& are there versions out there specifically adapted for guitar study .... :confused:
There are books of Bach violin parts for guitar and some transcriptions of some of the Paganini stuff, but I think you'd probably get more out of figuring out your own fingerings for them. The few classical etudes for violin that I know are things I keep revisiting and thinking about ways to make play/sound better (or even just easier). It's another way of thinking through what you play and how you play it on the instrument. I guess it's the same with learning Bird heads and/or sax solos.

The Bach lute stuff that was transposed to guitar by Segovia, et. al., is worth checking out though. Beautiful music and fingerings in those.

[Leucadian]

...man...I don't never practice...just jam:RoCkIn...and eat:munch...drink:BEER...and jam:RoCkIn...eat:munch...drink:BEER...look for dames:drool...:o

...oh well...always got the guitar...:RoCkIn...and the cycle repeats...with different outcomes sometimes:cool:

[Lucidology]

.....look for dames:drool...:o



wit ya dat one dude Leucadian ... :)

[aram]

& are there versions out there specifically adapted for guitar study .... :confused:

http://www.amazon.com/Works-Violin-Complete-Partitas-Unaccompanied/dp/0486236838/ref=sr_1_2/102-1802858-5573727?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190034213&sr=8-2

I practice from this book every day. It's amazing.

I also agree with the above poster that it's better to come up with your own fingerings for it.

I've found that Bach's music more or less falls very easily on the guitar. Just don't try and tackle the fugues first!

(:

[dorfmeister]

I am wondering what percentage of practice time people use for transcribing?

[NatDeroxL7]

Why not simply play through pieces that address specific technical issues? The whole idiomatic approach to guitar thing is pretty unconstructive if the objective is to play music.

Learn to play a half step whole step scale, displaced over three octaves. Forget about all the closed interval sequential motion line goes up/line goes down rubbish. Learn to play some music. Read through some of Bach's Solo Violin Partitas, Paganini's Caprices, RH parts to Chopin Etudes. You'll develop plenty of stamina and expose yourself to some incredible writing and harmonic devices.

WELL PRAISE ALLAH....i can't believe i didn't think of that. Ive been a classical violinist since i was a wee boy, went to music school as a performance major and everything...then discovered guitar, transferred into the Film Studies program and joined ROTC....

I have all that music laying around in my room, never thought to pull it out to practice on guitar....

[Lucidology]

http://www.amazon.com/Works-Violin-Complete-Partitas-Unaccompanied/dp/0486236838/ref=sr_1_2/102-1802858-5573727?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190034213&sr=8-2

I practice from this book every day. It's amazing.

I also agree with the above poster that it's better to come up with your own fingerings for it.

I've found that Bach's music more or less falls very easily on the guitar. Just don't try and tackle the fugues first!

(:


Thanks again Aram...

Gotta get some of this stuff sitting on tiny music stands around the house urging me to focus my priorities ...