Why Do I Not Want To Practice?

[VitalSigns]

Go see some really good live musicians. It will inspire you and really make you WANT to do better. I went and saw Victor Wooten and the first thing I wanted to do after the show was pick up my bass and practice.

[bolophonic]

Originally Posted by VitalSigns

Go see some really good live musicians. It will inspire you and really make you WANT to do better. I went and saw Victor Wooten and the first thing I wanted to do after the show was pick up my bass and practice.

Very good advice. Nothing makes me want to play my bass more than seeing a great live show.

[Kragnorak]

I'm no role model because I rarely practice, and certainly not as much as I should. But I want to respond to the bit about falling behind.

I don't think fear is a good motivator for music. If you want negative motivations you can always find that in another field.

When I do practice, I try to find something each time that is either interesting because I haven't done it before or interesting because I haven't done it in a long time and therefore it is an aspect that needs improvement. The positive part of this approach is that I end most practice sessions (even very short ones) feeling that I have improved. The negative is that sometimes I've only improved because I was so rusty in the first place ;-)

Take this and all else with a grain of salt as there are give and takes everywhere and we do not have unlimited time. For example, I feel it adds to musicality to play multiple instruments because so many things we learn from various approaches and styles of music carry over to other musical realms. But I recognize that (for example) I'm not going to be able to play the more complex music of Chopin and Liszt on piano at this rate.

Finally, the coolest improv practice suggestion I ever heard was from Michael Brecker. He would take any 4 notes, choosing different ones each day. Then he would explore JUST those notes, moving them around different octaves and exploring their relationship to each other. He would start simple and by the end of a practice session he would be creating wonderful solos out of the notes. So that is a recommended exercise that you can stick near the end of your practice regimen to look forward to.

[Clef_de_fa]

Well I,too, have studied music at my local college and you have to practice like every day for at least 3h ... I played more in the 5h because I had two instrument so I devoted at least an hour to the second instrument.

So prior to those studies I practiced for 2h each day for like 4 years. I went from someone you know nothing to at least be at the minimum level for college.

after my studies I dropped to 1h a day and like a 5h on the weekend with my band.

Now that I'm not in a band anymore ( for the past 4 years ) and many things happenned. So I stopped playing completely ... and for the past year I tried many things to give me the interest back. Very hard. One of the thing that kill my joy of playing is how people ( like here ) can't handle something different, a different approach and all. Maybe bass isn't my instrument anymore.

[CraigTB]

Maybe I'm wrong but I would think anyone who's a music performance major at the university level would have to practice at least 3 hrs a day most days to meet the program requirements and to be competitive skill-wise.

I shared a house with a percussion performance major in college and he practiced a good 6-8 hours a day, every day. This wasn't even a very prestigious music program.

This guy was unbelievable - still the greatest drummer I've ever known by a factor of 10 - and he still ended up thinking he might not be able to make a good living playing pro, so he switched over to music education.

Originally Posted by Clef_de_fa

One of the thing that kill my joy of playing is how people ( like here ) can't handle something different, a different approach and all. Maybe bass isn't my instrument anymore.

And hey Clef, what does this mean? I don't understand the different approach part, but I'm curious what you're talking about.

[uOpt]

You either don't see an improvement out of your practice, or you consider your improvement not valuable enough. If this persists over longer periods you are either practicing something you don't actually want to get better at (something that doesn't actually matter as much as you though), or your practice method is not effective at making you better.

[charliefreak]

Originally Posted by Crazyfist

Cheers man. If it helps at all, I'm at a music college and I'm in two bands... so I'm pretty much surrounded by music!

The main reason for the routine to spark up was because my tutor said to me "Every day that you don't play bass, you fall behind"... Which is quite flippin' scary!!

Not only that, but I really want to get better and I know exactly what I have to do! If a less routine approach is going to do that then I might just consider it... The current routine at the moment is about 3-4 hours long, which is actually what my tutor recommended!

Ahh, "musical ruts", pretty much a perfect description of it.

This turned in to a very interesting thread! I envy you for having such amazing opportunities in music! It sounds very exciting.

The only other thing I can recommend to get you back into it (not sure i've seen it here yet) is recording. I mean, I tend to zone out into production and mess around with the tracks and make changes, and add fills etc. Even if you do this, you're still gaining experience with music. And being able to record yourself is very a very profitable tool!

A fun boredom exercise for me is laying down a groove and punching in god-awful, technical, difficult fills that I can play, but it forces me to try something new with the original groove. And having a clear "end product" is very motivational.

If all else fails- by some new albums! Or I might even venture to say grab an acoustic guitar or something. There's always something new to broaden your musical horizons. Good luck with this chief!

[Clef_de_fa]

Originally Posted by CraigTB

And hey Clef, what does this mean? I don't understand the different approach part, but I'm curious what you're talking about.

Well I've got some flak because I, sometime, proposed different way to see music.

Like using the drum for a simple melody, the bass as the guitar, the sax as the walking bass line and the guitar as a percussion (maybe a piano would be better for that with the "prepared piano" John Cage used). Because to me, it is just a fonction it isn't so much because of the sound it has to be the foundation.

Or let the Bass do a melody while the guitar take care of the background. Let the drummer be something else than a big metronome.

In my country, we have a meal called "pâté chinois" which doesn't seem to have any translation in English. This meal is made by layering on top of the other : ground beef, creamed corn and smashed potatos. Music seems to work the same way, ground beef is the drum, creamed corn is the bass, smashed potatos is the guitar and the vocal could be ketchup you put on top. But once you put that meal in your plate ... it is a chaotic mess. So I think music can be that way too and it has been that way for a bref moment. No one is supporting someone else, they are all a part of the same thing, they are equal. But people think more in the way that a drum can only keep the beat ( so a big metronome ) and the bass is kind of the link between ... so someone else support someone else, in a somekind of immutable hierarchy.

[shwashwa]

i have this problem sometimes, there is so much to work on i dont even want to get started. i know i wont have time to hit it all and i feel overwhelmed, so i never even start. my solution that seems to be working is to just tell myself that im going to pick up the bass for only 5 mins to just noodle around. nothing specific, just anything that is FUN for me at the moment. this usually ends up leading me into my routine and to a much longer session. Just get the thing in your hands

[Anonymatt]

If you think you need three or four hours to have a great practice, then you're never going to find the time to practice.

If you don't feel like practicing, just tell yourself that all you gotta do is put the bass on and play one note. If you don't like it after one note, you can put the bass down and you're off the hook for the rest of the day.

[Crazyfist]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's replied to this thread!

I've changed my "routine" a little bit (routine really isn't a very motivating word, is it?) to a maximum of 2 hours every time I do it with slight variations each day so that it's more interesting and I have something to look forward to every time I do it!

Also, I read Carol Kaye's forum post and watched an interview with her... And gosh darn, she is interesting! And now I know not to just play note scales when practising!

Thanks again dudes, I know I'm nowhere near perfecting my practice sessions, but I couldn't have done it without your help!

[fearceol]

Originally Posted by Crazyfist

I've changed my "routine" a little bit (routine really isn't a very motivating word, is it?) to a maximum of 2 hours every time I do it with slight variations each day so that it's more interesting and I have something to look forward to every time I do it!

Sounds like a good plan. Best of luck with it.

[oniman7]

Do you have an amp that you can plug into wherever you spend your time?

When I got a guitar and 1 Watt tube amp, I practiced hours a day.

Bass I had stopped practicing for a while. My amp was out in the hot garage, weighed 80 pounds, and it generally took a lot of effort for what could be a 10 minute sit down, and it was uncomfortable to be out there that long if it turned into more.

Now that I have an interface I can listen to in my room at any time, I'm practicing bass more. Same with piano. I don't practice piano very often (even though I'm taking lessons) because all I have is a half-working hammond organ buried behind piles of stuff in the garage and I have to climb in to it. I feel I would practice a lot more if I had a nice sounding piano in the music room that I could plink on for 5 minutes at a time or even for hours at a time with no hassle.

So, to sum it up: availability is what does it for me.

[Russell L]

Maybe I'm just old, but seems like my practicing these days consists mostly of either playing along with some CDs I enjoy or playing alone and trying to come up with some grooves I like. I did all the regimental stuff long ago (music school, learning theory, scales arpeggios, etc.). My technique has been sound for decades. While I certainly could be better (anyone can) I'm comfortable where I am. Plus, I know time is short at age 63 now, so I want to just enjoy playing, just as I want to simply enjoy living this last segment of life, whether it be playing music, taking my telescope out at night, hiking with my wife and the dog, or having a premium cigar once in awhile. Of course, if one of my bands needs a new tune I'll work on it. That would be real practice, I guess. But, otherwise, I just play what I feel like. And I do it every day, usually, for maybe thirty minutes to an hour.

That's not to say that you don't have to pay your dues first. I certainly did, including playing full-time pro for a few years, way back. Sometimes discipline is what's needed.