Is rehearsal practice?

[lermgalieu]

If you have a rehearsal or a gig, do you still feel guilty (that's not the right word - I guess the right word would be 'cheated') if you can't squeeze your regular practice regimine in on that day?

[Marcus Johnson]

Regular practice...now there's an idea I've gotta try sometime. I prefer rehearsing, because it pays half scale

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Is rehearsal practice? No. Do gigs count as "practice"? The short answer is: when school's in, YES. When school is out, NO.

When school is OUT, I try to get in 20 hours a week of hands-on bass time. That usually means about 10 hours of gigs plus 10 hours of practice. When school is IN, I lower that number to 15 hours, so that I might also find time to sleep and say hello to my wife and (from here on) son from time to time. I wish I could do more, but there it is.

[Don Higdon]

lerm:
Congratulations and commendations on getting into the bow. It's a wonderful world, and the benefits will be huge.
2 approaches to your question
1. Semantical - when a surgeon is doing his job in the operating room, we say he is practicing surgery, leading me to
2. Playing is playing, and you want to be doing your best at all times. The only difference is that practicing is risk-free; nobody's going to beat you up for making a mistake. But actually, if you take that attitude to a gig or rehearsal, you'll probably play better there, too.
I'm in favor of playing in as many different circumstances as possible, so as to learn to differentiate between the playing and the emotional environment. It all counts. Every playing situation is an opportunity to show how well you can do.

[mje]

Going the other way, Andreas Segovia said that any time you're playing and someone can hear you, it's a performance. Every thing you do on your instrument should be done as musically as possible- including tuning up.

Something to think about.

[lermgalieu]

I guess my question needs to be placed in context of my own circumstances - since Don mentions the bow. I have been learning to play with the stick of death, and generally rehearsals with my main project don't involve the bow (maybe 5%) and are only 50% DB to begin with - I also play electric bass. I don't regret that except when I run into a day where I really need to get in some bow practice and don't, or end up at a rehearsal or gig where for one reason or another I play very little DB. I don't sit up at night worrying about this, but on the other hand, I think I need to set expectations for myself, especially if I gig frequently but still want to progress my arco playing.

I know ultimately this is just one of those things I need to set within the context of my own priorities, however I was just hoping to hear how you folks have dealt with similar issues, or if you worry about them at all. And your responses have been helpful, I am just trying to lend some more detail to this...

[luisnovelo]

I think rehearsing can be practice depending on what you rehearse. In most cases I would say yes.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by luisnovelo
I think rehearsing can be practice depending on what you rehearse. In most cases I would say yes.

I think this is doubtful, but I have always been advised that you should practice what you don't know or can't do well and not what you can do well.

So if you're practising tunes that you know like the back of your hand then no - it can't count. But maybe if you're practising something you've never played before, it could count - although then it would probably come into the category of just annoying your fellow band-members - as in, why the **** didn't you practice this before hand!!

[Marty Forrer]

I personally think that gigging is the best practice of all. Your mind and attention are sharp, you cannot wander, and ideas will flow from other peoples playing that cause you to do things you would not ordinarily think of. Of course you take risks, of course you will have a train wreck, but if you laugh it off and use the experience as a learning tool you will progress.

[Lovebown]

I think that while "rehearsing" or "playing" isn't useful in perhaps extending your vocubulary, it can sure teach you a lot. It can teach you stuff about playing in an ensemble, listening , reacting , group improvisation etc... I think some great jam sessions have taught me more than what maybe a week in the shed has... on the other hand I suppose you can say they are two seperate things.

Practicing alone is of course useful and neccecary in very many aspects like working on technique and hearing new stuff... transcribing and so forth but honestly, how often will you get great feeling and really solo/walk/play your ass of when playing alone in your shed... ?
Once in a while perhaps , but to me, playing jazz is a lot about the group communication and things happening in the moment. And with real players, not band-in-a-box or aebersold cds...

I suppose the bottom line is you have to practice alone a lot AND play with others a lot too... Can't get really good if you don't do both , in my
opinion...

/lovebown

[lermgalieu]

Ed,

But what about my other hand?

[kpo]

Rehearsing is not practice, it's more like performance; you're doing things as a group rather than shedding stuff on your own.

Performing/rehearsing is more of a "application situation", where practicing is an individual "testing, trial and error situation" - both contribute to the overall learning process. If you don't keep up one, the other will suffer.

For me-as-a-young-Jazz-player, that meant practicing time and changes alone in a room a lot, but mostly it meant taking every possible gig I could so that I got used to playing when it really counted; discover what I really needed to practice - and that's where I did most of my "Jazz Learning".

For me-as-a-slightly-older-orchestral-player, I did most of my learning in a room alone, working on techniques; perfecting things that had to be presented "perfectly" in order to get any type of job whatsoever. But once I could get into some small orchestra jobs, playing as many concerts and as much rep. as possible still became the best part of the learning process.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by KAPOW!

For me-as-a-young-Jazz-player, that meant practicing time and changes alone in a room a lot, but mostly it meant taking every possible gig I could so that I got used to playing when it really counted;

Are you doing any jazz gigs here in town? Let me know if so, I'd love to come check one out sometime. It seems silly that we live in a town this small and have never hooked up.

[lermgalieu]

Having your hand on the instrument in whatever capacity is better than not having your hand on the instrument.

Ed - you brought it up. Or was that a freudian slip?

[lermgalieu]

My other hand should be in an ice bucket from that stick of pain.

[David Kaczorowski]

Originally posted by Ed Fuqua
Well, you just have to look at my avatar to see where my other hand is...

Scratching your pubic hair!!!???