life getting in the way of practice

[Peace Cee]

My friend told me once that you are "practicing" even when you are not practicing. Listening intently is a good way to at least be "exposed". I also find that actually playing music with others can be the best practice. I think that these sorts of things go come in waves. I was gigging with a bar band (in addition to other musical endeavors and gigs) often for about a 2 years. I also played with other artists and played at church. I wasn't able to do the exercises in my Ray Brown book, but I really grew. It all helps; just do it. I am married with a child and I teach high school English.

 

[tommytutone]

15 minutes a day is better than 3 hours once a week.

 

[AFRO]

Guys I hope not to embarrass myself too much, but...what's the[DEL] Havoc [/DEL]HAZARD exercise? :-s

Not nearly as embarrassed as myself..
suppose to say hazard..again my bad
fixed my first post..

Bailey's Bar and Grill Tutorial - Hazard Exercise - YouTube

My apologies guys/gals..

AFRO

 

[tZer]

Not nearly as embarrassed as myself..
suppose to say hazard..again my bad
fixed my first post..

Bailey's Bar and Grill Tutorial - Hazard Exercise - YouTube

My apologies guys/gals..

AFRO

My left hand hurts from just watching that exercise - especially when he goes to the 6-string fretless...

I'm gonna try it, though. Most of my dexterity and stretching exercises are similarly challenging. That one looks like a really good one to add to my back of tricks.

 

[project_c]

Haven't checked this thread in a few days (life got in the way, or course..), but thanks for all the replies, there's a lot of interesting stuff and some really good advice here. It's good to know a lot of others around my age are in the same boat. I don't have any kids so I don't have that commitment to deal with (yet), but reading about some of your schedules makes me realise things could be a lot more hectic.

I really like the idea of making a schedule at the start of the week and sticking to it as much as possible, and creating a list of songs / specific exercises for each practice session makes a lot of sense too - I'm going to start doing this right now.

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in.

 

[gfogarty]

I think someone else in this thread might have said it already, but I'll second it: If you have little time to practice, it's crucial that you make it as easy as possible _to_ practice when you find even a small chunk of time. When put my bass out in a stand, all ready to go, I started picking it up a lot more often then when I had to retrieve the case, take it out, connect the cord, etc. Made an _enormous_ difference.

With kids, a job, and a house, what's difficult for me is to find sufficient time to practice more than one instrument. I started playing guitar again last year, and I just can't find the time to practice both. What I end up doing is slowly alternating between them. I've only been playing bass for the last 3 weeks. At some unknown point, the tide will turn and I'll just play guitar for a few weeks. I can't seem to make progress at either if I'm dividing my practice time: I need to concentrate on one or the other.

G

 

[mpdd]

tried the get my gf an instrument thing, didn't work so well, first she didn't play her epi sg ever, and then she played the ludwig set i bought her twice, now my house looks like a music store, because i bought a drum machine and studio monitors for me to play

 

[tZer]

Haven't checked this thread in a few days (life got in the way, or course..), but thanks for all the replies, there's a lot of interesting stuff and some really good advice here. It's good to know a lot of others around my age are in the same boat. I don't have any kids so I don't have that commitment to deal with (yet), but reading about some of your schedules makes me realise things could be a lot more hectic.

I really like the idea of making a schedule at the start of the week and sticking to it as much as possible, and creating a list of songs / specific exercises for each practice session makes a lot of sense too - I'm going to start doing this right now.

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in.

Nothing beats putting practice time onto your calendar. When I was taking lessons a few years back I felt it was not only in my best interest to formally factor practice time into my daily schedule - it was a matter of getting the most value out of my lessons. I did not want to be one of those students who showed up week after week only a little further than they were the week before - and not practicing is one sure way to waste a lot of $$ on lessons.

Full disclosure - I am 44, married, 2 kids (10 and 11) full-time job + a couple interesting but sporadic music projects on the side. I've been playing bass for 30+ years and have a lot of experience with other instruments, ensembles and music theory - so I have a really good foundation to work with as well as a lot of real-world experience with factoring practice into daily life. Making practice as much a part of your day as meals and personal hygiene is without question the best way to ensure you make progress. The more routine it becomes, the easier it is to improve - but force-fitting it (trying to cram it in) will almost always result in bailing. It needs to work with your life as much as possible.

I found waiting until the family went to bed to be the ideal time to get in a good hour - and by a good hour, I mean an hour of focused, organized practice that included warm-ups, exercises, jamming with tunes and warming down. My goal was to make my teach WORK! I went to every lesson with the previous week's work down cold. That meant the time I spent paying for lessons was time spent learning new stuff every week - not re-hashing the same lesson for weeks on end.

Good luck! Keep the instruments out and handy.