Routine Scheduling Excluding Practice

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Daily schedulings are refined in activities such as when to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bed rest is commonly adhered to with extreme regularity. Readying for the day job is a thriving activity at the crack of dawn. I believe that it is safe to maintain that steel guitar practice sessions have not been included as part of a regular activity. Play when the mood strikes, seems to be the norm in most musical settings. Depending on individual goals, perhaps others may wish to fess up to the slackening off after their workday.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

I messed up and double posted!!

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

SANTA must be real busy this year. No time for comments. What goes around, comes around, so they say.

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

It's all about conditioning yourself to get into a set routine then after a while it all seems normal.

At the lab where I work, every morning a bell rings and I get up and walk down some halls to a room and a light comes on and I practice until some food drops in a slot then I run on a treadmill a little and the go back to my room.

Darryl Hattenhauer · From: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

That's a good question, Bill. I hope we get some discussion here of how the pros practiced when they were learning, and how they practice now.

Roy Clark played on tv once and hit a few clams, and he said that he hadn't played in two weeks. So he had to keep working at it.
_________________
Steel crazy after all these years.

$100 reward for info leading to the purchase of a fender D8 white, yellow, or butterscotch.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Darryl H.,

I can't see where attitudes and human behaviors have changed appreciably since the first "bar" was placed on the strings of a raised "nut" guitar. I spend a great deal of time looking for replies by notables of the steel guitar industry, and it has become more than obvious that they're not "talking". The "bars" were hopping on the second fret of the 6 stringed guitar all during the great depression. The poorest of all would wander through wooded areas in search of a "tree" before Christmas Day. Many moms were trying to raise their children in single parent homes. If the Christmas Spirit was enlivened by the merriest of neighbors, the chances for a few presents under the "tree" became a possibility. Speaking of guitars, "Little" Roy Wiggins once commented; "I don't know where it came from, it just showed up." He didn't recall as a youth how the guitar made its way into his home. Cheaply made catalog guitars were spread throughout New England, and numbered in the thousands. You could have purchased a dozen of those untunable guitars for the price of one department store plywood guitar. Values are totally distorted, and shopping moms are very much unaware of the deceptive practices. If I insisted that attitudes in musical endeavors and rudiments of sharing haven't changed, some may disagree. The door is always open for those who may envision a means to let others share musically in the huge stores of accumulated knowledge.

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

If I waited for my moods to get me to practice, I am afraid that I'd be loser in music. Some days I have to force myself to go the steel (along with the other instruments) and practice. There are many days when the mood to sit down and “practice” is just plain and simple, not there. There are so many other things to do and so little time do them in.

I think what I am trying to say is a mentally enforced priority has to be part of our lives at all times.

Jonathan Cullifer · From: Gallatin, TN

I don't practice when I don't want to. It's rare that I don't want to, but sometimes I don't, and I won't practice when I don't want to.

I sometimes try to force myself to practice. Even when I don't feel like it, I'll sit down and try to play. If, after 5 minutes, I can tell that practicing won't be effective, I quit and come back some time later. That may be 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 3 days. It all depends. Sometimes the best thing in terms of getting the creative juices flowing is rest. If practice time is not effective, it's largely a waste of time.

All athletes have rest days built into their schedules for a reason. And sometimes rest days are unscheduled. But ignoring when your body says it's time to stop is a good way to suffer in the long run.

Not only is it important to practice, it's important to practice in a way that's effective. When it doesn't feel right, often it's easier for me to take a break than build up frustration when it doesn't work right.

Mark White · From: Michigan, USA

I'm just a rookie. That being said, I practice about an hour and a half everyday between about 6-8 in the evening. Weekends I do 2-4 hours a day. I think the discipline is good for you. After all, when you're playing out you're not always in the mood to play then either. Is it helping you ask? A little........ Crying or Very sad

I'd love to hear from some of the heavy hitters in here on this topic too!

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I'm really stuck. I cant sit at the steel for more than five minutes and when i do I just end up going over the same stuff I always do.

I LOVE to write a song and then put steel over it, i could do that for hours...but practice..I cant seem to want to do it at all. I have only myself to blame for my lack of progression on this instrument.

anyone have any suggestions for making practice more appealing? I am in a huge rut.

Wayne Franco · From: silverdale, WA. USA

Spend a lot of time on a few topics every day, or spend a little time on many different topics every day,or both. But spend time on the SAME topics every day. Continue this religiously until you either notice progress or realize that the practice material is in appropriate for one reason or another and change it. Thirty consecutive days is a reasonable time limit for practicing a topic, but judge for yourself. Improvement is usually proportionate to the time spent on each subject. Actually I am putting my practice schedule in writing so I don't forget what I should be doing. My current practice schedule includes some 2-5-1 progressions I liked out of a book. I put them in band in a box so I can listen to them as well as look at the notes for verification. I'm working to learn at least the head to a new song each week for my monday performance at a local coffee shop. And I'm working on some timing exercises out of a book. I'm not pushing the new stuff at my weekly gig but I find things "creeping" into my playing. Of course some nights better than others.

Hope that wasn't too long winded.

Wayne Franco

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Wayne,

Thanks for suggesting that it is quite necessary to file learned material in a safe place. I've learned that memory stores of improvisatory material can disappear without a trace of recall, while other musical improvisation remains fresh in the mind. Once lost, it may never be traced through memory. All the "crowing" about; "He's forgotten more than so-and-so will ever know" is a rude statement. It's so demeaning by its cruel prediction. Who would argue the point though, after experiencing a lack of recall of learned melodies, complete with musical patterns, and excellent arrangements made at an earlier time? Jamming with an improvisator is by far, one of the best methods of jogging and restoring the will to practice. All kidding aside, it's quite amazing to come face to face with a musician who can mix and mingle notes, to form complex musical patterns. It's enjoyable hearing for the first time, a rhythmic pattern, created by an individual who finds the magic of arranging note sequences with ease. No doubt, improvisators will always lead the way, by introducing new patterns of pleasing tones that will entice steel guitarists to resume practicing.

Gary Lee Gimble · From: Fredericksburg, VA.

Depending on your stage of proficiency, a practice session should start out previously accomplished tasks, maybe about 10 minutes worth. Then continue with a brief period of noodling around, and finally, tackling your current challenges. A mental or written outline should be planned on before each practice session, especially if your livelihood is elsewhere. Otherwise, sit down at your geetar for 10 hours a day…

Jerry L Miller · From: Sublette, Kansas, USA

hey i just pop a c.d. of Mearl and Mooney in my player listen to swinging doors for a while and i'm in the mood to sit down and play and play.
jerry Very Happy

Dick Sexton · From: Greenville, Ohio

Bill,

I’ve hated your writings and I’ve loved your writings, some I’ve read and some I didn’t bother. This one stirs a thought. Weren’t the greatest symphonies written up to this point, written just one note at a time? Did this "Btovin" guy really have any idea how his written music would be interpreted and executed, or care, for that matter. When I write out a piece of tab, I want it to be played the way the player wants to play it. Any perceived instruction, is only an explanation of how I played it. I want it to be his or hers as the case may be. All I would like to do is throw out an idea to be taken and run with. Heaven forbid any persons playing would sound as mine. And as has been eluded to, snip-its of tab written, may when required, jog the old brain housing group. May the tranquility of the season be upon you and yours. DS

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

Well, I picked up the steel again after a many year layoff about 3 or 4 years ago. When I first picked it up I practiced like our rookie above. I also went to every informal jam session and music festival I could. I wore myself out. This year I had to take a break. I ended up taking two. One from mid April to early July. The second from early September until late November. Now I'm ready to go again. But I'm not going to go at that killing pace again. I'm going to practice at least 5 to 10 minutes a day. On days off of my day job I can, of course, do a lot more. But I'm doing what I can and not stressing about it. And I'm reducing my jamming as well. I'm going to pick and choose who I'm willing to play with. But I think I can only do this now because I built myself a decent foundation on that hectic, over my head schedule.
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Amor vincit omnia

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Looking for methods that would change attitudes on regular practice, overnight, may prove to be a difficult task. I had a ball yesterday when a musician came to visit, and brought along a Robert Taylor acoustic guitar. He could sing Vince Gill's version of "Look At Us", starting in Eb, and modulating to the key of "E". I almost fell off my chair when he told me that he had a single ten steel guitar, that has been in storage for 38 years. He's bringing it to my home next week, and I will check it over, and see what it may need to get some good sounds from an E9th tuning. I'm hoping that he will develop an interest in regular practice sessions.

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