Question to pros about practice endurance

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Here is something I am into that takes a phenomenal amount of time that might help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUbHXeIP3-E
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Bob

Chuck Hamilton · From: Flower Mound, Texas, USA

Here is what has been working for me, and helps me improve faster, minimize boredom and avoid burnout:

1. Write down my goals as a player. As examples, mine are listed below.
2. Make a plan for how I might be able to achieve your goals. My current â€œHow Toâ€ is underneath my goals below.
3. Pick 2 songs for each neck which fit at least some of my goalsâ€“ E9 and C6.
4. Use the â€œHow toâ€ process below for each song during each day.
5. I was skeptical of the Pomodoro process at first, it just seemed kinda stupid to me but it works great for me and has led to several break-throughs. Mentally it makes me want to get back to the guitar to finish what I was working on when my last pomodoro ended, and keeps me interested. Also, it is very satisfying to check that box as â€œdoneâ€ every time I get up from the guitar, and I donâ€™t have to wander aimlessly in my practice sessions because Iâ€™ve written down my plan for the day â€“ I just go to the next item on my list for the day.

GOALS:
1. Improve Right Hand dexterity, accuracy, and speed: Play clean and reduce mistakes, and thereby improve technique and tone, emotion
2. Improve intonation â€“ bar accuracy.
3. Relax right arm and shoulder
4. Find and Play fast solos and licks which can be transplanted into other songs. Learn how to use modes. Improv will come.
5. Learn chord progressions faster and the typical patterns, using both the number system and chord names; Using circle of 4ths/5ths.
6. Use vibrato properly
7. Use volume pedal properly
8. Build Confidence
9. Build Repotoire
10. Build Good Habits with deliberate practice: Mindless activity is the enemy of deliberate practice. The danger of practicing the same thing again and again without breaks is that progress becomes assumed. Too often, we assume we are getting better simply because we are gaining experience. In reality, we are merely reinforcing our current habitsâ€”not improving them.

HOW TO?:
1. Use Pomodoro technique. See description below.
2. Develop or find warm ups that use right hand skills and key and neck/scales/modes/chord progression knowledge skills, including arpeggios, circle of 4ths and 5ths and modes, licks. Do them in different keys each day.
3. Pick songs that I like which have passages, a style, solos or fills I want to learn that I might be able to use in other songs. Possible choices:
1. C6 â€“ Herb Steinerâ€™s Part 1 and 2 in different keys and his Retrobillies songs.
2. E9: Larry Toliver versions, Paul King versions.
3. Keep an eye out for other songs and write them down for later.
4. Make my own backing track for each song using ireal pro or band in the box, which makes me learn the progression better.
5. Rehearse, then start recording the song, as slow as necessary to be able to play it as near to perfectly as possible.
6. Critique recording, rehearse the weak spots, record again
7. Gradually increase speed of recording and revise licks as ideas come to me.
8. Learn them, tab them, modify them. Stick with them until you have a recording you are proud of, and you know the song cold.
9. As Iâ€™m working on the song, compose my own version of parts of the songs, or the whole song, as ideas come to me.
10. For both necks, during practice focus on:
a. Right hand accuracy and speed: single note and groups of strings. If I make a mistake, stop, do it correctly (5 times perfectly).
b. Timing
c. â€œSeeingâ€ the neck â€“ available notes, chord position, next chord and root, etc.;
d. Finding different or better ways to play the passage or lick.
e. Slide more, pluck less, work on sustain
11. Journal Daily, preferably after each Pomodoro â€“ something at least. Review Weekly
12. Itâ€™s ok to go off the plan a little from time to time when I hear something else I like, but only after Iâ€™ve completed my tasks for the day.
13. Take at least 1 day off from the plan per week. Ok to play, or not, on your day off, whatever you feel.
14. When not at my guitar, think about chord progressions, scales, other things musical.
15. Remember: there are no shortcuts, and it takes as long as it takes!! Donâ€™t rush it.

After learning a song thoroughly and completing my best recording possible:
1. Play songs in Different keys â€” improves key and neck knowledge
2. Play passages and licks from the songs in different songs. Transplant them.
3. Change timing/rhythm of passages and licks
4. Repeat old weekâ€™s songs and lessons periodically

POMODORO TECHNIQUE:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/magazine/pomodoro-technique.html?referringSource=articleShare
From wikipedia:
There are six steps in the original technique:

1. Decide on the tasks to be done. Write it down and put a blank box next to it so you can check it off when you are done.
2. Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
3. Work on the task.
4. End work when the timer rings, no matter where you are in your work, and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
5. If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3â€“5 minutes), then go to step 2 and do the next task (or go back to the last task if you feel itâ€™s more productive).
6. After four Pomodoros, take a longer break (15â€“30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.
7. You are not allowed to extend a Pomodoro. If a Pomodoro is interrupted, you have to start it over again.

Good luck, I hope this helps!
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Too much crap to list and who really cares anyway??

Andrew Goulet · Posted 11 Dec 2020 8:08 am

Scott Denniston · From: Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA

Thanks so much guys for your input. I'll have to wait to watch the Video. It's snowing pretty good and we don't have cable here just a "Jet Pack" so I'm watching the circle spin for a half hour. It'll be better later. Thanks Chuck for putting so much into it. I've downloaded the article and will study it. I can already tell it's right along the lines I've been thinking. But outlined with such detail. I feel intensely that this planning is almost as critical as the practice itself. Thanks again!

Scott Denniston · From: Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA

Wow I put a Pomodoro app on my phone and did a couple of rounds. I can already tell this works! You're not thinking about time because the timer takes care of that and you know you've got a whole 5 min. break coming up. I really moved along a lot better because I knew the next session was a different subject and I'd have to quit this one & had only so many minutes left. It's not like that's a stress but you know you'll be done with it. Then it times the break without you having to do anything. This is a great way to structure. Makes my day.

Marty Broussard · From: Broussard, Louisiana, USA

Iâ€™m finding great alternatives to my previous regimen...great thread!!
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"Technique is really the elimination of the unnecessary..it is a constant effort to avoid any personal impediment or obstacle to achieve the smooth flow of energy and intent" Yehudi Menuhin

John McClung · From: Olympia WA, USA

Following this rich thread...
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Andrew Goulet · Posted 12 Dec 2020 11:30 am

Chuck's post prompted me to try the Pomodoro technique last night, and I like it! It works for all the logical reasons noted, but I also found that it made me realize how much time I waste in a practice session by wandering around from one thing to another. Twenty-five minutes sounded like a long time at first, but once I committed to focusing on one thing, the time flew by, and I felt it was solid, valuable practice time.
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Tucker Jackson · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Here's a few more thoughts on Pomodoro from a few months ago.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=359135
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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

I felt lucky to get students to spend 5 or 10 minutes a day on fundamentals when I was teaching. Most did not understand the discipline and patience required.

I think for somebody who wants or needs to structure their practice time (who doesnâ€™t?), Pomodoro looks like it could be effective. If you only have one hour a day, the choice of tasks may have to go into a rotation of some sort. There is certainly no way I could get to everything in Chuckâ€™s list every day, no matter what system I plugged into, even if life didnâ€™t get in the way. I have seen others post lists of their â€œwarmupâ€ routines that go on for two hours. I donâ€™t mind hard work and focused attention, but that sounds like torture. Prioritizing the task list is more important to me than being completely thorough, otherwise I would never get beyond warmups and into playing some music. In all 12 keys...

Scott Denniston · From: Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA

I'm starting to look at this as a whole day type program and not only as a practice plan. It's funny I've already been doing part of it for a long time. I usually make a prioritized list of all the things I'm going to get done the next day. I never knew why but I check them off one by one when they're done. I'm usually lucky to get halfway down the list by the end of the day. Now this program is much more organized and on purpose. And it makes you stop at a set point, take a break and move on to the next thing. You could break up your practice sessions into segments throughout the day and know each time you're going to get back to it after those other tasks. Seems like it could work for me. I'm sure glad I asked the question in my original post. I'd have never come up with this or studied anything about effective time management.

Doug Taylor · From: Shelbyville, Kentucky, USA

I have followed this thread with lots of interest. I use to use this with my bass some but have not applied it to pedal steel until a couple of days ago. I must say I have gotten way more done in less time using the 25 minute rule. I have downloaded several apps to time my practice and for now have settled on an IOS app called Practice Lover. It has improved my practice time efficiency a lot.

Thanks for starting this great thread.

Steve Knight · From: NC

Another thing that's helped me while "working from home" in 2020 is to take something that I'm trying to learn how to play, usually a lick, one or two measures at most. I play it correctly, very slowly, over and over, for 5 minutes, using a timer, then move on to something else. I'll use 5 minutes to practice it once in the morning, again at lunch, then sometime in the afternoon or evening. After a week of this, playing it for 5 minutes with a lot of focus for 3 or 4 times per day, I can play it. I wish I knew this 20 years ago.

Andrew Frost · From: Toronto, Ontario

Some interesting insights and ideas in this thread about really slowing down and ironing out the process of hearing and responding physically to the sound.
Really being thorough and intentional.

I don't know, but I have a feeling that martial art involves this kind of approach, wherein doing something repeatedly but 'mindfully'- slowly and steadily - builds strength and agility and ultimately tunes one in to the myriad variations available in one gesture.

Another thing in the bigger picture that I like to explore is really getting inside of one key for a whole day. I have ever-growing YouTube playlists for every key, including some of those great 'cello' drone notes that are great to practice with. So for example I might work on all things Ab for several hours, so that the pockets are all 'worked in' on the fretboard, but I'm also constantly mulling over the diatonic notes and chords by name in the process.

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