Do you (Beginners) Practice every day?

Jeff Metz Jr. · From: York, Pennsylvania, USA

I am a beginner, I have been playing for around 1-1/2 years. I have times where I wont touch My steel in 1-2 sometimes even 3 days. Am I just a slacking player or is it normal to just "let her sit" for a while. Just a thought for the ol' forum to ponder.
It seems like an aspiring steel player should be at it for 23 and 1/2 hours of the day, Then warming the bar up for the other 1/2. Winking

I just get frustrated , anyone else on board?
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Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

I find the steel guitar to be a very emotional thing for me. If I'm not in the right mood, it makes no sense at all to go fuss with the machine.

Occasionally, I find that after several practice sessions my brain requires a certain amount of time to digest newely acquired knowledge.

Get the most out of each of your practice sessions.
Nothing wrong with having 2 or 3 sessions in a day, for varying lengths of time. I never adhered to a set schedule or length of practice session.

The more you practice, the more you're likely going to discover which makes the next session even more exciting for you. Good Luck!

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I need to practice a minimum of 2 hours a day besides gigs to feel comfortable. When I started I practiced as much as possible because I was terrible ! I figured that if it was gonna take 250,000 repitions of some lick before I got it right I better get started.

If you measure your practice time in hours a week instead of hours a day you cannot expect to become a good player. This is particularly important in the beginning. I have heard that there are good steel players that didn't need to practice but I never met one.
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Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

follow thew 10,000 hour rule, it's not a hoax...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29

Outliers: The Story of Success is a non-fiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on November 18, 2008. In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, how Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates achieved his extreme wealth, and how two people with exceptional intelligence, Christopher Langan and J. Robert Oppenheimer, end up with such vastly different fortunes. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.
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Hook Moore · From: South Charleston,West Virginia

Everyday..Even if its for a short period of time.
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Ray McCarthy · From: New Hampshire, USA

I usually find myself at the steel several times a day for a half hour or less.
But I do remember when I first started, getting frustrated with my inability to do a certain lick, giving at a rest for a couple of days and coming back to find that the lick seemed to have gotten easier to do.

Dick Sexton · From: Greenville, Ohio

I took a break for 13 years... Now, that will seriously effect your playing. I'm retired now, and I practice for myself, to get better for me. I have no illusions about being something I'm not, but I would like to be satisfied with myself. I practice everyday, and when I'm not practicing, I'm thinking about it... I practice the things that will allow me to play anything that pops into my mind or I hear. I'm always looking for new things, new ways, something different. We've just scratched the surface of this thing. This morning I'm listening to Etta James, "I Don't Get Around Much Anymore". Different, new to me, out of the box. And some ideas there I'll be able to use, maybe. If I practice.

Michael Robertson · From: Ventura, California. USA

Joachim Kettner · From: Germany

When I started playing about twenty years ago it was about one hour a day (with exceptions) for a few years.
Now it's maybe half an hour in every two days.
The good thing about playing in a band is that you're practicing, while having a little fun.
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Sonny Priddy · From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA, R.I.P.

I'm With Ray If Your Not In The Mood For Get It. Sonny.

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

it's necessary to force one self to practice
if you say to yerslef "oh man, i don't feel like goin' to work today "
yer boss is liable to cut you loose
well it's the same w: any instrument
so practice as much as you can
(with all my shortcomings, i practice as much as i can)
no matter whether it's 15, 20, 30 or 60 minute stints
what you put into yer horn, it will retribute fourfold
it is determing to know : do you just want to play at home & please yerslef ?
or do you want to get out there & play w: others ?

Gregg Laiben · From: Kansas City, Missouri, USA

I'm a beginner (2.5 years) and practice 5 days out of 7. Those 2 days absence are usually due to either work schedule or fatigue, but I'm thinking about it every day. Going thru items in m mind, etc.

Daniel Levitin has a book entitled "This is Your Brain on Music: the Science of a Human Obsession" - he discusses the concept of practicing and trying to get thru difficult passages or licks, then sleeping on it. Somehow the effects of strenuous practice followed by brain rest can help those muscle memory issues get better ingrained. I recommend the book - fascinating ideas he has. I picked up a number of useful tips to help reinforce practice.
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Christopher Woitach · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Constantly
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Roger Francis · From: kokomo,Indiana, USA

I try to practice something every day even if it's just finger exercise or scales and even when i really do'nt feel like it, it will show up in your playing and you'll be glad you did

Hans Penner · From: Manitoba, Canada

I'm into this pedal-steel-playing-thing for 6 months now.
I concur with Roger,
"I try to practice something every day even if it's just finger exercise or scales and even when I really don't feel like it, it will show up in your playing and you'll be glad you did."
Since I am retired and there's not much to do, here in Manitoba, Canada, other then sit in my igloo all day, I can practice whenever I wish.
Some days I find myself sitting down frequently for 15 or 20 minutes throughout the day.
Other days, usually around 8 pm, I'll sit and play for a couple of hours.
On these occasions I find it takes 15 or so minutes before my fingers don't need my brain to constantly tell them what to do.
Some days, I just noodle around throughout the day, experimenting in whatever way my heart chooses.
One last thing.
Ask my wife.
I'm like a 57 year old child, always marveling at how, just a short while ago, something seemed impossible to do and TODAY I can do it!
Amazing how the brain and muscles all of a sudden come together.
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At long last, July 14, 2011 and I have a musical instrument I CAN play.
Stage One, Nashville 112, Hilton pedal, Black Box

Lisa Wyrick · From: Oklahoma, USA

I am true beginner 3 months into this madness.I "play" everyday if I'm in the mood or not. I agree with Hans - I find it takes 15 or so minutes before my fingers don't need my brain to constantly tell them what to do. Or my eyes constantly on my right hand. Hopefully this dedication will make an average player some day!
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Hans Penner · From: Manitoba, Canada

Lisa, I'd like to save you at least two more months of this madness.
Do not watch your right hand at all AT ALL!
Only watch your bar.
Believe me, as soon as I started doing this things started to flow in the four songs I now "play."
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At long last, July 14, 2011 and I have a musical instrument I CAN play.
Stage One, Nashville 112, Hilton pedal, Black Box

Fred Glave · From: McHenry, Illinois, USA

When I first started out, for the first 3 years or so, everyday for several hours. Now I play everyday until I get into a rut. Then I take a day or two off. I'm always thinking about the steel and when I come back to it I feel rested and many times some of the things I was having a tough time with all of sudden are clear.
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Hans Penner · From: Manitoba, Canada

Four Stage One's in this thread.
Smile Doug.
See you in Dallas!
_________________
At long last, July 14, 2011 and I have a musical instrument I CAN play.
Stage One, Nashville 112, Hilton pedal, Black Box

Cal Sharp · From: the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN

When I started out I practiced all the time. I wouldn't have got anywhere otherwise. Practice at Steel Guitar Insanity.
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Herb Steiner · From: Spicewood TX 78669

I practice every day, even after 44 years of doing this.

There have been periods where I've neglected practice for a long time, and played gigs by coasting on what I already knew. But for the last couple of years I've been on a real practice/homework jag, because of the advanced swing material I've had to learn being in a band with a horn section and monster players way above the "Crazy Arms" level.

My friend Rose Sinclair has been really pushing me to play some of the non-pedal rooms that are happening at some steel shows like SWSGA and TSGA, so lately I've been working up non-pedal 10-string C6 arrangements of tunes I've previously played with pedals, like Great American Songbook material. I'm finding that endeavor moderately challenging but immensely fun and creative. So I have a new practice regimen and raison d'etre, as it were.
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Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

Lisa Wyrick · From: Oklahoma, USA

Thanks Hans- Starting NOW, eyes left! And Cal I'll remember how you have to practise courtesy of your web site !lol
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Stageone, No name amp, EB volume pedal, my Dad's picks.

Cal Sharp · From: the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN

James Mayer · Posted 24 Jan 2012 3:40 pm

I'd like to see a long thread about WHAT everyone practices every day. How much time is spent on exercises, vs playing over progressions, vs noodling and experimenting.

Quentin Hickey · From: Nova Scotia, Canada

I don't have a strucured practice program as per say. I just try to learn something ever time I sit at my steel. Some days I noodle more, some days I practice nothing but intros and fills to songs. Some day's I dril picking and bar technique, as long as I take soemthing away that I learned. As far as practice time. Some times I can't practice every day due to family or work obligations , other days I practice for 4 hours or more at a time. I am ALWAYS thinking about my practicing.

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