Jazz Guitar Life Network
A new practicing routine
Since I really began playing again in earnest back in September, I was surprised at how quickly my old skills came back. In mere days, the fingers were feeling good again, and I more or less could play like I used to, when I would hold forth at various venues in NW Ohio, from Easy Street Cafe to Manhattan's in Toledo. I could "make a gig," as they say.
However, the goal here is not to simply reattain my old style with all of its warts and problems. The goal is of course to improve upon these fundamentals (and I have to really point out that Chris Buzzelli and the BGSU jazz faculty did such a great job teaching me a solid foundation) in order to become more like an elite jazz guitarist, not merely a solid one (and I acknowledge that I am perhaps being a little generous when I call myself solid! LOL! ).
To do that, one has to really look at how you practice. I had to discard some old habits ("jamming with no purpose") and be far more systematic. Before, I had the luxury of being in my early 20s, knowing I was getting along just fine for my age. Even as old as 23-24 there is a sort of lower bar set for you. Well, I'm 29 now (yes, not old, I know) which for me anyway creates far more urgency. I'm expected to sound very good now. There is no extra credit anymore!
Here are just a few things I'm doing differently in my practicing routine:
Practice Spreadsheet:
I list all the various things I want to practice, from conceptual ideas, basic technique, tunes, etc. and then date things when I've worked on them. My excel spreadsheet is pretty rough right now, but it works. This also really helps because sometimes when you sit down to go to work you just don't know what to work on (which is why, as a younger player, I always made much more progress when I was taking lessons versus when I was practicing on my own!). Well now I can look at all of these elements and see what I've concentrated on and what has been sort of left out.
Recording myself:
This, I think, is going to be hugely important to my development. Yesterday I finally started recording myself (I kind of wanted to practice for a couple months to build up my chops before making myself listen to all of my mistakes!). I have a Zoom H4, and these are just AWESOME for this kind of thing (actually they are great for a variety of purposes). The good news: I was definitely, in spots, sounding exactly how I wanted to sound. Of course the bad news is that it wasn't consistent throughout my improvisations, but now I have clear idea of what to work on.
Obviously, this just scratches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to practicing habits, but I thought I'd share some of what I've been doing.
However, the goal here is not to simply reattain my old style with all of its warts and problems. The goal is of course to improve upon these fundamentals (and I have to really point out that Chris Buzzelli and the BGSU jazz faculty did such a great job teaching me a solid foundation) in order to become more like an elite jazz guitarist, not merely a solid one (and I acknowledge that I am perhaps being a little generous when I call myself solid! LOL! ).
To do that, one has to really look at how you practice. I had to discard some old habits ("jamming with no purpose") and be far more systematic. Before, I had the luxury of being in my early 20s, knowing I was getting along just fine for my age. Even as old as 23-24 there is a sort of lower bar set for you. Well, I'm 29 now (yes, not old, I know) which for me anyway creates far more urgency. I'm expected to sound very good now. There is no extra credit anymore!
Here are just a few things I'm doing differently in my practicing routine:
Practice Spreadsheet:
I list all the various things I want to practice, from conceptual ideas, basic technique, tunes, etc. and then date things when I've worked on them. My excel spreadsheet is pretty rough right now, but it works. This also really helps because sometimes when you sit down to go to work you just don't know what to work on (which is why, as a younger player, I always made much more progress when I was taking lessons versus when I was practicing on my own!). Well now I can look at all of these elements and see what I've concentrated on and what has been sort of left out.
Recording myself:
This, I think, is going to be hugely important to my development. Yesterday I finally started recording myself (I kind of wanted to practice for a couple months to build up my chops before making myself listen to all of my mistakes!). I have a Zoom H4, and these are just AWESOME for this kind of thing (actually they are great for a variety of purposes). The good news: I was definitely, in spots, sounding exactly how I wanted to sound. Of course the bad news is that it wasn't consistent throughout my improvisations, but now I have clear idea of what to work on.
Obviously, this just scratches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to practicing habits, but I thought I'd share some of what I've been doing.
Tags: Practicing
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