What do you practice?

[zcottovision]

Following on from N64Lover's blog about practice, I'd like to know what you guys think about practice. What do you practice, how long and how often do you practice for and what are you working on?

[engelbach]

Originally Posted by zcottovision

Following on from N64Lover's blog about practice, I'd like to know what you guys think about practice. What do you practice, how long and how often do you practice for and what are you working on?

I'm retired and living far from any other jazz musicians, so I play for myself often with backing tracks, which I use on the occasional solo gigs I get.

I try to get in at least an hour a day, not to work on anything in particular, but just to keep my modest chops up to snuff and have fun playing standards.

From time to time I try out new voicings, but acquiring proficiency in them is time consuming and my approach to music is more relaxed than it used to be.

When I was working I spent a great deal of time going over my repertoire so that, except for special requests, I would never need to use charts on the bandstand. Since then I've let my tune list shrink down quite a bit.

[A. Kingstone]

These days, Parker heads.

[Jeff Smith]

Whatever I practice relates to repertoire. Repertoires change.

[good rhythms]

when i was younger, i practiced 3 to 6 hours a day...

at this point, i practice about an hour a day, if i have a gig, i concentrate hard on that

if not, i practice very aggresivly with records, to push my ups or hard driving grooves, make sure to have various brazilian and cuban grooves on the set to not let the dirt fill in the hole..i like to push myself in that hour harder than i would have to play live...but, its more like prayer at this point

a couple times a week , i practice with a brazilian percusionist, straight up braziian grooves and some clave...always very good

[tpt1]

I don't practice as much as I used to, either. These days I spend one hour on long tones and "maintenance" exercises. Then, after a long break another 30-60 minutes mainly working on lead trumpet parts for upcoming gigs. These days we always get the music by email before the rehearsal or gig so we're ready, like this one.

[beeboss]

I wish I had enough energy to practice more than 4 hours a day, I can think of useful stuff that would take up 34 hours a day...
some technique stuff, some learning tunes, improvisation practice (maybe some interesting sequences or rhythms), some classical stuff, some harmony and voicing work, some hard listening, some transcription, aural exercises, a serious amount of time and groove exercises, reharmonisation, sight reading, and after all of that I could go on to some free improvisation, creative writing, orchestration etc etc etc
And then I start on the other 4 instruments I am learning to play

[Acci]

My focus lately has been on improvised solo guitar and I do not play tunes, for the most part. I work on different things for this...lately what I practice is:

Holding the instrument and playing with as little tension as possible

Sight reading (not that its relevant to the solo playing stuff, but it's not a skill I want to get rusty)

Analyzing scores of pieces that I like, looking for ideas and things to play around with, translating things to guitar when possible

Different right hand stuff

And I spend the rest of the time trying to plow through Mick Goodrick's Voice Leading Almanac which I believe will help me be able to hear and improvise multiple voices at the same time on the guitar.

Lately I also get caught up in some mathematical ways of organizing chords and inversions and then trying to make various things playable on the guitar...I'm not sure if that effort will yield any real musical results, but it is fun and seems to make understanding voicings a lot simpler.

I used to really work exclusively on standards but I've realized that it's not music I really feel connected to and nobody seems to be knocking down my door to play standards gigs, and I'm not interested in starting my own group playing jazz tunes, so...I don't see the point, at this point in my life.

[Dragan Cvetkovich]

Stopped practicing a long time ago .. now only enjoying the beauty of music ...

[docbop]

I'm a guitarist and trying to practice more like horn player and focus on notes not grids. i kept running into material talking about Barry Harris so might be time to go to the source.

[wedmedyk]

Practice, like religion, is a very personal pursuit. I find that the in's and out's of anyones practice routine is irrelevant to your own personal growth. The most important thing to do when you practice, to steal from kenner werner here, is to always practice things you dont know how to do. If you arent doing that, then you arent practicing, youre simply playing.
When i was in college, my practice routine was very measured, always somewhere around 50 minutes long, with a 10 minute break for another session after, or maybe id have class and have to leave. About 3-4 hours each day. Rarely taking days off. (keep in mind this is only private practice. This does not include the additional hours rehearsing with groups/ensembles)
Now that im out of school its not as measured, and i usually just keep going as long or as short as i feel.
The biggest thing is i always make sure to do is to stay comfortable. If i start to get anxious, i stop. I dont force my body to do anything its not comfortable with doing. or my brain for that matter. If something is really frustrating me i change topics and come back later, or leave all together. Otherwise i find i just waste my time.
My practice topics change. Sometimes im really into learning some bach, right now im really into expanding my tune rep, so im focusing on that, and some improv concepts i know i need to improv on. To be honest though, the more i play, the more i find that technique is really the only practice that i do that is actually practice. This is the time where you can expand on playing material, licks, scale patterns, chord voicings. you name it. Other than learning tunes its hard for me to justify playing with backing tracks and calling its practice. Its usually just playing from there on. (unless you are focusing on a particular technique like phrasing or something)

But if youre looking for ways to improve your own routine, then look inwards and be sure to listen to your own body for what it wants to do and when. Me personally, i find that i will pick 3-4 concepts at a time, and focus on them for a few weeks/months. Right now its new tunes, improv ideas, certain scale patterns i have. For example a few months ago it was Learning bach/other classical rep, sightreading, ear training learning new tunes. I would focus on those ideas for about a month or so, and then move on and pick other ones. Thats just how i work. And to keep myself organized i have a a big cork board to put up my ideas and tunes i want to learn. But thats just me! Find your own routine, your own path, and you will discover a whole new world to practice!
Happy jazzing.

[Kevin Murray]

I play (on drums) a lot of sticking exercises, snare drum solos (both learning hard ones and sight reading med-easy ones), sight reading rhythms from the classic book "Syncopation", and learning big band charts from "Sittin' In With the Big Band ", a good book with charts and backing tracks. I try to play 1 hour a day.

On piano... (Besides my classical stuff, which is simple songs from a method book), playing tunes, composing, and transcribing. I try to play 30 minutes a day.

[Vic J]

I try to practice my sight reading as much as possible. So many gigs have one rehearsal and that's it.

[Kevin Murray]

Originally Posted by Vic J

I try to practice my sight reading as much as possible. So many gigs have one rehearsal and that's it.

Ah. Great point. I've played tons of things with very little rehearsal, and sight reading helps so much. I buy intermediate snare drum books all the time, and practice reading the "solos" with added patterns on the hi-hat and bass drum. This skill ends up helping your overall playing a lot.