Home › Forums › Guitar Techniques and General Discussions › Lesson practice time ?
- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 4 months ago by Louis M.
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November 15, 2020 at 8:40 am #219698
I listened to Brian’s Video on “noodling” and it was the closest thing to the truth I’ve ever heard . Since watching it I’ve changed my attitude completely, no more watching TV and playing some thing that at the end you haven’t gained any thing and going to this site, and that site and an hour later your still no where . Sun Steve also made me take a whole different approach on how he’s in his 70’s like me and spends 2 to 3 hours a day and has become an intermediate player. Now I dedicate quality time to a micro lesson or a normal one with my original ’69 AE11 Yamaha or Taylor 315 jumbo, but have to admit sometimes I’m frustrated and after 2 hours I leave everything and come back, cause I shoot for 3 hours a day. My question is, right now I’m banging away at lesson 278,and a couple of micro’s, how much time are most of you spending at a lesson —a week –2 weeks? I’d sure like to get a ball park ?
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November 15, 2020 at 9:12 am #219703
Hi Louis,
usually I work on two lessons a month that overlap. (EP and Challenge). First I follow Brian’s videos, then I learn the individual passages and licks in super slow motion, then slowly along with the tab-view function, next slowly a jam-track with guitar, then a jam-track without guitar, and only at the end the pace is increased as quickly as possible and individual difficulties with licks are practiced. In total I need at least 3 weeks until a lesson really works. It really needs patience for a satisfying result. (10% inspiration, 90% transpiration)
Dieter
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November 15, 2020 at 9:45 am #219708
I have a top 10 priority list to learn and record, and it can easily take 2-3 weeks to get one down, and then i move on to another one. It doesn’t really matter which one i choose (I love them all) it’s just about making the decision, then working through the stages: use the TABs to “learn” the piece (step 1 is to play it through without the tab, that probably takes a week), step 2 is play it over and over a million times for a couple weeks to play it smoothly and without hesitations) and then step 3 to record it (that usually takes a day or 2 because when the red record light comes on my brain freezes, but I just keep trying over and over). So it’s a long enterprise to go from scratch to recorded, but if I really love the piece then i’m motivated to get it down for posterity (like you i’m in my 70s). Then I can check it off my list and decided which one comes next.
I don’t really think about time, I think about this moment right now, practicing this phrase. It’s like running a marathon, you can’t think about the 24 miles, just running the next 40 yards to that mailbox, then the next hundred yards to that big elm tree. Just focus on what you’re doing right now, and do it as well as you can.
And my ultimate mantra is: enjoy every minute.
hope that helps -
November 15, 2020 at 10:10 am #219710
Hi Louis, I couldn’t agree with Roger (above) more. I check out the lessons as they come round, if they take my fancy I will place them into a section in ‘Favourites’ I’ll then make choice as the lesson that has inspired me. It will take me on average a week to get the rudiments and play it slowly and at this point I’m practicing approx 2 hours per day.
I will then practice it many many many times over in the next 10 days to smooth it out and get it up to a speed I’m happy with, playing @ 1-2 hours per day. By the time I get to record, most of it is muscle-memory and I can afford to relax a bit.
To relieve the tedium, I will often learn more than one piece at a time and as I never play more than 2 hours per day, the finished pieces just take longer.
When I was learning to play as a teenager, I would often play into the wee hours of the morning but I’m now in my late 70’s it’s time to take things easier.Richard
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November 15, 2020 at 1:13 pm #219727
I second what everyone has said. And for me, it’s about memory. My 14 year old grandson can learn a lesson in 1 – 2 hours. It takes me 1 – 2 weeks, more or less depending on the complexity of the lesson. One reason I decided to learn to play guitar is that I read about some research by neuroscientists who determined that the two best ways to avoid ending up with a senile brain were to learn to play a musical instrument, or learn a foreign language. It’s all about forcing your brain to remember stuff.
Famous quote by a friend of mine: “My kids bought me some memory pills, but I can’t remember where I put them.” The sad thing is, she was serious when she said it. If only they had bought her a guitar instead……
Sunjamr Steve
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November 15, 2020 at 2:07 pm #219728
Personally I float in and out of a lesson for months before I move on to something else.
..Billy..
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November 15, 2020 at 4:34 pm #219734
As Steve Sunjamr says it has to be an infinite variable. I was attracted to this site originally by the posting of EP069 because I hadn’t played a guitar in 35 years but was looking to make a fresh start and spotted that lesson which I liked and thought I could learn to play. I had had a broken middle left hand finger and It needed using as it was locking up and so I started with AM back then. Well it took about a year before I could finally play EP069 my finger needed a whole lot of coaching to bend into the root five minor position. So I didn’t just stick at that lesson, far from it I left it and moved around picking up what I could manage but kept returning and slowly won the battle.
So getting the dexterity is a physical thing much easier and faster for the young. but I have had great fun and continue to progress. I have now reached the point where many lessons I can get to play basically in a few hours although some take much longer. S I still jump about to keep the interest if I get stuck as happens but always return till I get them down. some of the easier stuff I can play from the tab after a few run throughs to a moderate standard.
JohnStrat -
November 16, 2020 at 6:51 am #219768
Well, I’m sure glad I posted this cause I’ve read each one of your replies a couple times over and I feel a lot better and learned a lot to keep me plugging away . Steve has an interesting concept aside from the fact that the poor guy has to watch the young lad rip a lesson in a couple of hours and guys like me and him it’s 2 weeks, ha what the heck happened to us Ha.Time is not a factor cause I’m retired.
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November 16, 2020 at 8:23 am #219770
Famous quote by a friend of mine: “My kids bought me some memory pills, but I can’t remember where I put them.”
I got a birthday card with an old man who says “My memory’s getting so bad”.
A bubble says “How bad is it?”
When you open the card the old man says “How bad is what?” -
November 18, 2020 at 8:16 am #219857
I have learned my first lesson in two weeks, but know I have to practice a week more over an over two play it smoothly, and another week to be able to record it. So 1 month/lesson … I’ll need some reincarnations to learn the entire site 🙂
Best regards, Andrés
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November 30, 2020 at 6:17 am #223607
I’ve been bouncing among lessons for years. It was Brian’s motivational video about being stuck that made me commit to participating in the November monthly challenge and I’m so glad I did. One anecdote about practice is that I had become an acquaintance of Larry Coryell, a giant in jazz guitar. I was watching him at the New Smyrna Beach Jazz Festival and his wife wound up sitting with me as there was a shortage of seats. In between songs I commented that it must be wonderful having Larry’s beautiful guitar playing in the house all the time. She turned to me and gave me an evil eye and said, slowly and with emphasis: He plays the same thing again and again and again and again! He drives me crazy!! I realized that if Larry Coryell had to practice ad infinitum, who was I to get frustrated. A lesson well learned.
Bill
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November 30, 2020 at 10:17 am #223669
I’m with you Bill on that .I keep thinking these guys learn everything lickady split, and that’s not the case. Ha Brain should of brought those motivation videos out long ago, we’d be more advanced Ha
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November 30, 2020 at 10:40 am #223675
Hi Louis
my objective for this first year is 1 lesson by month + all the monthly challenge.
Tha advantage of ‘monthly challenge’ is to set in practice what i’ve learned in a ‘simple composition’ and also to work on something that i didn’t choose : otherwise the risk is to select always the same kind of lessons and don’t progress anymore (even if i have thousand of kilometers (miles) to do before being and intermediate).
i am not retired, so i can only play week end and in the evening : but at least on hour a day.Where does the white go when snow melts?
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December 1, 2020 at 9:08 am #223822
Even Shania in her Book wrote about the ten thousand hour practice subject and then you see some of these little buggers play and I don’t think they’ve been alive for 10 thousand hours let alone practice for that long to master there craft and play like they do .Plus Tommy E did say when you practice make sure your alone and no one hears you cause it will drive the average person crazy, a war or a divorce what ever comes 1st .
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