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My radical new practice method!


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Just turn on the radio, and jam along. Thing is....

 

....I'm not stressed about hitting the right notes. It's just a rhythm thing, fitting in triplets, slides, held notes and so on. Sounds awful musically, but it's doing me good, I'd say. I just pretend the notes I use are okay :).

 

Sometimes I find myself dropping into a bit of musicality, and it's cool when I build up to what I reckon will be my last note, and it's timed to perfection with the last note in the song.

 

At worst it keeps the fingers agile. Best done alone :).

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In the grand scheme of things i don't know if that is either 'radical' or 'new' but i love the marketing slant : ) It is a fun way to practice for sure.

 

Let me add to that: try this with an album. Keep doing it, with the same album. You will pick out more and more bits with each pass. Before long, you have an entire album of songs learned... and had some fun along the way. I do this all the time when I feel like going 'off the grid' for a bit and having some good ol fun.

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I did something similar when I was a bass guitarist - I played along with iTunes in shuffle mode (so that iTunes would select songs at random to play), trying to be in time with the bass line. I admit I avoided the Flecktones/Victor Wooten stuff during this practice, as well as fast bebop (the walking bass lines were way too fast for me to handle).

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I always did this to the TV (the show themes), the radio, the stereo etc, etc...{censored}, I'd even figure out what notes/overtones the vacuum cleaner was making/droning or the rhythm the dish washer was "playing" and then try to make music against it.

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It's a good thing to do. It was standard operating proceedure for me to make up violin parts to every album/cd that came into my possession and met with favor. Sometimes doubling guitar or vocals or keyboard, sometimes harmony, or counterpoint. I actually think that did a LOT for my game.

A story. My room mate at NCSA, a sssmokin classical violinist, came back to the room one day, all huffy because I was jamming with Tommy Bolin again and said, "Look, you're wasting your time doing that...playing along with records and practicing that weird vibrato and shakes and dive bombs. It's going to get you nowhere." That was sort of a falling out between us. I didn't see him around anywhere, a few years later, when I was talking with a Warner Bros. A&R guy, who was saying very nice things about my playing. :) At this point I feel for my old roomy though. I'm sure I was hard to live with. :cool: And I am nowhere, actually, but it's for other reasons. :lol:

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In the grand scheme of things i don't know if that is either 'radical' or 'new' but i love the marketing slant : ) It is a fun way to practice for sure.


Let me add to that: try this with an album. Keep doing it, with
the same album
. You will pick out more and more bits with each pass. Before long, you have an entire album of songs learned... and had some fun along the way. I do this all the time when I feel like going 'off the grid' for a bit and having some good ol fun.

 

 

Great advice.

 

I do the same somewhat. Sometimes just using the beat as a metronome to practice fast licks...etc

 

But my fav is to try to quickly learn the commercial diddy. You only have 15 to 30 secs.

 

I try to find the key. Or, play the melody....etc.

 

Question: Do you guys ever just instinctively go to the right note? With no reference.

 

This has been happening to me for years. I'll hear a note..and go right to it! Not always of course, but WAY too often to be luck.

 

Not always, unfortun..I don't have perfect pitch. Or do I and not know?

 

Anyway PP, I think it's a great practice method, and I do suggest JUST THAT THING for my students.

 

Much to be said for working on the physical side of playing and taking away any worry of "correct notes" frees you up to just play. And develop strength and coordination.

 

Which of course, is vital.

 

Guitar is a athletic pursuit, don't ignore.

 

Anyone can learn the complex theory up the ying. Does no good w/o the tools to actualize the knowledge.

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I've been jamming along with TV a lot during commercials, or shows my kid is watching (Sesame Street, etc). The tunes are usually pretty easy to get by ear.

 

Sometimes I'll jam along w/ Smokestack Lightnin' (weekly 3-hour blues radio show on a local NPR station). I haven't been playing much blues lately, so it's fun to spend a little time getting back into it.

 

 

....I'm not stressed about hitting the right notes. It's just a rhythm thing, fitting in triplets, slides, held notes and so on. Sounds awful musically, but it's doing me good, I'd say. I just pretend the notes I use are okay .

That hits on a big point Victor Wooten made in his awesome book "The Music Lesson" - the groove always comes first. If the groove isn't there, the notes won't sound right anyways. If the groove is there, you can make any note sound good.

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Much to be said for working on the physical side of playing and taking away any worry of "correct notes" frees you up to just play. And develop strength and coordination.

 

 

 

That's it! Noodling without care. But something is achieved, without comparing your playing to anything. Time off whilst being productive. I'm trying to figure out how to drop in licks that fit the tune. If I can fill two seconds in a three-minute tune, I'm on my way....................

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Question:
Do you guys ever just instinctively go to the right note? With no reference.


This has been happening to me for years. I'll hear a note..and go right to it! Not always of course, but WAY too often to be luck.


Not always, unfortun..I don't have perfect pitch. Or do I and not know?



You probably don't have perfect pitch. If you did, you'd know. But you got a good ear if you can find pitches on your instrument and catch them on first try most of the time.:thu:

Guitar is a athletic pursuit, don't ignore.


Anyone can learn the complex theory up the ying. Does no good w/o the tools to actualize the knowledge.



You make a great point. I know what you meant. And I'm about to make a point that has nothing to do with what you meant here....I think!;) But it is a worthy distinction regarding how you worded it. It sounds like I'm splitting hairs here, but it is a valuable point to make...I think!;)

To actualize something is to make something or create something...so technically one can use theory to actualize music. Actualizing theory is creating new theory. Theory is one of many tools a musician can use to actualize something musical. Playing along with songs you are hearing for the first time, is one way to test how well you have INTERNALIZED the theory and can use it to help you figure out what you are hearing.

Actualizing theory is actually a very real goal that can exist. As an example, there was no 12 tone until someone identified it and brought it into the scope of theory. If one creates music that has no previous frame of reference, but identifiable within the constructs of explainable theory scrutiny, new theory will be created to explain it. BOOM! Actualized theory!

Which of course is different than using theory to learn or create music.

Sorry for the thread hijack polishpaul....I had to do it.:p:lol:

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