a group who encourage and motivate one another to stick to, and get the most out of, our practice time

14 Members, Created 5/7/2014 -

Administrators: skiptomylou (owner)

Week 3 recap

From laertes22 on 5/19/2014 12:18:19 PM

Here's a quick recap of this past week's practices and what I've gotten out of them.  

I am still getting up at 5am on weekdays for a morning practice, then doing a later practice after work.  I think I am averaging about 1-2 hours on fiddle and 1-1.5 hours on banjo everyday.  My practice scheduled was derailed a bit this weekend, as I spent it at my fiancee's house, and she insists that I give her more attention than my banjo for some reason (just kidding, she is really great and supportive).  But I did have limited time, as we were out and about.  Still I did practice about 30-60 minutes each on banjo and fiddle this weekend.

For banjo, I tried to get out of my comfort zone (Double C) and also review some fundamentals, so I spent a lot of my practices last week in open G tuning.  I am still practicing basic clawhammer stroke, double thumb, drop thumb, brush strum/boom ditty, to build string accuracy and consistency.    I was already working on major scales, but I have added pentatonic scales into the mix.  It's amazing how I kept noticing all these different licks and pieces of tunes in the pentatonic scales.  I think the scales practice is really good for my ears.

I worked mainly out of Rocket Science Banjo and the Ken Perlman book-Cripple Creek, Old Joe Clark, Jesse James.  I haven't committed them to memory yet, but they are getting cleaner.  All these songs are good practices for techniques that I'm not great at.  They are also songs that have lyrics, which helps with playing (the Double C tunes I play have lyrics too, but they aren't as commonly known).  I gave Colored Aristocracy a go each day, just cause I like that song a lot.  I also ran through my Double C songs (Angelina Baker, Soldier's Joy, Arkansas Traveler, so I won't forget them).

In Rocket Science Banjo, Old Woodchuck recommends keeping a notebook.  I kind of expanded on this idea to make a practice journal.  Everyday, I try to note what I used to warm up, what techniques I worked on, and what songs I worked on.  I also keep a master list in the back of all the songs that I know or am the process of learning (so that I don't forget or neglect some).  I highly recommend it.

Although I am nowhere near where I need to be, I do feel like I made tangible improvement over the last 1-2 weeks.  Looking at the progress I've made and the things I've been doing with practice, I came to several conclusions:

1) I didn't make good progress before because I didn't practice consistently every day.

2) When I did practice before, the practices were not for long enough.  15 minutes a day is better than nothing, but it is not great.  I have to be willing to dedicate some serious time (hours) to practice.

3) I have to slow down, break things down, and aim for accuracy/perfection.  

4) Practice needs to fun and enjoyable-something I look forward to, not a chore that I dread.  I got in that zone last week where I couldn't wait to get up and practice or come home and practice.  I even got lost in the practice some days and hadn't realized that I'd been playing for 2 hours straight.  This weekend, my fingers would start itching to want to pick up a banjo and fiddle.  For me, seeing the progress I am making is a motivation.  Playing stuff for fun, and not just doing tedious drills is  another.  You just have to find what motivates you and makes practice fun.  It can't be a chore that you dread doing everyday, or you won't do it, and you won't get better  (By 'you', I mean 'me').

-Genford

2 Comments
	Zischkale says: 5/19/2014 1:00:20 PM You're going strong, good work. Learning scales will also help you find notes in different places on the fretboard, will probably help you work out arrangements better in the long run. Enjoy the practice (I like the idea of taking practice time to play your favorite song just for the enjoyment of it), don't get burned out too fast. I'd be down with 15 minutes a day over getting burned out with a couple hours each day. At the end of a few weeks, you oughta at least post some audio of Colored Aristocracy or one of your other favorites!
	skiptomylou says: 5/19/2014 2:19:57 PM i'm in awe Genford. you are really devoting the time - good on you - especially getting up at 5am, which i can't even fathom how anyone manages to do as i'm rubbish at getting up in the morning. sounds like you are covering a lot of stuff too. i hadn't thought of keeping a notebook - that's a really good idea - i think i'll try that best Jill
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