How much do you practice? 2020 in review (and now also 2021 in review).

Bones

Jim, haha the 'hear it in my sleep' thing is funny. That drives me crazy when I wake up and first thing I realize is I'm playing a song in my head that I've been transcribing or jamming on...

geese_com

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/104803#Comment_104803

Thanks for the recommendation. I learned a lot from listening to the book. Now to work on my deep practicing!

Buco

@geese_com can you make a 10 minutes video run down :)

geese_com

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/104842#Comment_104842

Here's a good summary video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWZxkC2uGhc

Here's a good summary article: https://lifeclub.org/books/the-talent-code-daniel-coyle-review-summary

One of the interesting points brought up in the book the concept of "Talent Hotspots" that seem to show up in unlikely places. That immediately made me think of the Sinti communities like in Forbach and Dutch Sinti communities where a lot of amazing guitarists come from.

Another point from the book was "Ignition" that leads to several other people achieving the same or similar level. This made me think of the crop of players that came along 5-10 years after seeing Biréli Lagrène - Live Jazz à Vienne or watching Sweet and Lowdown.

Angelo Debarre even mentioned the Sweet and Lowdown connection in this clip at around the 24:40 mark: https://youtu.be/sTmvBGX4CGY?t=1477

nomadgtr

Yes I thought of both the gypsy communities as well as the younger French players (Adrien, Seb, LDDLH, Gwen, Antoine, Rocky,etc). I'd love to have a cluster of talent like that in the U.S.!

Buco

These talent spots are incredibly fascinating fenomenom to me. London in 60s, Seattle in 90s etc, Paris in 2000s for this genre etc...

AndyW

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/104803#Comment_104803

I have "the little book of Talent - 52 tips for improving skills" by the same Author, Daniel Coyle , which I would recommend, lot's of insightful tips on learning / practicing / developing /retaining etc, with quotes & thoughts from many successful people - I might guess you wouldn't need both his books. A recommendation from Italian music teacher Emanuela Vitali on youtube.

Lango-Django

My new year’s resolution is not to look at my fingers when I play... as recommended by the Django character in the Django film...

I find not looking helps me avoid falling into ruts...

geese_com

Happy New Year everyone!

I figured instead of starting a new thread I would just add 2021 to this thread.

Here are my stats for 2021:

Total minutes practiced: 32,684 minutes

Total hours practice: ~544 hours

Average time practicing/day: 97 minutes

Days I practiced: 337 days

Days I did not practice: 28 days

Definitely practiced a whole lot more in 2021 compared to 2020.

However, currently I feel more frustrated with my playing than ever. I don't feel like I am really improving and sometimes ask myself why I even spend all the time practicing at all. Maybe it is just a phase and I am currently just stuck in a rut for a (hopefully a short) period of time.

How did your 2021 go? Do you feel like you improved over the last year? Are you feeling happy with the current state of your playing?

NylonDave

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/109572#Comment_109572

I have rested, I needed it. I'm looking forward to finding more balance and flexibility in my practice now.

You will too. 

Well done keeping the diary. I'm going to try that too, wish me luck?