pro's practice routine

blindjimmy

hi, i would like to ask the professional performers what their practice routines are like. i've read a few articles lately on this subject, seems i have bad habits. some nights i work on rhythm all night, or i'll just pick four or five licks from gypsy fire and play them with the ever increasing metronome tempo all night. other times i'll spend days in a row learning tunes, but then my speed and technical facility have diminished, then i'll spend days running through arps with the metronome. thank you

BluesBop Harry

Well I' m not a profesional gypsy jazzer, more like semi-pro.
My two cents:
Try to have a balanced "diet", make a list of five or ten things you want to work on, and follow the list everyday.
Example.

1. Arpeggios: Min7
2. Licks: Gypsy fire 1-5
3. Speed: "Shine" solo from Gypsy Fire :shock:
4. Rhythm: Line cliches
5. Tune of the week: Djangology

In month or so, when you' ve mastered the list, make a new one and set aside one day every two weeks or so for reviewing previously learned material.
And don' t just practice stuff with a metronome, make a point of aplying everything you learn to tunes.
And don't forget to warm up!
Good luck!

badjazz

For me, it was just matter of practicing for the next gig, so it didn't really ever dawn on me to schedule things. It was always more like, I have to learn these next three songs (or whatever it was before the next gig), what are the arrangements, what are my parts, where does my solo go. Usually, the solos were the easy part and if I had the other stuff, the solos would be alright and got better over time with repetition, but you could never do it (getting the solos right) all at once. Usually it'd be a couple hours a day to that, and another couple hours a day looking for new material and tracking down/figuring out the parts for that. Usually, I'd play some scales/arpeggios when I was warming up, but nothing too crazy. Now I am lucky to play my guitar for an hour a day, with maybe 20 minutes of what I'd consider real practice. My lack of progress shows it, but I probably have more fun doing it now.

MichaelHorowitz

In general, it depends on what stage of development you're at. The first few years you need to spend most of your time on these three things:

1) Rhythm

You need to get la pompe wired. It takes a lot of practice to play good, solid rhythm. Mostly concentrate on the right hand at first.

2) Gypsy Picking

Getting you're rest stroke picking down is probably the single best thing you can do for your lead playing. The Gypsy Picking book structures your practicing for you...just work on the picking patterns till you've got them down.

3) Repertoire

Just memorize as many songs as possible. 100 should be your goal. Most pros probably know 1000 from memory.

I also like to warm up with Django's Unaccompanied pieces. In addition to being good technique workouts, you also learn a lot cool arpeggios, licks, chords, etc.

So a good session might be:

10 min. - Warm up: Unaccompanied piece

30 min. - Rhythm with a metronome

30 min. - Gypsy Picking with a metronome

30 min - Memorize songs, melody and chords

30 min. Just have fun!



Once you're solid on all the basics I'd spend a lot of time transcribing solos and learning phrases. When I do practice now, which isn't that often unfortunately, I work on learning new phrases and incorporating them into songs that I play.

If you put the time in on technique early, you don't need to practice it much later. You'll be able to spend more and more time on musical ideas once you've conquered the technical stuff. But the first few years are all about technique....

I hope that helps...

dennis

this is how pros practice:

Elliot

You know, I was at a local 'clinic' with Frank Gambale and he was a total ass.

The Los

I organize my daily practice into two sessions. A morning and evening workout. The morning is devoted to warm-ups, right hand techniques (rhythm), and lots of metronome work. When the evening or late afternoon rolls around I spend my time working on memorizing songs, soloing, and then, to cap it off, just having some fun. The last part is crucial. Otherwise I get burned out on the music real fast. Both practice sessions are about an hour and a half to two hours each. Hope that helps.

Jazzmoods

what u really shouldn't forget.. is the thing that is most important, though. Most gipsy jazz guitarists are so focused on technique and speed, that they forget to be virtuous with tones. So apart from the scale training, and velocity improvement.. the music u create is still key when playing GJ and improvising :!:.

So during your practice, try, in the first place, to listen to what u play. Make pauzes in your melody.. thus try to make the song your own by creating your own melody, and don't overdo it. Chet Baker was never a virtuous jazzmusician, when talking about fast scale-playing, but he was unmatchable in placing notes which were uncontroversial, but genious and rhytmchanges. :shock:

That's my advice at least, cause I often find that the music itself gets forgotten, and what u do with it. Speed and scales are admirable, in combination with musicality.