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

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  • Posts: 5,035

    Dave, I ordered it. Would be good to have effective maintenance exercises for trying to prevent this in the future.

    Will, I'm a little bit scared of chiropractors to be honest. If I got a recommendation from someone I personally know then I'd consider.

    Next step is to get MRI because it's third time and progressing towards more severe See what exactly is causing it and then decide what to do about it. We just had friends visiting and this lady is a cardio doc and she said there are many innovative techniques these days like de-nerving just the spot where it gets pinched but leaving everything else functional or injecting some sort of fake cartilage between the discs or even stimulation regrowth of your own cartilage. She works in Canada and will find out who in the states does these procedures. All this applies if two docs I talked to are correct in thinking that this is simply wear and tear related to age and discs are sitting much closer on the top of each other and it doesn't take long for the nerve to get stuck coming out from the spinal cord.

    Can't wait to get back to playing and practicing. I think my first order of action is to work on completing some long standing projects.

    Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
  • geese_comgeese_com Madison, WINew 503
    Posts: 476

    Thanks. I'm going to have to look into some 1 on 1 teachers.


    Does anyone have recommendations?

  • BillDaCostaWilliamsBillDaCostaWilliams Barreiro, Portugal✭✭✭ Altamira M01F, Huttl, 8 mandolins
    Posts: 654

    @Buco sorry to hear about your pinched nerve.

    Micro focus, that's what I like lately. Maximum amount of time on a minimum amount of material.

    The Practice of Practice book gives lots of detail on that and recommends chaining small chunks of a difficult passage and back-chaining i.e. working on the last part of a phrase first and working backwards.

    Incidentally, Buco, the author of that book, Jonathan Harnum, mentions working with a gypsy jazz guitarist named Buco. Was that you or are there various doppelgangers in the g.j. world Stateside?

  • edited January 2022 Posts: 5,035

    @Bill Da Costa Williams meds are doing the trick now, thank you.

    Yes, Jon is a friend. We played together when we were both in Chicago. That two minutes article I wrote is heavily influenced by his book, Kenny Werner and who knows what else. I wasn't consciously copy/pasting material from those books into my article and my method but they both left a strong impression and a lot of stuff seeped into my practice routine. Then I was really happy to discover that people like Tcha do that too, micro focus on certain passages. I put a reference in my article. But it says that Tcha also takes very small phrases he wants to polish and perfect and puts in a lot of time working on them. I really believe and feel it's the key to a real progress.

    When it comes to one on one teacher, teacher is only as good as the student is willing to put in the time and effort. A few of my students often praise my approach and advice but I always emphasize it's them that are doing the work. I also have a student that stopped taking lessons and after about a year when I saw him in the jam his playing was at about at the same level as before we did lessons: competent amateur jammer. Well he himself said once that's about his goal anyway. Teacher is great to keep you centered and on the right path. And give you a nudge, a reminder and a gentle kick when needed. But the methods offered by various teachers are secondary in my opinion. Primary is the teachers' enthusiasm to share the knowledge and being personally invested in the students progress but first and foremost it's the willingness of the student to put in the required work. Having a teacher is good when you have a question that you need answered immediately but that benefit depends on the teacher's orientation. And so on, you could go on forever...

    Willie
    Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
  • Two cents about teachers....

    One-on-one lessons are fantastic with the right person.

    If a good player is coming into town and I can get a lesson, I try to be super focused about what I'm going to talk about. Personally, I don't learn licks. I can do that on my own. I do one of a few things:

    • "What do you warm up with, teacher?" They might have figured out something super efficient that gets multiple things done at once.
    • "I heard you play this and I was curious as to what you were thinking or how you did..." It might be a conceptual thing. Might be tone. Ask about it.
    • "Let's play and I am interested in hearing what you think I could work on." I'm a masochist so I prefer to hear where I can improve.

    With these one offs, you might get months of stuff to work on. Read between the lines and try to get alot of nutrition from that one spoonful, if you know what I mean.

    With continual lessons, talk to their students. Do they have students who are actually progressing? That was an actual question someone asked me about a teacher I working with. There are some quick fix cats and some cats who have a plan. understand that you might be submitting to their flow, but that's not a bad thing. It's just their way of organizing things.

    Finally, know when to take a break. A break isn't a break up. A good teacher will appreciate when someone needs a little time to kind of mess with the tools they've been given. Or maybe you've just picked up on what they are laying down.


    That's me at this point. G'luck.

    geese_comWillierudolfochristbillyshakesBillDaCostaWilliamsBucoChristopheCarington
  • edited January 2022 Posts: 5,035

    I mentioned this elsewhere but this is my latest hack, sticky notes offer a constant reminder about what to work on as soon as I sit down. Some of these are semi permanent and some rotate.

    Sorry to hear about your injury, Jim. Suppose Toni Iommi route is the tried one. But focusing some time on a slide guitar sounds like a really nice detour too.

    Jim Kaznosky
    Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
  • geese_comgeese_com Madison, WINew 503
    Posts: 476

    Thanks for sharing. I do a similar thing, but I make notes in my practice log on what I need to practice next and what needs work.

  • Posts: 5,035

    That works too. I find this better cause it's staring at me as soon as I sit down to play, no need to thumb through the journal. Since I didn't play for the last couple of weeks, had I not had this in front of me, most of these, in not all these phrases I've been working on would go by the wayside next time I start playing.

    Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
  • geese_comgeese_com Madison, WINew 503
    Posts: 476

    I've got everything on a Google Sheet, so that makes things much easier for me.

  • billyshakesbillyshakes NoVA✭✭✭ Park Avance - Dupont Nomade - Dupont DM-50E
    Posts: 1,419

    This is clearly a generational difference. Those of us who didn't grow up with technology still can use it, but our brains think in analog. Those that are now growing up will learn the tech so it becomes like a language. And they will be power users like geese is with his log and stats.

    On a side note: I hope no one thinks in 8-track. But, I guess they'd circle back to their original point eventually. ;-)

    BillDaCostaWilliams
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