How Many Hours a Week Do You Spend Practicing?

[BigMoney]

I no longer attend jazz school, but when I did, a 8-10 hour day of practicing was common during the weekdays. Combined with the fact that my classes involved me playing my instrument as well. I have been out of jazz school for about 7 weeks now. I now practice roughly 3-5 hours.

 

There was one student in my program who practiced so much he messed up his finger so bad that he hasn't been able to play for 2 years now. He was an insanely good player.

 

How much time do you guys spend practicing?

[Larryz]

I have been falling down lately due to time constraints and some arthritis pain now and then. But, I like to play an hour a day and call it a "practice." I go through phases of theory and scale study, etc. But, for the most part, I like to play and sing. I try to learn new material based upon old songs that I truly enjoy. Bring in a little more jazzy country arrangements and some old standards I never really learned like Georgia...the chord changes keep me going in new directions and trying to work on a lead or arrange the song is always fun for me! My practices are not work, they are play. The more you play, the more you learn IMHO. You can always go back to work at any time...

[d halfnote]

Varies tremendously.

Most of my musical time's devoted to working on arrangements or free play for composing.

I do practice specific things as part of arranging process & also as an effort to learn specific techniques, etc, but that's far less time than the other things.

 

I'd make a point here that the amt of time one 'sheds is less important than the quality of practice.

Focus on specific things & mix up the things you practice, esp in a single session. Take a break every 2~3 hrs to "get out of there" & move around or work on a non-musical task.

 

I also have come to believe that there are times of day that work better for diff things.

Soon after waking one's mind is more likely to bring forth new ideas.

What one spends time on just before sleeping is more likely to be reviewed mentally as one sleeps.

 

[whitefang]

In my current condition I'm not the one who sets the time. It's when my fingers refuse to cooperate is when I stop. And that varies between 20 mins down to 10 or 15. And that's a day.

 

That old friend of mine I've often mentioned used to go for as long as 18 hours a day! He cut it WAY down when it dawned on him that not only did he miss out on most of his kid's growing up, but a lot of life in general. It took his wife halfway out the door with suitcases before it hit him. That AND a lack of money coming in.

Whitefang

[Delta]

I try to get at least an hour in per day of guitar playing, whether it's recording or practicing.

[desertbluesman]

I play to one 45 minute set against my backing tracks 6 days a week. (I have 3-45 minute sets done) I also do about 15 minutes of scale practice daily, and about 15 minutes or so of 3 or 4 songs in chords daily to keep my chord chops up a bit. (I come from the BB King school of playing against my backing tracks, when I sing, Lucille stays silent, when Lucille sings I stay silent) So I have to play some chords daily to keep my chops up.

 

Now if I was playing out, the scale practice would go to at least an hour or double that each day 7 days a week. I would also play all three sets every day and no Sundays off.

 

When I was young and taking lessons, I played at least 4 hours a day with lots of scale practice, and playing leads/rhythms along with the popular tunes of the day.

[BigMoney]

In my current condition I'm not the one who sets the time. It's when my fingers refuse to cooperate is when I stop. And that varies between 20 mins down to 10 or 15. And that's a day.

 

That old friend of mine I've often mentioned used to go for as long as 18 hours a day! He cut it WAY down when it dawned on him that not only did he miss out on most of his kid's growing up, but a lot of life in general. It took his wife halfway out the door with suitcases before it hit him. That AND a lack of money coming in.

Whitefang

 

Jesus 18 hours a day?!? He must've been amazing. Was he professional?

[whitefang]

I've mentioned him in here before. But that was before YOU got here. So....

 

He is classically trained since eight years old, got into our cheezy basement band in the late '60's for kicks and at the same time gravitated to jazz( and he's the one who introduced me to it beyond my Mom's old big band 78s). Then obtained a degree from Wayne State university, and would "sit in" around town wherever he was needed and pick up some extra cash giving lessons until his family started coming along. Then his Dad released some trust fund a grandparent created for him and then for years would mostly practice and take some time off from that to "gig" on weekends. Only since 2000 he cut way back on the practice (and that was about the time is wife almost left) and concentrated more on a "day job" . And yes. He IS an amazing musician. In the early '70's he introduced me to a friend he met at Wayne State. That friend was EARL KLUGH, and they hung and jammed together until HE moved on.

 

He moved to Florida to care for his ill father and when he died, my friend decided to stay there and still finds work as a musician as often as possible. We still keep in touch, mostly through e-mails.

Whitefang

[Danzilla]

Not nearly enough. Actual practicing at home is maybe an hour or two per week. I do a variation of "The Music Man" theory - if I think hard enough that I can play the music, I can. I constantly have music running through my head, and am usually thinking about how to play it. I kind of need to have a band to have a reason to play, and that rehearsal time brings it all together.

[Winston Psmith]

Short answer; less than I should.

 

I spend some time every day on Music, but I may spend those few hours programming Synths, or assembling a new FX pedalboard, rather than playing Guitar. This week, I'm catching up on a new book, How To Service Your Own Tube Amp; okay, it's not really a new book, but I just got my first copy, and I've been digging in when I'm not working. I also spend a good bit of time on the care and feeding of my gear, cleaning, re-stringing, setting intonation, keeping everyone humidified, designing new sounds, recording, all manner of stuff only peripherally related to actually playing Music.

 

Speaking of which, I have at least three sets of strings to put on today, so . . .

[Paul Scott Rock]

There was a great violinist in the early nineteenth century Didier Nicholas , when asked why he never practiced , he said " my dear boy, that's how they talked back then , he said, my dear boy , I did all my practicing when I was a student. So there is that.

Then one time I saw Gary Hoey taking questions after a demonstration on how to be a super bad ass guitar player. Some kid asked him how do you get that good ? Gary said , "you practice about 10 hours a day . And then everyone exhaled in the entire room because they all knew they were destined to always suck at guitar.

I love to play the guitar , so I never have to practice .

[d halfnote]

It occurs to me that while we may benefit from consistent behaviors, there's also something to be said for a break from routines.

Have y' ever played a repertoire for so long that y' couldn't seem to come up w/anything fresh ?

There may be times when just letting there be some space allows a new idea.

[Winston Psmith]

It occurs to me that while we may benefit from consistent behaviors, there's also something to be said for a break from routines.

Have y' ever played a repertoire for so long that y' couldn't seem to come up w/anything fresh ?

There may be times when just letting there be some space allows a new idea.

 

Sometimes I'll put down the Guitar, and pick up my Mandolin. Other times, I work on my Synths, or my Bass. I even have a legion of Percussion instruments around, just to keep things interesting.

[p90jr]

SInce having a kid 5 years ago... not enough for my tastes... still probably more than most people I know. A couple of times a week (it's a necessary destresser). I don't know if I "practice," though... I play... I play songs, I might work out a solo I like from something, I play along with a record... I'm just as likely to play bass as guitar, or play acoustic guitar, or mandolin... or drums or keys...

 

I do gig fairly steadily, and practice a bit for some of those, alone or with the groups.

 

But when I'm listening to music (which I'm constantly doing) my brain is working out the bass and guitar parts, so that's somewhat practice.

[whitefang]

It occurs to me that while we may benefit from consistent behaviors, there's also something to be said for a break from routines.

Have y' ever played a repertoire for so long that y' couldn't seem to come up w/anything fresh ?

There may be times when just letting there be some space allows a new idea.

 

Routines are good. But, not in EVERY aspect of life. So you make a good point. Isn't it peculiar that people will work to avoid "routine" when it comes to planning meals, but willingly sink down into one when it comes to music? Either playing OR listening? Personally, it wouldn't bother me to eat meatloaf every night for dinner. But, I CAN'T listen to OR play just ONE genre of music ALL the time.

 

E-w-w-w-w! The very thought makes me SHUDDER!

Whitefang

[Larryz]

+1 I don't mind practicing in a genre until I get the song(s) I'm working on down. But, when playing out I like to be versatile and I play in about 4 or 5 genres. I can take any genre for an hour or two when listening at a club, but that's about it...