I mean, just listening to songs is a good way to “practice” music, so long as you’re actively listening. you don’t even gotta try to transcribe solos or anything like that (in fact that just sounds like a major pain in the ass). just listen to new music and try to notice the interesting things they did: how they used style to make something interesting, how parts of the song contrast, how the album itself flows from song to song or from section to section, stuff like that. and maybe try listening to totally new types of music! you might hate it, but psychologically speaking everyone has the capacity to like every type of music there is, given you work to understand it. having an eclectic music taste helps you get a better idea of what’s out there and what the limits are for different instruments, and maybe even how you can mix styles to create something unique.
something else you can do is try to break down rhythms in songs, or try to count them in beats. I’ve been doing this more recently, and I’m really shit at it so I don’t know if it’s actually helping any, but people I know have found a lot of success in it so I’m gonna keep trying.
and back to expanding your listening, another thing I’ve really gotten into is community radio stations, where random people can come on and do sets. I’ve heard some really wild stuff on the one in my town, WCBN. my favorite shows are turkish delight, which has traditional music from turkey, go kat go, which is rockabilly music, and special ed w/ ed special, which is like psychedelic educational music (that one is definitely the weirdest). maybe you could see if there’s a station like that somewhere near you and tune in from time to time.
and of course if you want any recommendations on what to listen to I am a massive fucking nerd so I am more than happy to give you stuff to look up (either (sub)genres or specific albums)
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cfd90
84
+1 to radio listening. I never would have expected it, but I’m now listening to radio almost 100% of the time I find myself in a car. Austin luckily has some great non-profit and student-run options with KOOP and KVRX (whose tagline is “none of the hits, all of the time” 
) . I find myself listening to dub, prog, bluegrass, country, hip-hop, jazz, darkwave, etc. depending on the hour.
I also find it a good time to revisit/rediscover my older music purchases.
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G4B3
85
I often find myself tapping polyrhythms on the steering wheel at stop lights. Turn signal metronome optional.
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Probably not the safest idea but I like the app “Complete Ear Trainer” to practice recognizing intervals.
Does anyone have any time signature apps to recommended?
jkile9
88
Reviving this thread for a request for suggestions. Looking to improve my piano and guitar chops and try to get a bit more regimented with practicing. For years I think I’ve let my lack of technical ability dictate the bounds of my imagination and I think it’s time to start being a bit more comfortable saying I play guitar and keys. Does anyone have any recommended books or resources to follow some form of structured practice? I have no problem in terms of creative noodling and messing around myself but really want to get better at training my hands and incorporating theory a bit more in my playing i.e. getting better about knowing what chords im actually playing.
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a773
89
I think for theory, you can pretty much piece everything together online on your own, however, it’s easier to recommend something if we know if your looking for Coltrane or counterpoint. There’s a lot of BS out there, I’d avoid click bait/quick fix channels. For jazz Jens Larsen (guitar, personal friend and former class mate) and Ken Hewitt (piano) are really, really good!
For technique, I honestly think a good real life teacher is the way to go. Just plowing through hanon will not really improve anything, at least that’s how it was with me…
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jkile9
90
Yea I realize in hindsight I probably should have mentioned that I would be interested in theory with roots in Jazz as well as more “classical” theory. I used to have preference towards jazz but these days I find myself more interested in how the two overlap.
A teacher irl may be the right call, I definitely see your point. Are there any books that may be able to get me somewhere in both technique and theory that might serve as a jumping off point? Realistically the things I seem to need are just some guidance on what specifically to be practicing, I suppose. A starting point is obviously picking up scales and being more comfortable playing them but beyond that is where I sort of end up falling off
For guitar, I’m still plugging away at the Leavitt method, I can’t recommend it enough if you really want to “know” the guitar. I’ve discovered that it does work best if augmented w/ his other readily available books as well as other plectrum method books. At a certain point you can just start reading anything for more material however.
For theory this was helpful - https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Intervals-Triads-Rhythm-Meter/dp/0393951898/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=scales+melody+rhythm&qid=1639428413&s=books&sr=1-8. A bit dry and certainly rote - but it works well if paired with studying an instrument.
For piano I’ve started on the Bach two part inventions. I poked around with Czerny, and Bartok’s Microkosmos - but I kind of wish I had gone to Bach inventions (and the Notebook) sooner. One thing that I’ve learned if you want to get better is you just have to play harder things (but of course not too hard) and they have to be inspiring (like you’re naturally going to memorize it because it’s just amazing).
One thing that I personally discovered is that just practicing scales is super boring and in fact counterproductive if it is not fueled by actual music. I read somewhere that Bach’s two part inventions were originally fingers exercises that he forced his students to practice for months on end - supposedly they started complaining and he came upon on the idea of stringing the exercises into pieces.
I wasn’t really familiar with the two part inventions until a couple of months ago and they’ve kinda floored me as they take the most simplistic sequences or broken chords and turn them into absolutely incredible music. Very inspiring to me also from a compositional standpoint because it’s not dry theory - but a lesson in how to take the simplest ideas (like it doesn’t even sound musical) and turn it into something beautiful to listen to. That is the music is not in the line but in its development - that was kind of a revelation for me.
One of Leavitt’s book also has you do the two parts invention on guitar (as two independent parts) - and it’s a lot more fun that just practicing scales, but also naturally improves scale technique. I do practice scales of course - but I think I got bigger leaps from playing interesting music that emphasized scales.
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jkile9
93
These are all really helpful suggestions, thank you both! I’m going to pickup a couple of these books mentioned and start putting together a proper practice plan aside from my usual writing sessions. I used to have a decent background in basic theory from school but have sort of let that knowledge drift away over time so it will be nice to reinforce that knowledge and get my technical proficiency up a bit. I’ve found it quite frustrating being limited by what I can actually execute on my instruments so looking forward to some hard work!
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Lots of great advice above. One thing about chords that I feel are specific to studying the guitar which always drove me crazy is that the guitar chord books I encountered did not present any kind of “system”.
What I like about the Leavitt method is that he presents 5 fundamental fingerings specifically oriented around the cycle of fifths - C, F, G, D, A are presented in the first book - but already that’s enough to be able to play any key and from that key move through cycle of fifths without changing your hand position (only one note alteration to the fingering).
Of course what you see is that for C, as you move up the fretboard you will of course go through these 5 fundamental fingering.
In the second volume you start doing the basic triads - major, minor, diminished, augmented. And you play these across the fret board - again organized by the the cycle of fifths.
While this might sound oddly robotic - what happens is that if you mostly work on actual music and then go back to practice scales / triads / arpeggios with this approach you start seeing the structure of the music. And you start knowing instantly where all the notes are. When you are presented with a new chord the structure of the chord is readily apparent.
So while I think your advice is spot on - I think it would have been impossible for me to begin to understand the benefit without the above physical/mental preparation.
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rknLA
96
It’s wild to think that this thread is almost 6 years old. I’ve really loved to read through all of your input over the years.
A bit of an update on where I am today: I don’t currently have a ton of time each day to practice with a full rig, so for the past few months, I’ve been working through Leavitt vol 1 for 30-60 minutes per day, starting at the very beginning. I don’t have much of a note-reading background, so I think it took me a good week to get past the 3rd page.
About a month in, though, and I’m pretty comfortable with the first 30 or so pages of the book, and I feel like I’ve learned something tangible about cadences. I’ve had a brief look at a couple of folk songs (How Lucky, I’ll Be Here in the Morning), and the material in the first part of the book is immediately applicable - there’s a lightbulb in here somewhere about how many songs are just C, F, and G, with the capo moved around.
I’m planning to continue the practice regimen for the next few months at least, but going to start looking for resources to practice finger-picking as well.
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ellttb
97
This is such great thread. I’m very new to lines and threads like this instantly catch my attention.
Anyways, I’ve spent close to 15 years playing guitar almost exclusively. I notice a lot of weaknesses often with my playing/knowledge. Lately, I have realized I noodle A LOT and i’m working on changing that. I’m going to set goals and time limits for practicing. Dedicating time to writing/composing and actually going to working through the Leavitt book. While reading through this thread I realized I bought a copy years ago but I never actually worked through it. I have so many books that I just abandoned.
I’m also very new to electronic music. I have a few devices that I’ll play with and it’s very fun so far. Most time is spent trying to figure out how something works, how to use whatever I have learned, and trying to write music. I feel like I’m going to eventually want to learn how to play piano so suggestions on beginner material for learning that will be appreciated!
It was mentioned above but Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner gets a +1 from me. I read it a few years ago and that helped change my approach to practicing at the time. It might be time to give it another read.
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I started with Bartok Mikrokosmos Vol. 1. It’s quite enjoyable, about halfway through the second volume my interest started waning - I switched to the Notebook for Anna Magdalena which put the fun back into practicing and was significantly more challenging. Also Schumann’s pieces for young players and some Czerny exercises which are less fun but help with consilidation. About 6 months ago I started on the Bach 2 part Inventions and have memorized 3 and working on a 4th, even more fun and challenging.
If I was to go back and tell my old self anything it would to start on more challenging interesting music sooner. Less interesting music is useful for practice and don’t spend too much time on it (perfecting this stuff is not a good use of time). Trying to really get a Bach piece sounding better / good is sufficient to force you to fix technique problems just as well on the guitar as the piano. And now you have something you can play the rest of your life. That might not be Bach for you - but find those kinds of pieces. Once a piece is memorized and you can stumble through it, start learning the next piece. Revisit the previous piece (review discipline picked up from Leavitt book), rinse and repeat.
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ellttb
99
Thank you! These recommendations are great. Also really appreciate the 2nd part on approaching pieces and how to focus on them.
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ntrier
100
The Musician’s Way was a transformative book for me - or specifically, about 5 pages of it. Those are the 5 pages in which he breaks down how to most efficiently practice a piece of music.
I had it on my shelf for YEARS, but I finally re-read the book and implemented its practice method a few years ago, and I saw a huge improvement in being able to memorize pieces that had previously escaped me. The approach is methodical, which I like, but not too laborious, which I also like.
EDIT: I should probably add what I remember of the method
- Listen to recordings of the piece you’re learning
- Break it down into sections
- Practice each section
- This is the key part - if you’re struggling with a section, break it down to the smallest chunk possible and practice it with a metronome MUCH slower than the actual speed. Also, don’t actually play your instrument! Instead, move your fingers as if you’re playing and sing/hum the problematic part. Do that two times, then play it at a much lower speed. This is shockingly effective!
There’s a lot more to it and I’m probably missing some elements that might be important to someone else, so I encourage people to check the book out for themselves!
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Play more, practice less, record the first take.
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I’ve been learning modular synthesis techniques, lately adding in teletype and grid, but I’m having trouble learning and practicing consistently. My biggest issue is I don’t have a dedicated space for my modular setup (which I don’t see as a fixable issue at the moment). I’ve always found having an instrument out and staring at me as the best way to encourage consistent practice, but does anyone have any suggestions for encouraging more practice when just pulling out and setting up the instrument is an impediment to using it
Someone mentioned “drills” way before in the thread, and I suppose that’s the only methodological way I know how to practise these days, not being a professional musician nor having any dreams of becoming good in something due not being able to put in the hours and focus anymore.
If you want to practise performing with an instrument that’s either electronic or has pickups, practically any overdubbing looper is a fine tool for this: figure out an idea or technique you want to work on, pick up your instrument, and have sort of a set time in mind to build something based on the theme. Then erase it, and start over again with the same (or different) idea.
Ditto if you use a modular: give yourself some time to build a patch based on some theme, observe and analyze the end result, rip off all the cables and start over again. Or with a DAW: start building something, see where you are at in 15 or 30 minutes, check out the results, click “New” and go on. The key thing isn’t really to do something really fast, rather that you set a rather short timeframe and a simple target, just do it, and remember you aren’t going to save the end result so it doesn’t need to be something you’d want to work further on, rather something to practise a certain form or technique with (or simply to practise improvisation, which is nice in itself)
rknLA
104
I struggle (and have struggled) with this quite a lot as well - for me, having to setup and tear down just to practice for 20-30 minutes imparts enough of a mental hurdle that I simply don’t do it as much.
My solution for this so far has been to force things into space. If I can get away with leaving a rack on the floor for a few days or a week, then that’s how I’ve managed.
I also managed to keep a minimal rig out (literally just a Digitakt), and found that to be “enough” for a while- I just focused on that lone piece of gear, daily, for a few months.
We recently got a piano for our living room, which has made it a lot easier to practice (or at least noodle) around on the keys much more regularly, and I’ve found that practicing guitar at the piano gives enough space that I haven’t been blocked from doing that daily in the past few months.
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