I started playing in 1968 at the age of 15. I too did the 8-hour practice routine but I spent it learning Leo Kottke tunes off his records. That continued for years and I was even fortunate enough to have been his road manager for several years in the mid-70's. While I am glad my picking skills are quite advanced, I wish I had done things differently. And, although I took 3 semesters of music theory classes in my mid-20's, I never really learned the notes on the strings or arpeggios up the neck, etc. I just learned songs. Very limiting. It's only in the last five years that I took it upon myself to actually learn the guitar. But, life is for learning, eh?
@Bill Hood you can spend a lifetime making records just listening to patterns. do you think your favorite artists knew the names of every single note they played on the guitar, and could tell you what keys / modes / modulations they were doing? no. they could tell you the patterns on the fretboard they were playing. emotion is the only thing that matters with playing. be true to thine own ears. if you want to be a Steve Vai style shredder and play ten zillion notes, be my guest.
I got a chance to meet Leo when he was on the same bill as Joe Pass, who I knew . Very kind man, I could feel the presence of his heart. When he was playing a duo with Joe Pass, Joe's amp lost power, Leo immediately unplugged his guitar and they finished acoustic.
I did things in more the opposite direction. Of course I learned some songs, but most of my time has been taking; scales, Riffs, licks, runs, etc and learning them and playing with them while jamming or over backing tracks.
I fell in to the trap for years of trying to play everything that I couldn't, and always trying to improve things that I wasn't good at. I was also practicing all the hours I could, especially as a poor student. Then I re-watched Eric Johnson's Total Electric Guitar (pretty sure it was that) and he reminded me that we should be practicing things that we are innately "good at" to elevate those aspects of our playing into mastery and that they would form the lynchpins of our individual vocabulary on the instrument. Wise words!
Had a guitar at 12 but probably didn't learn to tune it until 15 then as quite a few others, in the comment section, became almost obsessed with cramming 8 hours practice daily. When I joined a band & encountered an incredible drummer it was another level & realised timing is something I shouldn't have taken for granted. Even using a drum or click track while practicing -if metronomes off putting-is essential for beginners at least. After spending most of my life with a guitar in my hands I slipped on ice 2015 and broke wrist & elbow, after months of treatment I could use 2 fingers & after physio etc no improvement. Still couldn't abandon my music & songs. I joined Smule karaoke & improved my singing, to the amusement of some, Singing is a great way to improve blood flow & fitness, last year I realized I could use 3 fingers instead of 2, today I can play chords again. So grateful I can play again even if limited. My ear has improved too, so anyone with injuries that seem to be life changing. Don't be too quick to see Limitations, sometimes they're just adjustments in direction!
This goes to show how hard it must be for musicians. I'd never heard of you until last week and as a 61-year old, I've been listening to jazz and jazz-related music for as long as I can remember. You, my blessed soul brother, are a monster.
You’ve reminded me to remind MYSELF that you are where you are. These days I’m trying to look back at those ‘wasted’ years positively… or at least less negatively. Good luck with your future and musical growth.
It's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that needs to be worked on... But this video was very encouraging and made me want to practice even more (and better!)
Thanks Mats, I have definitely been overwhelmed at times. But once I worked out how to maintain my focus, all of the solutions became clearer. Glad you enjoyed it!
To be great at your art is not just a matter of 10 years devotion to developing your skills on an instrument. George Harrison never had time to practise after the Beatles became famous but gave songs the parts that they needed. Guys like Vai and Satriani, are technical giants but relatively unknown outside of guitar circles. It all depends on the goals one is attempting to achieve. Good luck to you in your pursuits of perfection.
I started playing at 38. Learning a couple chords, a couple basic riffs, seeing other chords, getting discouraged, trying something else, figuring something out, crossing another hurdle. It's intimidating I think because you see where you want to be and where you are but don't know the middle part. And that can impact your practicing because for some of us we don't understand why we are doing what we are doing. Learning different skills is a different journey for everyone. So if you are stuck, think about what things you like and what you want to be able to do. Then you can maybe work backwards or if you take lessons, you can get a specific lesson plan.
For me practising and composing go hand in hand. Most of my music has been created this way, I compose an excercise for myself and the pieces evolve into something when my skill increases. I do sometimes learn somgs for gigs, but I don't have much patience for that and I end up playing my own stuff. Composing is the reason I started playing, so I'd rather do that than play something else.
I started playing 🎸 in my late 50s and at first wanted to practice everything at once. And life is still there.... I realized that I needed to focus on one thing at a time and have fun. When I started taking courses I realized that I knew more than I thought. I had to learn to get out of the box ( no pun intended). Now I'm learning about pedals.....so many out there
Unreleased recording from ten years ago, proceeds to play an absolutely blazing world class solo! Imagine all the incredible unreleased music you have that the world would be blessed to receive. (But I understand sometimes unreleased music is just for your own journey)
Really great topic. Love the idea of working on 2 or 3 concepts. At 66, I've had periods in my life where I was able to spend a lot of concentrated time practicing. Agree, first one for me was about from 17-22. I had another opportunity to study with Ted Greene from when I was about 35-38 and now that I'm old I can practice a lot :-) and really enjoying it. I tend to practice in the mornings but always play music in the evening because I agree with you. It's all about the music.
You're right - it's all about the music! Thanks so much for sharing your story. That's amazing you studied with Ted Greene! A brilliant master of the instrument, it must have been a great experience.
You’re an amazing young man. I wish I had that drive you have for practicing. I’m 64. Been playing since I was a kid. I’ve been blessed to take some great lessons from some amazing people like Pat Martino, John Scofield, Rodney Jones. I got careless and didn’t maintain myself musically the way I should have. I wish you continued success. Thanks for being such an amazing influence.
I would love to have you go through the various topics of practice like arpeggios voice leading etc. and actually play an example of how would you practice over each of these topics.
So great seeing your reaction and feedback about your own old take on Giant Steps. I found this track in 2014 on Soundcloud. Spent some hours to study it and tried to understand the vision behind it. You have a unique voice. Keep up Ben!
i started to play the guitar at 15 im 29 years old now, when i started i did practise a lot, it was second nature to me, at 16 i started to take classes in music school, the teacher told us that for a beginner 3 hours was the minimum amount of hours to learn fast, he gave us a routine that was well structured and filled all of those 3 hours, them he told us that if we want to pursue music as a career 8 hours of practise was the minimum. i start dropping the guitar at 17, i never truly abandon it but the dream start to disappear slowly, now as an adult i feel that dream still there. i always thinked that it was 8 hours of practise because the amount of things you have to learn, but it seems that you could do more with less, thanks for sharing this info with us😁
Something I've noticed about my practice over the years is that , frequently , bashing away at some obstacle day after day , week after week , with unwavering commitment , has produced ZERO results . But , much to my surprise , practicing something hard for a while ( hours or days ) then LEAVING IT for days , or sometimes even WEEKS (!!! ) , has produced the desired result !! I wonder if the time AWAY from the topic allows time for new muscle fibres to grow or new brain neurons to develop . Whatever happens during this period , it'll rather magical and unexpected . Does anyone else experience this strange phenomenon ?
At my age, less practice is more practice. Taking aim at one thing and literally playing it once, noticing the problem I’m having playing it and then trying it one more time and then moving onto something else has given me way more results faster because in one practice session I cover more items. Half of my life is over so I want to maximize my productivity. Practicing is fun for me but I can spend hours on one thing which sounds like a good idea but really isn’t because I am unnecessarily taking too long to learn that one thing. This is why I totally agree with you on having a plan and attacking multiple things each practice session. If you don’t show your brain the problem to work on, it can’t solve the problem subconsciously. So, spending too much time on one thing takes valuable time away from you getting more goals accomplished.
I did a LOT of etudes and exercises "preperring". Its def not wasted literally, but i think the best way to 'practice" is building in a STRAIGHT line to what u actually want to do. As Musashi said " u can only fight the way u practice". Your dream is the play x song? split it in parts, find similar stuff but easier or different angles, and...have fun !!! I think the practice should become to have fun doing what u rly want to do. Not to feel like a permanent wait for "that day" when my technique will be blabla. Life is short, enjoy your instrument now >^^>. Great vid, also great strategy especially for your genre.
I thought the old recording was bloody good. I could hear what you were doing and the ideas you were going for. Neat. Useful video too, thanks. I need to get some structure back in my practice.
Im practicing 8 hours due to having to build a repertoire and getting my sight reading up to scratch. Its intense. Taking breaks is very important though. My current routine is 6am-8-am sight reading. (Real book or Brazilian real book) 10-12 technique and improvisation 4-6 sight reading classical or some django fake book I picked up. 15 min break 18:00-20:00 transcribing top 40 songs from as early as the 70s up until current music. Im doing it to apply for a gig though so there is a purpose for it.
I’m at this point in life where I still don’t feel prepared to be a professional musician, but I still want to commit my life to it, and, at the same time, I gotta deal with making a living so I’ll probably get a dayjob. I feel stressed and afrid about the idea of being late for pursuing music as a profession and a way of life, and getting to play as good as I would like to. But, at the same time, I haven’t died yet, so I want to believe there’s still an opportunity in life and music for me
don’t feel stressed. Tal Farlow started learning guitar at 21. Don’t feel obligated to music, just enjoy the learning process and have fun, and you’ll learn much more
@@shanebywater6628 thank you for your kind words, it is something hard to deal with, but most of it is about confidence on oneself. I still feel I am called to pursue music, though. Thank you again, all the best
Who said you couldn't play music after work? My dad has always played in bands. Your focus shouldnt be playing countless hours a day, get in a group even as a second rythym guitarist just to get a start.
“You won’t have as much time when you’re older “ I think is referring to family obligations, kids, doctor’s appointments, soccer games, etc. You’re still young yet , you’ll see, lol . Great video , Ben as always .
for me its about fun, I just try to play things that I like to listen to. Usually its things that are way our of my comfort zone like the Patrick bartley solo in the emmet cohen group from the song after youve gone. I can easily spend 4 hours working on it without even realizing. For me, if I dont realize 8 hours has passed, thats when I make the most progress since i can sustain that for many days. Of course, I will also practice techniques like arpeggios and scales, those I feel have really unlocked some creativity and Ill find myself playing things I would of never potentially played otherwise while improvising. What do you think? Guthrie govan, and many Hal gasper recommend having fun, playing what you like and spending time with the instrument.
I Pick one mode in one key work on that for an hour or 2 . Try something else the next day. No point overdoing it . Keeps me keen to always play everyday
I'm noticing now that what used to take me an X amount of time (i.e. transcribing one chorus of a solo or something like that) is taking me a less and less time the more I do it. So I find it's worth noticing that you might think "ooh I still have two choruses I need to transcribe from that solo" and you might think it might take you an afternoon or something like that when it'll actually take you a couple of hours if you really concentrate and avoid getting distracted
Hey Ben. Just got to know you for the first time and I must say,this impression I got from your first video is just WOW! I'm really challenged and would go harder on myself now(I think I've still got some time to practice).lols...
I have done what you said recently, without knowing of you. Its worked tremendously, seeing results literally by the next day. Have spent the past 2 years pretty much noodling around, working on various concepts... until I could learn how to play songs with relative ease. Learned lots of theory along the way. Incorporated actual practice routines... and now I'm taking off.
Brilliant video. I generally will have 2 or 3 areas that i want to focus on. This is a great way to keep things getting too over-practiced and hence losing momentum. I would also echo your advice on quality not quantity. And yes, having a child and another on the way, i can say that practice while you are young. That said, you can as you say, be creative with your scheduling! i did not however have your discipline when i was younger and have only really gotten good these last few years (I'm 40)
Hi Ben, love your playing. I would love to see a video of you explaining your “voice leading practice”. I want to work on mine but I’m not sure how to start
I used to force myself to play a passage three times without mistakes and I sat there as long as it took. That was when I was 14 years old. I can't do that now, and I don't know if that method would really help me in the long run especially now that I'm older and it would probably take me a lot longer to accomplish the same thing.
It all depends on your goals. Not every musician wants to be a soloist of contemporary jazz so the amount of practicing will vary. Some great ones never practice a whole lot also, however they developed some personality. It is a deep subject.
I studied Indian Classical music with Ali Akbar Khan for a relatively short period of time. In his classes he would often tell us stories of studying under his father Allauddin Khan and that his father was quite a taskmaster, making him practice for up to 18 hours per day, only having short breaks to eat and then sleep. Khansahib would reflect on this time with both positive and negative feelings, but for him the work wasn't even a choice. He grew up in a different time. His advice for us was that you must practice every day, more is better, but even 5 minutes is absolutely necessary. He said that every day you miss practicing is 15 days of lost skill. I still play Indian Classical music, but since I divide my time mainly between Sitar, Esraj, Lap steel, Guitar and Bass, it is hard to keep a daily practice regimen that applies to more than one of them. There is some overlap, Sitar and Esraj for example, or Esraj and Lap Steel and of course Guitar and Bass, but each one has its own fundamentals that slip quite fast when you miss a few days. Do you take breaks from Guitar very often? Forced, by travel for example or by choice?
Hey Ben, came across your channel a few yrs ago and was like wow reminds me of this dude i had heard at Wallys a few times a decade ago haha 😂Wishing you continued success and you sound straight up phenomenal!
Great CONTENT as always man. Give us a sample of HOW this would look like? For example who would you approach arpeggios in that first hour, how you would approach that voice leading ?
Do not practice only what you've heard from other guitarists you will only sound like them I studied with Pat Martino back in the early 90s and the very best advice he could give me was to practice on the bandstand with the ideas you've heard from other instruments ONLY if you practice only what other guitarists play in jazz you will only sound like them and it will take longer to get to truly find yourself in the instrument .After trying to apply that advice with players like Charles Earland and Lou Donaldson on the bandstand I found it also opened a new door alot of those bigger names in jazz are listening much differently than I was and had been practicing on the stand far longer than I and when those peoole show you that they want to be on the stand with you and start to let you know they enjoy listening to your ideas because they are not what others are doing in the field you will find yourself playing alot more with these people only because they request to play with you because what you are doing makes them react in the moment not play what they've heard from another player playing the same ideas jazz is pure expression a conversation but you have to talk about interesting subjects or it becomes redundant or like a boring conversation which is something you will not respond to in the same way as you would if the conversation was fascinating.pull out the old vinyl and listen to other instruments and recreate what you hear and adapting it to your instrument will only make the conversation more interesting whether you play fast or slow ..Pat Martini told me copying other guitarists will only make you less interesting especially to other guitarists because it will only give you one thing to talk about but when new and different instrument lines are heard in your playing it will make yourself and others more intent on listening to you so get out of the house and up on the bandstand cats .
I am used to practicing guitar and mandolin 25 minutes apiece and using a timer to not go over limit. I guess you could call it the law of accumulation because keeping it short keeps me doing it most every day.
Your playing is awesome...and great video..some questions that comes to mind regarding practicing..how dou measure progress? What criteria do you use to determine when to move on to another concept.. what is your definition of done?... How do you stay focused when practicing?,..how do you link physical ability to musicality?
Practice makes perfect , i play usually less than hour a day since age 12. I am 48. Sometimes i stop playing for few months but i cannot go long it effects my mental health . I need to up my skills I am sure i will play more than hour its just getting boring with what i know to play or at least i am waiting for new technique to evolve
loved this video, you are a great speaker in front of the camera! :) Just a question regarding concepts: When you have implemented a concept in your practice routine, you probably always did it in a way where you practiced the things in context to actual improvisation right? Aside from that, does your online courses also teach how to build up sophisticated lines with very small building blocks? Because mostly in my practice for improvisation I oftentimes practice learning 2-5-1 lines and implementing them directly through music which is okay, but I feel i am more bound to the lines themselves rather than small building blocks.
3 hours a day is a lot. You will become a better player if you practice with diligence. The trick part is that you wont become as good as any player, you will become the better version of yourself. Try to enjoy the process and not focus to much on other people.
My problem is that I work during the day and at the day's end, I don't have the energy to do much practice. It's like I need a second wind but don't have it. However, on the weekends, I have all my energy in the morning and I can get in a large practice time, all at once on both days while my energy is high.
And,lest I forget.. 1.Please,I'd love you to explain how to practice daily. Must someone spend that amount of time? Cause you know, we've got to hustle as well so we won't go skint.😄😄 2. What are the areas one needs to focus on? It's really overwhelming when you get to see you're lagging behind and there's this feeling you get like "get all these done now!" Kinda thing.😣
A music teacher told me to think about what I did when I learned to swim. I learned how to float in waist deep water. I moved from there to learning to kick my legs to propel myself forward. I was grateful for any improvement, and I didn’t think about my form or how fast I swam. We’re all bad when we first pick up guitar even if we’ve had training on another instrument.
You’re incredible Ben! I was wondering before you re-located were you taking lessons in australia from any guitarists in your scene/area and who they were/are?
I practice 6 to 8 hours a day for the last 5 years. I play rock , classical and jazz. I've been playing for 50 years. Been playing my favorite rock guitarist. Andres Segovia is the best classical guitarist. Idk
many thanks for those wise words. I myself unfortunately started guitar very late in my adult life ( i wish i could've before). what would you recommend to practice if i have limited time? practice routine for someone who want to learn impro. many thanks
