Are you happy with how you are currently practicing? What are you working on and how are you working on it? For me practice is always changing, chasing those small improvements.
I'm personally a metal guitarist but I find that jazz and metal can have a lot in common and I'm using this practice routine now and it's made me a better player
Hi this is a great video and I plan to copy everything you do here. I'm struggling to find the time to practice. But I've always started with scales as a warm up. Recently i adopted the picking technique you use which takes my palm away from the strings completely and uses my wrist to create exact alternate picking of the strings. This is a revolution!
Hi Tom, I'm glad you found the video helpful. It's hard finding the time to practice sometimes. That picking is something I've not really talked about in videos too much. It's making what a difference a slight change in position can make to something like that.
Great video, really practical and honest about the hard work and focus that is needed in order to make progress. Its good to know that our teachers are mortals and what it takes to discover, refine and absorb the knowledge on the road to fluency. It seems that practice needs to become just another of those unconscious aspects of our lives, its part of playing and performing, its polishing too. Liked the new less formal more chatty but not too chatty approach. Keep playing the piano too, its all the same underlying theory and knowledge just a different input method (note mapping), like typing, brail or handwriting can be. The different physical note mapping opens up different insights which may sometimes be transferable, eg voicings, dexterity of coordination between the hands (like fretboard tapping), concepts like upper structure analysis. Other musicians viewpoints can help too, eg listening to a singer’s phrasing of a melody, Shirley Horn and Sarah Vaughan are masters of that. Knowing the words and stories of songs can really give an insight into creative phrasing ideas as advocated by Coleman Hawkins the great sax player. Thanks for all your hard work and for sharing your practice, warts and all - it gave me hope !
Thanks for watching. Yes- couldn't agree more re practice becoming another unconscious aspect of our lives. I think so on we have a superficial understanding of something, it's only when it happens without thought that I really feel like I have something down.
Thank you for this video, great to get an idea of a practice routine of someone who is good! I am currently working on learning the notes of each scale along with learning the notes of each chord. I've got the interval patterns down, but do not always know which note I'm playing in the moment. Per another recent video of yours, I've started to shift how I look at chords and am working on reharmonizing common chords so I don't sound like a robot and have a better understanding of what I'm playing literally. I've recently bought a white board and some new notebooks all dedicated to music so I can keep notes consolidated. My goal was to make this my year of musical progression, and I've done a decent job so far by taking lessons, practicing regularly, and expanding my music interests. I've also purchased a keyboard for the same reason you have a piano. I am not happy with how I sound currently. I can play, but when I record myself as I feel I'm not sounding convincing. I aim to practice more effectively by having a goal for each practice session, rather than just noodle around with what I can play already. Again thank you for the time and effort you put in to making these videos!! Edit: I am also listening to music I like with a more sensitive ear, trying to identify basics like keys, scales, modes, chords, etc. But I often feel overwhelmed lol. No worries though, time will help!
Hey Eric, sounds like you have a good solid plan to work with :) I think setting yourself goals is really important as is being organised so that each practice session is productive. I like those notebooks with notation in them for jotting down ideas. Re not sounding convincing. Do you think that's the case because its stuff you are still having to think about? I've got some other videos coming up at the end of the year about practice and making improvements.
@@jazzguitarwithandy Thank you for the reply! I'm excited to see the upcoming videos you'll be putting out! About not sounding convincing, yes I believe it's in part due to me thinking quite a lot before I actually play a note or a line, especially when there's a key change or lots of chords to follow (jumping between modes or scales effectively). I may also revert back to playing a "predictable" line just running up and down the scale, loosing signs of which notes to emphasize and whatnot, so I may lose creative steam in the moment. Also, it can be due to how I deliver or actually play the notes or a line. In a song, I may pick too hard to strum a chord which makes it jarring. Though I do think time and practice will help here too! Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season, cheers! Thanks for your videos, I look forward to them!
Great guidance once again Andy. It’s difficult to do real practice and advance in a meaningful way when picking up the guitar. You mentioned a band you play in - do you have any footage you’d be willing to share?
Hey Marco, thanks for the comment. I should sort some footage for my channel, that's a great idea :) I agree re meaningful practice, I'm always asking myself whether what I'm working on is working for me or helping.
I want to share how I practice without my guitar. Due to a reoccurring injury I have started to think differently about practice and how I can improve knowledge and stay sharp without my guitar.So I carry a circle of 5ths, a chord formula sheet to try and help memorise and test myself, some books where I have to work out chord progressions (basically like Andy's videos), rhythm reading, note values and music reading, possibly a book with secondary dominants or a particular topics that helps me and forces me to move forward into new areas.
Very good Andy!!! At the moment I start with rhythm reading always and playing one note to see if I can follow the rhythm, I then usually run through minor pentatonic shape up and down as a warm up exercise getting both right hand and left engaged, I might after do the shapes of minor pentatonic wit same technique, then play each note as a 16th note often swapping between major scale and pentatonic. Then a very small bit of legato
I might play a few chords to like the intro chords to smooth by santana or maybe blue bossa chords but more as a memory and feel thing for 1 minute. I will then have a quick break and I'm into rockschool stuff which will be pre practice economy picking major scale exercise and then into the technical, scales, chords and then pieces and will be working on specific areas of pieces
I like the new vlog format, Andy. Currently, I'm working on playing arpeggios from different positions. I have this bad habit of always starting from the root (5th/6th string) so trying to fix that. Other than that, I would say my problem is I shift genres a lot. I learned a few jazz standards + some Joe Pass solos over jazz blues a few months back. After that, I shifted and played/practiced some popular songs/blues/R&B for a few weeks. Now I can't perfectly play those standards or the Joe Pass jazz blues licks I practiced/learned. Of course, if I spend some time practicing it does come back but is there a good way to retain information? Or maybe I'm overthinking this and it's perfectly fine to relearn and redo? Thanks!
Thanks - just thought it would be good to mix up the style of videos a bit! I think that's sadly the way that for most of us our memory works! Mine is the same! What helps me is keeping a list of things I want to maintain/keep under my fingers. Dedicate a bit of your practice time to those. It doesn't have to be a big chunk of time. I'd say re the standards - I sometimes think I have one sorted but often I've only learnt it superficially. For me I've got it when I can play without the chart, play the melody in a few different ways and have internalised the chord changes. In terms or retaining: do you understand the changes/ chord structures? If it's the melody thinking in intervals or the knowing the words can help. Ultimately moving away from the music and trying to recall it is important. I think the frequency of practice is obviously key too. I've had lots of standards that have slipped away - sometimes because I wasn't that into them, others because I wasn't ready for them. Nowadays I learn less standard but get to know the ones I do know really really well.
@@jazzguitarwithandy Thanks for the comment, Andy! Appreciate it. In terms of retaining: I do understand the chord structure and the changes. I mostly start with the melody and then move on to chords and chord analysis. Granted I have done this just from 2-4 standards till now. But it's tough coming back to them after a while. You are right about keeping a list of things to maintain. I should do that. Thanks!
