Perpetual practice

[duzie]

I seem to be stuck in a cycle of practicing technique without making music

I’ve been beating myself self up lately over not being able to play anything correctly when trying to cover a song .
Has anyone else experienced this?
Well back to the metronome

 

[Eagle]

Practice pieces of music in sections or lines rather than scales. Practice scales and exercises too but practice music as much or you end up playing exercises instead of solos at a gig. Nobody needs to hear ascending fours pretending to be music “again “.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Do you practice along with the song? I find it forces my brain to work differently, which helps me make fewer mistakes.

 

[Eagle]

Do you practice along with the song? I find it forces my brain to work differently, which helps me make fewer mistakes.

No to a metronome when I have it in my head. I will divide it into chunks and learn them separately. If I like a pattern I will play it diatonically though the inversions or even through chord changes. I only play with the song if I intend to actually play the song live.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I only play with the song if I intend to actually play the song live.

Well he did say, "cover a song."

It's like back in school, when I auditioned for All-State Band, they had a site-reading portion of the test. The biggest thing that would lose you points was stopping. You could make mistakes, but you were to keep your place in the piece. It forces you to sort of "look ahead", which I find you kinda do, even if it's subconsciously, when playing along with the song.

It's definitely a great way to practice a song you intend to cover.

 

[Stone]

Its how I learn my covers part by part YouTube select a section and slow it down till you get it then on to the next part
then put it all together
Right now Learning Parisienne walkways learnt intro solo then the rhythm after first solo now working on the 2nd solo
that works for me

 

[fretworn]

Slowly moving over to Apple Music… But I have all my playlist on Spotify

I have a huge list of songs that I like to play (1k?) and I just set it somewhere in there and let her rip.

Play for a few hours to whatever comes up; tap tempo is a charm.

I am amazed at what I do remember and then sometimes shocked at what I’ve forgotten. This shit is for fun.

 

[JT]

Slowly moving over to Apple Music… But I have all my playlist on Spotify

I have a huge list of songs that I like to play (1k?) and I just set it somewhere in there and let her rip.

Play for a few hours to whatever comes up; tap tempo is a charm.

I am amazed at what I do remember and then sometimes shocked at what I’ve forgotten. This s**t is for fun.

I'm terrible at learning a song just for the sake of learning it. If the band is going to play it, it's one thing. If not; it's just learning the riffs that catch my ear and playing them when I am noodling around until I get tired of it eventually and move on to a new set of riffs.

 

[fretworn]

I'm terrible at learning a song just for the sake of learning it. If the band is going to play it, it's one thing. If not; it's just learning the riffs that catch my ear and playing them when I am noodling around until I get tired of it eventually and move on to a new set of riffs.

I just learned the ones I like lol

 

[Bob Zaod]

I'll be the first to admit that on days when I actually have the motivation to work on scales and other finger exercises, I play much better. I will also be the first to admit that I generally don't ever do that. I play every day but if I am not learning a new cover song, I just noodle. Sometimes I will do some scales to warm up about 20 minutes before a gig but typically I dont have the time.

 

[la szum]

Well he did say, "cover a song."

It's like back in school, when I auditioned for All-State Band, they had a site-reading portion of the test. The biggest thing that would lose you points was stopping. You could make mistakes, but you were to keep your place in the piece. It forces you to sort of "look ahead", which I find you kinda do, even if it's subconsciously, when playing along with the song.

It's definitely a great way to practice a song you intend to cover.

Amen!

Recovery is a skill every musician needs in their bag. I knew some guys who never got past it.
Make a mistake and they would berate themselves and want to start over. I say don't be selfish
and hold everyone back because you want to beat yourself up again.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Amen!

Recovery is a skill every musician needs in their bag. I knew some guys who never got past it.
Make a mistake and they would berate themselves and want to start over. I say don't be selfish
and hold everyone back because you want to beat yourself up again.

Or when the band has a trouble spot..., "Ok, let's take it from the top again."

Me: "NOO! Let's take it from where we keep making the mistake, then..."

 

[mbenigni]

Has anyone else experienced this?

Only for, like, the last 40 years or so.

 

[mbenigni]

Slowly moving over to Apple Music… But I have all my playlist on Spotify

I have a huge list of songs that I like to play (1k?) and I just set it somewhere in there and let her rip.

Play for a few hours to whatever comes up; tap tempo is a charm.

I am amazed at what I do remember and then sometimes shocked at what I’ve forgotten. This s**t is for fun.

Wait, what? Apple Music has a Tap Tempo feature? Or are you using another app for this feature?

 

[mbenigni]

Make a mistake and they would berate themselves and want to start over.

I was often guilty of this, during rehearsals, when I was the band leader. It is a terrible habit. I'd get so caught up in details - if an effect wasn't dialed in just right when I kicked it on... anything, really... I'd want to fix it on the spot and "do over". Really inconsiderate toward the rest of the band, and completely removed from the reality you're eventually going to face in front of an audience. Working with other band leaders cured me of that. The band leader is an audience, of sorts.

Still, I should make more frequent efforts to get all the way from one end of a song to the other. Practicing only the most entertaining sections, or recording to a DAW that keeps you thinking in "clips" will definitely stunt your growth.

 

[fretworn]

Wait, what? Apple Music has a Tap Tempo feature? Or are you using another app for this feature?

No - am adopting time from the tune to my delays n stuff

 

[DrewJD82]

Or when the band has a trouble spot..., "Ok, let's take it from the top again."

Me: "NOO! Let's take it from where we keep making the mistake, then..."

I go from the top and I‘ve been slightly dictator-ish about this with band practices, too. It’s how our band instructor handled things in high school, especially in marching band where we’d be on the field learning drills and getting 75 band kids to stand in a precise location on a huge field with no markers under our feet was nearly impossible, so back to the start. Doing that year after year showed me how much tighter we got by starting from the top every time. By the time we got to the part where there were issues, we REALLY had the first parts down.

When I go for full takes in the studio it just helps me get in the mind frame better and by the time I’m doubling/quad tracking rhythms, they’re tight enough where I can get through them without thinking “I need to get these super tight”, I just play them and move on.

If someone/the band is f*cking up one spot consistently, then yeah, definitely resolve that, but there’s a certain motivation in “I really don’t want to play this whole f*cking song over again” that tends to move things along.

 

[la szum]

Or when the band has a trouble spot..., "Ok, let's take it from the top again."

Me: "NOO! Let's take it from where we keep making the mistake, then..."

Haha! May have been there as recently as a week ago.

I have taken to --- in a form of silent protest --- going outside to have a smoke when
"someone" wants to put the song on to play, because "We all need to hear it again."

What is this "We?"

 

[la szum]

I go from the top and I‘ve been slightly dictator-ish about this with band practices, too. It’s how our band instructor handled things in high school, especially in marching band where we’d be on the field learning drills and getting 75 band kids to stand in a precise location on a huge field with no markers under our feet was nearly impossible, so back to the start. Doing that year after year showed me how much tighter we got by starting from the top every time. By the time we got to the part where there were issues, we REALLY had the first parts down.

When I go for full takes in the studio it just helps me get in the mind frame better and by the time I’m doubling/quad tracking rhythms, they’re tight enough where I can get through them without thinking “I need to get these super tight”, I just play them and move on.

If someone/the band is f*cking up one spot consistently, then yeah, definitely resolve that, but there’s a certain motivation in “I really don’t want to play this whole f*cking song over again” that tends to move things along.

Excellent points, Mon Frere.

I agree. A lot depends on how many times we've played it (speaking of the past here), or how far into the song
we are when the fuck up happens. Also who and how many are fucking up. If it is one guy we all have the
running joke of saying, "Write that down and work on it."



Sometimes it is just one dude who is struggling. Sometimes the singer has sang it 5 times already and isn't
going to power through it again. And sometimes we have to move on and just forget that song for a bit lest
it turn into a Band Brawl.

But yeah, every band that has ever gigged--- no matter where, or at what level --- has had to learn the
power of powering through. Stopping is still the worst thing that can happen live, and yet even that happens.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Haha! May have been there as recently as a week ago.

I have taken to --- in a form of silent protest --- going outside to have a smoke when
"someone" wants to put the song on to play, because "We all need to hear it again."

What is this "We?"

I remember one time when we did need to review the song (I was the one who wanted to go outside, because I knew the arrangement), because as it turned out, we were using 2 different versions of the song to learn it. One of them was slightly shorter, not even what you'd call a "radio-edit", but it had something (I don't remember exactly what) that was different, and we had not all worked up the same version.

But that only happened once.