Super intensive practice!

[bardhan]

After having wasted a great deal of time in idling about over the past few days/weeks, I've decided i'm going to test myself on something i really want to do. having surfed a whole bunch of forums over the past 3-4 years of my playing the guitar, I've noticed how people tend to talk about practice time and how reaching double digits(in hours) is rather HARD over a long period of time. While i don't have forever in hand, i do have the next week and a half to my self completely. :D
my goal is this - play the guitar for a minimum of 15 hours to the day. i intend on starting my routine in the next 12 hours.
i do have a fixed routine, though flexible. flexible as in, i may not choose to do the tasks in a particular order. I've set my schedule into various aspects of guitar and music in general -

technique
sight reading
ear training
theory
phrase construction
improvisation

for those of you that are interested, i have further broken these down into subdivisions with specific workouts. i will be repeating this pattern twice or thrice throughout the day till the target has been reached.
i plan on updating the thread on my progress throughout the day whenever i happen to take a breather. if I'm too tired i'll just log it at the end of the day, but i WILL log it. the reason i'm this is because i end up making a lot of schedules and never following them, in the process i've started to feel as though i'm not capable of such meeting such demands. i certainly hope this will help inspire me practice routinely in the future, till the time comes, when i can call myself a worthy musician :)
the last time i tried this sort of thing was almost a year back, i went on for a bit more than a month for about 11 hours to the day, everyday. then relationship trouble happened ... :mad:
anyway, all that's in the past, i'm REALLY looking forward to doing this. if anybody wants to discuss the experience or the methods or anything for that matter i'd love to, but it'd only be at the end of the practice session. i would be ever so glad if somebody/anybody would join in the little experiment. yeah, i know it won't be fun throughout, but at least the rewards will be well worth the effort (or so i hope) ... in the meanwhile i'll be chilling to some martin, medeski & wood playing in the backgroung. :cool:
thanks for reading.
bardhan.

ps: if i manage to pull it off i will be rewarding myself with a spanking new miles davis album, cookin's with the miles davis quintet. :D . oh it will be well worth it.

[daystar]

Well it sounds very interesting to me and I would love for you to share your progress, trials, and tribulations as you travel this journey. Unfortunately for me, I will not be able to join you as I just don't have that kind of time to devote to practice. I have a career, wife of 22 years and 5 children- 4 of which are teen age daughters so there is always so much to do. I actually have had the guitar playing/practice time cause alot of fussing in my relationship with my wife before so I know where you are comming from.
I think I will just practice vicariously through you :) !
GO FOR IT!

[elmariachi]

Just make sure that you put your tendons before any commitment to achieving the 15 hours. The practice will be no use if you have crippled yourself by the end of it. Let us know how you get on. Would be useful for those wishing to achieve such practice times. Also if you don't stick it be honest about it. It will be far more useful to hear why you couldn't achieve it etc. and see what could be done to overcome whatever problems. Best of luck!

[NG7]

I'd like to hear about how much you've improved at the end.

[metaljustice83]

Care to log this as you go in this thread it would be quite interesting!

[Aresius]

One thing that I am interested in is, how do you plan to keep your practice effective for the whole 15 hours? Are you sure you can really concentrate on nothing else than guitar for that time? Seriously, if your practicing is not fully concentrated ALL THE TIME, in other words the quality of practicing is not kept super high, it doesn't matter if you practice 52 hours a day. I'm not saying that you couldn't do it but a very few of us can really keep up more than, maybe, 4 to 5 hours a day. After that, with most of us, either our mind or body says that I quit. But good luck anyways, but I'd say you'd use your time more effectively if you cut that time in half and strive for high quality of practice more than just hours on your practice log.

[bardhan]

hey guys, i just got done with 1h40m of ear training, thats 20m more than i had allotted for it. ill try and reply to your comments quickly -
Just make sure that you put your tendons before any commitment to achieving the 15 hours. The practice will be no use if you have crippled yourself by the end of it. Let us know how you get on. Would be useful for those wishing to achieve such practice times. Also if you don't stick it be honest about it. It will be far more useful to hear why you couldn't achieve it etc. and see what could be done to overcome whatever problems. Best of luck!
dear elmariachi, absolutely, i wont be doing my workouts at a stretch for more than an hour. ill keep changing between mentally and physically intensive training. and about the honesty part of it, i assure you ill let you know. :) to tell you the truth, i had my doubts at the start of the day, the rain is kinda depressing, but once i got down to it.whoa, it CAN be done( i feel at this point). i will let you know the details. trust me.
I'd like to hear about how much you've improved at the end. and i'd love to tell you about it. :p
Care to log this as you go in this thread it would be quite interesting! here you go. :)
One thing that I am interested in is, how do you plan to keep your practice effective for the whole 15 hours? Are you sure you can really concentrate on nothing else than guitar for that time? Seriously, if your practicing is not fully concentrated ALL THE TIME, in other words the quality of practicing is not kept super high, it doesn't matter if you practice 52 hours a day. I'm not saying that you couldn't do it but a very few of us can really keep up more than, maybe, 4 to 5 hours a day. After that, with most of us, either our mind or body says that I quit. But good luck anyways, but I'd say you'd use your time more effectively if you cut that time in half and strive for high quality of practice more than just hours on your practice log.
dear aresius, thats a very good point you have. and i agree with you 100%. the idea of my practicing this long is not just to churn out the numbers. i don't doubt that i can sit and hit a few notes throughout the day, the challenge is to keep the interest from waning. how i plan to keep it from getting monotonous is like i said, mixing the mentally intensive work(like ear training, sight reading etc) with the physically intensive ones(technique), and throw in the fun stuff(like improvisation and stealing licks). like i said, i'm not sure how long i can keep the interest going, that's the whole point of the test.

i'd like to thank all of you that have taken an interest to this. i'll try my best to not let you guys or myself down. i cant wait to speak of the experience on day 1. :)

bardhan.

[tedmaul]

I'd be interested to know what your specific goals are during this? I mean, i think unless you know exactly what you are aiming for each day, each week, each month and long term then your practice will lack focus.

It's something i always try to do - keep a list in each area (ear training, scales, theory, picking speed, legato speed etc) so i know exactly what my targets are at all times. If you don't do this it is easy to loose track of what you're trying to achieve.

I would also strongly advise that you have a shorter practice plan in place so that in future, when you don't have all this time on your hands, you can still do a couple of hours a day of really focused practice to keep things moving forward. Having done these huge practice sessions myself in the past (back in the days when i actually had the free time!) i know they can be really beneficial. But if you then don't keep up regular focused practice thereafter then you will lose a lot of that.

Anyway, just offering some advice. Good luck. It sounds like you're really dedicated to your instrument, and as long as you retain your focus i don't see why you can't get some very positive results from this.

[bardhan]

tedmaul
I'd be interested to know what your specific goals are during this? I mean, i think unless you know exactly what you are aiming for each day, each week, each month and long term then your practice will lack focus. It's something i always try to do - keep a list in each area (ear training, scales, theory, picking speed, legato speed etc) so i know exactly what my targets are at all times. If you don't do this it is easy to loose track of what you're trying to achieve. I would also strongly advise that you have a shorter practice plan in place so that in future, when you don't have all this time on your hands, you can still do a couple of hours a day of really focused practice to keep things moving forward. Having done these huge practice sessions myself in the past (back in the days when i actually had the free time!) i know they can be really beneficial. But if you then don't keep up regular focused practice thereafter then you will lose a lot of that. Anyway, just offering some advice. Good luck. It sounds like you're really dedicated to your instrument, and as long as you retain your focus i don't see why you can't get some very positive results from this.

hey tedmaul, i appreciate the advice. as a matter of fact, i do have specific goals. i'm pretty used to making plans, lol, very intricate ones too, the trouble is in keeping up with them. since it's been almost a year since i last logged double figures, i wanted to get back to it this time. if i see i can over the next few days. ill make up a slightly shorter (as i wont have this much time), but just as 'intense' as this one. for the moment i havent set speed targets and such that you talk of, but yes, i do make sure i increase the metronome settings, and i'm very aware of it. as for the goal, really, i want to be a musician. :) as for specific targets, yes, i'm following a set of topics that i have marked up. i wouldn't mind discussing them in the future, if you'd be interested.

as for the log so far -
ear training - 1 hour 40 m
alt picking - 1h
rhythm - 24m
sight reading - 40m

will keep updating as i go along. :)

bardhan.

[daystar]

I am curious as to what your criteria are for measuring your progress during this experiment- namely at the end of it.
Have you taken some sort of baseline measurements to which you can compare once you are finished?

[bardhan]

I am curious as to what your criteria are for measuring your progress during this experiment- namely at the end of it.
Have you taken some sort of baseline measurements to which you can compare once you are finished?

thanks for dropping by again, daystar. well, as for criteria, again it goes down to having specific goals and whether or not you meet them. i have somewhat clear cut ones. for instance in my sight reading, i have to read up to a certain number of pages. for something like improvisation, i make sure familiarize myself with arpeggios and inversions of chords. I've basically worked them all out, now it's time to learn them one at a time. then for technical stuff of course the difference is very noticeable. and, theres ear training, which i know is improving everyday as i take tests on a daily basis. so, at the end of the day ... or days it all translates to a better, more wholesome approach to making music. which IS the goal.

as for the update -

ear training - 1 hour 40 m
alt picking - 1h
chord strumming - 24m
sight reading - 40m
interval and arpeggio - 40m
chord strumming - 36m
sight reading - 20m
interval stacking - 20m
chordal rhythmic patterns - 20m

there was some time wasted in the middle due to a long phone call. but i'll make up for it, i'll probably go well into the next day, but it doesn't matter. as long as i get 15 hours out before bedtime ... for the next 8 days :D
next - handling changes.

thanks again guys.
bardhan.

[metaljustice83]

this is awesome. Consider yourself fortunate to be able to do such a thing as this!

[bardhan]

this is awesome. Consider yourself fortunate to be able to do such a thing as this!

thanks a bunch. and, yeah i'm pretty fortunate to have this much time at hand.

so far so good -
ear training - 1 hour 40 m
tech - alt picking - 1h acoustic
chord strumming - 24m acoustic
sight reading - 40m
interval and arpeggio - 40m
chord strumming - 36m
sight reading - 20m
interval stacking - 20m
chordal rhythmic patterns - 20m
improvisation(handling changes) - 1h
tech - legato 30m
improvisation(handling changes) - 1h
tech - sweep 30m

9 hours done so far. i'm a little tired but i'm still high on interest. had a pretty tough time working on legato on 12s. to add to the challenge i decided to do all the alternate picking and rhythm workouts on the acoustic.
i still have one entire cycle remaining. can't say i'm THAT exhausted, but i could use a nap.

6 hours to go. :)

bardhan.

ps: just completed a few more tasks -
tech -alternate picking 1h(acoustic)
ear training - relative pitch 1h.

so 11 hours. 4 hours to go. i'm feeling pretty good at the moment. no signs of fatigue(im not sure i wanna do legato , though).

[bardhan]

ok, i'm having a hearty conversation with my brother, who i haven't seen in the longest time. so the last 2 hours have gone without guitar-work. i will be heading bedwards in 3 hours or less. let's see if i put in some time by then. 4 hours to go still.

bardhan.

ps - (i'm still up for it) :) ... ah he's leaving now. i think i'll work some more.

[forgottenking2]

Hey there Bardhan:

I went through a period of time where I did nothing but music. I did something similar to what you are doing. I was going to school for music fulltime and I was practicing between 5 and 8 hours a day in addition to teaching and performing (granted performance time was limited to school recitals). After about a year and a half of that kind of abuse my tendons gave up. I developed a painful tendonitis case on my left arm. I went through a period of denial and I blamed everything but the one thing that had caused it (excessive practice) it took me taking a hard look at what I was doing and literally dissecting everything to finally come to the conclusion that I had been simply overdoing it. It took about two years for me to heal completely (I was able to go back to playing in 6 or maybe 9 months though not for very long). I have since healed and I am back into doing music full time both as a teacher and a performer. But it was a painful lesson to learn. The benefits those extensive practice sessions could not made up for the time I had to spend away from my instrument.

I know you are thinking this can't happen to you and that if you don't do it all at once and if you don't limit your practice to technique and if... (insert additional reasons here) but you know what? So did I and it still happened to me. It was a double impact on my ego because I thought I was not only a responsible musician but I am also a former medical student which means I'm supposed to know how all that stuff works right? Apparently not.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying do not practice (I'd be giving you the opposite advice I give my students if I were) I'm just saying be aware of your own limitations. Today I err on the side of caution. I for instance spend roughly about 2 hours on my instrument (I hardly touch it when I teach. Aren't we supposed to be listening to the students anyway?) so those two hours are spent on chord work, single line concepts or whatever and I almost never work for an hour straight without a break (I say almost never 'cause I still get carried away). I usually work sight reading as a combination of sight singing and a visualization exercise (I developed this when I could not play). Basic things such as scales, arpegios or chord shapes are usually worked during a short warm up or in a musical context (often both). Ear training I usually don't specifically work this since I figure sight singing and figuring out songs for my students already is a pretty good ear workout (if you don't believe me I can show you my ear muscles. Watch me flex them! :p)

When you add all of this up I spend between 4 and 12 hours (three day weekend gigs yay!) a week performing, about 25 hours a week teaching in addition to say 20 hours (ok sometimes it's a little more) a week of combined practice between drills with and without my instrument (that's a 49 - 57 hour work week). That still leaves me time to spend with my wife, work out and do other things that spice life up.

I have dragged this thing for a long time but I figured if I just sit here and tell you "keep that schedule up and you're gonna get hurt" you'd just dismiss my advice as that of a patronizing jerk.

Keep practicing and good luck.

-Jorge

[bardhan]

Hey there Bardhan:

I went through a period of time where I did nothing but music...
hello jorge,
i understand where you're coming from. but, the thing is i won't have this much time in the near future, this 15 hour a day madness will only be for another 7 or 8 days. i'll have to do some traveling thereafter. in any case, i don't think i'll get to practice for this long when i finally settle down. i'd like to ask you though, how much practice is too much? (a sincere question)
also, i don't do too much technical work at once. i take my breaks. i generally change exercises every 5 mins(i work in chunks when it comes to technical stuff). i do warm up before these drills. and also there's a lot of theoretical work going on. so, i'd like to ask, in the near future say i get a long break, how long do you recommend i practice.
thanks in advance,
bardhan.

ps -
as for the update - i just did some more sight reading. i don't know how much longer i can go on. it's already morning, i need some breakfast. i'll get some sleep right after. (lol messed up schedule, i know).

so thats - 11h 20m so far.

[fingerpikingood]

you know what? everybody is different, but i find that such long practice hours is not necessarily the best thing.

more time at once is not necessarily better.

i find that time off between playing often improves my playing on its own. particularly in the muscles department. because it is not so much the playing over and over that improves your physical ability, but the time of repair in between where your body rebuilds to be stronger in order to cope with the stress you're imposing on it.

kind of like it's not the fall that kills you but the landing.

although, maybe if you planned your practice real well, and divided it up into sections that might be really good, while you recover from one thing, you work on something else kind of deal.

but again, doing that many days in a row might not be so good. basically if your body isn't used and "hurt" (not hurt really, but well exercised, if you know what i mean) then you didn't really improve it all that much. and if it is, then you should give it time to repair so that it becomes stronger and then push it beyond its limits again.

also, purely from a mental point of view, i personally find that too much guitar at once can cause repetitive habits. you are in the same frame of mind kind of thing, so you think of kind of the same things and might practice kind of the same things putting yourself in a position to build muscle memory and stuff like that, that might work against you in the creativity department.

I find taking a breather and approaching somethign fresh from kind of another point of view is really useful.

so idk, i really like your ambition and enthusiasm, but more at once is not necessarily better. but like i said, we are all different.

so good luck man, don't hurt yourself trying to accomplish the feat and have fun. If i were you i might take a few breaks too and lower it down to 12 hrs a day, and even that will be a really long time to practice.

I don't think i've ever done that before, 8, or 10 hrs maybe, but from what i hear, your stamina for practice is staggering. what's cool to think is that this time next week you'll be much faster and more learned than you were this week.... nice.

(just read your last post)

as for specific times, i would treat it kind of like work, go a couple of hours and then rest a while. for intensive muscle work, like working on speed, i would just go and push my self until i can't anymore, and then play some more at a slower pace, maybe just a song or something i like for a while, maybe even an hour. and then leave it for a night.

i've never gone quite as long as this, so my advice might not be best, but i would do alot of going until i'm bored, or hungry, or need to drain the main vain, or usually if i were to practice like this i'd end up breaking into a jam of sorts and then i would call it a break on that high note.

one thing you don't want is the carpal tunnel syndrome, and too much playing this way might get you that. for 8 15 hour days i think that would be a very real danger. and this is not a kind of pain you want. so if you did eight 10 hr days, with some breaks in there every couple of hours then i personally think that would be best. and take a lunch in there too.

day jobs break this way also because it is efficient, workers doing the same thing too long can get tunnel vision and lose productivity, and can sustain injury from prolonged work.

you'll be sitting the same way, holding a guitar with your fingers often the same ways, so it's similar in that way to like factory work. so i would go with regular day job times as a rule of thumb. but going 10 hour days i think would be fine, the odd 12 hr or 15 as well, but for 8 days in a row i think that might be too much.

but you could try, again everybody is different, just listen to your body alot and don't push it in a bad way. listen to your mind too, if you're sick of it or something, then take a breather for a bit.

that's what i would suggest anyways.

[bardhan]

hey fingerpikingood,
loving the nick. very clever.
i find that time off between playing often improves my playing on its own. particularly in the muscles department. because it is not so much the playing over and over that improves your physical ability, but the time of repair in between where your body rebuilds to be stronger in order to cope with the stress you're imposing on it.
i will agree with you on that. i've noticed that on several occasions myself. i have actually 'designed' my practice time in such a way that there is sufficient recovery time between workouts. what i have done is basically used playing cards on which i've written down tasks. and i've separated them into two stacks - one with the theoretical, and ear training, and sight reading etc(the mental stuff) and the other stack with the more physically intense material. i make sure i alternate between them to keep up my concentration levels, and general interest. so far, it's seemed to work. i don't seem to feel fatigued mentally or exhausted physically. my tendons seem to be in good shape (i did a routine check every few hours). i must mention i find your words very encouraging, thank you for that. i'm already motivated for the next session. i need to catch up on sleep, though not before i grab a meal.
it's great to see so much input from so many people. thank you all so much.

update - just added a 20m warm down. i'm going to call it a day for now. i guess i'll keep the phone off the hook and gtalk off form tomorrow. :P
so 11h40m in all for the day. i'll really gun for 15 tomorrow, no excuses. :)

bardhan.
ps: you guys are super. also, no miles davis for me. :( punished.

[forgottenking2]

It's precisely because this is not a consistent thing but rather a jump from what I assume was a much more conservative schedule that there's risk of injury. On the other hand I doubt 8 days can do much damage so I guess you could go crazy on this and be ok.

How much practice is too much? Well it really depends. When I gig I play 4 hours somewhat straight through (we get 3 breaks a night so we play say 1 hour 15min a set or 50 min if we are doing 4 sets) but then again what I play is not at the top of what I can do (which is what one should practice no need to practice what you already know). Based in what I have experienced a 4 hour practice session should be enough to get you through safely. If you are doing intense stuff I'd cut the time in half and just do two. Any more and you are risking injury.

Now this one book (sorry I forget the author) "playing less hurt" say you can practice indefinitely as long as you take a 30 minute break for every hour of actual practice. I have also heard from several hand doctors and the whole rest/practice ratio varies from what the book said. I had a chiropractor say 15 min for every hour a hand surgeon say an hour for every hour and then another saying two hour rest for every one of practice. I researched RSI bordering obsession and asked doctors whenever I could. Everyone gave me the same overall answer but the practice rest ratio seemed to be different with every doctor. Here's what I got out of it: Everyone's different not just in physical make up but also in terms of practice habits and daily routine. The guy that said double the rest for every hour of practice had probably seen a lot of professional classical musicians who play 4 hour plus of extremely challenging stuff (I know a violin teacher who has some horror stories of some performances going beyond the 7 hour mark.) where the guy who said 15 minutes for every hour probably dealt with your average weekend musician.

I decided as I said to err on the side of caution and have one or two (if I have the time) sessions of 1 - 2 hours. I am not one to sit with a stop watch so I take a break whenever I feel I need one (usually at the 30 - 45 minute mark roughly). I resume whenever I want to and I stop whenever I feel I have had enough. I find this is not only enough to maintain my technique but I still continue to improve.

Like I said in the beginning, you can maybe do your 15 hour a day routine for a few days and pull it off without injury but maintaining it for any lenght of time is just asking for it. Think of it as doing jumping squats on concrete. Maybe you'll be able to do it for years without a problem but most of us would have our knees quit in a matter of months.

I hope this helps.

-Jorge

[bardhan]

thanks Jorge,
let's see what happens. i pretty sure i won't be able to spend this much time again in the near future, as i said. so let's see where it goes. so, yesterday i didn't meet certain targets. today i intend on getting over with those early on in the session. let's hope i can keep the momentum going. here starts the day.

bardhan.

[bardhan]

hey guys,
im on the 2nd day -

warm up - 10m
funk rhythm - 45m
sight reading - 40m
tech - alt picking 1h
tech - chords 1h
improvise - chord implication 1h

got a long way to go. will keep updating.

bardhan.

ps: update:
just added some more ,
theory - harmonic minor & improv - 40m
altenate picking - 1h
ear training - 1h
alternate picking - 1h

and more ...
ear training - 1h
sight reading - 20m
improv - changes - 1h10m
tech - sweep 30m

that's a bit more than 11 hours, i'll get back to it right after a meal. this feels good. :) next - legato >theory > phrase building/lick stealing > interval stacking > improv > blues > sight reading > warm down. sleep.
:)

update -
tech - legato 30m
sight reading - 20m
interval stacking - 20m
improv - changes - 15m
warm down - 10m

in all that's almost 13hours.

i couldn't hit 15 hours today either, gotta manage my time better tomorrow/later today. but, i felt like i really pushed it today. i'm a bit sleepy now. tomorrow is gonna be a little hard, i got a few commitments, and then a gig to attend. so i'm going to try and pack in as many hours before i leave.

thanks again for dropping by,
bardhan.

[daystar]

Hey Bardhan, you okay buddy? You havn't fallen off after 2 days have you? I hope you havn't fallen out from guitaritis! We are all behind you so keep up the good work! Looking forward to your update!

[bardhan]

hey daystar,
i'm here. don't worry. i've been working pretty hard on my ear training & sight reading so far. had to go pick up my license and receive my dad from the airport. i'm suffering from mild fever thanks to showers at odd times. lol. but, nothing to hold me back though. (i skipped the gig just so i could keep up). ill post an update in a few hours. thanks a lot for the support.

bardhan.


update -

day 3
ear training - 40m
sight reading - 40m
alt picking - 30m

... sleep

alt picking - 1.5h
sight read(rhythm) - 20m
rhythm - 40m
lick stealing - 30m
theory - 30m
ear training - 40m
handling changes(some more) - 1h
sight reading - 20m

i doubt ill make it to double figures today as i had some unexpected chores. i don't want to risk promising that i can/will make up for that, this isn't exactly cakewalk. :)
this is going to be a testing weekend though. there are a bunch of things i'm expected to do. i'm pretty sure i'll evade most of them. but, i got to attend a family dinner or so. :( after a bit of negotiating with my self i've come to the conclusion that i won't consider today to be a 'success' since i've got nowhere close to hitting 15. so I've decided, i'm going to push it an extra day till the 18th(ill be leaving on the 19th early morning, so that's cutting it pretty fine ... but you gotta do what you gotta do :cool: )

[bardhan]

hello people,

yet another day of hard practicing. yesterday's session wasn't to my satisfaction, today will be better i hope. i'm still carrying that fever ... anyway, my acoustic strings need changing and the electric ones need lubricating. i'm outta strings & lemon oil :(
i gotta say there are certain improvements i have already noticed. my sight reading skills have really improved(though i still have trouble reading chords with accidentals), my ears are picking up intervals much better these days. my picking speed has increased by a good 20bpm. and, my improvisation over changes is much smoother. still, i can't say im completely satisfied with my progress. i do have YEARS to go. also, i was thinking, maybe i should add 'repertoire building' to my schedule. will keep you updated.

thanks again guys,
bardhan.

update -
ear training - 1h approx(not particularly sure about the time here, checked myself for 1000 interval questions.).
alt picking - 1h(Acoustic)
theory - harmonic minor(harmonisation & arps) 1h

yet another update -
sight reading - 40m
interval stacking - 30m
funk rhythm - 30m
improvising - 1h
sight reading - 20m
theory - 30m
tech - sweep 30m
tech - legato - 30m
intervals & arpeggios - 30m
tech - alt picking -1h

my fever is kinda growing on me. that's a bit of a concern. :mad: i really hope that doesn't come in the way. i feel like i need to take a break. possibly lie down for a while. got a bunch of stuff i wanna cover over the next few hours though. imma be in a fix if i'm not well by tomorrow.

bardhan.

[daystar]

You lubricate your strings with lemon oil? I have never heard of this. Once upon a time I used some stuff called "Finger Ease" but not anymore.
I think increasing your store of songs is a great idea. I do not play many cover tunes at all and that bothers me. It is mainly for lack of interest. I simply prefer to do create my own music but this has hurt me because people at bars want to here covers.

[bardhan]

hey daystar,

as for the lubrication, it's not exactly just lemon oil. i don't remember what exactly it's called, but it's a blue bottle of dunlop string cleaner(dunlop 65 i think it's called) and if i remember correctly it it says lemon oil on it. as for the repertoire, i too have never been interested in covering songs. i might have the same trouble as yourself. thing is i keep hearing that it's great to have a wide set of songs you can play. also, when you jam to standards the only thing you really need to remember is the progression and the theme(if you choose to play that at all). even knowledge of the progression is unnecessary if you have the chord chart in front of you! in fact, jamming over standards is just what i was doing for most of the end of the session yesterday.
anyway, today i feel, i need to pay the doctor a visit. last night i had trouble concentrating, due to the fever. and, yes i did oversleep. (this fever has nothing to do with my practice though).

update for yesterday -
ear training - 1h approx(not particularly sure about the time here, checked myself for 1000 interval questions.).
alt picking - 1h(Acoustic)
theory - harmonic minor(harmonisation & arps) 1h
sight reading - 40m
interval stacking - 30m
funk rhythm - 30m
improvising - 1h
sight reading - 20m
theory - 30m
tech - sweep 30m
tech - legato - 30m
intervals & arpeggios - 30m
tech - alt picking -1h
ear training - 20m

... i managed to change the strings on the acoustic during the power-cut :) ...

lick stealing 30m
rhythm - 40m+
improvisation over changes - 1h

and then i gave in to my fever. yet, another day of target not being met. :( but i must admit, yesterday was the hardest so far. i don't recommend practicing with fever. it's not smart, as it increases recovery time. take some rest instead. i (think) i feel better today though. trouble is, i got a family dinner, and everbody knows how they stretch. getting past a more 'real' day should be an interesting challenge. as i found out, maneuvering around a weekend, is actually much harder than i had expected. let's see what happens.

bardhan.

ps: i'm sorry if the updates aren't coming up on time, i'm not the only one using the comp over the past couple of days .. :(

[bardhan]

hey guys,

over the past 18 hours, 12 have been spent sleeping. i've decided to give the immunity system a chance ... not that i had much of a choice. in my waking hours, however, i did manage to listen to some brilliant music. i highly recommend 'live at the village vanguard - grant green', you know you can't go wrong with that. a masterclass in phrasing and rhythm in itself.

until the fever passes,
bardhan.