Melodeon.net Forums
Discussions => Teaching and Learning => Topic started by: ladydetemps on October 27, 2009, 04:13:03 PM
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Just wondering...I practice 1hr a day min. with 2hrs on a sunday, and 2-3 on a saturday...puts me in the 5-10hr mark.
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Please define practice. Some weeks I play for hours, some (this week for instance) very little (1000km from my melodeons :'( ). Not sure any of it is practice, ie no scales etc. Sometimes I play new tunes, which could be practice, but that can vary from 30 mins (tune just works) to forever (can't get it in my head)
ps (are there too many brakets () in this reply)?
pps Should the "?" be inside the brackets or outside
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Please define practice. Some weeks I play for hours, some (this week for instance) very little (1000km from my melodeons :'( ). Not sure any of it is practice, ie no scales etc. Sometimes I play new tunes, which could be practice, but that can vary from 30 mins (tune just works) to forever (can't get it in my head)
Practice...hmmmm.what counts..let me think...scales or playing tunes...well actually playing in general that is done private rather than publicly, I'd count as practice (e,g playing in sessions doesn't count as practice). But that's my own opinion (and I'm just a young upstart without a clue). I think you are old enough to judge for yourself. ;)
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:o Where do you find time to do anything else?! My 'practice' comes in fits and starts - sometimes 30 mins, sometimes 3 hours ::) And I'm far too busy for practising at weekends!
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I probably play in public for around 10 hours a week. I'm also doing a ridiculously hectic degree, so it limits me to no more than an 30min-45min a day practice, if that.
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:o Where do you find time to do anything else?! My 'practice' comes in fits and starts - sometimes 30 mins, sometimes 3 hours ::) And I'm far too busy for practising at weekends!
I have no social life. I have a strict routine.
On weekdays, its get home practice till dinner is ready. then after dinner I have a rest watch the one show, drink tea. Then finish off practice. If there's nothing much on TV I'll probably practice on and off some more.
Weekends I don't do much really, I have all saturday afternoon and sunday evening to practice, but try to limit myself or I just end up aching from over practice.
and lately there has been nothing on TV....so well more practice. ;) I'm putting in the hours but progress seems slow. Just wondering if there is a saturation point where more makes no difference.
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I try to practice even a few minutes each day, but sometimes I don't really feel very inspired to do so. I want to stay on top of it for the days I'm more motivated.
I believe twenty minutes a day is more useful than weekend marathon sessions for most skills.
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I wish I had more time to practise but at the moment its snippets here and there, average 20 mins a day tops
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Just wondering if there is a saturation point where more makes no difference.
There is (:) Where it is depends on you though ;) As a general rule, if you don't think that you're getting anywhere and you've stopped enjoying it then stop and pick it up again the next day.
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There is a saturation point, but it depends on what you are doing. For example, you can spend longer "practising" if you divide the time between polishing up tunes you know, and learning new ones from scratch.
Obviously when you realise you are tired, achy, frustrated or just bored then you should stop. The problem is that before you reach this point you will probably have stopped listening to yourself, and may have been spending some of your valuable practice time perfecting your mistakes! (and who hasn't! :|bl)
Sometimes it's a good idea to lay off playing completely for a few days. Everything sounds fresher when you come back to it.
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Sometimes it's a good idea to lay off playing completely for a few days. Everything sounds fresher when you come back to it.
Oh! yes, some of my biggest improvements have come from not playing for a while. These may only be in my perception but it really helps.
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It's difficult to quantify. I keep the melodeon by me while I am working and pick it up when I need a break, get fed up or run out of inspiration (I am a writer). I then play -either learning new tunes or practising my existing repertoire - until guilt forces me back to work. This can happen several times a day between my starting work around 8.00 a.m. and finishing - usually around 11.00 p.m. If I practice any later than that, my wife threatens to come and sort me out with a bloody big hammer.....I wonder why? Do I need to change my wife for a more understanding model? ;D >:E
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Do I need to change my wife for a more understanding model?
I believe that the newer, digital, models can be much more understanding?
;)
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Latency can be a problem though.
(make of that what you will ;))
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Latency can be a problem though.
(make of that what you will ;))
Sorry, I'm not into rubber. However, I understand baby powder can be useful in these circumstances.
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If Aa haad a wife
Aa care not what she be
She looks like a woman
That's enough for me
Buy rubber busoms
Buy them when they're new
Fine pink and red'n's
etc ...
(Heard at Jim Mageen's wedding)
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Oy! Stop derailing my thread. ::)
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My available practice time just dropped significantly. I've adopted a cat. She doesn't seem to care about the box, but has discovered that if she curls up on my lap I have to take the box off and she goes to sleep (and so do I).
I'm sure there is some intent in her actions as I was trying to learn the Pterodactyl Two-Step - a painful experience for anyone within hearing! No one phrase is difficult on its own, but stringing them together and remembering where you are is "complex". Rule one - no swearing with the windows open.
Rob.
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1-5hours seems to be winning.
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To be fair, more than 1-5 is going to be hard for anyone with a full-time job, let alone a family and/or social life!
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I am in the 1-5 hour bracket. Approx. 20 min once or twice most evenings (depending if its been a hard day at work (full-time) or not) and approx. 2-3 sessions of 20 mins. Sat. and Sun. I stop either if I start aching or tunes start going totally wrong. Can't really afford much more time I have a family and house to look after. Our old cat (16.5 years old) doesn't mind the melodeon, the younger cat that adopted us runs out of the room at the site of it (my playing is THAT bad, well not to my ears).
Wendy
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Depends what I'm cooking at the weekend, as the time between preparation and eating is often my private "beer and melodeon" session.
A roast supports far more practice time than a pasta dish or the dreaded 'no-practice' stir-fry.
Andy
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Sally seldom arrives home before 8pm (after leaving well before me in the morning) so I can feed the cat, run the vac around a bit, cook the tea and still find time to play for at least an hour in the evening. Sad thing is I spent most of this evenings session playing just 16 bars over and over at a very pedestrian speed trying to iron our the bits I always get stuck on. ::)
That was on concertina though so my post is probably off topic ...
I find repetitive playing quite therapeutic, I can attain an almost trance like state playing scales and rhythmic patterns or simply repeating the same passage over and over. I agree with previous posts concerning problem tunes, passages and exercises, leave them alone for a week or two and then pick them up again, you'll be surprised at the progress you make by simply doing nothing!
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45 minutes to an hour every night after the kids are in bed. I am very much a creature of habit and also of DUTY so the tunes that have difficult bits must be hacked at before I am allowed to move on to new tunes.
works for me
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I work a lot from home - and my office is shared with my instruments - so I take a break every couple of hours and play for 15/20 mins. In fact I find a 20 minute workout much better than trying to maintain hours of practice.
AL
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I find it annoying that when I'm 'in the groove' I get told to stop playing over the TV, or to be quiet.
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I find it annoying that when I'm 'in the groove' I get told to stop playing over the TV, or to be quiet.
Streb! >:E
How about one of these with a pair of headphones on? :||: :|||:
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I seem to do most of my real practising in my head, working out fingering etc. It's a habit I started on the fiddle and found very helpful when real practice is not possible. The other week my precious and I went to see Cliff and The Shadows and during one exiting bit she thought I was gently tickling her arm, when I thought I was working out a particularly awkward part of Apache! :Ph :|bl
Chris-the-untrustworthy
PS There was only one squeezebox in the whole show and that was a PA!
C.
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I seem to do most of my real practising in my head, working out fingering etc. It's a habit I started on the fiddle and found very helpful when real practice is not possible. The other week my precious and I went to see Cliff and The Shadows and during one exiting bit she thought I was gently tickling her arm, when I thought I was working out a particularly awkward part of Apache! :Ph :|bl
Chris-the-untrustworthy
PS There was only one squeezebox in the whole show and that was a PA!
C.
I do this all the time. I was unconsciously air melodeoning along to something when it changed key into F. I seamlessly and unconsciously started playing clarinet fingering instead, to the amusement of all :P
The advantage to this is that you can do it on the way to the shops ;)
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I work long hours in the clinic, am writing a book, run a massage school, do three sessions of weight training a week, meditate 1 hour a day, sing in a local choir, have a wife, elderly dog and allotment to relate to, try to play the guitar sometimes.......
But somehow I get 30 mins on the box about 5 times a week.
Less can be more. It all depends what you do with the practice time.
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I find it annoying that when I'm 'in the groove' I get told to stop playing over the TV, or to be quiet.
Streb! >:E
if only I had the money ;)
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Setting small objectives , like learning part "A" of a tune for 20 minutes with good fingering. I feel good to accomplish this 1 thing. If I jump all over, nothing is accomplished. Works for me ok.
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In my short period of learning, short periods work best (as others have previously mentioned) - at most half an hour at at time and then let it sink in for at least another half hour (thinking of something else) but mostly for me it's the next day before my brain has absorbed the patterns. If you have a longer harder session of learning then a longer period of laying off IMO helps - a day or two (TOTM experience). I find I learn the patterns better when I'm tired, later at night and playing quietly (and slowly) just before bed.
I probably need to get a life and not let the DBA take over (fortunately no neighbours to complain, if I time their shift patterns correctly - I've yet to find out how antimelodeon they may be if they have nightmares that include Speed the Plough!)