Practice

After reading all these post, all I can say is....

Hmmmm, practice...?

Was it a Star Trek that had the line "the reason we call it practicing medicine is because we never get it right."

I feel I am practicing all the time, and then something cool will happen and I think "I gotta get this down" so I start recording. The practice session becomes a recording session. Then there are times that I'm intending to record some brilliant idea I have in my head and it comes out rubbish and my wife will walk in look at me, with that "should I bother him and tell him the cat just threw up" and I'll look at her with that "go ahead and bother me" and she'll say "the cat just threw up" and I'll say, "I'll get it. I'm only practicing." (or F#@#$ing around is more like it.)

While in the few bands I have played in that actually used to get gigs, I used to treat the local gigs as if they were practice for really big gigs. It would take away the stress of playing, as well as the torture of watching people playing pool and not caring about what I was playing.

So now, I am practicing for gigs all the time, getting to know the equipment I have bought. And when I get gigs, they will be practice for the "paying gigs". (VERY optimistic, huh.) And so on and so on....

So I guess I could say that I am always practicing, but not really. :?

I would say I'm always learning, but I only get a little bit of practice each day (if I practice each day), and very rarely have scheduled, formal practice.

I usaully just run through some songs and play along to cds. Sometimes I'll just sit back, run through some scales randomly and occasionally come up with neat licks, riffs, chord progressions, etc.

If I don't have my guitar with me, I might read up on some theory or read something about guitar electronics (another big hobby of mine, although I just started actually building effects pedals). Yesterday for example, I spent about 20-30 minutes playing along to a couple of songs I have on Powertab as well as other songs I have on TAB. Afterwards I worked on some music that I am going to be playing for a wedding: I'd try to play it all the way through and stop and focus on the tough parts. The music is in standard notation so I need alot of work (not to mention there is two songs, 6-8 pages in length each, which will probably take me about a month per song to learn, memorize and get really good at).

Anyways, I haven't practiced much in the last few months or so, but I think I just needed to relax a bit, I'll try to get back into it and play at least an hour a day, if I can do at least that then I'll be happy. I always found that a little bit of inspiration really helps to get me practicing (i.e - watching an SRV, Zack Wylde or RHCP dvd).

Between 0 and 8 hours a day, depending on the day and your definition of practicing. I don't practice in a decent way but I treat all my recordings as practice sessions.

A little query - I'd be glad if someone could enlighten me. It's about the spelling of the word "practice" - in my dictionary (Everyman English Dictionary) practiCE is given as a noun form only; practiSE as a verb, either transitive or intransitive. I'm guessing that in American English, practiCE is both the noun form and the verb form.

I know that many words are spelled differently in England and America....pyjamas/pajamas, aluminium/aluminum, colour/color, defence/defense etc etc.....just that I've never come across practice spelled that way anywhere. Mind you, it's in my dictionary so it must exist in English English (that's NOT a typo!) but I've never seen it here - just the word practise, as a noun and as a verb.

Anyone?

:D :D :D

Vic

I'll give it a go! :D This is from the Yahoo Reference Dictionary....

prac·tise

VERB:
&
NOUN:
Chiefly British
Variant of practice.

This is from my little pocket dictionary...

Practice is listed as both a noun (rehearsal, exercise, preparation, training, run through) and a verb (do, live out, carry out, perform, apply, follow, observe).

Practise isn't listed.

Hi Vic,

Obviously I'm not the best for answering the question but as the dictionary is always opened in my computer...

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/practice
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/practise
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=504403

The Spanish-English dictionary says "EN practice / US practise" is the noun and "EN practise / US practice" is the verb:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=practice&B10=Buscar&dict=enes

Nuno

A little query - I'd be glad if someone could enlighten me. It's about the spelling of the word "practice" - in my dictionary (Everyman English Dictionary) practiCE is given as a noun form only; practiSE as a verb, either transitive or intransitive. I'm guessing that in American English, practiCE is both the noun form and the verb form.

Good question Vic. My dictionaries also give 'Practice' as the noun and 'Practise' as the verb, but they also say that the US version is Practice for both.

It's one of those spellings like zucchini (which I try to spell zuchinni at times...) that I have to stop and think about. So if in doubt I use the US version. :)

In Australia we do have a drift towards US usage in some ways. Words like 'programme' are now nearly always written as 'program'.

Cheers,

Chris

Well, it took four different countries to do it, but I think we did it!!! :D

It started in England, went to America, then to Spain, then to Australia! Any other countries want in on this??? LOL! :D

Elecktra, Chris, Nuno - thanks for the answers. It isn't very often I get caught out on spelling mistakes - although for some reason the word "recommend" always gives me trouble! - and I can honestly say I've never seen the word practice - I would remember if I had.

Just above my head, I can see half-a-dozen Stephen King novels, and seven of Tom Clancy's - you'd think the word would occur in one of those, at least!

:D :D :D

Vic

although for some reason the word "recommend" always gives me trouble!

Word problems seem to be like guitar mistakes - once they get stuck in they can be hard to shift. :? My wife is well educated (she has two psychology degrees and has authored numerous government documents) but always wrote "paper towells" on the shopping list. It took years of careful coaching from me (well OK, tedious nagging.... :roll:) before she remembered to put "towels".

I guess she's now practised it enough - or practiced... :wink:

Licence/License anybody? :P

I would say I'm always learning, but I only get a little bit of practice each day (if I practice each day), and very rarely have scheduled, formal practice.

I usaully just run through some songs and play along to cds. Sometimes I'll just sit back, run through some scales randomly and occasionally come up with neat licks, riffs, chord progressions, etc.

If I don't have my guitar with me, I might read up on some theory or read something about guitar electronics (another big hobby of mine, although I just started actually building effects pedals). Yesterday for example, I spent about 20-30 minutes playing along to a couple of songs I have on Powertab as well as other songs I have on TAB. Afterwards I worked on some music that I am going to be playing for a wedding: I'd try to play it all the way through and stop and focus on the tough parts. The music is in standard notation so I need alot of work (not to mention there is two songs, 6-8 pages in length each, which will probably take me about a month per song to learn, memorize and get really good at).

Anyways, I haven't practiced much in the last few months or so, but I think I just needed to relax a bit, I'll try to get back into it and play at least an hour a day, if I can do at least that then I'll be happy. I always found that a little bit of inspiration really helps to get me practicing (i.e - watching an SRV, Zack Wylde or RHCP dvd). Don't you find that sometimes when you don't practice, you get better? How long have you've been playin'? What can you play?

by the way, Vic, your signature is awsome!!! It's kind of true too...

I became upset when my new doctor said he just began his practice.
the rest of the day I practically could not practise my lessons.

:D

anywhere from 3-8 hours a day

usually around 5 or so now that school is done

And yes I do find that I get better after a couple days off sometimes. Gives it time to stew and your muscles to rebuild

Don't you find that sometimes when you don't practice, you get better? How long have you've been playin'? What can you play?

by the way, Vic, your signature is awsome!!! It's kind of true too...

To a point I suppose that is true: There is alot you can learn by just listening. I have been playing at least since I was in Grade 6 (I'm in my second year of college), so about 8 years or so but I only took Guitar lessons for about 2 - 3 of those years.

I would say I'm a half decent player, I can play rhythm guitar to alot of the music that I like to play: rhcp, metallica, zeppelin, etc. But I'm still not a shredder or speed player by any means: I had a friend who played guitar for only about a year or two, and while his technique and tone needed some work, he had a much faster fretting hand than myself.

For example, I can play the rhythm parts to stuff like "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, as well as parts of the solo. However, I'm not nearly quick enough to play 'Master of Puppets', which is about 200 BPM. That's my main goal I think, to be able to play that song pretty much note for note, rhythm and solo parts: by I would imagine it'll take another 8 years to reach that goal :lol:

I wouldn't say I necessarily want to be a shredder, but even guys like SRV and Jimmy Page had this great speed that they combined with great music, and that's what I'd like to achieve: Good technique with good melodies.

I love this place!