I recently was asked how much I practice with the fiddle. It got me to thinking about my practice habits, and wondering how others go about this essential part of making music. Below I am going to describe what I consider my practice habits. Please be aware that I play music for my own enjoyment, and do not expect to become an expert on any instrument, so for anybody looking to become a professional musician, your practice requirements will probably be much more rigid than mine.
First, I do not think of what I do as "practicing." I like to make music and so I "play" rather than follow a strict routine. I know I should spend more time on scales and position work and theory and all of that good (and necessary) stuff, but I don't! Sure, sometimes guilt (or probably a rough spot I need to get over) overwhelms me and I haul out the scale and interval exercises, but not often. I am not taking lessons currently, so I have no assigned time-frame goals.
Usually, after lunch I pick up my banjo and sit down to play for awhile (here in Tucson it's a great excuse to keep out of the midday sun!). If I have a banjo lesson upcoming, I will first run over what I have previously presented, making sure that I can know it well enough to feel comfortable. I then decide what I am going to present next and gather material for that: a tune or two, info on new tunings for the material, and tabs.
If I am not preparing for a lesson, I normally just start playing some of the tunes I know. If I feel that a tune needs work, I will play it over and over until I feel that I have made progress in the area I was working on. I probably wind up playing 4 to 6 tunes, with 2 or 3 of them having the majority of time spent.
Sometimes I get a notion that I can work out a tune by ear. Quite often this tune is something I have been working on learning on the fiddle. So I may take the tune and put it onto the banjo fretboard. Once I can pick out the melody, I start trying to add the bump-dittys and double- and drop-thumbs. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes not, but the positive attempts are coming more often.
Sometimes I pick up the fiddle instead of the banjo. With this instrument, I normally start by playing through one or two tunes that I have in my head, then open Wayne Erbsen's O-T Fiddle book and start playing the tunes there that I haven't gotten into my hands yet. Sometimes I will play along with the CD, lately more for timing purposes that anything else. I also have several notated tunes that I am learning. With the fiddle, I find that I need the notes until I get the melody down, then I can work on bowing and intonation.
The above sessions will normally run anywhere between 1 and 4 hours, pretty much solid playing. I will pick up the guitar sometimes to play through some tunes, but unless I have a specific reason to work on it, I usually just play it for 20 - 30 minutes. This might be one of the days when I don't get a session in otherwise. Often the guitar is merely played on the patio in the evenings after dinner.
The 'ukulele, I am sorry to say, usually sits in its case beside the computer waiting patiently for me to pull it out in response to some posting on ezFolk that piques my interest.
So, short story, I normally practice (play) 4 to 6 days a week, for 1 to 4 hours a day.
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