smart practice

i have so much time on my hands, and working the impros for long hours every day gets very very very stressful. other than songs, what else should i work on?

thanks for your opinions...

Rhythm, learn to play with proper time, it's the most important stuff ever. You can play a wrong note, but if it's perfectly in time, it doesn't matter, if you play a right note but out of time, it will sound bad...
Parctice with a metronome, or a drummer, or a CD, whatever.

Record yourself playing, that's the biggest thing you might do to hear your mistakes.

I have to dissagree.

Of course one should be precise to the point. Of course the latest developements have brought an emphasisis on playing like a metronome (petrucci etc)... but hey.. we are still humans! not machines!

A little story:

I once visited a friend of mine in studio while he was mixing some stuff. He said to me: "hey - i gotta show you something REALY cool".

He showed me some recordings. FIrst - a bass-track...
I was like "oh well.. good sound... but very unprecise..if i was the producer i would tell him to play that again."
He said: "do you know who that is? It´s Tony Levin!"

I was like HUH?? THAT beeing Tony Levin?? naaaah - to unprecise.

He said: "and now listen to this".
He showed me a drum-track.
and again it was very uneevn and out of time.
"That is Terry Bozzio!"
"WHAT???? Where they drunk??"

Then he said: "and now listen to what it sounds like if we put these two tracks together!"

Suddenly that s*** started to groove like hell!! It was amazing!

He then told me that this was a recording which they did without click.

....

and the message?

It does NOT mean that you have to be as precise as a clockwork! it sounds much more netural and groovy if the whole band sticks together - even if the y are not precise to the point!
See what i mean?

-=[Azrael]=-

[Edited by Azrael on 02-10-2002 at 09:24 AM]

I get you there. My band like to mess with tempos a lot, and as long as everybody is paying attention and ontop of eachother it works pretty well. And for some reason we can almost do it telepathicly so I guess we all do that naturally.

About the timeing thing if your just bored with licks,
meleody lines ect.
If your practicing by your self.
You could play a few beats useing a blues shuffle beat,
then play a few melody notes bends ect then go back to your,rhythm and repeat untill you get the timing of the notes and Rhythm to flow togather this would be good,
for deveoping your ear plus timing.
What you do here is use your Rhythm as your metronome,
plus use your ear to put Rhythm in your licks notes
ect so it will be in the same meter or timimg of the
beat of your Rhythm.
If you aready have timing its good to mix Rhythm chords,
with your melody lines or licks..........
You never know! like me a Rhythm man just gets in my way,
unless he's doing harmony guitar as a lead man with ,
me other wise i would much rather use my keyboard player,
for my Rhythm player.I would rather cover my own Rhythm,
You never know when you might have to do a 3 peice gig
or your Rhythm player could become ill and not be-able to,
do the gig with your band.

Just my opinion for what its worth.
Mark

I've never said you should play like a metronome, I just said play in rhythm, that's all...
As to your example, having a groove is the extreme part of being in rhythm with someone else... Lots of young players put their lack of preciseness on "dude, I've got some cool groove" that's BS, just play precisely, then work it up from there.

My belief is: Get timing perfect FIRST, and THEN work on playing slightly after or before the beat, adding a shuffle feel, etc.

Originally posted by James
My belief is: Get timing perfect FIRST, and THEN work on playing slightly after or before the beat, adding a shuffle feel, etc.

That's exactly my point, AMEN

I can't think of a single Primus song where they're playing in multiple time signatures at once - they're are a lot of songs that are odd time signatures though (Eleven, Year of the Parrot).

i play with a metromone i have installed on my computer.

i play in alright time, its not robotic perfect, but i think if it was, then it wouldnt sound human.

what other things?

I do use a metronome but its built in my head !
As far as useing a real metronome thats fine but,
i find in teaching some students some will never,
develope a sense of timing or be able to play,
with-out breaking time even if they used a,
metronome the rest of thier life.


Mark

That's true, some students of mine have developed their playing without ever caring about their time, so I guess they'll never get it now... As long as they play for pleasure it's Ok, but if you want ot get involved in any circuit, that's very important...

Its sad but true Lalimacefolle.


Mark

hmm... this is intresting stufff... I've got a little problem my self with time... I cant stick to the same speed when playing unacompanied (with out a metronome or drums or whatever), which really annoys me, as i speed up and slow down a little... but i dont have a problem playing in time with someone else, or to some thing on Cd..

Talking of different time signatures, isn't the piano on "take 5" 9/8, and the clarinet 5/4? ... I think it works wonderfully well...

hm...

heres a question

should i keep going with improvisation ( which would help in a grateful dead-esque band) or fingerpicking ( which would help in a bluegrass band)?

do both...

nah i plan on it, but i was wondering if i should focus on one of them, get it down, then go to the other. ya know?

I'd say work with them in parallel, you'll never master one, so just take them both...

alright