Dont know how much my answer counts, as I am from the younger generation.
If I can, I play a half hour a day, mostly working on new songs.

[This message has been edited by ytlevine (edited 10-23-2008).]

Zero. I use the keyboard as a tool to write. If there is something I want to play but I can't I will slow down the sequence and play it. I don't have the patience for rote excersizes. I studied some theory and scales but never learned to play them fast (thanks to sequencers). I was an organ player i my teens and twenties and coupld play all the solos from Santana and a few covers on a C-3 I lugged around. But Since the sequencer came out I quit playing live nad became a studio rat losing any chops I had. Oh well. Its fun not a living for me.

Every hour I spend playing anything is "practice" except Im doing what I prefer to do rather than what a book or teacher dictates I should do. SO far I have not found it to be a handicap. Especially with these Arrangers.

I'm used to workstations where one has to play every part. These Arramgers are a cakewalk.

In fact I use it with Cakewalk....


[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 10-23-2008).]

OK, seriously now...

like many here I am not a professional musician so the time I can devote to music is limited and I have to administer it well. In the past I used to study music theory or practice scales, but right now I try to focus my practicing time having a well defined goal in mind, like recording a given song. I have seen that focusing on a thing like this one motivates me a lot more than just practicing scales for the sake of improving my chops.
To give an example, before recording Desafinado I listened to a lot of different recordings and read also different transcriptions of the song, each one with slightly different chords/harmonic progressions, trying to choose the ones that sounded best to my ears, and this IS indeed practice.
Likewise, in my next song I would like to play a guitar solo in the style of George Benson, so right now I am listening to a lot of Benson's recordings and analyzing transcriptions of his solos.

Since I am not a young boy anymore, I have no chances of developing the kind of finger dexterity or hand independence required to play classic stuff or jazz stuff the way Art Tatum or Oscar Peterson did, but I would like to learn two things:
1- develop harmonic skills that allow me to lay down tasty chords with a jazzy flavour in my songs
2- develop melodic/improvising skills that allow me to improvise harmonically, i.e. following the chord changes of a song, albeit not at super-fast tempos.
I will consider myself a fulfilled amateur musician if I succeed in these two tasks.

30 minutes a day except (most) gig days.


I've seen the difference in my playing.


I think regular practice is invaluable.

Unfortunately I have this carpal tunnel/ wrist thing that has been going on for the lst couple of months (been playing over 35 years, it was bound to happen) so i've been cutting back on actual practicing and playing, but we had a conference in Texas lsat weekend so I played a bit to get ready for that and we have another conference coming up in November in Lawrence, Kansas, so I'll do some prep for that, but I've just been cutting back on the amount of playing and keeping it simpler, not as many runs and soloing stuff.

Jeff

Not nearly as much as I should. Although I play for a couple of hours most every night, it's not practice. When I find my left hand getting weak from playing the arranger too much and not enough piano. I pull out the Hannon finger excercises and run thru about 10 per night for a couple of weeks, it brings back some strength to the 4th and 5th fingers of the hand ( especially the left hand). I've been well intentioned in my thoughts to work on more piano than arranger but never works out that way. It's just too much fun to play the arranger.

Usually 3-4 hours a day...divided between piano and arranger.

Jam with some buddies a few times a month.

Ian

If practice means scales and stuff...I don't at all...

I do play almost every day, often more than one show a day...

I do try and find some open time to work in new material, but that time is hard to find.

If I have a few hours a week to do this, I'm happy...sometimes the weeks come & go so fast that its just not doable...



------------------
Bill in Dayton

"...but I would like to learn two things:
1- develop harmonic skills that allow me to lay down tasty chords with a jazzy flavour in my songs
2- develop melodic/improvising skills that allow me to improvise harmonically, i.e. following the chord changes of a song, albeit not at super-fast tempos.
I will consider myself a fulfilled amateur musician if I succeed in these two tasks.[/B][/QUOTE]

Dreamer,
Many of us would consider ourselves 'fulfilled' professional musicians if we could succeed at these two tasks.
Ciao,
Jerry

One thing I LIKE to practice doesn't need a keyboard at all...

Ear training. It's probably more important than the finger exercises, in practice. Chord recognition, intervallic recognition, scale and mode recognition...

Back at the keyboard, I like to do a lot of 'scat/play' exercises. You know, sing a line, then play it. Sing a longer line, play that. Everyone has a pretty decent soloist in their head... getting it out to the fingers takes less in the way of technique, and more in the way of ear training.

My other favorite 'practice' is to turn on the radio, or internet radio, or put my iTunes library into 'shuffle' mode (random play), and simply try to play as well as you can on every tune that comes up, whether you know it well or not, whether you like it or not It is the PERFECT exercise for going out and jamming. Try to find something that fits on top of what is already going on (don't 'sit' on an existing part). Be creative, be tasteful, be 'in the moment'. DON'T use your transposer! Play it in the key it comes in. You will quickly find out where your weak areas are, and can concentrate on improving those later

'Practice' doesn't need to be scales and rote exercises to be effective.