I just spent 1/2 hour reading through the "Arrangers vs. SMF" thread. When I realized there was a 2nd page, I decided to call it quits and post this question.

How much time do you spend practicing your instrument and related activities (arranging, finger dexterity exercises, meandering through the bells & whistles of your keyboard, researching, thinking up new entertaining ideas, new songs to play, studying different dance styles, things like challenging yourself playing the same song in different keys to develop “faking” skills, playing the same song but in 20 different variations, etc, etc, etc)?

I wish I had more time to get involved in the conversations here....you all write good stuff. But I spend 3-5 hours a day in studying music and practicing. Then there's food shopping, getting your oil changed, stop at the bank, the post office, return your library books, fight traffic, fight more traffic, eventually SIT in traffic for hours! And with any luck at all, I might have time next week to go try that G-70 I finally located 80 miles away.

I'm real curious how much practicing you guys do and what it consists of ‘cause there’s only 24 hours in a day? I can’t even READ as much as you WRITE!

Lucky,

Good topic/question. I've come to the conclusion long ago that many here spend more time posting than actually playing their keyboard, and admit that I too at one time, fell into this group. Ok, back to your question regarding practice.

I started out playing piano when I was 4, so spent many years practicing scales, classical repetoire, and then in high school/college, jazz repetoire and jazz scales, chord progressions, chord voicings, etc. Following that, developing and mastering a core repetoire of song material. Now, I admit I rarely practice for practice sake anymore, but instead get my practice by regularly adding new song material to my show (audience requests etc) to keep things fresh. I still run scales on the piano now and again, but for better (or worse) have lost whatever trad pianistic chops I had because of my laziness in that dept. On the other hand, I've improved other keyboard skills on the arranger by simply playing (on the job) including RH soloing improvisational abilities and mastering LH chord voice leading techniques combined with LH bass line playing uniquely applicable for arranger style playing (with vocals) providing a marketable skill strictly piano playing alone can't provide.

Everytime I learn a new song, I try to listen to as many DIFFERENT renditions of the song (by different artists) I can get my hands on, and apply some of these ideas to my arranger playing. ONE arranger kb standout is the opportunity it offers to become proficient playing in a VAST range of styles, and which allows you to easily try out new style approaches to standard popular repetoire to make a song uniquely your own. Ok. Look forward to hearing how others are practicing & expanding their musical chops with their arrangers now.

Scott

I, like Scott, consider my practice time in working on new material. I play soooo much that it has made me a better player - period. Going on to new heights, as far as theory, reading, etc - not as much as I should.

One hour of practice seven days a week, and an average of one 3 hour job a day. This is for keyboards. Also do one hour on a variety of stringed instruments, which I also play on the one job a day.

wish I had more time...


R.

PRACTICE? - don't need no stinkin' practice. Isn't that what doctors do?
I only practice when I am learning and setting up a new keyboard, or learning a new song.
It probably shows in my playing As you say, there are only so many hours in the day, and I must decide between fishing and golf then get to the job on time.
DonM

When I'm not sailing, I'm usually working (playing music or writing magazine articles). I usually get to sail at least one day a week. On days when I cannot go sailing, which is much of the winter, the free days are spent working on new songs, which I guess can be considered practice. During the past decade I've tried to learn at least one new song every week. Over the years that amounts to lots of new songs, all of which are used regularly. When I'm not working on a new song, I'm exploring the inner workings of my equipment and ways to make it sound better, I guess the answer to your question is, at least for me, is one day a week, every week of the year.

Good question,

Gary

"PRACTICE? Wass that???"

I don't fish or golf but I'm in the Don M. group. I didn't have much of a musical education and never developed the discipline needed to sit and practice scales and exercise, and I know it shows. That along with an A.D.D. problem that follows me even into my old age. But! I think about it all the time and I design practice regimens – but I don’t execute ‘em.
Wow, now I’m getting guilt pangs – I’ll start practicing tomorrow … I start with …
Ciao,
Jerry

I've tried it. Not a replacement for 'physical' practice, but in conjunction with, this is really a beneficial way of practicing:

Enhancing Your Music Performance Abilities Thru MENTAL Practice

Scott

Put your arranger in front of your computer monitor, put the nearfields to the sides, put the computer keyboard underneath, and all of a sudden you can play, practice AND post here, all at the same time!

Today's word is 'multitasking'...

Personally, I don't like the word 'practice'. I just like the word 'play'! Refuse to be content with doing the same things over and over again, and ANY time spent on the keyboard is productive, whether you are doing an exercise, working on sounds or styles or arrangements of new tunes. Let your creativity out to play, and you never THINK you are practicing, even when you are!

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.

Try putting on a blindfold......the play a song you'll be surprised how proficient you'll get.

I personally dont home practice much anymore because I'm always gigging & that is where I practice on stage. When I do get a few days off aside from having Breakfast & Cheese Steaks for lunch with Fran & gear shopping or I use that time off to add songs, & fine tune what I already have.

"Play Music Everyday"