Re: Practice Routine: Report

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:17:14 +0000, David Raleigh Arnold wrote:

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:55:00 -0700, Alcibiades wrote:

This is what I do:

-About 5 minutes of warmup using only the right hand on open strings.
I sound the first 4 strings, then the first 3 + 5, then the first 3 +
6 and repeat, going from piano to fortissimo with each, listening for
tone, and making sure there's no anticipatory tension. Then I
arpeggiate these.

This is only a good idea if you practice enough to have real fatigue and
wear problems with the left hand. Otherwise, it is stupid.

This means that open string studies are to be done at the *end* of a long
and exhausting practice session, and not otherwise. If your LH is still
working, at least you can bar.

-Then I finger a C chord. I sound the chord, making sure that my left
hand and right hand are perfectly coordinated and that the left hand
uses only as much pressure as needed. I do this for a couple of
minutes.

Dumb.

This means that this is counterproductive because it is a time and
effort waster.

-Then I play the Carcassi No. 2 as block chords, focusing on left hand
minimal pressure on the chords and then complete release between each
chord.

Dumb.

Work on #2 as it is. As long as you keep it clean and slow, you will
find minimal pressure without the nonsense of working to get it.
Meanwhile, you are defeating your purpose with your "C" chord nonsense.
My chord work in DGT will improve that sort of efficiency greatly and do
it in a hurry.

-Then I play 20 Giuliani arpeggios.

Dumb.

This means that Giuliani's false arpeggios were a bad idea badly written.
They accomplish very little for the right hand, nothing for the left,
and nothing for RL coordination. There is overkill in the combinations,
but no work on finger muting at all in that section. My arpeggios are like
those for other instruments. They are scales of chord tones. To work on
RH patterns, use music such as HVL @1 and Carcassi op26. There is a
surfeit of that sort of etude.

-Then I do eight Segovia scales using various rhythms, dynamics, rest
and free strokes, and rh fingerings. I'll do some chromatic scales too.
About 30 minutes.

I have a super chromatic scale study too. It's quick to learn. You'll
like it.

Rhythm is for etudes, not for tech. Do DGT instead of all the above. It
is a much more productive.

This means that my scale set is mush better than Segovia's or any other.
Do not play tech with rhythm and dynamics. There should be different
loudnesses, but it is mechanical perfection that is the appropriate goal,
evenness of every sort. They should become beautiful but they should not
be music. Work on musical goals with music, not scales.

-Then I practice tremolo by playing the
Carcassi No. 2 as a tremolo
piece. About 10 minutes.

Use my "Spanish Nights" introductory tremolo piece at all "andante"
metronome tempos. It's the quickest and most sure path to Recuerdos or
any other repertoire tremolo.

Do #2 as is, to work on amama tremolo.

You can play my tremolo etude in public at the bottom of the andante range
and it will still sound good. Recuerdos is unbearable if played that slow.
I wrote it to provide an easier path to tremolo.

-Then I do various slur workouts for about 10 minutes.

A *total* waste of time and effort. Do my "power" slurs, and see my
introductory slur page and etudes.

This means that power slurs are the only slur exercise that is not music
that you need, and you don't have to do it a lot. Combinations are
just plain stupid. They are the worst and most pointless sort of exercise,
because they have *no* perceptible goal whatever.

-Then I do a magical bar exercise my teacher taught
me.

Great!

This means that how you strengthen your barring doesn't matter
much.

-Then I work on rep.

Any suggestions?

Keep the tech down to 1/3 of practice time.

This means what it says. Practice is about music.

Feel free to recount your own routine.

I'll do it on my site, sometime, but it wouldn't help you.

I am 70 years old, and i have a very specific project right now, which is
to play all of Legnani op20, because I missed it back in the day. That
work has certain problems and solutions which are not available elsewhere.

A practice schedule is many times better if there is a practice *log*.
Of the two, the log is far more important.

Take this as gospel. A practice log is by far the best way to develop a
practice schedule, and such schedules require replacement often, simply
because of your progress. daveA

--
Free download of technical exercises worth a lifetime of practice:
http://www.openguitar.com/dynamic.html :::: You can play the cards
you're dealt, or improve your hand with DGT. Original easy guitar
solos, duets, exercises. http://www.openguitar.com/contact.html
.

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