Does not practicing make you better?

I got the riff I've been working on up to 91% speed played accurately, clean, and in time. I worked on it for an hour and a half over the last day in 30 minute increments. I am going to give that riff a rest for about week, then bump it up to 92 or 93%. I'll probably get started working on something else in the meantime. I'm having fun and feel like I am making good progress.
 
Megadebt said:
I'm having fun and feel like I am making good progress.
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That's super important, too, in my experience. It's like being in a band and playing a show and
leaving the audience wanting more (ending on a high note!) and not doing 3 encores just because
they beg you to do so. :)

In a sense, we are our own audience when we play/practice. If we end on a high note, and not when
we are depleted and frustrated, then we are more apt to want to go at it again the next day, and the
day after that, and so on. That's how the process/cycle feeds itself and becomes sustainable.
 
heads up - golf analagy incoming > in a golf swing you can, with lots of practicing bad technique, groove in elements that will stop you from progressing beyond a certain level. Once you've realized it, and want to correct those bad elements, you'll have to "ungroove" them which may take as much time or more than it took to groove them in in the first place. Same with guitar imo - if you practiced for an hour and got sloppy for the last 35 minutes, you may have actually regressed overall.
 
^ Aye!

I had to undo a bad technique once, it took some time. I couldn't play it now the way I was playing it then if I tried. That worked out well.

There is another thing (habit) I'm trying to work out, it's a bitch. I try to keep my mind on it, and keep it correct, but as soon as I take my mind off it, it reverts…such a pain in the ass. I suspect my playing will much improve overall when I work this one out.
 
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Megadebt said:
I got the riff I've been working on up to 91% speed played accurately, clean, and in time. I worked on it for an hour and a half over the last day in 30 minute increments. I am going to give that riff a rest for about week, then bump it up to 92 or 93%. I'll probably get started working on something else in the meantime. I'm having fun and feel like I am making good progress.
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I would never just work on just one riff.
Playing the same thing over and over leads to muscle imbalances.
Work more on one thing one day. But work on it less and something else more the next day etc.
I think you should work on 3 or so things at once and emphasize how much you practice each one a different amount each day.
 
la szum said:
If we end on a high note, and not when
we are depleted and frustrated, then we are more apt to want to go at it again the next day, and the
day after that, and so on. That's how the process/cycle feeds itself and becomes sustainable.
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This.

Your body remembers best what it did last. If you're working on a challenging riff, and it's just giving you problems, slow it down until you can at least get the notes right. Stupid slow, if you have to. Your next practice session will be better for it.
 
Rex said:
This.

Your body remembers best what it did last. If you're working on a challenging riff, and it's just giving you problems, slow it down until you can at least get the notes right. Stupid slow, if you have to. Your next practice session will be better for it.
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And the rule of Primacy is that you remember best what you were taught first. If the first thing you learned about whatever is what’s going to be recalled quickest and most accurately. Gotta be careful with that.
 
Having a complex melody, solo or riff on your mind for some days also helps you play it more fluidly when you come back to it, because you can focus on expression nuances rather on thinking what note comes next. The fingers just flow to the notes without thinking, opening the space for emotional expression.

Interesting reading on the study of emotional expression in music performance:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40318983

The issue of players with mega-perfect technique skills but without emotion is not unique to guitarists. Many young musicians concentrate so much on achieving technical perfection with endless hours of intensive practice that they do not give the mind the time and space to cultivate emotional diversity on their performance

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Rest is good not only for performance but for composition. Just think of all the time that Beethoven, a nature lover, used to spend walking alone on the forest.
 
2204JCM said:
I would never just work on just one riff.
Playing the same thing over and over leads to muscle imbalances.
Work more on one thing one day. But work on it less and something else more the next day etc.
I think you should work on 3 or so things at once and emphasize how much you practice each one a different amount each day.
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Aye, good point. There are a few songs I can work on, and have been wanting to work on.

Thing is, this riff I've been working on, makes up 90% of the song. It's the same riff throughout the song, albeit a couple different tags on the riff.

I sure don't want a muscle imbalance! I'll work on various things as you described. This should also help to stave off burnout from hearing and playing the same thing over and over.
 
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Admin M@ said:
Don't confuse "resting" with "not practicing."
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I'll reiterate this.

I play out a few days a week usually, but I'll go days without playing at all. Those times I'm not playing, I'm almost constantly thinking (or recalling) riffs and mentally placing them on the fretboard. I don't need a guitar in front of me to play guitar, for a portion of that anyway. Same thing with piano.

I actually rarely listen to music at all in my down time...unless I'm actively learning something or just wanna put something on loud, or maybe something new came out, driving in the car or whatever I'll have podcasts or talk shows on. I can play music in my head any time I want to, and sometimes even when I don't. I've got a mental iPod of sorts. Frankly it annoys me to have music playing all the time because I'd rather just internally be thinking about whatever it is I'm working on or feeling at the time. (exception: garage, when I'm working on my cars. that can just be whatever, because I'm paying almost no attention to it)

The girlfriend, not so much, she wants something playing 24/7 and always asks me to put something on...I'm terrible at that. She's not good at understanding that silence in the room is not silence in my head. I mean, if you really wanna hear this Guthrie or Brent Mason lick played over and over again, I'd be happy to put it on loop for ya...
 
2204JCM said:
I would never just work on just one riff.
Playing the same thing over and over leads to muscle imbalances.
Work more on one thing one day. But work on it less and something else more the next day etc.
I think you should work on 3 or so things at once and emphasize how much you practice each one a different amount each day.
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Heck, why not have a dozen different songs to practice on, or is that too many?
 
Practice makes perfect. But that doesn't mean play the same riff to death. Working on techniques, doing different exercises, different riffs, tunes, whatever. Taking breaks when needed helps too. But not playing for a week, or even a few days, is probably not going to help.

Everyone is different but the person who practices more will typically sound better. And hey, sometimes there are certain things that you may not be able to play or play at a certain tempo. Everyone has limits but that doesn't mean you can't try really hard to overcome those limits and maybe succeed.

I've been trying really hard the past 3 years to increase my picking speed. Not an easy thing at 60+ years old. But I've improved a few BPM and that makes me very happy.
 
la szum said:
People who simply visualize doing a skill, without actually doing it also show measurable
results in getting better at the skill.
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This has happened to me. However, my visualizations have come from dreams. I've learned riffs this way and when riffs have given me problems, I've been able to correct them within the next few days, with minimal effort, after dreaming about it.
 
My 3 cents.

I've been a covers band guy for two decades now, and once I learn the song, I never practice it except a quick refresh of the leads or start/stops/ending prior to a gig or rehearsal.

I found that practicing them completely kills it for me and then when the gig comes I'm just going through the "parts" instead of performing a song for the audience, and it comes off more mechanical than fluid/flowing.

Instead I have a few daily exercises I created myself and create more all the time. Think EVH Eruption or RR tribute solo in suicide solution for example. I also do a bunch of classical stuff and Spanish stuff. Things I enjoy, but all stuff I love to play, which imo is the important factor.

Am I the fastest Nope? And I super technical? Nope. Do I care? Nope.

I got the gig. People enjoyed it. I got paid. I enjoyed it.

For me, nothing else matters.
 
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