Study Techniques/ goals for Musicians

[MichaelMaxwell]

I'm curious as to what you guys are doing currently to improve as musicians and what your big goals are.

Personally I am an improvisational guitar player. Right now I am practicing putting arpeggiated jazz chords into my melodies, that have been up till now based on scales. What I think I am doing differently than most jazz players is I am trying to keep the scale in my head as I am playing the notes involved in jazz chords. I think this way my playing will be more interesting, hopefully, then by just playing chord shapes, and also it is helping me learn all the notes across the neck and their relations to each other interval wise. There's a lot of knowledge to be gained from this I think.

Goals: To be able to play over anything by ear. To keep myself interested in what I'm playing, i.e. not be predictable. I want to study the science of music. I would like to study music therapy techniques.

[toasterwater]

I'm a newbie, but enthusiastic.

I effectively started playing guitar 6 weeks ago approximately. I'm still working on some basic stuff... trying to grind scales into memory, as well as note locations on the guitar and such. Of course I'm also still working on my finger speed, dexterity and accuracy as well. Additionally, I'm trying to train my ear to pick up on chord tones and changes. I need to start working more on singing while playing too... theres a substantial amount of coordination involved in that.

I would also like to study poetry to help with lyric composition.

[MichaelMaxwell]

Hey toasterwater, sounds like you're getting pretty ambitious about it! Don't forget, in the midst of learning all the technicle stuff, to just sit down and play around sometimes. What kind of guitarist do you want to be?

[toasterwater]

@ MichaelMaxell

I suppose my goal is to become a virtuoso... and an intermediate goal is to become "good enough" to play in a band and play/sing at the same time.

Basically, youtube any of the great guitarists of history or present and watch some of their incredible shreds. That's the kind of stuff I would like to be able to do some day (watch a video of buckethead and you get that kind of feeling).

I basically understand what it takes to be able to do that sort of stuff, it's just a matter of developing the speed, dexterity and precision in your fingers to be able to maneuver up and down the fretboard, and forming an intuitive understanding of scales, chord structures, and the locations of notes on the guitar... then being able to "dance" up and down the octaves.

anyway, I'm still obviously a long way off from that kind of talent, but I know it's possible, It's just a matter of practice time/quality and direction as far as I'm concerned.

[tylersnard]

I've been a guitarist for about 10 years, so I assumed that learning the bass would be easy. It turned out to be a much more difficult task than I had first thought, and I got frustrated very quickly. However, when I do a little self-talk before practice sessions, it seems my skills and my speed of learning improve greatly. For instance, I might repeat for 15 minutes that I am a great bass player, it comes easily to me, and my skills are improving by the minute.

[ohTen]

I am six months away from a Bachelor of Arts in music. I've had a goal of being a songwriter and having a band for many years. Only recently did I start taking very slow steps toward that goal. I also have this unkillable desire to be a concert-level classical pianist, even if I never perform in public. It brings me so much joy that I can't not do it. So i'm dividing my time between songwriting and practicing my behind off at the piano.

This month, I'm participating in NaSoAlMo. I'm also working toward developing a regular practice schedule with the piano, though it's difficult with my current circumstances (school is a major distraction that takes first priority, and my school has six public practice rooms for a student body of 30,000).