Is playing some interesting tunes as good as 'practicing'?

Question

I hope this is a valid question and not too subjective:

I'm mainly a bass player, and I follow a pretty strict practice regimen on bass - a series of exercises using a metronome, that follow an organized plan based on the circle of 5ths, working on various modes and positions.

I rarely miss a day from this regimen, which takes about an hour to get through. Afterwards, I'll play through some tunes that interest me and/or reflect certain things I'm working on at the time. Sometimes I'll just play through the changes with a drum machine, sometimes I'll play with a recording.

I've been doing this for about 3 years running, after many years of on and off, disorganized playing and practicing, in groups and on my own.

It does happen sometimes, particularly lately since I'm now a 'senior citizen', that I just don't feel up to practicing - sometimes it's a physical reason, sometimes it's a psychological reason - whatever...

When that happens, I won't do my exercises, but I will sit for an hour or two and play through a bunch of tunes of different sorts, depending again on what I'm working on and what I'm in the mood for at the time. That works because I'm always up for playing purely for enjoyment.

In the end, I never go a day without playing, to keep my hands agile and my head in the music. But, sometimes I skip my exercises. I don't feel I'm losing much by taking that "occasional day off" - maybe it even helps me to stay engaged, particularly if I'm not out and playing at the time.

Is this "OK"? Do I risk losing my edge or not advancing properly if do this more than 'once in a blue moon'?

Is playing a bunch of tunes like that as good as "practicing"? How much can I 'let it slide' regarding regimented practice?

Answer 1

The boring repeated exercises are good for solidifying the difference between average and great: if it's effortless to play scales fast and regular and with consistent intonation and articulation, then every intentional difference counts that would otherwise get drowned out in a sea of involuntary sloppiness.

The problem is that perfection has diminishing returns. You probably won't notice the difference of skipping a single day. Two or three days, and you'll notice. Two more days, and your co-musicians notice. Two more, and the audience, while not being able to put a finger on it, is less enamored.

The problem is that once you start skipping without any obvious ill effect you'll skip more and more until there is a difference.

One possible way to deal with this is "rotating crops". Take a set of somewhat different exercise sets, and work them in a regular pattern including an exclusive day of "as I like it" (fooling around with new stuff not likely to be in your repertoire anytime soon, digging out old stuff and polishing it, or even, gasp, doing nothing) every 6 days or so.

Answer 2

Best practice practice [note grammatical correctness there :-) ] is to do both. Since a large portion of music is made up of scales and 'standard' intervals, learning those is like learning specific motions or strenght-building exercises for athletes. Learning to play songs gives you the chance to bring dynamics, phrasing, accents, etc. into play -- not to mention being able to play the songs well during performances.

Answer 3

I think the best answer to your question is yes, with the caveat that if you only play songs for fun every day, you will advance more slowly.

I taught myself to play guitar by only playing songs for fun. I bought tab books and magazines and later got online to search out tabs for my favorite songs and learned to play them from tabs. Some songs took me over two years to learn to play through at tempo.

That is literally all I did to learn guitar. Now I teach guitar. And now I practice scales and do finger exercises, etc. I learned a lot more slowly than my students do, but I never quit and I never disliked the process because it was pretty much 100% fun the whole time. I didn't care about how good I was, I just wanted to play.

One thing to think about when determining how much time to spend "practicing" (doing an exercise specifically for a skill) versus "playing" (having fun making music) is what your end goal is. Are you playing an exercise to learn a skill in order to play something later on that will be fun? Are you preparing for some personal or professional project or gig? If so, then it makes sense and go ahead. If you're just playing random scales or sweep picking for two hours with no end goal in mind... then why? If it's fun for you for its own sake, then do it! And I would wonder whether that's actually "playing" that looks like "practice".

I started playing guitar to have fun, so I only do the things that will help me with that. That said, I have found it fun to work on musicals at the community theater level (as one example), and some of those scores include no tab, so I have worked to learn to sight read so I don't feel like an idiot in rehearsal. Aside from targeted goals like that, I do what makes me happy. I suggest to all of my student that they do the same. Otherwise, what's the point?