[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 141, Issue 16

[Ron Burton <aussierwb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Exellent points as I head off to join some other out-of -work guitar pickers to practice.  To be fair we're all retirees who just like to jam and most times we learn something new.  To quote one of the greatest pianists of all times, Arthur Rubenstein, when he was asked why do you practice 8 hours every day? "If I miss one day,---I know it.  If I miss two days---the world knows it."
Ron --serenading the 'gators just west of the glades 
  From: stevepower@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Practice (Bored with Blues)
> 
> To relate two stories each illustrating a point:
> 
> Pino Palladino, one of the best bass players who ever lived, currently with 
> The Who, was brought up in an Italian family in Wales who ran a restaurant. 
> At the age of 16, school leaving age in the UK, he told his mother he wanted 
> to quit school and become a professional bass player.  After some discussion 
> his mother eventually said, "Fine. If that is the job you want but I expect 
> you to work at it 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week because that will be your 
> job.  If I catch you out, you can come work in the restaurant."  The rest as 
> they say is history.
> 
> Having told that, the best advice on practising I ever hear reputedly was 
> said by Merle Travis in regards to guitar. "The question to ask yourself is 
> not how many hours you practiced playing the guitar but when was the last 
> time you picked it up."
> 
> I loved that when I heard it and always stuck with me.  Playing any 
> instrument is about muscle memory. If it becomes something you do because 
> that's what you do, like breathing, it becomes part of you as opposed "Well, 
> I'll do this for an hour or two hours today and then go do something else 
> but look,man, I practice every day."
> 
> Certainly blocks of x amount of time are required to learn a riff or a whole 
> piece of music or whatever but beyond that if you pick up the instument for 
> only 2 or 3 minutes but it happens multiple times a day every day, what do 
> you think will happen? 
>