[falseta]

Flamenco guitar practice can be boring! There I said it, it had to be said...

One way I have found to overcome boredom of endless picado and arpegio drills is to have my iTunes open with a buleria playlist ready. When I start drifting into dreamland I stop the metronome and fire up iTunes for a quick one or two of my favorite bulerias. I may not be able to play the bulerias well, but I soon remember why I am practicing. I can then get back to practicing with more energy.

How do you overcome practice boredom?

[Payul]

Originally Posted by falseta

Flamenco guitar practice can be boring! There I said it, it had to be said...

OOPS, you said it!, the B word....LOL

Never get boring with practicing, dreaming away yes, but I enjoy it more or less.

But when it gets to the point I make mistakes, I walk away or get a cofee, or say a little crossword to myself.....

Maybe I must try your approach! Listen to a a palo I like and start again.
I will remember it for the next time!
Thanks!

Payul

[at_leo_87]

one thing that has helped me is to set a time limit. set a time limit for technique, set a time limit for polishing up your repertoire, set a time limit for learning new stuff. that way, you know you only have so much time to practice, so you stay more focused and alert.

[gato]

I like to write themes for direction, depature, or just to enjoy playing a lot better. You don't have to write everything, just enough to keep in tune with your playing so you can remember chords, a simple or complicated melody, or just to remember so you don't get in to the most severe problem in music which is forgetting things.

It can be a simple outline, notes, or just a theme that keeps your playing on the most exciting level. I find that themes really do the work of keeping an idea in memory and alive for the most moving experiances.

You can keep them and venture back to what you may have done in the past, or just get your bearings straight and eliminate forgetting the most basic, or complicated ideas that you are working on.

I reccomend this process to be done on staves, and if you prefer you can also record them for a thouroug reference, as you may find that you have to re learn the themes that you were working on a while back.

Try to keep them interesting but simple enough to enable you to be creative, as there are plenty of full blown scores to get under your belt, unless of course you want to include a lot of work. You might say that keeping notes and writing your own themes is composing, and it is of course, but, without this process you might find that your playing is forgetful, and unable to give you the positive results and experiances in addition to studying scores and scales, arppeggios and the like.

And remember you can even base your themes on scores that you already may have, so it's really up to you to do it.

Then you can keep the creative process alive and without the forgetful moments that can make practice a real headache. It's really just directing the process. Write your ideas on paper and then bring it to a worthy composing program. Use a tape recorder and tape your ideas and scribe them loosely, and then feel free to take liberties in the final process or along the way.

You'll never have to slap your forhead and say to yourself that you can't even remember what is was that you were doing! Themes keep the process directed while allowing the process to be creative as they are just an outline. Themes are great for unraveling in to full blown pieces as well after you have worked with your ideas, without forgetting. That is my greatest process error and flaw that totally agrivates me to say the least. It takes some time ofcourse but it pays off immediately as you can imagine.

That is one way to melt a lot of hassles away, and you will learn to compose doing it. Solves the headache of forgetting. MAKE THEMES......

gary