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I always try to put in four focused hours a day, but occasionally I can't because of work or laziness, but I would guess it evens out about 3 a day. I guess I'm still in that honeymoon period of flamenco guitar, as I haven't been playing that long Sometimes it can feel a chore, but no pain, no gain!
Minimum 1hr a day through the week, but I try for at least 2. I'd really love to be practicing 3-4hrs+ a day, but it's hard to find that time except on weekends.
I would like to practice for an hour to several hours a day, but it is very rare that that happens. Don't have the time, and when sometimes I DO have time I seem to be too tired from doing all mandatory things all day to put any serious' focussed' practice in...it sucks!
I've been practicing a lot lately. On average, 2 hours/day, I'm guessing. On weekends, it's not unlikely that I'll play 4-6.
I have a related question, which is to ask how your practices are structured? It's easy enough just to bang out the repertoire, which is most of what I do. I play back pieces I've learned or constructed (couldn't say that I've actually written anything...I'm just biting off pieces I can chew and sticking them together).
I've got more-or-less complete Alegrias and Malaguena pieces, a more-or-less complete tangos piece and a farruca, as well. I'm toying around with more pieces and parts for a second tangos piece and also a solea. But I can run through that stuff in 30 minutes pretty easily. I've also got a tientos that I do with my wife singing...and we also do a version of Como El Agua.
Each week, lately, I've been trying to learn 3-5 minutes of new material. That's a struggle for me because 1) when you get to your 40's, learning is a bit slower, I think, and 2) I'm a big 4/4 time guy...lots of bluegrass, especially in the last few years. It's hard to learn some of the 12's stuff for me. So if I'm lucky, I'll learn my 3-5 minutes every OTHER week and then spend a week or more halfway solidifying in, mentally, anyway, if not physically and muscle-memory-wise.
I'm really hoping for some advice on technique practice. I use a metronome...not as often as I should, though. Sometimes I'll play the Ravenna Flamenco Alegrias compas and play along with that. Occasionally I'll just do rageuos to a metronome...and less often, picado (although I'm sure I SHOULD).
Can anybody tell me what they do for technique practice that seems to help?
One other thing...my p-p-m-p-p-m rasgueo is WAY ahead of my fan rasgeuos. It's so easy to fall back on that, but I know I need some exercises for the old-school stuff.
I used to be on at least 4-5 hours a day + playing at the dance studio for sessions of 5-6 hours twice a week. Unfortunately since I left school, I don't have that much time to dedicate to practicing... but I still try for a good 1h30 daily.
About a half hour to an hour of straight technique then 3 hours of repertoire. Too much straight technique makes my joints sore.
For me "noodling around" is more important than technique, it trains musicality - being able to shake out one falseta after the other at any given time. "Jamming" is a better word. I regularly spend hours with all the falsetas of all the palos I know and varying compás tracks. Otherwise it could be I get together with a percussionist and after playing that one really difficult falseta I've been working on for days I start thinking "Huh? That can't be the only one I know???..." And it's even worse if that one falseta didn't work the first time with a live percussionist
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