How often do you Practice?

How often per week (any schedule you have?) do you practice piano/keyboard, instrument performance chords/harmony, chord progressions, arrangement etc. in order to improve your skills? :slight_smile:

I mean practicing with focus and purpose, not simply “stumbling around”.

I guess I don’t, I am always busy creating. I should make work of it I know… But I am working on EQ now a bit and trying to figure that out…

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I used to do 30 min piano practice every day, but I can’t seem to find the time these days. I have piano learning books, several piano apps on my iPad etc. When I started improving my piano skills, chords, progressions etc. that is when I felt I made also the most improvement as a composer. :slight_smile:

I need to get back to a regular practice routine! :smiley:

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Yes you are right. I will not argue with that.

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Also, another thing is very strange. But learning “outside from the studio” using my piano in my living room, seemed to work better for me. As soon as I open up my DAW I want to create, experiment. But for learning, a real piano with books and iPad was more focused for me! :slight_smile:

Yes that is true also, maybe I should try to do that too on my Roland keyboard. Will think about it. Thank you for the advice.

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I can recommend trying an app called Yousician, it’s like a game for improving on piano/keyboard. :slight_smile:

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Nice, I was just wondering what I could use lol. Thx again. Is it the yousician - Your Music Teacher app or the Piano by Yousician app?

edit: i see, its the piano app, sadly it costs 20€ a month. It will have to wait untill I can do more volunteering work so I earn a extra buck

I have the free version, you can pay to “unlock more features”, but it has lots of free practices and songs. :slight_smile:

AH ok I did not know that, I read a review that it already stopped after one lesson on the app store so I thought I would have no use for it. But I downloaded it. Will be sure to check it out, not today probably, I am over my head in Eq-ing right now, at least, trying to figure things out… I think I understand but to be honest, I would not know at all.

So will surely check the app out this weeks, can always use a bit of practice so I can become quicker and can play more up tempo songs since now I need to take it slow to not let me fingers fall over each other LOL

Really? Perhaps they have changed it since I used it over a year ago? I know I went many lessons for free then at least.

Maybe that person did do something wrong, as I said, I have not really opened it yet, but thats what the review said. I will translate it to english: It stopped after one lesson (mad face)

I practice piano for about 2-3 hours/day right now. I practice for my composing. It’s quite basic arpeggios in left hand and trying to be independent in my right hand for easy melodies :slight_smile: I also practice to be able to play without looking at the keys, ha ha
I make progress but it takes time :slight_smile:

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2-3 hours a day! Wow, you will get amazing progression with that kind of schedule. :slight_smile:

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That’s a really good question, however, I don’t think that only practicing piano or any other instrument will make you a better composer, why? Because playing an instrument and composing are two completely different things. The best example is HZ. He basically can’t play the piano (compared to other composers), however, still pulls off amazing music. Playing an instrument, knowing the strengths and weaknesses is important, but the biggest advantage for composing music is starting to listen to good music, whatever good means for you, and trying to understand what’s going on. I believe that playing easy melodies and chords is totally enough, piano, guitar, drums. whatever. Composing is about creating, not playing. I think it would be more beneficial to play for 30 minutes a day, and 90 minutes for creating new ideas, etc. what I do sometimes is only listening to one instrument only, for example a marimba. I have to know what is possible with that instrument, and what’s not possible. Far more important as playing the marimba myself for hours. It’s just a decision of your priority, as you can’t be amazing at all the things in life, so you need to focus on what is important for you now. Even if I can’t play something myself on the piano, I don’t care, as there are much better pianists out there, that play every single day, it’s their job. My job is to create music that they can play and have fun performing. Yes, playing one or more instruments gives you more benefits, but doesn’t guarantee a better composition. These are just two different fields.

PS: A lot of composers in Hollywood can play instruments, but never tell that they play them so good and constant so they would make a concert. One guy who sticks out is Brian Tyler. He is just on another level.

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Yeah I think there is a difference to, you can play very well but if you do not have any ideas you get no where with creating original compositions. On the other hand your playing or skill in editing in daw can suck big time, but your ideas can be good. I think its maybe best to improve were your talent lays?
But I would have no idea to be honest. Its always good to practice, that I can guarantee, but I think the choice of what you practice lays in what your talent is? Does a good drummer need to become a mediocre pianoplayer? I think its the same with playing music and creating music. I think there is a big difference… but I would not know, its just my thoughts about it.

I for instance dropped the mastering process completely, Lord knows I tried but I just do not have the talent for it. I spend hours practicing and figuring it out, and it did nothing. So I now use Masteringbox website to do the job, its far from perfect but now I can focus at creating ideas. I think we all have something we are good at, thats why we are with so many. I think sometimes we should need to work more togheter, then to believe we can be it all in one person. Then you become a person that can do anything, but at a mediocre level. Thats just what I think

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And that’s okay. There is a good reason, why great things usually are created by many people who know exactly what they are doing, as they are the best in within that specific thing. It’s definitely great to be informed / know the different process, but at some point everybody need help, assistance and support. :slight_smile:

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I totally agree with that to compose good music doesn’t mean that you have to be a good player or that a good player/performer is able to compose good music. But, history is filled with good compositions made by composer’s who can/could play some instrument too at decent or good level.
From Beethoven who was a famous piano player in Vienna to Lennon/ McCartney and so on.
In much of today’s music you need to be good at playing the daw, sound design etc. :slight_smile:

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Yes, it is so much to learn, and we can’t master them all. However, I did not say practice only piano. I meant practice with focus and purpose on any aspect that will improve your knowledge and skills. I learned this from a great video I watched. He wanted to become a great artist (painting). But he made slow progress. Then he met a master painter from Disney who told him that the most important thing is to practice with focus and purpose. For example, spend time only practicing mouth expressions. Other sessions on eyes, and so on.

It is the same thing with composing, there are so many different areas which we can practice one at a time. It is only by mastering the individual pieces first that we can master the whole.

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100%! Focus is everything, not only in music. It’s not always easy to find that focus, in life too. A lot of people struggle to find focus, because most of them don’t know what to focus on. I mean, it’s normal, because when you start doing something that is new to you, you are overwhelmed.

Being overwhelmed in that case is that you just can’t handle and understand what is around you. So the only solution is to STOP, and start to focus on the important and really necessary things. Don’t know what the important things are? Ask someone who is doing that specific thing for years and gained experience and even better success.

But from my own experience, many people don’t want to do it, because they just want to have fun and that’s okay. It’s always a question of “Where do I want to be in 1-2 years?”. If you have no answer, you will never know what to focus on, so the progress will be super slow. That’s how it is. :slight_smile:

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