The Steel Guitar Forum

>One of the features of the NV-112 amps is you can plug >your headphones into it and play.

If you have a Line 6 POD, you can plug headphones into that as well.

Greg, You go for it! I practice just like you do. Except I like CSI. I will flip on the TV and run scales. I will also play acousticly, too. It teaches you to "listen" to what you are doing. I also crank it up, so you get acustomed to loud. You can't know too much about playing.
With the TV on, it teaches you to divide your mind, so you can do two things at once. Comes in handy for me when I sing and play steel at the same time for instance. Of course if you get tripped up, go back to total focus on your guitar. If you find you are total focus on the TV, maybe this ain't for you! HA! I do this so I learn not to be "frozen" to my guitar, unable to handle distractions. I want to be able to play, and have total awareness around me, what's going on amongst the rest of the band, and audience. If you can't handle playing with a TV on, how you gonna handle distractions at a gig? Sometimes I practice the same time my son practices his tele, different stuff than what he's playing. It' will teach you to play under less than perfect conditions, and focus.(Sure teaches my son to play underless than perfect conditions, HA!) I know, I'm crazy, but I've known it for awhile now. HA! I guess for me, It's just a way to push my boundrys. It's obviously not for everyone, your milage will vary.

I might add, don't forget the more disciplined ways to practice. They should be foremost. It doesn't hurt to practice under as many scenerios as you can do. IMO.

Any other night shifters out there? How about 12 hour shifts, 4 nights a week? Work-sleep-eat-work, nothing else 'til days off. Practice time is a premium, but I still get in 30 mins to an hour on my off days. Slow going, but I still see progress, so I'm happy.

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<center><font face="arial" size="2">It ain't got that <font color="red">FEELIN'</font> if it ain't got that <b><font color="blue">STEELIN'</font></font></center>

I love to practice, and although I totally agree that gigging is the best way to get good, I don't see the upside of not practicing at all, no matter how often you play out.

At some point it seems to me you need to introduce new ideas, new tunes, things that are too complicated to work out on the fly on the bandstand. No doubt that chops-wise, playing every night is unbeatable (wish I could say I learned this firsthand), but in terms of actual new knowledge, I don't see any substitute for those solitary hours. I can't help but think that that's what it took for our heroes to become who they are too.

But everyone has a different approach, and if it works, great. Personally, I hope I never reach the point where I don't want to sit at my guitar for its own sake.

I used to play along with the Newman tracks religiously, now less so -- I try to figure stuff out from CDs, then try to find a home for the new ideas in songs I play onstage.

Some tunes are so demanding as to constitute a workout just trying to play them -- BE's Sugarfoot Rag medley or Weldon Myrick's stuff on Connie Smith's I'll Come Running will get your right hand pulsating in a jiffy. Gaah...

I enjoy playing unamplified sometimes, but I try to keep it to a minimum, because although it lets me focus on my right hand rather than the volume pedal I have a feeling I'm not picking up on some subtle mistakes that over time have a tendency to become a lot less subtle.

And I also play with the TV on a lot, but only after I have already practiced 2 or 3 hours -- Law & Order works for me...

Origianlly posted by James Morehand

With the TV on, it teaches you to divide your mind, so you can do two things at once.

OK, I actually see a point in that. I get some of that by playing in the streets.

Another point in having a dsitraction around when you play is that for some things, for instance learning a new technique or trick that goes against what you've done before, it's good not to stay on the one thing for too long time at a time, because you might start to do it wrong (meaning in the old way that you're used to) pretty soon as you lose focus (which is something most of us do much sooner than we think). The best way I've found to teach your fingers to behave in a completely new fashio is to do it over and over but in very short periods of time each time. Maybe just a few minutes. Maybe even less.

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If you can't hear the others you're too loud, if you can't hear yourself you've gone deaf