The Steel Guitar Forum

With a "real" music room (finally), I can leave my guitars and amps set-up...and when walking by one of them, if the urge hits me, I can stop, grab one and play until the enthusiasm disipates. (Once a day or more often, if the urge is strong!) This can be from three minutes to a couple of hours. I have no plan nor play list. If a musical theme runs thro' my mind, I'll start with it and then expand to other stuff, should I feel so inclined. I seek pleasure first; accuracy next; and then satisfaction that what I did was worth the effort and time. I neer use an amp for my practice sessions. Years ago, I always played with "records".

The only thing about not using an amp for practice is that I find that sometimes something sounds OK without the amp, but then doesn't sound quite as good with the amp. Usually that's because some ringing strings clash with a chord, and that can be fixed by playing it in some different position (or damping). But it can be hard to hear without the amp. It's also easier for me to hear what's in my head rather than what's really sounding when I don't turn on the amp.
Of course, for late nite practicing, no amp
is sometimes just the thing...<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Chas Friedman on 02 April 2006 at 07:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

<SMALL>With a "real" music room (finally), I can leave my guitars and amps set-up...and when walking by one of them, if the urge hits me, I can stop, grab one and play until the enthusiasm disipates.</SMALL>

I enjoy this as well, in my "real" music corner (some 9 sq.ft., (not including closet space for rack) sharing the "real" room with grandkids' toys and crib for #6 (on the way).

Was ever a man more relegated!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by James Cann on 02 April 2006 at 08:42 PM.]</p></FONT><font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by James Cann on 02 April 2006 at 08:43 PM.]</p></FONT>

Same here James, my "music room" is so crowded it looks like the interior of the space shuttle. Looking forward to some more space someday..it cant possdibly be that I have to much stuff, oh no never, just not enough space..hehe.

My practice tip as a beginner and for beginners is:
turn off the reverb. once you can play it cleanly and your blocking is good without reverb then you can drench it all you want. plus its just easier to hear what you are doin at first with no verbage.

heres another one:
Practice no fun? ut-oh, you aint gonna do so well....you'll progress faster and better if its fun. Find a way to make it fun..work on a tune or lick you really like...cant find a way to make practice enjoyable? Maybe you just dont like this instrument afterall?

I live in a garage apartment, my music room, is a cubby hole just off the living room. I usually play out of a Nashville 400 amp. A buddy of mine borrowed it after his amp blew. While my NV 400 was MIA, I used a small cheap starter amp that I bought out of a pawn shop for about 35.00. My thinking was if I can make music sound good out of that little cheapy amp, then it would help my sound out of my NV 400. Because lord knows I need all the help I can get. I think it has helped, now that I have my NV 400 back, I have noticed that through all my practice out of the little amp, my sound/tone seems to have improved somewhat.