-
My Guitar Practice set up
Mine is not so much a routine as it is just something I commit to doing every day. Since I’m retired, I have the luxury of being flexible as needed.
I have a small room I call a den. There’s a TV I don’t use in there, a futon covered with stuff, a couple of bookcases, and a small table with my laptop. (I should probably neaten things up, but I believe I have AuDHD so it never gets done. Boxes of stuff from my husband’s and my dad’s estates all over the place doesn’t help. Which is why I really need the guitar habit.) There’s a music stand next to the table where I put the 3-ring binder with whatever lesson we are working on that day open. And I have several of those, with all the lessons printed! Or, if I’m working from a book, that is on the music stand. There’s a low stool for my foot a little off to the side, and I have my guitar stand within reach. Any other odds and ends–capo, picks, pencils, tuner, etc.–are somewhere on the table.
I don’t keep my guitar out of its case as my house is very dry during the winter due to the woodstove. Summers, it’s too humid, and the guitar goes way sharp. I would like to be able to have it “at hand” so I would pick it up more often, but I want to keep it closer to uniform as I can, which isn’t very uniform. I keep the case in my bedroom in an odd corner where it fits.
My playing routine is, I take it out of the case, tune it, then go to my den and turn on the laptop if it’s a lesson and open up a binder with tabs, or a practice book if it isn’t. I don’t often play on weekends, as those are my “obligation” days–chores and/or helping my disabled friend with her horses. I also don’t often play in the evenings, unless I’ve missed my lesson earlier in the day, as the lighting isn’t as good without the light from the window; or I just feel like playing. My usual time is late morning after breakfast and iPhone time, unless I have an appointment or the weather means I have a good day to bring in firewood or something. I have a few songs I like to play and a couple I need to try and get better at. I’m also trying to learn finger picking, but it is hard, as my brain doesn’t always know what finger it’s talking to!
It took me a while to get into this routine of regular practice, as my brain works on urgency as opposed to something I should do, until I got it to think about getting my practice/lesson done as an urgent need, and started to feel “off” if I miss it. So I do it 5 days a week almost without fail, and make it up if I don’t.
-
2 Replies
-
Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading about your setup and routine.
I also applaud you for keeping your guitar in the case when you aren’t playing. I have a luthier buddy who always tells me that keeping it in the case (and humidifying in the winter) is the easiest way to take care of guitars. He sees a lot of dehydrated/cracked/warped guitars and most of those are from owners who never knew how to use the humidipaks or other methods of humidification.
-
A luthier told me that only hard cases protect the humidity in them, but I have found this not to be entirely true. It helps, definitely. He also told me to humidify in a soft case, to use a few pieces of damp sponge in a couple of baggies with holes, tucked under the strings and around the sound hole. I have tried that with my Baby Taylor, but I rarely play it, so I don’t bother, not wanting to encourage mold. My Zager Parlor lives in a hard case with a humidity monitor, and sometimes when it’s very cold and dry I place a small pan with a little water in it when I take the guitar out to play, and close it up. That works fairly well, but again, the case isn’t completely airtight.
-
Log in to reply.