musical practice again

Just to help me think through my musical practice, let me first lay out all of the things I would ideally like to work on.

1. guitar
   • repertoire
   • bass lines
   • chord knowledge
   • scale knowledge
2. piano
   • repertoire
   • scales
   • chords
3. composition
   • compositional study
   • composition
4. musicianship
   • ear training
   • score study
   • reading

A number of these things overlap, and some of them are unnecessary. I don’t really need a piano performance repertoire so much as just a working knowledge of the keyboard. Probably for piano I should just warm up with some scales and chords and then use the instrument for ear training, composition, and score study…for general musicianship. Guitar needs to be the thing that I practice primarily. How about something like this:

1. guitar (1 hr/day)
   • repertoire & bass lines
   • scales & chords
   • comping the blues and rhythm changes
2. musicianship (1 hr/day)
   • basic piano musicianship (scales & chords)
   • ear training CDs
3. compositional study (1 hr/day)

This seems like a lot still. The guitar repertoire and bass lines are something I simply need to refresh and build upon. The chord and scale practice needs to be short and to the point. In fact, let me break it down like this:

1. guitar (2 hr/day)
2. musicianship (1/2 hr/day)
3. compositional study (1/2 hr/day)

I could easily spend three hours working on music, and this does not get me bogged down in the musicianship and compositional study at the expense of my guitar playing. In the end, the one thing that most defines me as a musician is my ability to play the guitar. In the past I have either practiced the guitar the the exclusion of the other aspects of musicianship, or I have focused on musicianship and ignored the guitar. Even worse still, I have often fallen out of the habit of practicing altogether.

Let me post this and think about it a bit. I need to gather the materials together so I have a better idea of what exactly I will be studying.