Randomness

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Over the years, due to my utterly chaotic life context, I've developed this habit of doing things very much at random. Sleeping, waking, eating (although ideally only when hungry)... the only things I'm not able to do at random, of course, are those that involve others, which end up not doing so well due to the rest of my life.

So, I was wondering, is doing things randomly any more disadvantageous than if they were done regularly? For example, I'm going to attempt to learn a musical instrument, but I can never possibly spend the same two hours a day doing that, but hopefully I'll keep practicing as much as possible even though at random. Would a lack of routine decrease my chances of mastering that instrument?

To answer your musical instrument question - it doesn't matter which time of day you practice - all that matters is that you practice often, preferably every day for a half hour at the absolute least, on every instrument you're learning.

I also do things randomly, like sleeping, eating, etc.

I play my instruments at random times, but I spend the vast majority of my time playing instruments. With every instrument I've learned, I always played it at random times, but I've always played them very often.

I am thinking of learning a musical instrument too, and I am also uncertain about what kind of practice schedule to maintain. I have too many things to do, so I might not be able to practice very regularly. For learning most things, I think that randomness is fine, because my learning style is sucking up or figuring out lots of lots of stuff at once, but I don't think that I can learn a musical instrument that way.

Much of it is not about -learning- things, but about developing your "chops". In other words, it is about getting your body physically used to playing the instrument and capable of producing all the tones you want in the ways you want. For example, with bass, my main instrument, your "chops" are things like plucking calluses, calluses on fingers, just having the ability to finger without pain. It also includes things like how fast you can pluck and finger, as well as speed with certain techniques, it goes on and on. When I got my left ring finger pinched open last summer (it required stitches), I couldn't play bass for a month or so, and while I -knew- all of the techniques extremely well, could sight read bass and treble clefs, and knew a boatload about musical theory, it didn't matter because my fingers physically were not ready to play, because all my calluses had gone away and my muscles were not used to plucking. I had to redevelop my "chops".

Practicing a lot is about making sure your "chops" get developed or stay maintained. If I didn't play for a week, I would have noticeably worse playing.

So it doesn't matter when you get that practice (it's like a workout for your chops), you just need to have it and do it often, like every day.

As far as practice schedules and such go, I only have one rule and one motto: if I am not practicing, someone else is practicing; they are getting better than me, and they're going to take my next opportunity from me.

So I practice almost all the time. I've had a guitar in my lap as I wrote this post, and my synth is turned on right behind me (in fact I'm running the guitar through it to use its effects boards). If I'm on the computer I usually am also playing an instrument. But music is also my primary special interest, so that makes it easy to do (or rather, more accurately, it makes it more difficult NOT to do it).

For someone who just wants to add an instrument as a hobby - try to get in a MINIMUM of 30 minutes each day on each instrument you are learning. You don't need to learn anything, just play the thing. It's all about the chops. You can have all the musical knowledge in the world - and it is completely useless without chops. Almost anyone can write great music - but not anyone can play it.

My suggestion for practice is this: pick a song you like that you think you can play - even if it seems a little ambitious. Then start learning it, practice it a lot - do the same with more songs you like. Increase in difficulty as you can. Whatever you do, just play things that you enjoy playing.

I cannot imagine surviving a life w/o routine. Chaos is the devil. Regarding music or anything related, I have always found it useful to get it on a business-like basis. Like going to work. Set your hours and goals and go to it like the boss is watching. Presently I am writing 100 poems in 100 days and, just finished #72 an hour ago, I'd say my system is still doing it for me.