Vocally, I try to get in some practice every day, at least warming up the voice. I have a regular routine that I found on the internet:   a group of Vocal Exercises put together by Brenda C. Kayne, along with her Comments. I don't know who Ms. Kayne is, but the exercises and her remarks are very close to warm-up and practice exercises that voice teachers I've studied with in the past had me doing. I start with these, and then often move on to another group:   Vocalise by June Bowser. Once again, I don't know who she is, but the exercises are good. With both sets I start low, sing the exercise, then take it up a half-step, and sing it again, then up another half-step, and so on. I don't do them all every time, but I always start out with ones that lie within a limited range, then work up to the ones that reach a bit (like 12 and 16 in the June Bowser group). But I never take any of them beyond what feels comfortable on that particular day.

After I'm well warmed up, I sing four or five songs I already know, without accompaniment. I try to do different ones every day, so over a period of time, I go through the whole list. Then I try to get through whatever new song I'm working on (also without accompaniment), looking at the words only when I have to. I try to put in a minimum of a half-hour a day, but I don't always make it. I try, though.

An inhibiting factor is that I live in an apartment building, and if I hear that my upstairs neighbor is home, I get a bit "practice shy." On the one hand, I don't want to disturb her, and on the other, I'd just as soon not have people hear me make some of the really Gawd-awful sounds I can make when I'm practicing.

With the guitar, I warm up the fingers by playing a few chords, scales, and arpeggios, then sing the same songs I sang in the voice warm-up with accompaniment. Then, if I don't have a good accompaniment worked out for whatever new song I'm working on, I'll tinker and fuss with it a while. Then I sing a few more songs just 'cuz I feel like it.

At one time, I was on my way to becoming a halfway decent classical guitarist. Not a big repertoire, but I use to be able to impress the hell out of a coffeehouse audience by sticking a classic guitar solo somewhere into a set of songs, and I could play for meetings of the Seattle Classic Guitar Society without them pointing and giggling too much. But within recent decades, a lot of that has slid because I didn't have the time to keep it up. Right now, I'm trying to get my mojo back, so I put in a fair amount of time on the guitar. I have the Aaron Shearer manuals, Classic Guitar Technique, Vols I & II and The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Vols I & II, along with the Mel Bay editions of The Complete Carcassi Guitar Method, and The Complete Sor Studies for the Guitar by Fernando Sor, compiled and fingered by David Grimes. I spend an hour or more a day (well . . . most days) hopping back and forth between these, and I'm trying to re-up a lot of the pieces I used to play, along with learning some new ones. Segovia used to practice four to six hours a day, every day. I'm trying to gradually up my practice time.

Hope springs eternal. I just ordered a batch of books and manuals yesterday: Kitharologus: The Path to Virtuosity, by Ricardo Iznaola (he claims that there are only a limited number of movements on the guitar, and he has isolated these so they can be practiced and mastered separately, then when you encounter them in a new piece you're learning, it'll be old stuff); Technique, Mechanism, Learning, by concert and recording artist Eduardo Fernandez; Fretboard Logic SE: The Reasoning Behind the Guitar's Unique Tuning + Chords, Scales, and Arpeggios (The Fretboard Logic Guitar Method Parts I and II), by Bill Edwards; plus a couple of other manuals, including one on practicing for performance by Ricardo Iznaola.

I guess some folks got turned off because they were forced to practice when they were young, and that's really too bad. I think I grew up in a pretty musical family, although we were more listeners than performers. My mother took some piano lessons when she was a kid, and my younger sister had piano lessons when she was a sprat, but I chose to take some singing lessons when I was about eighteen, just for the fun of it, and because a couple of friends of mine were into opera and were taking lessons.   I had no idea what I would ever do with it. Then I decided I wanted to learn to play the guitar when I was about twenty. I was never forced to practice. As a result, I enjoy practicing. It's bloody hard work, but I like it. I don't do all of the stuff I outline above every day, but I do try, and sometimes I get in a fair amount of practice most days of the week.

Well, you did ask!

Don Firth

P. S. On the classic guitar stuff, I've taken to practicing with a metronome lately (Sabine ZipBeat-6000 Digital Metronome, they list for $35.00, but Amazon has them for about $20.00). I set it very slow, slow enough so I can play whatever exercise or piece I'm working on without making mistakes. Then I up the metronome a click or two and play it, again, hopefully without mistakes. I gradually increasing the speed until I can play it without goofing it several clicks faster than it should be played. Then, I back off and play it at the correct tempo. The adage is, "Don't practice your mistakes." It really seems to be helping.