I'm an intermediate Spanish speaker, and I have an interview in a couple days to assess my Spanish level. How can I be as successful as possible, both as far as brushing up/practicing, as well as keeping my nerves under control?
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posted by EmilyClimbs
on Apr 25, 2013 -
12 answers
I figure if a practice space is open 24 hours it would be hard for the staff to determine if I'm living there or just practicing music alllllll the time. However, I also figure that a 24 hour practice space expects that starving artists will be trying to live there. However however, I also figure that the kinda people running a 24 hour practice space are cool with people living there and are kinda trying to say "shhhhh, don't tell nobody but this is a place where we turn a blind eye to starving artists trying to live here".
I just wanna beat on my drum all day.
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posted by defmute
on Apr 21, 2013 -
32 answers
I'm going to be in Los Angeles for a couple months for work, and I'm going to be staying with a friend. I'd like to be able to practice my acoustic guitar privately, but I'm having little success finding practice rooms.
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posted by averageamateur
on Apr 2, 2013 -
8 answers
Hello,
I am currently studying Chinese. I'd be interested in any advice people could give me with regard to making my Hanzi practice more productive.
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posted by Musashi Daryl
on Jan 19, 2013 -
11 answers
I'm looking for suggestions for an indoor golf practice net and mat (sturdy enough for real balls) for a January birthday.
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posted by mightshould
on Dec 20, 2012 -
1 answer
I need to rent or purchase a reasonably priced record lathe to cut short run vinyl LPs. Advice/contact info needed.
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posted by Ponderance
on Nov 30, 2012 -
4 answers
Is my mortgage broker drawing out the process on purpose? Is he getting paid now or is it a commission type business?
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posted by Kazimirovna
on Jul 27, 2012 -
7 answers
You're a single digit handicap. You were more or less a hacker for years and years and years (hitting in the 90s+). How did you get better? I'm sure it means practice-- but how did you approach practice? How did you approach the game?
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posted by sandmanwv
on Jun 28, 2012 -
4 answers
I didn't sing for eight years, and now I basically can't. Is my voice gone, or just severely out of practice? I'm 22 and female.
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posted by anonymous
on Apr 20, 2012 -
13 answers
I'm freeing up two hours a day in my schedule, and thinking about my mortality. In the next five years I'd like to spend that 3,600 hours to get really good at something in the area of music, art or programming, or some combination thereof. Which areas are most likely to show dramatic improvement with 3,000 hours of practice?
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posted by mecran01
on Feb 2, 2012 -
26 answers
We played for years with V-Drums and just recently switched to acoustic drums. We've found that the cymbals get picked up by the vocal mics and distort or drown out the rest of the mix. How do we prevent that?
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posted by Alien Parachute Man
on Jan 22, 2012 -
7 answers
Keyboard players: A jam session might be in the cards for me soon. What is the best way for me to pick up a bit of basic skill on a synthesizer/piano?
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posted by crapmatic
on Dec 14, 2011 -
11 answers
I am trying to learn a couple of songs really well for an upcoming drag performance. Is there any way to make either itunes or grooveshark(or other online music services) make these songs come up unreasonably often while shuffling through a larger playlist?
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posted by rosken
on Dec 5, 2011 -
3 answers
I'm going to practice guitar half an hour a day for the next 56 days. I've never played an instrument before, and I'd like to learn basic social guitar. What goals make sense for that timeframe, and how should I practice?
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posted by jhc
on Nov 6, 2011 -
20 answers
I love music, but every time I try to take up an instrument I get frustrated with sucking and give up. How do I not do this?
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posted by biochemist
on Aug 31, 2011 -
21 answers
Seeking some French reading material online. What I am aiming for: blogs with good discussion like mefi, publications with long-form articles such as one might find in the New Yorker or the like, or I don't know, surprise me with something I haven't thought of!
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posted by marble
on Jun 25, 2011 -
6 answers
Please suggest some older (or not) books/films/things that talk about the idea that you're just going to be bad for a long time before you're really successful at, or really master something (particularly an artistic pursuit).
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posted by Glinn
on Jun 9, 2011 -
7 answers
I am looking for a quiz program that will interactively help me practice my times tables, rehearsing the answers I get wrong a lot and waiting until I make progress before adding new questions to learn.
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posted by brenton
on May 13, 2011 -
6 answers
How do you manage your knowledge? What do you do about the inevitability of losing the skills you don't practice?
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posted by Nomyte
on May 1, 2011 -
12 answers
What's the best way to apply the "deliberate practice" philosophy to language learning?
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posted by jweed
on Apr 24, 2011 -
9 answers
I need Art Fundamentals 101 -- what books should I get?
I need to learn more about color (mixing, harmony, schemes), value, composition, and perspective. The trick is that I will not (primarily) be applying what I learn to any particular painting medium but rather to quilt art. What books can help me study me the fundamentals of art?
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posted by LittleMy
on Feb 21, 2011 -
11 answers
Best place online to find free/cheap Massachusetts DMV's permit test questions and answers for practice?
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posted by mooselini
on Feb 17, 2011 -
3 answers
What are good ways to meet Spanish speakers/practice my Spansh in Washington DC? Also, are there tutors who can help refine an accent?
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posted by wooh
on Jan 21, 2011 -
3 answers
Help Me Assemble an Architectural Reading List Filter: looking for written works by notable architects which are intended as introductions to or overviews of the 'proper' practice of architecture, as the author sees it.
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posted by brightghost
on Jan 6, 2011 -
15 answers
Programming Filter: I'm applying for software jobs, but I don't want to forget what I know. How should I practice to keep my skills sharp?
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posted by Chicken Boolean
on Oct 21, 2010 -
22 answers
"
Dr. Hans von Bulow is reported to have said," - and I've seen similar language credited to Paderewski, Rubinstein, Rostropovich, Nureyev, and Louis Armstrong - "'If I stop practice for one day, I notice it in my playing; if I stop two days, my friends notice it; if I stop three days, the public notices it.'" Dwight's Journal of Music, Boston, Sept 1, 1877,
p. 84 (v. XXXVII no. 11). Do you know where this was first reported? Or do you have an earlier citation to a different person using comparable language? Perhaps it was in a German publication, which I can't read, but I'd still love to see it.
posted by Dave 9
on Jul 22, 2010 -
3 answers
I'm studying abroad in France this fall. I want to learn the language. How do I prepare so that I can make the very best of it?
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posted by superiorchicken
on Jun 30, 2010 -
16 answers
What's the most productive way to spend 45 minutes of daily practice time for the piano/keyboard?
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posted by gacxllr9
on Jun 29, 2010 -
5 answers
Is there something like Toastmasters for writing, specifically the functional, everyday kind?
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posted by cosmic.osmo
on Mar 19, 2010 -
3 answers
Our son's Little League coach is constantly changing the practice schedule and practice location, albeit for legitimate reasons. Is this a standard part of the Little League experience?
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posted by mosk
on Mar 12, 2010 -
5 answers
Wife is taking the Internet-based TOEFL exam in a couple of weeks. We'll buy the official practice test (from ETS) a couple of days before the actual exam, so she can get a feel of the entire test before going for the real thing. Meanwhile, do you know of any good free practice tests she can use?
posted by dcrocha
on Feb 3, 2010 -
2 answers
De-constructing 'code': I am looking for philosophical (from W. Benjamin through to post-structuralism and beyond) examinations of 'code'. That both includes the assumptions contained in the word 'code' and any actual objects or subjects that code is connected to - including, but not limited to: computer programming, cyphers, linguistics, genetics etc.
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 2, 2010 -
16 answers
How can I improve my in game basketball shooting? I have a pretty good shot when I'm just shooting around, but it drastically falls off in in-game situations. How can I practice in-game shooting when I mostly practice by myself?
posted by ben5757
on Nov 8, 2009 -
8 answers
Some interesting music to learn to play on the chromatic a. Accordion? I've started with fiddling around with chord combinations, "He's a Pirate", "La Valise de Amelie" and playing some pentatonic improv stuff. And a little bit of reggae. I'd like some suggestions for pieces to learn that will help with technique - left hand fingering and two handed playing.
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posted by singingfish
on Nov 8, 2009 -
0 answers
Please help me fill up my time. I am a psychologist in private practice, and thanks to the recession, I have multiple times during the week with nothing to do--this is a new experience for me, and aside from the anxiety of not working as much as I need to, I am also bored to tears.
Unfortunately, it is an hour here and an hour there--never any good block of time, and although in the future I may have to rearrange my schedule and put all my hours together, at the moment I am trying to maintain hope that I will be able to fill those hours with new patients.
I am sick of surfing the internet, going for walks, updating patient files, and reading whatever (professional literature, novels). Any suggestions, Mefites, for how I can spend my time more productively, or at least entertainingly?
posted by chaoscutie
on Oct 8, 2009 -
21 answers
You play the piano fairly well, you've had lessons, you enjoy it and when I tell you that I'm learning the piano you tell me that looking back on all the years of lessons and practice, the one thing that helped you the most of all was ________, and the thing that you felt was a biggest waste of your time was ________.
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posted by HopStopDon'tShop
on Aug 27, 2009 -
19 answers
Is there anywhere in the DC area I, being relatively broke, could practice on a real piano?
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posted by phrontist
on Aug 21, 2009 -
7 answers
I liked piano at first, but under the stress of preparing a huge portfolio for college, it's quickly replaced by resentment and boredom. More inside.
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posted by Yasuo
on Aug 2, 2009 -
7 answers
How do Olympic gymnasts (and other gymnasts at the elite level) train for their routines? Do they break their choreography into segments? Is there a set, systematic schedule or program used across the sport? A way to measure their progress? How might this compare (or apply) to the way a musician might prepare for an audition or a competition?
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posted by Busoni
on Jul 30, 2009 -
4 answers
I kinda feel like rounding up a couple of rubber practice knives and coating the edges in lipstick and having some simulated knife fights just for kicks.
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posted by GleepGlop
on May 26, 2009 -
18 answers
