Folks,

I have some technique questions...as I continue my apprenticeship...

I have found that many of these things are like learning to play an 
instrument--the first time you try, the results are extremely rough, but
continued practise brings refined results.

When practising music, I find some skills are improved by doing exercises,
as opposed to always working with actual music.

What about joinery?   It seems like I do things like cut dovetails, and 
then spend a lot of time paring them because my saw cuts weren't that
accurate.  Maybe that time would be better spent practising sawing to
a line over and over again until I get skilled enough to eliminate much
of the paring?

 Here are some exercises I though of.  Any comments
on their appropriateness or efficacy would be appreciated...

* Should I practise things like freehand crosscutting without a line, going
  for a cut that is square to the edge and the face of the board.

* What about sawing down the face of a board (like for dovetails).  Should
  I try making a series of vertical cuts with the board inclined at various
  angles to develop the ability to cut vertically naturally?   I had though
  of marking a line on the end, and then scribing the cut line on the 
  opposite side of the board, and then seeing how close I can come without 
  being able to see the cut line...

* Cutting to a line:  practise scribing lines at various orientations to
  the grain and the side and face of the board and then cutting to the 
  line.   Could practise with pencil lines and knife/awl lines...

* Planing an edge straight and square to the face until I feel like it
  is square and straight and then check it with straight edge and square.

* Same exercise as above only with the face of a board...

* Similar exercises could work for drilling, etc. 

Of course, I could just continue to make projects, but this seems a lot
like learning to play an instrument by just taking on successively harder
pieces of music.   In music, the best musicians know that by focusing 
intensely on a piece of technique with exercises, one can master it much
faster and more thoroughly than just by playing through a whole piece of
music over and over again.

Do any of the masters out there reading this list have any opinions?  How
about suggestions of other "exercises"?

Thanks!

gph