Whats your practice routine?

M.Axel

M.Axel

New member
How much time do you play every weeks, when do you play and what do you practice?

I need to start practicing more seriously as im not getting nowere now.
I have good gears but i feel like im not worthy of it and im more ofen watching stuff on the internet than actually playing.
I need motivation! :aww:
 
Alternate picking and more alternate picking! :D Hitting the accents on 3, 4,and 6 mostly. Forces me to divide the groupings differently especially when doing 2 or 3 note per string scales. Arppegios up and down all alternate picked a la Steve Morse.
This is what I usually practice...also how hard I hit the string too...dynamics.
I don't practice someone elses routines...I apply this to my everyday playing.
 
Im actually 'just' putting together a daily practice regimen of exercises and theory to keep me focused and on track.
-legato(different length patterns, thru modes, styles,etc
-alternate picking(3,4,triplets, 16th, 32nd)... various styles
-theory (intervals, chord building, ear)
-chords (caged system, inversions, dominant, 11th, added, suspended, 13th's, all shapes)
-sweep picking
-tapping
-chickin pickin (hybrid)
-Arpeggios
-Last but not least.. Licks and songs..

I plan on spending 15-20min per section and that's about all the time I have..working full time, etc. Good luck and if you're not having fun and staying inspired...take a break and refocus. Unfocused, unguided practice is as useless as no practice at all. Cheerz
 
If you need inspiration or nee dmore focus join Truefire.com you can learn everything from scales, chord shapes, etc... to a ton of new licks. Its only 15/ month.
 
Find something that inspires you. That's a lot harder sometimes than it would seem

I go through spells and switch up my routine as needed but, rule of thumb imo is if you're not REALLY utelizing your time spent (not enjoying it and thusly just banging on some bar chords as an example without writing or improving) then setting it down for a bit's good. it will become easier,quicker and more affective with practice when you're INTO it.

right now i practice about an hour to 2 hours a day MINIMUM not all at once (i have a 4 year old daddy's girl so i can't do ANYTHING,lol)

If i have my 2 hours i spend the first warming up, playing through riffs i have, the latter running through scales or whatever i feel like working on. normaly it's alternate picking at high DB's but, i've gotten where i wanted for now with that so i'm working on skipped arps and tapped arps and applying full scalar patterns to rhythms (in the form of leads) over base rhythms or with a metronome.


i change it for whatever i am working on at the time. I try to work on no more than three new things at once to give me time to "master" them before moving on and mostly, i play to enjoy it so if i'm not having fun i just play some music.
 
I do between 5 to 6 hours. broken in to 3 blocks the early 5am-7am is dedicated to warm ups, scale and mode exercises and picking exercises. The 2nd block is studding using DVDs or books(there is some over lap with block one) and legato and phrasing exercises, improvisation. block 3 is learning songs, writing and jamming. Now this routine gets adjusted like if i have recording to do or what not but for the most part i stay true to it. Then there is band rehearsals and shows so there's another 4 hours on those days. I also do a quick 10 to 15 warm up every time i pick up the guitar usually chromatic exercises and single string scales.
 
Whenever work is dead (music shop) I can bust out my Paul and just play scale shapes. I like to take chords and remove roots and thirds and various other parts and shape runs from there. I also find playing originals and covers keeps me sharp (usually Spanish Fly does the job for me :) ). As a challenge, I try to learn songs that I know will take awhile to master, that way the end is much more rewarding.

I think I've plateaued, any ideas on something new guys?
 
War Admiral":18aicozz said:
Alternate picking and more alternate picking! :D Hitting the accents on 3, 4,and 6 mostly. Forces me to divide the groupings differently especially when doing 2 or 3 note per string scales. Arppegios up and down all alternate picked a la Steve Morse.
This is what I usually practice...also how hard I hit the string too...dynamics.
I don't practice someone elses routines...I apply this to my everyday playing.
Click to expand...


Hey, it would cool to see this on a video.

Any possibilities?
 
suhrimmetal":3sfy1b5i said:
Im actually 'just' putting together a daily practice regimen of exercises and theory to keep me focused and on track.
-legato(different length patterns, thru modes, styles,etc
-alternate picking(3,4,triplets, 16th, 32nd)... various styles
-theory (intervals, chord building, ear)
-chords (caged system, inversions, dominant, 11th, added, suspended, 13th's, all shapes)
-sweep picking
-tapping
-chickin pickin (hybrid)
-Arpeggios
-Last but not least.. Licks and songs..

I plan on spending 15-20min per section and that's about all the time I have..working full time, etc. Good luck and if you're not having fun and staying inspired...take a break and refocus. Unfocused, unguided practice is as useless as no practice at all. Cheerz
Click to expand...

Good advice -working everyday takes away too much time from practice.
 
well I rarely practice anymore but when I did in my teens I usually played this mash up of Death and Slayer songs for speed and I threw in Malmsteen leads for scaling. From there I just worked on my songwriting since I had the speed and techniques down. Now a days I work on modal theory and chord progressions. Not so much on the thrash/death metal stuff anymore. Don't get me wrong I still listen to it but I like playing jazz more.
 
For me, there's 2 factors. One is it depends what mood I'm in and how inspired I feel. If the mojo is there and my hands are on fire, I'll go 5-6 hours, if not more. Sometimes, it's an hour or 2. It just depends on the day. The other is what do I have to work on for a gig. I get a lot of phone calls for different stuff, so if it's a week from a 40 song show and I only know 4 of those songs, I THINK I'll put in at LEAST a good 20 minutes or so... :)

When I'm jamming on my own without any deadlines or anything, it's just kind of a free-for-all. I'm bass-ackwards from what I was just a couple years ago. Back then, it was all about finding a cool phrase out of a solo and making an exercise out of it. Analyzing the crap out of it and coming up with a bunch of different ways to work that phrase all over the place... Then the day came that I realized I could play some wicked fast stuff but my slow playing and sense of phrasing and melodic approach sucked. So now it's the exact OPPOSITE of that. I'll take an exercise meant to develop speed, dexterity, or whatever, then try to make that sound cool over different progressions and work it into songs.

Best thing to practice? Learn a song. Any song. Take one that'll be a little bit of a challenge and really get into the fine nuggets of it. Any cool licks in the riff/solo? Sit down and try to figure out what makes them stand out, then bring that into other songs that you may cover doing your rendition of it... That'll eventually seep into your own songs if you choose to make some of your own music. Don't be a drone like a lot of guys are these days and rely on exercises in magazines to make you better. Find your own in the contexts you're going to use them in. The best teacher you can have is always your favorite guitar player on your favorite album they are featured on. Sure, you can learn the essential George Lynch licks from some guy on YouTube, or you can do it the way George did it and learn the solo at the end of "When Darkness Calls" and make some errors in the process... How do you think George did it?

Just think of Al Pitrelli's favorite line........ "Just play the guitar".

\m/\m/

aXe
 
My guitar teacher gives me things to work on, scale mode or something. I get a few backing tracks. Fire up the backing track and hit record on my boom box.

Listening to the recording of the practice is 50% of getting better. Things I hear when playing are no the same as what I hear when listening back to it on tape.

Not sure about the total importance of the routine, if you don't record your practice and listen to it.

There is humility to be found in the playback process :)
 
Ugh...I really need a legit, structured practice routine to drill into my head (and fingers, for that matter) daily. My "practice" as of right now is learning a new riff here and there and just dicking off the rest of the time. I'd be so much farther along if I had some God damn patience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top