How long you Practice

[2PlayIs2Live]

Ok i'm currently learning Mable's Fatal Fable By jason becker and its coming along great, but when i practice i usually play one to two riffs for 2 hours until there up to speed. Is doing this bad?

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: How long you Practice

one or two riffs for two hours?!

That seems extremely extremely boring to me.

[kuerbo]

Re: How long you Practice

From a musical understanding point of view, it's way better to try to play the whole thing or at least half of it, at a speed you feel comfortable, no matter how slow can that be. This way you get to understand what every piece of music is about. Remember, music isn't just playing notes...

Just my two cents of course. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: How long you Practice

What I do, is I put winamp on (over 3000 songs in there). And let it play. (my PC's hooked up to a 6.1 dolby surround, so I can crank it up insanely loud)

I jam along to whatever's playing. And try to improvise stuff over songs, playing vocal lines, extra melodies, etc.
I just have a lot of fun, sometimes even dance while playing, yes I dance.... (Think Vai)

[MHGOLDTOP]

Re: How long you Practice

you have to practice until you can nail it....

i find i practice less these days and just play. but i have been at this for 30 years.. but a warm up is definitely in order before trying to lay real fire to the fretboard.

[jgcable]

Re: How long you Practice

[ QUOTE ]
What I do, is I put winamp on (over 3000 songs in there). And let it play. (my PC's hooked up to a 6.1 dolby surround, so I can crank it up insanely loud)

I jam along to whatever's playing. And try to improvise stuff over songs, playing vocal lines, extra melodies, etc.
I just have a lot of fun, sometimes even dance while playing, yes I dance.... (Think Vai)

[/ QUOTE ]

I do the exact same thing!!! It is a great way to practice. I also put on the internet radio and jam to anything that comes on regardless of whether or not I like it.

[LesPaulCustom]

Re: How long you Practice

<font color="yellow">Don't get wrapped up in how long you practice, but rather what you practice. Have a goal and work towards it, but set realistic goals also.

Make it fun, interesting, and something you want to learn, get better at or whatever.

Practicing blindly with no organization or goals doesn't really do anything for you.

Also, be consistent. If you can only set aside say 1 hour per day, make the most of that hour.

It also helps to keep a notebook of what you are working on, what you want to accomplish.

Hope this gives you some more ideas. </font>

[mhalsey]

Re: How long you Practice

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="yellow">Don't get wrapped up in how long you practice, but rather what you practice. Have a goal and work towards it, but set realistic goals also.

Make it fun, interesting, and something you want to learn, get better at or whatever.

Practicing blindly with no organization or goals doesn't really do anything for you.

Also, be consistent. If you can only set aside say 1 hour per day, make the most of that hour.

It also helps to keep a notebook of what you are working on, what you want to accomplish.

Hope this gives you some more ideas. </font>

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with Sam on this one. I have maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hours each night after the kiddies and the wife go to bed to devote to constructive practice; any time other than that is just basically noodlin' around or playing along with some backing tracks. To me, it doesn't matter how much time I have to practice, but whether I get something out of it and feel as if I've accomplished something. Progression in my playing is very satisfying. As far as how to learn something, I find it works best for me to take it one piece at a time. Take, as an example, the solo I'm tryin' to learn now. I learn one measure at a time, practice it til' I'm comfortable with it, and then add the next measure on to that. Speed will come when it's damn good and ready. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[RR05xx]

Re: How long you Practice

[ QUOTE ]
From a musical understanding point of view, it's way better to try to play the whole thing or at least half of it, at a speed you feel comfortable, no matter how slow can that be. This way you get to understand what every piece of music is about. Remember, music isn't just playing notes...

Just my two cents of course. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I will second that personally.

[scel100]

Re: How long you Practice

Well if its shredding u are into , for practice try picking a scale get familier with the scale , turn on your metronome
and start slowly and work your way up but very slowly its also a great warm up exercise, if u get bored with the scale try breaking it down and play different patterns within the scale
create your own patterns better for understanding the scale
u can do alot with one scale, also when u are practising play something with abit of meaning
make note of a new nice sounding riff that u come up with
and further add to it with endless limitations, its good and well playing something over and over but it can be frustrating
u have to learn how things connect in this never ending puzzle.

[GodWentPUNK]

Re: How long you Practice

I'm in the same group with those with families. Usually, after everyone's in bed (around 11-12pm) I'll start to pickup my guitar. I'm in a band so I do spend most of my time learning new songs. I would say on average, I'll spend 1-2 hours a week to actual practice where I'm going over modes, riffs and such. At my age (42) that all I have time for.

joe...

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: How long you Practice

The key actually is consistency!

It's way way better to get half an hour or an hour in a day, than to play really long once a week, on saturday for example.

I've heard this from some teachers, some fellow players and I've experienced it myself as well.

[Ace]

Re: How long you Practice

2 x week= 5-8 hours(with band)
2-3 x week = 1-3 hours(at home)

[thetroy]

Re: How long you Practice

I try to put in at least 2 hours a day, but a lot of times I end up just screwing around for awhile and not practicing too efficiently. But it's fun so I've no problem with it, isn't that the real point of all this anyway?

[Tetsuo]

Re: How long you Practice

I screw around way too much.... and like Joe I really have limited time so I know I should be more serious about what I practice...

As far as the original question is that too much? Well if you are learinging Jason Becker and you want to be perfect and it doesn't bore you then I say no. I agree you would be best suited though on working on the whole song during your session after you have the parts down... for 2 reasons your transitions will be smooter obviously and sometimes when you overfocus on a aprt you don't improve and if you play the song as a whole the process is better but to each his own...