making the most of it

[paulbag]

practice time. i know a lot of you guys here have the same problem in that there's just not enough time to cover everything i would like to work on every day. balancing technique and writing and everything else. i do think i'm gonna start keeping a log though, so i know exactly where all my time is being spent. somedays theres just so much i wanna work on i don't even know where to start. so how do you guys tackle this? i thought it would be cool and helpful to hear how everyone manages their personal practice time... [img]/images/graemlins/idea2.gif[/img]

[Jack Napalm]

Re: making the most of it

Unilt about a year ago I had the worst practice habits. It showed in my playing ability, or lack there of. After moving to Dallas last year I started taking lessons again and one of the first things my instructor, Phil, taught me is how to practice.

The best thing Phil did for me was tell me I should be better than what I was for the amount of time I had been playing. He said follow his ideas for a month and tell him if he's lying.

I break my practice time up into 3 sessions each getting equal time. For an hour I have 3 20 minute parts. The first is warm-up. I do right and lef hand exercises left, scales and religous practice with a metronome. Some nights I do all three and some nights I will concentrate on one hand. I learned to watch my right hand instead of always concentrating on my left and fingering.

The second is practicing pieces that are harder and new that challenge me. I practice them slowly until I build up speed. Sometimes painfully slow. Either with a metronome or a backing track. I repeat the phrase or lick at least 10 times. No more playing it once or twice and looking at some other page or book.

The third session is usually playing songs that I know and can play or jamming to some backing track. I make the last part fun.

Most of this is pretty basic stuff and not earth shattering at all. I forced myself to really sit down and concentrate on single concepts and then combined them. It has helped. I probably have made more progress this last year in playing than I had in all my other years.

I stopped buying as many books and things so I am always concentrating on just a few things at a time. With all the books, videos and internet sites available you can easily get distracted with practicing. Too many things to learn and try you never really get good at one thing.

Mark

[guitarsjb]

Re: making the most of it

That sounds like good solid advice. I think I'm going to try that.

[discordant]

Re: making the most of it

learning good practice habits is the most effective way to get the most of your available practice time. i wish i'd started practicing more efficiently from the get go, i wasted a lot of time. most of all you should just enjoy playing the guitar, if it feels like hard work and you're just not in the mood then leave it for another time. playing guitar should be fun.

[thetroy]

Re: making the most of it

I try to spend 30-60 minutes a day on strictly technical exercises by myself, then some other amount of time just playing around having fun (usually when some friends are around listening).

[paulbag]

Re: making the most of it

to be a little more specific on my own current routine...
warm up, left hand trills, chromatic hammering, then adding picking on(usually minor scales first) then some hardcore chromatic, up and down the neck with all of these. mixing the chromatic between one string at a time and one position at a time across all strings. then maybe some right hand drills, (i'm trying to improve down picking speed especially for fast heavy chunkin'). i work second shift so i've been splitting my time day and night, which i hear is better than all at one time during your day anyway. then i'll work on solo's or challenging rythms by my favorite artists. for a long time all i was doing was working on my original material and no technique, so i've got to balance all of this. my saving grace was that lately everything i write is too difficult for me to play at the tempo i want it to be at, so i practice faithfully with a metronome or drums in my recording software that i can easily adjust the tempo with. i need to start increasing my chord vocabulary bigtime. there, i wrote it so maybe i'll finally start doing it! i'm sure i'll add to this later... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[shredmonster]

Re: making the most of it

When I come up with something new or cool I put it on the instab program on my computer right away. I don't wait because I will forget it.

I keep playing until my computer boots up and I jot it down pronto.

I can go back to it at any time and practice or develop it further.

I have bunches of things and then I hash through and sort out the good ones from the bad ones. Then I print the good ones out, put them into my collection and practice them until I have them down.

[Emthrax]

Re: making the most of it

Pardon me for a second here... but what is this instab program, Shred?
That sounds really cool!

Can't really contribute to this thread, I agree with what has already been said! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]
Yes, organizing your time and keeping track of your progress AND practicing to a metronome or drumtrack is key.
But so is also playing for fun!

Writing your own music can be awesome practice (especially if you write stuff that is challenging for yourself like you said, Paul), but it can also be a real bitch. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

-Em

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: making the most of it

Well, I just play the fucker and have fun.......

If I hear another cool song, I'll figure it out or look up some tabs if it's just too challenging and learn it that way.

[paulbag]

Re: making the most of it

yeah, fun IS definitely key, thats why i'm trying to be smart and balance everything so i don't burn myself out like i did in the past. i actually am having fun with most of the technique drills i've been doing the last few weeks. but i can't neglect the other stuff by using all my time on those drills, which i can get caught up in at times. the last two days though i've been taking a quick breather from them and been learning lamb of god stuff! definitely fun to bang out some of that shit. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
and oh yeah, what IS this instab stuff? it definitely sounds good? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]