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OK, I am by no means the greatest guitar player on Earth. However, I have been playing guitar for almost 15 years and I do it pretty seriously. I have worked around lots of professional musicians as a guitar tech and I can certainly hold my own, if not drop a few jaws here and there. I also play guitar and write music for a moderately succesful band, as well as some session work. Let's just say I can play "decent".
A lot of times people ask me advice on practicing techniques and stuff. Here's what works for ME, and I know that it's NOT what guitar teachers teach, so I offer this advice IN ADDITION to anyone else's. So here goes, a few pointers:
1. I prefer long practice sessions as opposed to shorter ones, even if it doesn't mean playing every day. Sure, I noodle around just about every day of the week, but my best and most productive practice sessions last at least 2-3 hours. This gives me time to really get into the instrument and flesh out my ideas. I can't accomplish very much in a 1/2 hour practice. It takes me about 20 minutes to warm up to playing my full potential, unless I am playing live, then the adrenaline cuts the warm up time down to about 6-7 minutes. When writing it's a lot easier to carry on with the momentum of the music I am writing as opposed to having to restart cold. Also as a working musician there are times when you will spend days in the studio playing guitar for hours on end, and if your muscles aren't up to the task you'll just be wasting very valuable time.
2. Explore the instrument on your own. Scales and routines are great ways to develop a better understanding of the guitar, but ALL of the great guitar players have a voice of their own. Go through the fretboard and use trial and error to get your ideas out of your head and into your amp. When I write music, I am usually not thinking about the "name" or "value" of the note I am looking for. I know what note I want and I know how it's going to sound from experience. And that experience comes from experimenting with the guitar.
3. I don't usually focus on learning other people's songs note for note. Sure, I like learning songs that I enjoy, and it's really fun to be able to jam along with your heros, but to me playing my own music is more rewarding. I love learning Matt Pike's stuff, and occasionally I jam along with my Incantation albums, not to mention bits from everyone from The Seeds to Mark Knolpfer to Guns 'N Roses, but I don't pull my hair out trying to learn anyone's solos note for note. Some people love doing that stuff, and there's a lot of them on this board, God bless 'em, but that just ain't for me.
Last of all here's a breakdown(approximately) of the time I spend on guitar:
5%: Scales and excersizes
7%: Other people's music
3%: Is this damn thing in tune?
15%: Blues jams
30%: Practicing material for my band, new riffs, keeping my chops up on the set, etc...
40%: Free jam, often writing new stuff
The bottom line is, since I have ADD I have to keep my practices fun, exciting and fresh, otherwise I would quickly get bored and do something else. Like sit on the JCF all day!!
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Hope this helps!! Rock on!! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
A lot of times people ask me advice on practicing techniques and stuff. Here's what works for ME, and I know that it's NOT what guitar teachers teach, so I offer this advice IN ADDITION to anyone else's. So here goes, a few pointers:
1. I prefer long practice sessions as opposed to shorter ones, even if it doesn't mean playing every day. Sure, I noodle around just about every day of the week, but my best and most productive practice sessions last at least 2-3 hours. This gives me time to really get into the instrument and flesh out my ideas. I can't accomplish very much in a 1/2 hour practice. It takes me about 20 minutes to warm up to playing my full potential, unless I am playing live, then the adrenaline cuts the warm up time down to about 6-7 minutes. When writing it's a lot easier to carry on with the momentum of the music I am writing as opposed to having to restart cold. Also as a working musician there are times when you will spend days in the studio playing guitar for hours on end, and if your muscles aren't up to the task you'll just be wasting very valuable time.
2. Explore the instrument on your own. Scales and routines are great ways to develop a better understanding of the guitar, but ALL of the great guitar players have a voice of their own. Go through the fretboard and use trial and error to get your ideas out of your head and into your amp. When I write music, I am usually not thinking about the "name" or "value" of the note I am looking for. I know what note I want and I know how it's going to sound from experience. And that experience comes from experimenting with the guitar.
3. I don't usually focus on learning other people's songs note for note. Sure, I like learning songs that I enjoy, and it's really fun to be able to jam along with your heros, but to me playing my own music is more rewarding. I love learning Matt Pike's stuff, and occasionally I jam along with my Incantation albums, not to mention bits from everyone from The Seeds to Mark Knolpfer to Guns 'N Roses, but I don't pull my hair out trying to learn anyone's solos note for note. Some people love doing that stuff, and there's a lot of them on this board, God bless 'em, but that just ain't for me.
Last of all here's a breakdown(approximately) of the time I spend on guitar:
5%: Scales and excersizes
7%: Other people's music
3%: Is this damn thing in tune?
15%: Blues jams
30%: Practicing material for my band, new riffs, keeping my chops up on the set, etc...
40%: Free jam, often writing new stuff
The bottom line is, since I have ADD I have to keep my practices fun, exciting and fresh, otherwise I would quickly get bored and do something else. Like sit on the JCF all day!!
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Hope this helps!! Rock on!! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
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