Less boring scales/drills?

[Ace]

OK, I started taking guitar lessons this last week at MI and I was wondering if there are any ways to motivate yourself to plays scales and fingering excersizes. I know that telling myself that it is the way to get better helps a lot, but are there any secrets that you guys have?

[Freehill]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

No secrets; just make it a habit and practice, practice, practice. Scales aren't exactly exciting stuff. They will help with your dexterity and finger independence but are essential for intervallic studies.

[raymo]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Try and make lil patterns in the scales, but still hitting each note and maybe that will make it a lil less boring for ya.

[Ace]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Thanks guys. What I've been doing is running the scale maybe 10 times, then soloing in it for maybe 20-30 seconds, then go to another scale and repeat that, going in cycles through the scales I have to practice. I've been doing this for a half hour at a time, and I want to do it twice a day. And also jam on my own stuff that I've been playing since before I started taking lessons too, since I find that stuff more fun!!

[lerxstcat]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

The more you do it, and the greater command you gain, the less boring it will be. It sounds like you're approaching it
the right way too; get those variations in right away so you're not just used to
running scales from octave to octave.

Try playing random intervals within the scale. You'll come up with some cool licks and will learn a little string skipping in the process.

[jgcable]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

If you want to be a lead player you have to learn to LOVE scales. Scales and modes are what it is all about and are the foundation of lead playing. Work on arpeggios and modes. They are much more interesting and useful. You don't have to sweep the arps, just pick each note. Also, pedal tones are a really cool to gain finger dexterity. Just don't forget to practice chords. Majors, minors,7's etc..

[Easyrider7467]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Hello,
Ues a Metronome!! It will add variety to the scales ie, triplets, eigths, trips mixed with rest and other beats, etc, etc. And use all the advice from the above recommendations. Oh yea, practice slowly, diligently, and with precision. Practice makes Progress (and permanent)!! Not perfection, there is always room for improvement.
John

[Ninja Guitar]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Like Freehill said, there's no secret. YOu just have to develop the discipline to practice for long periods of time. After stretching out my arms, wrists and fingers I play my scales up and down the neck, very slowly! Play very slow(with metronome) helps develop technique and timing. I often do this while watching a movie(usually without metronome) and it still has benefits.

When practicing songs and drills, start slow, then over the period of a week or 2 or 3(depending on the length and difficulty of the song/drill) work up to playing it faster than you'll ever have to play it.

A good (and funny) way to see if you have something down is to try talking to someone while you're playing.

Hope that helps. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Now go forth and practice.

[Lev]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Play the scales/modes over a nice backing track.. then you can start soloing over it.. makes it more interesting and fun.

[Budman68]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Originally posted by Shawn Lutz:
like burning one and improvising to see what kind of stuff would come out [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] ...lol. That used to be so much fun for me, especially after doing all those exercises I was well warmed up. I recorded a bunch of that stuff in the day just to find ideas for songs...kinda funny listening to them..can actually hear toke breaks on tape

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] That's great stuff right there!


Dave-&gt;

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

Originally posted by budman68:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] That's great stuff right there!

Dave-&gt; [/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">hehe...yeah...it is funnier hearing it when you forgot about it [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I have so many tapes that are unmarked that have this kind of stuff on em.

[img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] Budman...hmmm???

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Less boring scales/drills?

No secrets really just self discipline as it isn't really that much of a good time. I would use a metronome and run through the major scale in every possible position on all six strings. With a metronome you polish you're timing as well as have a gauge in bbm's in how fast you can play accurately and cleanly. Seeing the speed pick up in terms of bbm's is a good way to determine progress...that is a good motivator right there. One thing that I used to do was penalize myself if I screwed up [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I'd make myself start everything over from the beginning...this would make sure I wasn't jumping ahead of my abilities at the time. These type of exercises were really technique builders for me. Harmonically what I would lay down a rhythm track and then improvise over them using the scales and modes. So if you were using a Lydian mode you would record a progression keeping modes formula in mind and then wail away over that. You would need to record a backing track for each scale or mode you were working on.

I did all my homework when I was younger and didn't have all the responsibilities of a mortgage, wife kids, job etc so I was able to practice a lot. Now I really don't practice per se, I just play. If I feel I need to hone the chops a bit for a recording I break out the metronome and do what I explained above and the chops come into shape rather quickly. Part of what I did to was to force myself to do the boring technique builders was to reward myself with something that I really wanted to do outside of practice.....like burning one and improvising to see what kind of stuff would come out [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] ...lol. That used to be so much fun for me, especially after doing all those exercises I was well warmed up. I recorded a bunch of that stuff in the day just to find ideas for songs...kinda funny listening to them..can actually hear toke breaks on tape

[ October 16, 2003, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: Shawn Lutz ]