Guitar practice routines?

[solo.guitar]

I've been playing guitar for about 5 years now, never took lessons. I consider myself a decent player, but I still make a lot of mistakes and I'm not real consistent. Sometimes I'll play a song right, sometimes I'll make a few mistakes.

Like sometimes I'll pluck the wrong string, or one of the notes won't ring out clearly in a chord, etc. This happens mainly on acoustic.

I've never actually sat down and practiced before...I just hate practicing, but now I've decided to start because I'm tired of doing a million takes on a song when recording to get it just right.

So, what are some good practice routines that could help me? Even if it's beginner stuff, which would probably benefit me more at this point.

[Jouni]

One thing, real beginner stuff, that I'm GLAD I've learned to heart is simple as double-picking so that it comes naturally. REAL beginner.. but crucial.
Dunno any excercises except just picking away up and down different chords ofcourse. ..that would excercise the fingering of chords also.
Self learned also so my shit is allover the place.

[raptor48]

I think you should practice in 5 minute sections. As in, play one exercise or something for 5 minutes straight. Remember to start off slowly and get everything perfect, then start to speed up. After the 5 minutes, change and play a completely different exercise that improves something else (ie, from speed, to accuracy), and come back to the 1st exercise later. This way, you don't get sick of playing it, and you don't lose concentration, so you learn quicker and better. The 5 minute sections should also apply for learning new riffs and licks etc.

Hope this helps.

[Dani Pace]

Practicing arpeggios will help to improve clarity on chords and just running through scales for improving your individual notes. Pay more attention to the clarity of the notes, speed is not as important as precision. Pay cloce attention to your picking at the same time, you have to make both hands work together. How much time you devote to this is up to you but as little as 5 or 10 minutes a day will make a big difference in a short period of time.