Daily Guitar Regimen

[Erockrazor]

• What is your personal guitar regimen?
• How long does it take?
• How is your practice divided (scales, arpeggios, writing, gigging, improvising, speed drills, theory, sight reading etc.) ?

I'll start...

Erock's Guitar Regimen (as of 10/21/09)

1. Picking technique/speed drills (5-10 min.)
2. Sight Reading (15-20 min.)
3. Writing/Noodling (15-30 min.)
4. Theory/scales/arpeggio's (5-10 min)

Now for you!

Your typical/intended daily practice... I know not every day is a good day for practice. Most of us have lives that don't allow all the practice we may want. What works for you, what doesn't? How do you learn most effectively? Etc!

 

[Dogbreath]

I used to practice religiously but now I practice maybe once a week and never without havin my mic and board set up, ready to track somethin.
I can't count how many cool ideas/riffs/rhythms that I've tried to remember later and it's just...not...there.

But I also figure after 30 years, ya think I'd have this thing down enough that I shouldn't need to practice every day.

 

[Zaphod B]

My goal is 30 minutes a day. Over a week's time I probably average a bit more, but depending on the circumstances it may be zero.

I don't have a structure that I follow. But I try to combine some speed work along with some basic chord transitions, and just some reflective time to see if anything cool pops out.

 

[Sky Blue Lou]

I just play. Not every day. I'll pick one up and play it for ten minutes or an hour. If I'm learning something new I'll go over it a few times then play other stuff and come back to it later until I know it. Then I just play it at practice or gigs.


lou

 

[Erockrazor]

If I'm learning something new I'll go over it a few times then play other stuff and come back to it later until I know it.

That's actually something that seems to work for me. If I'm trying to learn something new, I practice it for a bit, then I take a break from it then come back to it. After the break it feels like it soaked in a little more.


I also have a hard time focusing on one thing for a long length of time. I feel like sometimes I lose motivation or determination to learn a particular thing then I drift. I'm trying to build discipline so I can easier learn what I want to learn and be focused on what's important to me. Done rambling..

 

[TelePaul]

5/10 Minutes - Deciding between a LP, Tele or Strat, looking for a lead that works, looking for a whammy bar, remembering your Tele and LP don't have whammy bars, tuning up...

5/10 Minutes - Getting pedal board to work...

20 Minutes - Playing along to "Riding with the King", "Purple Rain" and "I love this Bar"...

20 Minutes - Trying to play like Mark Knopfler on "Sultans of Swing" and "Tunnel of Love"...

...and that's basically it.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Since I gig almost nightly ..... I never practice ........ at all ....... ever.


But I do get the 4 hours of gigging most days and I never just 'go thru the motions'.
I always try to push my limits even on a night where there's no one there and most players would just take long breaks.
I'll play hard even on those nights.
But when I'm not gigging .... the guitars stay in the case, or lean against the wall or lay on the floor ..... wherever they ended up when I got home after the gig.

 

[Zaphod B]

Since I gig almost nightly ..... I never practice ........ at all ....... ever.


But I do get the 4 hours of gigging most days and I never just 'go thru the motions'.
I always try to push my limits even on a night where there's no one there and most players would just take long breaks.
I'll play hard even on those nights.
But when I'm not gigging .... the guitars stay in the case, or lean against the wall or lay on the floor ..... wherever they ended up when I got home after the gig.

When I was playing really regularly it was the same for me.

 

[kcearl]

I look at it


look at it again


turn on the synth

 

[TeyshaBlue]

I stumbled across a practice technique years ago when I was teaching music.

When working scales or linear passages, we generally start slow and work our way up to whatever our target speed is....if we ever get there.
I had one of my professors pass this little trick on to me and it literally cut my scale drill time in half and was incredibly effective in working thru some very dense, linear passages in my recital repertoire. It is stark in it's simplicity.

I'll use a scale drill for example. When we're practicing scales, we're concentrating on an even passage and building speed and techinque.
Start your scale drill this way....swing the notes...that is, 1st note long, 2nd note short, 3rd long, 4th short, etc...alternating long and short durations. This yields a kinda lilting rhythm. Do it at a very comfortable tempo..don't try to push it. Concetrate on keeping it consistent and slow. When you are able to do this several times without any problems, switch the rhythms around. Start with the short note 1st, the long 2nd, short 3rd, etc...
It'll will feel awkward at first and it's hard as hell not to rush. Keep it slow. When you can do this several times without a mistake, then just play the scale in the regular manner, each note equal in duration.
The scale will feel ridiculously slow and you'll find you can play it quite a bit faster. When you want to kick the speed up again, repeat the rhythms again at a fast tempo.
This is also great for working thru linear solo passages. It will cut your practice time down considerably and help build your technique equally.

 

[Erockrazor]

Since I gig almost nightly ..... I never practice ........ at all ....... ever.

I'd like to consider gigging practicing. Any time spent on the guitar for me I'd like to consider practicing. It's time spent honing your skills. I wish I spent four hours a day playing guitar!

 

[Erockrazor]

I'll use a scale drill for example. When we're practicing scales, we're concentrating on an even passage and building speed and techinque.
Start your scale drill this way....swing the notes...that is, 1st note long, 2nd note short, 3rd long, 4th short, etc...alternating long and short durations. This yields a kinda lilting rhythm. Do it at a very comfortable tempo..don't try to push it. Concetrate on keeping it consistent and slow. When you are able to do this several times without any problems, switch the rhythms around. Start with the short note 1st, the long 2nd, short 3rd, etc...
It'll will feel awkward at first and it's hard as hell not to rush. Keep it slow. When you can do this several times without a mistake, then just play the scale in the regular manner, each note equal in duration.
The scale will feel ridiculously slow and you'll find you can play it quite a bit faster. When you want to kick the speed up again, repeat the rhythms again at a fast tempo.
This is also great for working thru linear solo passages. It will cut your practice time down considerably and help build your technique equally.

Hey Teysha! I'm gonna give this a try tonight. Seems interesting. I've just been plowing through my exercises at a straight tempo. This could be just the ticket!

For me, it's funny with the exercises. Say I can play 16th notes on 100 bpm (if each beat represents a quarter) for my exercises.. If I take 2 days off practicing, 100 bpm will be a big struggle. It sucks how easily I can lose some speed. I thought it would stick a little longer!

Thanks for the approach teysha!

 

[Tadpui]

2 minutes - turn on the power strip, let my amp's power tubes warm up, strap on the LP, turn on noise suppressor
5-15 minutes - improvise using whatever reverb and delay settings happen to be currently on my G-Sharp
5-15 minutes - fiddle with the G-Sharp settings a bit and improvise using some other settings
10-20 minutes - play a few of my own songs and soak in how much I love my amp's tone with a TS9
10-30 minutes - if its a good day and I'm in a good mood and nobody's home, turn up the TS9 and play everything can remember off of Ozzy/Randy Tribute.
10-15 minutes - if I'm still wanting to play, I'll improvise some more either with or without delay. I usually pick a couple of chords, improv over them with a clean tone/neck pickup, then kick on the TS9, then go for the neck pickup, then kick on the CS-3, then back off to a clean/neck pickup again and call it a day.

It's rare that I do all of that in a single day. Most days I'll pick up the guitar and improv over 1 or 2 chords for a while. If I'm feeling it, I'll continue. If I'm not feeling it, I'll quit and go play video games or something.

Hell, last night I spent almost 4 hours serenading my wife with my new D-41. I played just about every song I know. It was lovely.

Since I don't gig, I'm not in a band, and my recording rig is broken down, I mainly play just to hear my favorite instruments. I improv on my Les Paul/TS9/YCV80 just because I love each combination of sounds I can get out of it. And I play my D-41 because its the nicest sounding instrument I've ever owned. So I wouldn't call it practice, just reciting the same songs I've been playing for a long, long time now.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

Hey Teysha! I'm gonna give this a try tonight. Seems interesting. I've just been plowing through my exercises at a straight tempo. This could be just the ticket!

For me, it's funny with the exercises. Say I can play 16th notes on 100 bpm (if each beat represents a quarter) for my exercises.. If I take 2 days off practicing, 100 bpm will be a big struggle. It sucks how easily I can lose some speed. I thought it would stick a little longer!

Thanks for the approach teysha!

Hope it works for you. It translates to anything that requires fingers..horns, keys, guitar. The kicker is to start slow. You'll build speed quickly because by using the rhythms, you are actually practicing half of the exercise twice as fast.

 

[true-eurt]

I am so easily discouraged with my un-skills on the guitar, that I will just put it away(except for occasional noodling).. and decide I'll never learn!...then something/someone will come along and inspire me to pick it up again.

That is not a wise way to learn anything..beings, by the time I pick it back up, I'm at square one again.

Have to say though, this thread has inspired me once again to pick it back up after a long Hiatas...so, now I will take it a level higher and COMMIT to 10 mins a day...each week adding another 10 mins...we'll see just how dedicated I can be...

 

[Erockrazor]

so, now I will take it a level higher and COMMIT to 10 mins a day...each week adding another 10 mins...we'll see just how dedicated I can be...

That's exactly what I'm striving to do. My friend (upright bass jazz performer) talks about how much he practices. He says he used to practice between 7 and 10 hours a day 5 years ago. Now he says that it was too much but he still tries to practice 3 hours a day.

While I think that's great, it's just not realistic for me. I'm struggling having a focused hour of practice. But I'm trying to just build on it and hope to be able to practice for, say, two hours of attentive, focused, studying and practicing.

I have a video that I watch for inspiration. It's not really guitar related though. It's "The universal mind of Bill Evans" (you could find it on youtube if you're at all interested). A jazz pianist that talks about writing and learning music. He's brilliant and this video just nips me in the ass to practice and learn everything I can ... about anything really.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I just play. Not every day. I'll pick one up and play it for ten minutes or an hour. If I'm learning something new I'll go over it a few times then play other stuff and come back to it later until I know it. Then I just play it at practice or gigs.


lou

This, sadly. I'll go through periods where I try to log an hour or even a half hour of metronome practice a night, but things keep getting in the way. :/

I need to go on another practicing binge, though - I'm gearing up to finish demoing and start recording my album in earnest early next year, so I need to hurry up and get my chops where I want them. :/

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I stumbled across a practice technique years ago when I was teaching music.

When working scales or linear passages, we generally start slow and work our way up to whatever our target speed is....if we ever get there.
I had one of my professors pass this little trick on to me and it literally cut my scale drill time in half and was incredibly effective in working thru some very dense, linear passages in my recital repertoire. It is stark in it's simplicity.

I'll use a scale drill for example. When we're practicing scales, we're concentrating on an even passage and building speed and techinque.
Start your scale drill this way....swing the notes...that is, 1st note long, 2nd note short, 3rd long, 4th short, etc...alternating long and short durations. This yields a kinda lilting rhythm. Do it at a very comfortable tempo..don't try to push it. Concetrate on keeping it consistent and slow. When you are able to do this several times without any problems, switch the rhythms around. Start with the short note 1st, the long 2nd, short 3rd, etc...
It'll will feel awkward at first and it's hard as hell not to rush. Keep it slow. When you can do this several times without a mistake, then just play the scale in the regular manner, each note equal in duration.
The scale will feel ridiculously slow and you'll find you can play it quite a bit faster. When you want to kick the speed up again, repeat the rhythms again at a fast tempo.
This is also great for working thru linear solo passages. It will cut your practice time down considerably and help build your technique equally.

Cool idea. I tried to rep you but couldn't - hope this suffices.

 

[cephus]

If I "practice" too much, then I play crap. I call it "let your fingers do the walking". I play the same old shit, just faster. What I play is dominated by muscle memory.

So, I let it sit for a while and then when I pick it up, I play what I hear in my head. And it isn't necessarily easy to play. It can take a few to several days to ramp up again to where I can play the stuff my brain wants me to.

So, I strive to avoid structured practice.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

If I "practice" too much, then I play crap. I call it "let your fingers do the walking". I play the same old shit, just faster. What I play is dominated by muscle memory.

So, I let it sit for a while and then when I pick it up, I play what I hear in my head. And it isn't necessarily easy to play. It can take a few to several days to ramp up again to where I can play the stuff my brain wants me to.

So, I strive to avoid structured practice.

The problem with that, though, is that you just won't progess technically if you never do structured practice.

I've noticed the same thing too, but I've also noticed that if I go through a serious period of structured practicing, then take a couple days off and don't really play, and then pick the guitar up again, I seem to get the best of both worlds - an improvement in my technical ability, but without seeming to be on autopilot and dissatisfied with my phrasing.