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What techniques do you use inpractice to keep the warm ups from boring you? (Scales, progressions etc)

When it comes to running through fundimentals, I will pick a song and walk it on bass, after running through the scales for the chords at several positions on the neck. On keyboard I run scales then comp like I am behind a soloist.

I am now trying to figure out how to improve my guitar technique, so i can actually write more that grooves on guitar. (I have so far relied on piano for all my chord shaping and progression building)

BassBastard wrote:What techniques do you use inpractice to keep the warm ups from boring you? (Scales, progressions etc)

When it comes to running through fundimentals, I will pick a song and walk it on bass, after running through the scales for the chords at several positions on the neck. On keyboard I run scales then comp like I am behind a soloist.

I am now trying to figure out how to improve my guitar technique, so i can actually write more that grooves on guitar. (I have so far relied on piano for all my chord shaping and progression building)

Mahna Mahna

...dit DEE da-dee-dee!

I have never practiced scales or anything like that. All I've ever done was play. Play a song or a part until I like it.

I use a finger gym exercise to warm up my hands.
Seems that if I don't stress the musculature of my forearms before I start to play for a long period of time I get cramps. Especially playing a lot of bar-chords.
Sometimes after that, I just wank to what I feel.
Sometimes I'll run some of our music through my system and wank to that.

Picking different scales and running them to music as it plays through the system helps me to train my ear as well.

I mean, to me, just because it is in key doesn't mean it sounds right in a particular piece .[/i]

Since I play finger style I have a lot of finger patterns going on all at once. So I go after those "weak or problematic notes" and passages that I have trouble hitting when my fingers start spazzing out on me. I Play the complete song over and over and over until it becomes easy to hit and shape the notes like my ears want them to sound without thinking about what I am doing. So on the average I will work on 3 - 4 songs at a time, doing each multiple times a session. That gives me about 1/2 hr to 45 minutes of practice that I actually enjoy I enjoy. I'm not that good so I have to really work at it to get things sounding right. But I don't mind playing something over and over and over because it's pretty rewarding when I actually get it right. On occasion I'll work on triplets and rolls to drive the arthritis from my hands before I sit down for some serious practice.

first, I start out doing these stretches that the boys from Testament educated me on, then, I do some diminished scales, some Blues scales, and then start micing in the barre and power chord before I thrown in my four finger weirdness.

I NEVER want to get a tendon injury again!!! Right now, I'm 95% better with some minimal burning every so often. So I still don't practice that long...yet. It's really set me back from where I could have been right now. I'm just slowly starting to make up riffs again.

1) I stretche all 10 fingers backwards to loosen the muscles - grand total of maybe 5-8 seconds.
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2) Then I sqeeze the calluses of my left fingertips to make them more round, and less blunt. They tend to stay on whatever position I sqeeze them into . . . takes another 5 - 10 seconds. ***
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3) Then I try to play whatever songs I can NOT yet play. I skip the stuff I can already do.
I practice the songs that I'm still learning, or the songs where I need to master some new playing technique before I can even play the song . . .
During practice I don't play what I can. I play what I can't . . . yet . . .
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*** Note on #2, above. After I go through a few thousand chord changes, my fingers become shorter by 1 or 2 millimeters as the calluses compress.
(Remember, I play acoustic guitar; big difference from electric guitar).
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Also - if I play a lot of the same chords in several adjacent songs, or if I fret a chord and repeatedly slide it more than 6 - 9 frets or so, I get string-burns/grooves in my fingertips, which sometimes interfere with other songs.
If the grooves are in the wrong place, or in the wrong angles, the strings can slip sideways on my fingertips by a couple millimeters, to settle into the grooves.
This effect will sometimes appear when I go on to another song with a completely different set of chords. (My songs tend to have a lot of chords).
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When this effect manifests, I stop practice for 10 - 15 seconds, and again squeeze the calluses outwards, rounding them again.
Then I can fret any chord, again.
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Also -
I have found that if I do not do this, the end of my fingertip bones tend to eventually start piercing the flesh of my fingertips, and it gets very painful. Once that happens, it takes several days to heal.

BassBastard wrote:What techniques do you use inpractice to keep the warm ups from boring you? (Scales, progressions etc)

When it comes to running through fundimentals, I will pick a song and walk it on bass, after running through the scales for the chords at several positions on the neck. On keyboard I run scales then comp like I am behind a soloist.

I am now trying to figure out how to improve my guitar technique, so i can actually write more that grooves on guitar. (I have so far relied on piano for all my chord shaping and progression building)

To improve on guitar without getting bored. Pick a song to learn and play that is above your head right now, and work at it until you've got it, or are reasonably close to it.
You'll stumble upon favorite licks and techniques that way too. Things that will stick as an ingredient in your bowl of soup.

I do facial yoga exercises, then do 20 finger-tip push-ups, and Im ready to go.

I invite new people for jam sessions. I'm inspired by more than 31 flavors

Is this about killing boredom or excercises?

I don't know if it is good or bad for you. But, stretching the forearm muscles, kinda like "Bowser" from Sha Na Na, gives my fingers a boost. Others complain about the pain. But, I don't notice it after a bit.

[quote="BassBastard"]What techniques do you use inpractice to keep the warm ups from boring you? (Scales, progressions etc)


I usually sit down with every intention of running through all scales and arpeggios. Then what almost always happens, is once I get my old fingers and tendons warmed up (and out of pain) I end up writing and playing as I write.

I've tried to stop this and just do "serious" practice, but, it's what keeps me interested and playing. Plus I come up with alot of great licks that way.

WB

Wicked Bro

you sound like me. I hit the modes, then variations on various scales to get the blood flowing. Sometimes I even get through all that before wandering off on something interesting. It's amazing how many good things are hiding in those scales and modes, waiting for us to find them.

I usually have at least one "practice song" which is sort of a cadre - I put unconnected but potentially usuable licks in it and I'll run through all that as part of warm up.

One band I was in had a loony but physical dynamo of a drummer who would start us out on some fast paced number and gradually pick up the pace until we all exceeded our ability to keep up with him. It worked better than it sounds.

cheers
Talbot

Loganville?! I got arrested there in about 93.