General Music Chat

For practicing a instrument, that have
worked for you?

I usually practice in 1 1/2 hour blocks,
30 minutes w/backing tracks running
thru scales and licks, 1 hour covering
or composing songs. At least on guitar.

Looking to improve, any good advice
on practice methods?

whats the goal?

I hardly ever "practice" the electric guitar anymore. In fact, if I'm not rehearsing or gigging I don't hardly play it. I play the acoustic instead, it builds up strength and stamina better and makes me focus on songs instead of noodling. Then when I do play the electric it's more fun. Hope I'm making sense.

I just play my axe and work out renditions of songs that I like.

This spell checker has the vocabulary of a 3 year old.

For what its worth, I practice based on an immediate need to get it down... SO if I were told I had to get Layla down by next week, I'd jump on it now... After I did her, I'd then go and practice the song for a few days , till I got it right ...

Set these two goals, and everything will take care of itself:
.
1) Learn something new every 2 - 3 days; a new chord or new technique or new style or new rhythm or new pattern or new song - ANYthing new - every few days.
.
2) Do it 10% better than last time.

Lynard

Your regim is exactly like mine. Playing along with backing tracks or songs gets the fingers warmed up and switches on the rythym gland. I take scales very seriously since I can never seem to learn enough from playing them in the various positions. Always new licks hiding in there. Scales are also fun with backing tracks or metronome so I remember to play them like I means it!

Then it's time to get to work.

I'm out writing myself now and need to switch gears and really bone up on recording because I can't keep all my tunes in memory anymore while doing lots of new stuff.

One tip - sometimes I hit a slump and sound boring to myself. My strat is my primary but at times like that I'll switch to the old monster sounding Telecaster and wake myself back up. (or play bass)

Switching tunings can help too but there is a cost - it takes the strings a while to adjust and then again when you tune back to natural.

Talbot

one thing would help alot

pull that guitar up to a proper playing position
no one can play a guitar properly with it slung around their knees
that's image stuff.

oh and look at your frets,
see those places where they are waring? and all those places where there doesn't appear to be any ware?
well don't play the guitar in the worn spots any more.
that always helps.

I agree with JCP61 110%
I was reading an interveiw with Eric Johnson. In the interveiw he kept using the word trying as in he is always struggleing to achieve his goals. I beleive that music is the same as life. It is a struggle to achieve. I was watching a phenomenal concert pianist practice one time. He would do a run through of a song. When he would make a mistake he would play just that one little section over and over until muscle memory took over. It has been scientifically proven that not all of your memory is in your brain, Some of your memory is tissue and genetically related! My point is in order to be the best you can be you have to develope and balance both!
If you watch guitar players like EVH or Steve Howe they don't wear their guitars sunk way down low. They wear them a little higher so their technique is better!
A few years back I took my strat to GC to try out an amp. When you first walk in the door anything you bring in has to be checked. When I opened up my case to show the attendant the first thing he said was wow your guitar neck is worn so evenly. I took that as a compliment!

Thanks for all the response, man I got to play
daily I'm obsessed. The goal's to be the best
musician I can be, I hear you Slacker I fall in
love with songs and work them hard. I don't play
in any group anymore so I don't have any songs
to learn.(Sh#t when I'm in a group I usually sing
and play lead, so I know all the songs).

The goal I set is to become a musician, to read
guitar, piano and vocal and perform it from reading
standard notation.

Never tried different tunings, but those backing
tracks are a lead guitar players friend and teacher.

JCp I pulled my guitar up after JW suggested I
should. It has helped with my speed, pick direction,
and just hitting the notes clean, (not a lot of bangers
you got to mute with your palm). I was playing electric
guitar in a classic rock bar band, electric guitars are
easier to dance with when slung low. I'll look at the frets,
but generally I try to play all over the neck.

You know when I was a kid and played solos note for note,
I could slow the record player down to 16, and you could
follow along easy. Picture this me and my buddy sitting
in my room listening to Led Zeppellin at 16 speed.

Im not very disciplined when it comes to practice.

Being a cover hack, whenever I have a gig coming up I pull out an old songlist and just kinda walk thru it real quick. If I see a song title and hesitate then I will ussually run thru it, maybe run thru a few signature type solos.

Of course I love to noodle, and play around with different solo positions on the neck, dont know how to describe what Im doing really, just move my little solo "boxes" around on the neck.

Lately I have been working on tapping, one little fun trick is at the end of a solo, to tap a harmonic an octave up on the fretboard, or say Im playing a E major chord to outline the chord in harmonics an octave up the board, I practice stuff like this.

I have been working on single open string soloing.

Being mainly a cover player I do try to learn to invert my rythym chords in different positions on the neck, just to keep myself from getting bored.

And of course at times I just get into solo shred mode and trying to solo up and down the neck, I try make all my transitions smooth, I work on making it look effortless when I play live.

I try to spend a minimum of 30 minutes and up to 2 hours at a time, I try to do the work side of it first, like learning a new song, or reinforcing my rythyms, run thru some songs second, and then ussually finish up by noodling, and oh yeah I do at times just spend time playing with my effect units and figureing out new sounds for existing songs, that is a whole other practice regiment.

Dont know if any of this makes sense or helps.

I hardly ever "practice" the electric guitar anymore. In fact, if I'm not rehearsing or gigging I don't hardly play it. I play the acoustic instead, it builds up strength and stamina better and makes me focus on songs instead of noodling. Then when I do play the electric it's more fun. Hope I'm making sense.

I thought no one else would understand this. When I get sounds I like on the acoustic, most times they sound great on the electric. When all is well on electric though, I can work up a sweat that drips from my nose. That's when I know I'm in the zone. This doesn't happen on acoustic. Acoustic is my practice, electric is my drive.

There's an old saying that if you can't play the song on an acoustic it's not really a great song. Like all sayings there's a nugget of truth in there but it's not a rule.

As some of you know, I have several guitars. I'm not saying that to be bragging. On the contrary. Some of you may be able to get sounds you like out of any guitar. What I like to do is pick a guitar that fits my mood at the time to start with. Do some scales. Feel her out. Then walk with her until I've run the gammit of her potential, then switch guitars and start all over again. typically, I don't play the same songs on different guitars because they all seem to have their own personality. When I had fewer guitars, my sessions were shorter. When I was periodically buying guitars, (and had money to do so), going into a music store and picking one off the wall until I found one that said "take me home". What I was looking for is girls with different personalities that lead me down different roads. It kept me from "sounding boring to myself.

"Standard notation"? What's that? Resisting reading sheet is what keeps me a musically challenged asshole. Then again, who am I trying to impress? I just don't have a stage personality to work with. Listening to good music gets my mind working a question "how's he doing that?" Testing the theory is the fun. For instance, at the second of the last bar in Fog Hat's- Slow ride the lead plucks a harmonic note with no volume, then simultaneously brings the volume up as he wammys the hell out of it. I know you hear it in your head now. He does that in more than one place in the song, but I wanted to put your head in a soundbite.