Practice ?

Dave_Mc

I try to practise most days, though I don't always get round to it.

Normally around an hour to an hour and a half. Much more and I get tired and feel I'm doing more harm than good. ) Most of it is just playing what I feel like, rather than practising, though. I've started very recently to try to get a little more disciplined about practising things I really should be concentrating on, but I still play rather than practise most of the time. I figure making sure I enjoy it is the main thing.

guitargeek62

I haven't sat down and properly practiced in years. I've been on a bit of a nostalgia trip lately (alongside getting my strat to a point where I'm with it's mods) so I've been re-learning all of the tracks that I played when I started out. It's a double-edged sword because my hands remember them better than my head does, so within a few bars I've got them all back, when the intention of all this was to work on my right hand's timing for the most part and build up the strength there again that I've lost from not playing regularly.

*edit* I have found though, that the less time I spend learning tracks/riffs/licks/working out live pieces etc, the better my improv is getting... on my good days.

bertie

never,   I noodle.  The only new thing Id learn would be as part of learning a new song or choon

Clingy

I'm learning, so 2 hours a weekday evening and 4 hours each weekend day.  As has been said above, I do this because I just love it and I hate watching TV or playing video games or facebooking etc.

Also at 57 years old I struggle like crazy to pick things up.

EricTheWeary

Clingy said:

Also at 57 years old I struggle like crazy to pick things up.

  You could get a young person to buy you a Handy Reacher from Argos. Very useful when you drop your glasses or your hearing aid or a Werthers Original.

ThePrettyDamned

If I were to actually describe my practice :

15 minutes of picking - still rubbish, but generally triplet scales and quad licks and chromatics

15 minutes legato - chromatics and triplets

5 minutes of sweep picking

30 minutes of trying to come up with something new, perhaps a riff, a clean chord progression (or even just a single chord that I could use). Because my practice is mostly creative, I don't know how to play many songs from other folks. But I come up with a good riff every week, and sometimes record it. Came up with 2 nice ones today, inspired by Mark Tremonti. I also came up with a stupid simple 2 chord progression that, with delay, fast phaser and reverb, would sound excellent for either a verse or, more likely, an interlude or some kind in a heavier song.

It keeps me interested, and I feel like I'm contributing to the pool, rather than just learning covers. I used to learn only Metallica and chilli peppers! But I lost interest so worked on my own sound.

dchwhite

Mosfed said:

...I find football is a great way to spend 90 minutes playing scales over and over without getting too bored. Usually either I play unplugged or an acoustic.

...

Yes, me too. Usually an unplugged electric for me, and if the kids are trying to get to sleep, then I have a brilliant opportunity to practice palm muting and playing without a pick too.

It also gives me something to do with my hands whilst watching, so I don't bite my fingernails to shreds if my team aren't winning eight-nil.

axisus

I don't practice I just noodle around. This is why after 3 decades I am still basically sh*te. 

digitalscream

My band has practice every week, with a guitar recording session taking its place roughly every 6 weeks or so. In addition, two of us usually have a writing session once a fortnight at the weekend.

Other than that...I honestly don't have time for playing my guitar during the week. Maybe half an hour here or there.

I'm very aware that I could be a much better player if I forced some time in there for proper practice and learning.

octatonic

I practiced diligently throughout my 20's and 30's- anywhere from 4-12 hours a day.

Now I don't practice so much but I'm busy doing other things.

Lixarto

I never practise, but I try to play every day.

I write a lot, but I almost never play anybody else's songs.

Roland

digitalscream said:

I'm very aware that I could be a much better player if I forced some time in there for proper practice and learning.

It's a question of priorities.  Over the last year most of my practice time has gone into learning songs for the band.  Now that we have an established set list, and before we change it again, I've got some time for skills practice.  What I really enjoy is experimenting, and finding out how different sounds work, like a diminished run over a 7th chord.

Neil

Never practise just for the sake of it.

Guitar to me is just a pastime.

PolarityMan

We have band practice every week but obviously that's split between jamming / writing and practice depending on what we've got coming up.

I never practice at home, which isn't to say I don't play guitar it's jsut that I normally wind up recording stuff or writing a song instead of actually practicing.

Nobby

I try and pick  up my guitar everyday. I either just noodle away and play the stuff I know, practice  for the band just to get the parts lodged into my grey matter or try and improve as a player by finding something I can't play, usually these days from YouTube .

At the moment I'm trying to master Travis picking but it's doing my head in....

bertie

Mosfed said:

I find football is a great way to spend 90 minutes playing scales over and over without getting too bored. Usually either I play unplugged or an acoustic.

well yeah,   you'd have to have a fuckin long lead otherwise.   Bet its a pain at corners tho