How do you practice?

[Virgman]

I use Transcribe to slow down songs and learn them lick by lick.

Transcribe is excellent for learning this way. 

I can isolate parts of the song that are difficult and practice them more.

I can play along with Transcribe with the song at a pace I can handle and gradually increase the tempo.

I also jam along with tracks from this site sometimes: http://www.guitarvoice.com/BackingTracks/

Pretty much I spend my time learning songs.

 

 

[BydoEmpire]

If I'm learning an "easy" song, I'll just play along w/ the tune in iTunes, and scrub a bit to learn parts.

If the song is more challenging I'll bring it into Logic and loop the phrases I'm having trouble with.  In some cases, I even just have one hand on the spacebar (to start/stop the looped section) and use my left hand to find the notes - in cases of some fast runs this worked great!

After I've learned the basics I'll try to find (or make) a backing track and play over it to make sure I've got it.  Playing along w/ the recorded version often gives me a false sense of security.  It makes me think I have it when I don't.

Lately a lot of my practice has been brushing up on sight reading by learning tunes from the Real Book, or and arpeggio etude or something.  I may work on random lessons from magazines, or of my own creation to work on specific things.

If I have more time available, I'll work on some of my original music - basically jamming, but I feel it's productive because i'm trying to feel these songs out and figure out what they need.  It's also a lot of fun - kind of a 'reward' type of pracitce.  Occasionally I spend time just playing around on the guitar looking for new things, or play along with backing tracks or a tune I like for fun.

I've been all over the map practice-wise this year.  My main goal was to improve my rhythm, and I think I did that, although not as much as I'd have hoped.

[1001gear]

I use Sonic Visualizer for melodiziing. I often take things down to where I can distinctly hear and anticipate the intervals and fingerings and improvise stuff I can't do in real time. This can be anywhere from a few % down to -150% or more. If I need to go deeper, I head for the keyboard (haven't done this in too long though) and sweat it out. The rest of my time is spent on drum related work including playing with cds or playing guitar through the amp.

[Santuzzo]

I use slow down sofware quite a bit myself when practicing. Mostly for learning licks and figuring out stuff by ear.

But apart from that I also practice technical exercises along to a metronome or Band In A Box.