How much technical practice?

[Jeremy3]

I thought this could be interesting. How much time daily do you believe should be devoted towards practicing technique for the serious guitarist? I generally devote about an hour daily to maintain and slowly improve my technique, but I go through phases sometimes where I devote 2 to 3 times that. I generally think an hour is good, I believe the majority of the time one spends practicing should be to develop musically, not technically.

[Poparad]

It all depends on whether you are currently trying to improve a certain aspect of technique. When I run into a situation that brings out a weakness in my technique, I then spend more practice time trying to improve that area. When I'm not actively trying to improve technique, the songs I generally work on keep my chops in shape and challenged enough that I don't have to specifically work on any technical exercises, other than perhaps warmups.

[bdemon]

The simple answer...as much as you freakin' want!

 

But if you're looking to be on par with Segovia, Vai, etc., then you might be looking at, what, 6+ hours a day? I recall interviews with Satriani and Vai where they said twelve hour days were common at different points.

 

That said, I've heard/read from many guitar heroes who aim for a couple hours a day to some who say they don't practice, only play when they feel like it.

[Lazylyghtning]

Hmm, how much do I believe should be devoted for the serious guitarist.

I would say at least one hour, if you're talking about just technical stuff. Not including time spent on theory, learning songs, etc...

But if anyone is going to play for many hours a day, it's important to do it right, to prevent being hurt.

[Noise...]

I'd say it depends on what you want to play. If you play stuff more on the creative side, spend your time on practicing musically over technically. However, if you're looking to play technical stuff, I'd say practice at least an hour.

Personally, I practice scales just to learn them. I learn where I can play the scales at on the fretboard, then I move right on to playing normally. That being said, I'm not a shredder. My solos aren't insanely fast, and neither are my riffs. But, I like the sounds I get. Even if it's something easy to play, it's something that I like.

That's what it comes down to. Play what you like and practice technical stuff accordingly.

[Terje]

I generally think an hour is good, I believe the majority of the time one spends practicing should be to develop musically, not technically.

 

 

I agree with you and the two need not exclude each other. You can improve your technique while learning a new song, for instance. I mean, just learn it and then learn it in a different key.

 

If my time is very limited, and it almost always is, and I have to choose then I'll choose to learn another song rather than improving on some part of my technique.

 

Great technique will in most cases go unnoticed, a new song may save your ass at a gig sooner than you think!

 

Another thing to consider here is that time is only one factor and quality is another which when it comes to improving technique is probably even more important.

 

Let me put it this way: If I want to just maintain what I have then I need to put some time in. To keep certain musciels strong enough you need to play for a certain amount of time daily, to refresh muscle memory you need repetition. To learn something new however you may have to split the time up in very short fragments so you can keep fully focused on what you do so that you're learning it right.

 

Maintainance = 30 minutes a day at least, but it can be anything. It can be the same tired old {censored} that I know in my sleep, this is just to be able to play a gig on the weekend without any pains.

 

Learning something new = many, many 5 minute periods to repeat but always making sure it's done correctly.

[erict]

I do "technical" practicing for about an hour each day ( by this i mean those boring tedious excersises) ... sometimes more... but all of the playing that i do is somewhat technical, whether im jamming over a track, or learning a new song... I think that playing technically while still playing musically helps more than just doing excersises over and over again.

[Dubb]

Play what you like and practice technical stuff accordingly.

Exactly. It's impossible to say how much time every guitarist out there should spend on technique, regardless of how "serious" they are.

 

End thread here

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[Li10]

I practice at least an hour every day.... it's not too technical to be honest, though. I do an exercise to improve my stamina after a while, but I should be extending my scale knowledge and stuff... but recently I've just been too focused on writing songs. I need to establish a balance.

[2mcuh2soon]

I do at least an hour a day. Often 2-3 hours. A variety of strength exercises, scales, chord changes all over the neck.
I have said this before but I think its vitally important.
I started playing at 39(now 42). As a person who used to like to take shortcuts, I learned from life experience how incredibly important being fundamentally sound is in any undertaking.
And to me one of the fundamentals of being a competent guitarist is having strength and dexterity.
I am pretty religious about doing my exercises. Haven't missed many days since I started playing.
The result? I am continually amazed how every few months certain songs or passages of songs that previously seemed difficult now seem easy.
I have a good friend who has played for over 20 years. He has a wonderful, natural ear for music and can hear a song on the radio and play a reasonable facsimile of it immediately. But, he is undisciplined and won't take the time to practice the fundamentals.
I don't want to sound arrogant, but for the last 6 months when we get together he shakes his head and says he can't believe I am a better player than him after playing for less than 3 years.
I don't have any special skills other than understanding the importance of practice and practicing with some direction.

If you are a basketball fan you only have to look at how the Europeans have made up so much ground on the NBA players to the point where they beat the NBA guys regularly.
The Euros focused on the basics of the game, the fundamentals, and are simply better at the basics than the NBA players. It translates into success.

[Terje]

I am pretty religious about doing my exercises. Haven't missed many days since I started playing. The result? I am continually amazed how every few months certain songs or passages of songs that previously seemed difficult now seem easy. I have a good friend who has played for over 20 years. He has a wonderful, natural ear for music and can hear a song on the radio and play a reasonable facsimile of it immediately. But, he is undisciplined and won't take the time to practice the fundamentals. I don't want to sound arrogant, but for the last 6 months when we get together he shakes his head and says he can't believe I am a better player than him after playing for less than 3 years.

 

 

I don't want to sound arrogant either but without ever having heard the two of you play I'd say that the skills he has, his good ears, would be more helpful to me if we were playing together than the dexterity and strength you have.

 

What I wanted to say is that while the dexterity and strength aren't bad they're not music and that's the fundamental part of playing any instrument, to make music with it.

[Li10]

hmmm.... if I would rather have technical proficiency or a... just a musically developed mind, I would take the mind. Brian May is a virtuso guitarist (apparently...) and all the stuff he writes and plays, I just don't like it. It sounds dead. And no, I don't mean the tone of his guitar is crap. I mean... the way he plays it. It's hard to explain. But with some songs with Jonny Greenwood on guitar: it's absolutely awesome.

 

This is not an excuse to praise Jonny Greenwood...

[wrathfuldeity]

is your technique limiting your playing musically...if so, spend a little more time doing focused tech stuff...really a certian level of both are required to sound good...IMHO

[FFStratophile]

None.

 

The most technical thing I do is run scales for 15 mins before every session.

 

I used to do tech, and recommend to do that to beginners because they need a strong foundation, but it's really pointless a little further down the road.

 

My rules of thumb

 

I only play what sounds good to me, and nothing else.

 

Technique developing is muscially depressing and beside the whole point of music, thus it's a wate of time that I better spend on other things.

 

 

 

Back when I did technique developing, I read a couple of Yngwie interviews, and in both he was asked for his advice to guitarists. His answer was to play with your ears. He also mentioned in the interview that he never did any technique developing at all. At the time I thought that what he said was rubbish, but after about a year of boring excercises it came to me that he may be right. I was playing stupid excercises and classical pieces that I didn't like the sound of at all, and because of that they were hell to learn and boring to play, and I didn't have much time left to play what I DID like. There was some improvement in technique, but it was slow as hell.

 

When I was playing for about a year and a half, one of my friends started playing too. In 6 months he was better than me. I was shocked, and I asked him how does he practice. His answer was: "I play what I like all day long". Then it came to me, that Yngwie was right. I started playing only what I liked, all day, and I really felt that I was putting my soul into it. Learning and playing stuff you like comes easily and naturaly. My technique improved a lot faster than it did while playing excercises all day, and I picked up a much much larger variety of skills than I did while doing tech: My overall playing, improvisation and melodic sense improved tenfold.

 

Now, some advice:

 

Just like Yngwie said, play only what you like. Don't bore yourself with excercises and classical pieces (unless you're into classical, and in that case, be my guest)

 

Devote as much time as possible to transcribing music (writing it down is not a must, but a plus) and to actual listening.

 

Always sing what you play while playing it. You can't imagine how much it helps your melodic sense and improvisation.

 

Be able to play whatever you hear in your head, and when improvising, rely on that rather than your fingers to guide you. This skill is best developed by singing along with that you're playing, and by transcribing, and I consider this the most valuable skill a guitarist can posses.

[Poparad]

None. The most technical thing I do is run scales for 15 mins before every session. I used to do tech, and recommend to do that to beginners because they need a strong foundation, but it's really pointless a little further down the road. My rules of thumb I only play what sounds good to me, and nothing else.

 

 

 

Advocating absolutely no technical work is a little too extreme. The opposite, playing nothing but technical exercises, it too extreme as well, which is why you were bored with it. Technical exercises help to supplement our work on real music (i.e., songs), and help to isolate and improve specific areas. They are an essential tool, but obviously nothing more than that. Removing them entirely from your playing will make technical progress difficult. You probably haven't noticed this, as the songs themselves that you practice often have parts that are technically demanding, and thus achieving mostly the same objective as an exercise. Exercises are great for focusing on a specific weakness that may not be getting enough attention from the other things you are practicing.

[FFStratophile]

Advocating absolutely no technical work is a little too extreme. The opposite, playing nothing but technical exercises, it too extreme as well, which is why you were bored with it. Technical exercises help to supplement our work on real music (i.e., songs), and help to isolate and improve specific areas. They are an essential tool, but obviously nothing more than that. Removing them entirely from your playing will make technical progress difficult. You probably haven't noticed this, as the songs themselves that you practice often have parts that are technically demanding, and thus achieving mostly the same objective as an exercise. Exercises are great for focusing on a specific weakness that may not be getting enough attention from the other things you are practicing.

 

 

 

 

15 mins a day for scales, and I'm set

[2mcuh2soon]

I don't want to sound arrogant either but without ever having heard the two of you play I'd say that the skills he has, his good ears, would be more helpful to me if we were playing together than the dexterity and strength you have. What I wanted to say is that while the dexterity and strength aren't bad they're not music and that's the fundamental part of playing any instrument, to make music with it.

 

 

I guess I look at the making music part of it as a given. Thats the whole point of picking up a musical instrument.

If you started when you were young the strength and dexterity part likely came naturally. If you started when you were middle aged like me the physical capabalities may not be there for awhile.

The point I was making about my friend is that he has a lot of natural talent. He can pick up a variety of stringed and brass instruments and make reasonably attractive sounds with them. But he won't put in the time to be all he could be. Sorta the story of his life.

Given the choice, I'd take an average ear and an overwhelming desire to excel over an overwhelming ear and a lackluster desire to excel.

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

hmmm.... if I would rather have technical proficiency or a... just a musically developed mind, I would take the mind. Brian May is a virtuso guitarist (apparently...) and all the stuff he writes and plays, I just don't like it. It sounds dead. And no, I don't mean the tone of his guitar is crap. I mean... the way he plays it. It's hard to explain.

This post had me puzzled... You're using Brian May as an example of a technical virtuoso? Brian May is all about tone, melody and phrasing, not speed.

 

I strongly doubt you've listened to Brian May... at all.

[Dubb]

I agree, Brian May has a reputation as being an extremely melodic guitarist, not a technical wiz.

[Terje]

I guess I look at the making music part of it as a given. Thats the whole point of picking up a musical instrument. If you started when you were young the strength and dexterity part likely came naturally. If you started when you were middle aged like me the physical capabalities may not be there for awhile. The point I was making about my friend is that he has a lot of natural talent. He can pick up a variety of stringed and brass instruments and make reasonably attractive sounds with them. But he won't put in the time to be all he could be. Sorta the story of his life. Given the choice, I'd take an average ear and an overwhelming desire to excel over an overwhelming ear and a lackluster desire to excel.

Well, the story of your firend's life is one thing the story about you is another. While some strength and dexterity is certainly needed for playing the guitar it's really not one of the "hard to play" instruments out there. It's not a trumpet.

I understand the thing about not being young when you picked it up. I realize that I have some strength in my fingers that I take for granted. However, recently I've started doing push-ups and my hands have gotten a lot stronger just in the past couple of months. It has done nothing for my playing, I assure you.

The foundation... being able to sing the major scale, that's a foundation. Being able to hear if a chord is major or minor, that's foundation. yes, people with this kind of foundation often find it easier to make music on a variety of instruments. I knew this singer. She knew nothing of music theory, as theory. She knew how to sing but couldn't name the notes, couldn't read. She had no idea how differnt instruments worked and she couldn't play any of them. Yet, with her finely tuned ear and musicality she could pick up any instrument and start finding out how to make melodies with it pretty damn fast.

A great ear is a great ear and I'd take it over dexterity any day. Strenght is needed for lack of good technique.

God, I'm being hars for no reason man. I apologise if it lookslike I'm slamming you. You know whatyour needs are and you'll probably develop into a better musician than I am, keep going. Just don't forget to work on the other foundations as well, OK.

[Dubb]

I think the lesson to be learned here is that you should apply your "overwhelming desire to excel" to training your ear. Some are born with it, most have to train it. The bottom half of this Tom Hess article lists many different ways to train your ear (you should use all of them): http://www.tomhess.net/articles.php?article=8

[Dimebag666]

I've only been playing just over two years so alot of my focus has been on speed and technique. I figuire that that is going to be the foundation which i'll be building on as time goes by so i don't want to be limited in what i want to play because of lack of ability.

ATM i practice building speed/tech for 2 hours and an hour of other stuff. Earlier in the year i was doing 3 to 1 but i'm too tired now to get up that early to play an hour before school.

[Jed]

I'm curious how you guys define "technical practice", it's all technical to me.

I don't practice picking or speed exercises per se. I do practice scales, various scale fingerings, arpeggios, chord voicings in 13 keys and in all positions and I work on new material but every new song / part is practiced in multiple keys.

So from my perspective everything about my practice regime is technical.

cheers,

[Big Muff]

I usually practice my picking technique for about an hour a day, then I work on my chordal knowledge (working out some jazz tunes and trying to come up with my own inversions), and then I just jam out to some metal tunes.

[e021708]

I practice anything and everything I can think of as long as it is in concert with a rhythm machine, backing track or an artist's recording. I try to let my ears lead me. I quit trying to study any theory or memorize scales. All that stuff just held me back. now, I'm playing better than I ever have played in years.
I also play hours every day all day until my arm and fingers are very sore (sometime way too much) but now my strength, speed and accuracy are better than ever. I play blindfolded. I play with my fingers. I play with picks. I play slide. I play acoustic. I try to play any weird way positions that I can come up with. I think I'm going off the edge sometimes.

You really need to be careful not to hurt yourself. I have done it a couple of times this year and had to stop for a week or more. Sometimes, I will sleep at night with a brace on my wrist.

be careful...