Good Practice Regimen

[Bernie Franks]

So here's the thing: I suck. I want to work on sucking less. I can't afford lessons and want some ideas for a daily regimen to help me get better. I assume about an hour a day?

[dastardlydrvish]

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1191881

 

Some ideas were tossed around in this thread.

-dd

[Knottyhed]

Originally posted by Bernie Franks So here's the thing: I suck. I want to work on sucking less. I can't afford lessons and want some ideas for a daily regimen to help me get better. I assume about an hour a day?

 

 

IMO the single most productive thing you can do to get the most out of your practice is to invest in and use a metronome.

 

Apart from that you need a good balence between mechanical exercises, learning other peoples songs, learning theory and composing your own stuff/practicing over backing tracks (to help get the theory ideas embedded and develop your ear). How you divide you time between these things should probably depend on what you think your weak areas are.

 

An hour a day is definately enough to steadily improve, but like with most things the more practice you put in the faster you'll progress

[Guitar Greg]

Keep your guitar out. Play it when you're watching TV, talking, making sweet love, whatever. Even if you're just noodling and not really working on anything. Teach your hands to be completely comfortable with the guitar in them. Teach your ear to know where each note is on the fretboard. Try soloing over really simple progressions (country music is great for this). Fimiliarity with your instrument can't be overstated. Make playing guitar the thing you do when you're bored, like doodling on a peice of paper durring a lecture. Regemented practice times are important, but let's face it...they suck and we usually don't keep up with them. And learn how to listen to music in a productive way when you can't be playing.

[Nick Layton]

Has anyone found a way of practicing that gives them great results? I'm not just talking about a metronome, but an actual "routine".

[mfergel]

A routine is my biggest problem. I almost think guitaists are worse off nowdays because there is so much information. You have person A telling you a certain set of exercises will develop your right hand, person B telling you a different set of exercises are better for your right hand, person C telling you a completely different set, etc...... Meanwhile, the guitarist (hero) you are trying to emulate never did a single exercise in their life but instead sat down with every Robert Johnson record available and you can't stand Robert Johnson......hehehe

Information overload is a major problem if you ask me and it seems like it actually gets in the way of practicing.

[Nick Layton]

I agree. Too much info can definitely be a problem.

[typedeaF]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but then again, so do the threads. Do not pull from one source. Do not rely on one persons routine to work for you. Find pieces from this and that that apply. I tried to learn sweep picking for years. Watched Gilbert, watched Yngwie, watched Michael Angelo, etc. For some reason, none of the explained it very well, or did it in a way that felt comfortable to me. Finally I read a lesson on the CFH site that made it all click. When I practice sweeping, I adapt other examples to my technique, or I simply make up my own exercises. The overwheling amout of information now is a blessing. You get to hear things explained many different ways. I used to have a blank tab book and jot down this and that and then just go through my book.

After many years of playing and watching countless instructionals, I personally feel like all you see is someone showing you slight variances on the exact same exercises.

Practice techniques, not licks. Break it down to the smallest parts. If you have little time, pick only a few techniques to focus on each day. Maybe alternate picking vs sweep picking alternating dayd. Dont try to be the master of every technique at once or you will spread yourself thin. Once you get one technique under control it will require much less practice to keep it maintained.

Example

Day One
Warm up with chromatics or legato, whatever works for you. But dont spend too much time on either, you are just warming up, nothing more. Practice alternate picking horizontal, vertical, linear, string skipping, 3 notes per string, 2 notes per string (pentatonic shapes), 4 notes per string if you have the skill, and practice in all different note groupings like 3's, 4's, 5's, and 7's. Practice doing intervals with your scales. Then go play some songs with heavy emphasis on alternate picking or improvise over something using it. Learn to apply what you are practicing to music. Try to tackle a piece of music that has lots of alternate picking and find what parts give you the most trouble. Make those parts part of your daily routine until you have them under control and then move on. Constantly challenging your ability. Just like constantly increasing the weight in body building. If you stop increasing the weight, your progress will pleteau.

Day 2
Sweep pick on 2 strings, 3 strings, 4 strings, 5 strings, and 6 strings. Work that from both directions. Triads on low E and A and on High E and B etc. Work on the 3 shapes for major or minor arpeggios. Work on diminished. Work on connecting shapes/inversions. Like shape 1 and 2, then 2 and 3, then 1 2 and 3. Work on 4 and 5 note chord arpeggio shapes like Dom7 amd Maj9. Then do just like day 1 and practice improvising with arps and playing musically with them. Create arp progressions from chord progressions you already know. Follow a songs chord progressions with sweeps. Find a cong with challenging sweeps and again identify your weak spots and make them part of your daily routine. Always work on eliminating your weaknesses. If all you do is practice what you are already good at, you wont make much progress.

Whatever you practice, pay attention to your progress. Make notes of your progress. record it and and keep it available. You might be making huge strides but at such a slow pace that you dont even notice.

[Knottyhed]

Originally posted by Nick Layton Has anyone found a way of practicing that gives them great results? I'm not just talking about a metronome, but an actual "routine".

 

 

Usually I'll go through a phase of focusing on one or 2 things - for example, work on alt picking, or sweep picking, or legato technique, or string skipping. Do that for a few weeks until you notice significant improvement, then try focusing on some other skills for a while, whilst keeping the skills you already have in your playing.

 

Best thing to do - set short term goals - and stick to them.

 

If you really want a routine my practice shedule looks something like this (it varies greatly):

 

Exercises with the 'nome to warm up:

 

Scale patterns - 5 mins

Legato - 5 mins

Tapping - 5 mins

Sweeping - 5 mins

String Skipping - 5 mins

 

All exercises played with perfect techique, even articulation etc. it's an idea to keep notes of the max speed you played at last time and try to go a little faster each day (without cheating)

 

- Break

 

Recording a backing track and playing various solo's over it, playing back solo's to review what sounds good and what doesn't

1 hour

 

- Break

 

Learn something by ear, or work on any technique you think needs working on

30 mins

 

I've been doing that sort of thing for a few months now with great results. But of course; what works for me, might not work for you... my goals aren't your goals so that regimen might be useless to you.

[Nick Layton]

Cool guys...thanks. I do think a practice 'routine' should definitely evolve from and be connected to your goals. I think a lot of people lose sight of this fact and try to do too many things at once.

[Knottyhed]

Originally posted by Nick Layton Cool guys...thanks. I do think a practice 'routine' should definitely evolve from and be connected to your goals. I think a lot of people lose sight of this fact and try to do too many things at once.

 

 

Yup - that's just it. I've never stuck to a strict regime, I change because as you improve your goals change.

 

In the past it's been heavily biased to sweep-picking, or tapping, or alt-picking, or legato - basically anything about my playing that frustrates me. Once I reach a plateau in improvement i'll generally give it a rest for a while and focus on something else. Keeping progress logs is kinda cool (if very geeky), cos even when you think you've plateaued you can come back to an exercise and realise you've got better without even trying - probably cos many techniques are closely interconnected - e.g. your tapping will get better if your legato technique improves and so on.

[Nick Layton]

Good points Knottyhed