Members Ryan. Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Hey guys... I'm a mediocre guitar player that practices once a week with my band and gigs maybe once a month. I really do enjoy it. And I practice on my acoustic at home a bit... Just curious if you guys can recommend any practice books or DVDs to help me improve...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordchunker Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Doesnt sound like you're getting in much practice. If you were on a football team and wanted to win games, how much practice would the coach make you put in. In High school, they make you practiice after school every day working out hard to build the body and mind to handel the stress of a competition match. If you want to be anything but a joke on stage a band needs to put in the rehursal time. As a pro player, I put in at least 10~30 hours of playing each week. That doesnt include the band rehursal. My band has been together for about 15 years so we do fine rehursing once a week. In a new band you need to put in at least 3 days a week to get tight. If its a good band, it takes at least 3 months to start getting tight and getting sets together and all that jazz. From there, you can taper down because the workout you get both mentally and physically playing out acts, or should act like two rehursals, but you cant neglect learning new tunes or you get stale quick. This also assumes players are competant to learn the music on their own and just rehurse through the songs to work out kinks and get a feel for the music. If you're learning from scratch at rehursal, it spells failure. You got to learn songs on your own and know parts by having an adjends. At the end of a session, someone has to say, OK, this is whats up for the next rehursal. These three songs are up for learning. Everyone is expected to have them down as best to their ability or at least charted out well enough so they can play it through. In general though, practicing 10 hours on your own, will give a solid hour playing with others. This takes dicipline. If you got to be kicked in the ass to practice, then you are not going to excell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Padrino Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Check out: The advancing guitarist by mick goodrick (or goodrich maybe) great book i still pick up. The way that he explains the fretboard and has you learn techniques and positions is really helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ModernSaloon Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Start with some guitar method book. Go through the basics once more, if you haven't gone through them yet. Then get some book that's geared towards your style of playing. Practicing classical guitar pieces is a great way of loosening your fingers, even if you are not a fan of classical. Relaxed hands (specially the fretting hand) -> more speed and accuracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members caveman Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Youtube Yep, if YouTube can't help you there's probably no hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Hey guys... I'm a mediocre guitar player that practices once a week with my band and gigs maybe once a month. I really do enjoy it. And I practice on my acoustic at home a bit... Just curious if you guys can recommend any practice books or DVDs to help me improve...? If you are good enough to gig I can't help you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bsman Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 I almost never gig, but practice at least five or six hours a week. You need to put in more time -- practice at least five times a week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members smorgdonkey Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 I really do enjoy it. That's the most important thing. Improvement would require more frequent practice sessions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 I'm with everyone else....practicing once a week barely counts as practicing. i would say play every day at least for 30 min at a time. Don't play 5 hours one day and be done for the week. Back when i played piano a lot and was trying to get into college i practiced two hours a day and that was barely enough. I'm definitely not saying you have to practice that much but i am saying you can never practice too much and the only way to get better is to simply play more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted September 3, 2010 Members Share Posted September 3, 2010 Oh and don't time your self practicing or anything that takes the fun out of it. I would suggest just making the decision to simply touch your guitar once a day. Since you do enjoy playing i bet that by the time you decided to put it down :30-1:00 will have passed anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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