What Is Your Practice Routine?

[tapper mike]

Do you start with warm-ups?
Do you run through scales?
Do you work through material you already know?
Do you wait to be inspired?
Do you set a timer on how long you will practice.

[vurt]

get high. play.

[tapper mike]

You must be a master of free jazz


The joy of minimalism is the better they get the less they play.

[Bombadil]

I noodle. I play along with CDs. Occasionally, I work on guitar parts for my stuff. I am utterly incapable of disciplined practice at this point. I mean, really, for what? There's no one to play with and that is a lot of the incentive to keep my chops up.

[vurt]

You must be a master of free jazz


The joy of minimalism is the better they get the less they play.

similar...

[tapper mike]

If you like note-for-note use guitar pro and download covers.

If you like improvising get band in a box not the canned backing track stuff.
All the styles have demo songs. Or you can score a song by using a style and inserting your own chords.


That's an old video, BIAB has thousands of styles, standard, super midi and real tracks


I recently upgraded and got Ultimate with xtra packs.

The fretboard view has a neat little trick called chord solo. It works with imported mid and biab songs.


If you want to advance your chord=melody playing technique to a level of proficiency that you could actually create your own chord melody arrangements rather then seeking out other peoples transcriptions this is your best in.


Joe Pass, Ed Bickert, Johnny Smith and much much more are available via the dialog box

The melodist can create melodies based on styte and chord progression or generate a complete song in the style of a given melodist style.


The soloist will generate solos based on interpertations of a given melodist

[subterfuge]

I always start with physical warm ups. Neck, shoulders, arms, hands, but sometimes the whole body first. Get the muscles warm and joints flexible. Then with the guitar I start with simple chromatic finger exercises and gradually work my way to harder fingerings. I often combine this part with different picking patterns, doing scales and chords and make sure I work all the way through the neck, not just in one position. All this takes just something like 5 minutes and I'm ready to whatever I feel need to concentrate on. Sometimes I can start adding new things to practise while still warming up, but trying to be mindful of building up to speed steadily instead of just rushing straight in.

This warm up routine has helped me a lot in not just keeping up my physical skill level, but also recovering from an accident where a fretting hand injury left me unable to play guitar for a long while. I'm still not fully recovered, but able to play some things better than 30 years ago...back when I thought I was already pretty good for what I would need. Also, it keeps me from starting with mindless noodling, if there are other things I wanted to do first. And since the physical part of the warm up can be done almost anywhere, anytime, I'm more ready to grab the guitar and just noodle if I so fancy.

Other than the warm up, I don't have any specific practise routine or time limits. If I'm working on something which I have hard time playing, I will concentrate on that first. If not, I usually have some general areas where I want to get better and practise those. And if I have the urge to just play, I'll do that. I do have one general rule about practise, learned from Steve Morse back in the day. Whatever it is that you practise, close the session with having fun so you'll be more eager to get back to it.

[harryupbabble]

my daily routine involving the guitar is...

my cheap electric guitar is on a cheap guitar stand by the weight scale
the weight scale is always stuck on the previous day's weight display
it's a piece of a four letter word, the scale i mean, but it's functional
i should get a new scale but that new scale might have problems too

anyways, i use my guitar to add weight to my weight
to wipe the previous day's weight display
my guitar is just a weight scale resetter now

that's my routine with it, for now

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

At this point. I dont really practice. But I play alot. On electric guitar I explore playing leads and chords intertwined. On bass i usually play along with cds. I primarily play acoustic gtr and banjo. I try to maintain about 200 songs to sing and play adding one here and there.

[glasspipe]

It's mostly playing and noodling for me, I'll also take time to practice some rhythm, mostly metal riffing to keep the stamina up, then dedicate some time for fingerstyle. Then if I'm up for it, I'll do some deliberate practice with the metronome and/or visualize intervals on the fretboard. Of course this will be seperate from writing/sound design..

[tapper mike]

my daily routine involving the guitar is...

my cheap electric guitar is on a cheap guitar stand by the weight scale
the weight scale is always stuck on the previous day's weight display
it's a piece of a four letter word, the scale i mean, but it's functional
i should get a new scale but that new scale might have problems too

anyways, i use my guitar to add weight to my weight
to wipe the previous day's weight display
my guitar is just a weight scale resetter now

that's my routine with it, for now

Stop blaming your guitar.

If it is unplayable and you can't afford a tech watch some YT videos and make it playable.

There will always be excuses to not play it's up to you to make the most of what you have. There were times I was so broke I couldn't afford one string let alone a set. If one broke I would continue to play around the broken string and maximize my skills on the other ones.

I work out on the linnstrument every day now. I start with one exercise I was struggling with the day before and I set my metronome to a slow enough tempo that I can play it all the way through. Sometimes it's mind numbingly painful to play that slow. But I know if I practice slow and even then I'll be better at bringing up my speed making tonnes of mistakes getting frustrated and running away. I'll also clock how long I spend on a single exercise. Usually the next day I can play faster and more accurately. I pat myself on the back for minor accomplishments and remind myself I am getting better and then move on to the next challenge. Sure I can play the keyboard and the guitar better now but I don't walk or run away from the goal.

I don't have to be the greatest linnstrument in the world but I'd rather strive to be the best linnstrumentalist I can be and for me that means work.

If you aren't going to play/practice it. Sell it. Find something else you can enjoy.

[YnJ]

I just play. I used to practice for hours every day when I was younger, 80% of my technique is still there and it's enough for me

[mdcarte2]

Scales!

[Vollofi]

Just a material and improvisation! Sometimes a couple of exercises.

[harryupbabble]

my daily routine involving the guitar is...

my cheap electric guitar is on a cheap guitar stand by the weight scale
the weight scale is always stuck on the previous day's weight display
it's a piece of a four letter word, the scale i mean, but it's functional
i should get a new scale but that new scale might have problems too

anyways, i use my guitar to add weight to my weight
to wipe the previous day's weight display
my guitar is just a weight scale resetter now

that's my routine with it, for now

Stop blaming your guitar.

If it is unplayable and you can't afford a tech watch some YT videos and make it playable.

There will always be excuses to not play it's up to you to make the most of what you have. There were times I was so broke I couldn't afford one string let alone a set. If one broke I would continue to play around the broken string and maximize my skills on the other ones.

I work out on the linnstrument every day now. I start with one exercise I was struggling with the day before and I set my metronome to a slow enough tempo that I can play it all the way through. Sometimes it's mind numbingly painful to play that slow. But I know if I practice slow and even then I'll be better at bringing up my speed making tonnes of mistakes getting frustrated and running away. I'll also clock how long I spend on a single exercise. Usually the next day I can play faster and more accurately. I pat myself on the back for minor accomplishments and remind myself I am getting better and then move on to the next challenge. Sure I can play the keyboard and the guitar better now but I don't walk or run away from the goal.

I don't have to be the greatest linnstrument in the world but I'd rather strive to be the best linnstrumentalist I can be and for me that means work.

If you aren't going to play/practice it. Sell it. Find something else you can enjoy.

i found speed scrabble a long time ago
i'm still enjoying that

i also enjoy trying to be a songwriter
it's not necessary to learn a traditional instrument to be a songwriter?
but it does give extra credibility
i just see my daw reaper as an instrument
i do play it

it may be a good thing to have two things to enjoy?
or maybe not
maybe focusing on one thing only is the way to go

but damn, i can't seem to quit speed scrabble
i tried many times