practice practice practice..is routine better?

[hann1bal]

What's a healthy amount of time to practice each day..I have one of those darn 50 hour a week jobs and still try to get in atleast a solid 2-3 hours of practace a day. On some days I wind up going for six or seven hours, usaually days off. I would also say I practice 5 days a week...2 days a week, I don't even want to look at the guitar (just hey, sex is great too, but the mood has to be there, ya know).
I've noticed friends that are veterans usually play an hour or two a day. I just passed the one year mark, so far from where I want to be, I try to eat up every minute I can.
Soooo, question is...Is it better and healthier to have a strict routine/regiment towards practice? Anyone that works retail knows there is no such thing as routine in your freetime..schedules different everyday! I find I practice about the same, or more, as somebody who does two hours a day/6 or 7 days a week, as a whole. Are my variances in times self defeating?

[Cryptic Excretions]

I particularly don't believe in routine, but what works for me doesn't necessarily mean anything to the guy next to me. I'd imagine that so long as you don't practice the same thing or the same way over and over you'd be good, but keep things fresh. Last time I checked guitar wasn't a job so I'd mostly just suggest to not treat it like one. I guess I'd suggest to play when you feel like playing. Sometimes it feels nice to break away from the hum drum world of practice to just let loose and jam aimlessly from time to time without a care as to who or what hears. And finally, on others' practice routines. I'm personally not sure that the amount of time someone else plays would really matter as we all learn at different paces. Having said that, anyone else, feel free to contribute as I've been mostly speaking through opinions.

[alucard0941]

to tell you the truth, if you really want to enjoy the instumentand get better, do not get hung up in practice time. Just play guitar whenever, or play until your fingers get raw.
If you a routine, you gonna one day get tired and feel obligated to play and that will take the fun out of everthing.

So basically, this is no race to see who can get better the fastest. Just play whenever you feel like it and stop when your tired.

Dont even consider actually formally practicing unless you want to learn a song, just play and fool around with riffs and solos until your technique and prasing get better.

[Gretschky]

I think breaking up practice sessions in 20-30 minute sessions off and on during the day is a good way to go about it instead of say three hour jam sessions. Also in between sessions think about how your playing and let it sink in then go back to it.

that's one approach that has worked and still works for me. :)

[Akira]

I usually fit in about 3 hours a day, 3 days in the week, then 2 hours on a saturday and about 5 or 6 hours on a sunday (depending on what's going on with college).

I have a routine for warming up, but after that I practise what I want to practise, whether it be learning a song, a new lick, or just jamming out, it's all good fun.

[kill em all]

I can't figure out for the life of me how to quote "I particularly don't believe in routine..." all neat-like. But something I picked up from "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" is to live for 'now'. Get "lost in time" because as soon as there is a sense of time everything goes wrong ( I've seen it ) and it blinds you from your PLAYING. If you can't see through everything else to what you are doing wrong, you can't hope to ever fix it, and thus you will be making "horizontal" growth all your years in playing. So this is a pretty serious issue, don't allow yourself to be trapped by time, when you are playing, time does not exist (nor does anything else). In the past few weeks I've been playing about 7-8 hours a day ( I am part of a group called "The unimployed" )
but I could get it whenever and in any increment at a time. It has really helped, I feel I've made months of progress in days time. Check out "guitar principles" and sign up for the free newsletter email. One last thing and then someone else gets to talk, a metranome is the only exception, but I only find myself using a metranome for about 1-2 hours of those 7-8, to help me learn particular songs and increase speed in scales.