Steve's 10 hour a day practise schedule

Hi
do you know where i can find Steve Vai's 10 hour a day schedule?

Blues Shredder

no... don't tell me that you're one of those....:P

..guys.... I can give you a hint.. I think it was something like 3 hours fingerexercises, 3 hours picking/arpeggio/sweeping, Some legato and 3 hours Eartraining/Jam

In my opininon, it wouldn't be worth it...

I always get suspicious when I hear about people's "10+ hour a day" practice regimes. There are certain limits that every human being adheres to (even the master Vai himself), and when one surpassess these physical limitations one suffers the ramifications (carpal tunnel syndrome, tendenitus, etc.).

I'm not a doctor and I don't claim to know how each and every person's physiology works, nor I am I calling Steve a liar, but I do tend to get suspicious when I hear about these super-human practice schedules.

I can't practise 10 hours a day but i can practise 5 hours
so i'll just spend the half time he did on every exercise,
not really. I just want to know how he organised his time,
not just 2 hours of this 1 hour of that, i'd like to find his schedule with every detail if i can, so that i will be able to organise my time

I really want to play the blues, but that doesnt mean that i am going to learn just the pentatonic, when ever i think that there were and still are kids that were and are practising all day long i feel like doing it myself, my goal is one day to have Petrucci's technique and play the blues, i know that you dont have to be as good as Petrucci to play blues but i dont mind,
got to go, i must practise :-)

are you guys independently wealthy or what? stevie vai's a pro and i would expect that from a professional. jeez, my fingers are already tired just imaging it. :}

i do try and do minimum 3, but, then again if its not a "quality" 3 to 4 i'm wasting my time. don't you agree?

[Edited by scottay51 on 03-24-2001 at 07:26 PM]

Ya, how are you guys gunna find 10 hours a day to practice? Don't you have school or work or girlfriends or something . . .

you wont believe how many hours you can spend if you have isomnia, hehehe

The Entire Practice routine was printed in an issue of guitar world circa 1993-1995 ,i think, .

First of all I would be great if I could practice all day for 10 hours. I have done it before. If you want to and can do it.

My on the other hand has been playing for about 10 years and can never find enough time to practice. I goto college then work come home and play. I think it is treible to have a set amout of hours. That is like forceing yoursellf to play. I don't have TV, and not much homework. I usually practice until I got something I wanted to do down, put the guitar aside and eat or clean the dishes (whatever) then grab the guitar and start playing. I probably pick up my guitar about 50 times during the day. It just sits there on the floor in the middle of the living room (all 5 guitars). It is like a friend.

go practice all day, not hard to make you one daily list of what to practice if you want.

some wish they could practice but they aren't really guitarists. That is the difference between a guitar player, I can play the guitar, and a guitarist

Most of us aren't able to physically practice 10 hours per day-- even if we wanted to.
I'm not convinced that hardcore practicing for 10 hours would be healthy or even beneficial, but I doubt Steve Vai is playing as HARD as he can for 10 hours straight every day.

One overlooked aspect to practicing technique is to play sloooowly.
If you haven't tried it, try playing a single octave scale over a period of about 10 seconds or longer. You'll be surprised at how difficult it may be to play every note as cleanly and clearly as possible! There is a lot of pressure to play fast, so we normally start comfortably and then try to build up to our maximum. Practicing EXTREMELY slowly will actually help build speed. It forces you to relax (which we should always do when playing), reveals unnecessary movement and effort in your technique, and can get you into a sort of meditative state where you block out everything except practicing the guitar. If you're into marathon practice sessions of several hours, it is very beneficial to do extremely slow scales and slurs periodically-- and sometimes for your whole session.

Also, don't discount mental practice. When you're in the car, lying in bed, in a boring meeting or class, etc. imagine playing perfectly-- your hands and fingers moving in perfect coordination, as relaxed as possible. Visualize your instrument in your hands and playing the passage or piece that you think you are unable to play. Also, if you're listening to music anyway, why not imagine yourself playing the piece? It has been said over and over in many fields that mastering something is 99% mental and 1% physical. You'd be surprised out how many things you can "figure out" away from the guitar by just thinking about it, rather than with your hands on it.

Between "physically" practicing the guitar and "mentally" practicing the guitar (I'm reluctant to even make the distinction), most of us can get 10 hours or more of quality practice in per day.

Excellent Point chrimsun. Another trick is to slow your metronome down to about 40 - 50 bpm and play scales in different groupings, e.g. 1/4 notes, triplets ,1/8th, 1/16th. With the metronome this slow, it becomes VERY difficult to maintain concentration, as the tendency is to rush. This technique really helps you play with patience and lock in on the beat, Everyone should try it.

Excellent points crim, and if I may add something to your mental practice thing... you're lying in bed or in the car or almost sleeping during english class, so what can you do? Why not do some finger excercices, they are very valuable. Try pressing all you fingertips against the palm of your hand, then shooting them out, one after another. Then try the same thing with your fingers pressed against a hard sufrace, only you're just shooting out the middle and index fingers in an alternating, "walking" type of way. This one is great for classical guitar players or bass players who rely on the alternation of the middle and index fingers as their method of alternate picking.

Those are only a couple, there are a lot more you can do.

Oh how wise you are grasshopper Chimsun.

Seriously this is a fantastic site and some of you guys post some very interesting and informative tips for us of less guitar aptitude. I'm taking my first lesson in a week or so and I'll let you know how it goes.

Shane

Good suggestions on the fingering exercises. You can also keep a pick in your pocket and practice picking against the seam of your jeans, corner of a book, etc. This can really help to develop the skill of picking with your thumb and forefinger only-- rather than your whole arm, to increase speed and efficiency. I love hearing these cool little secrets people use to practice throughout the day.
Thanks

I made a practice schedule for 5 days, in the weekends i do what I want.
The point is to make a list of items you want to practice.
These five items are important
1. Single string technique, scales, arpeggios.
2. Chords and rythm, blues, rock etc.
3. Improvisation, learning modes etc.
4. Ear training, playing along with CD's.
5. Sightreading

Now plan all the items in 5 days, not every item has to be done on one day.
Allways warm up for about 5 to 10 min.
Allways use a metronome or drumcomputer for accuracy.
Slowly increase speed for lets say 2 knots aday.

For example it,s like this:

--Monday A.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min.; Scales 10 min. ; Blues licks 10 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Chords 10 min. ; funk grooves 5 min.
3. Improvisation : 10 min.
4. Ear training : Learn licks from CD's 10 min.
5. Sightreading : -

--Monday P.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Arpeggios 10 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Learn new voicings 10 min.
3. Improvisation : 20 min.
4. Ear training : -
5. Sightreading : Chord charts 15 min.

--Tuesday A.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; New scales pos. 20 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Shuffle rythms 20 min.
3. Improvisation : 15 min.
4. Ear training : -
5. Sightreading : -

--Tuesday P.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Scale workout 20 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Varioue grooves 10 min.
3. Improvisation : 25 min.
4. Ear training : -
5. Sightreading : -

--Wednesday A.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Scales 10 min. ; Legato lick 10 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Chord drill 10 min.
3. Improvisation : -
4. Ear training : Play along with CD's 25 min.
5. Sightreading : -

--Wednesday P.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Arpeggios 10 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Funk grooves 15 min.
3. Improvisation : -
4. Ear training : Learn licks from CD's 10 min.
5. Sightreading : Chord charts 20 min.

--Thursday A.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; New scale pos. 20 min.
2. Chords and rythm: New voicings 10 min. ; Chord drill 10 min.
3. Improvisation : 15 min.
4. Ear training : -
5. Sightreading : -

--Thursday P.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Scale workout
2. Chords and rythm: -
3. Improvisation : 20 min.
4. Ear training : Play along with CD's 15 min.
5. Sightreading : -

--Friday A.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Arpeggios 15 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Various grooves 20 min.
3. Improvisation : -
4. Ear training : -
5. Sightreading : Chord charts 20 min.

--Friday P.M.
1. Single string : Warm up 5 min. ; Scales 15 min.
2. Chords and rythm: Review new voicings of the week 10 min.
3. Improvisation : 15 min.
4. Ear training : Learn licks from CD 15 min.
5. Sightreading : -


But you can allways change it to your needs.

I am one of those who actually have seen and tried Steve's 10 hour program, and I do believe I still have it at home somewhere. This was a practice routine he used to do as a teenager, and not something he's been doing during his professional career. It was printed in Guitar world in 1990-91 I think. So if I can find it in my huge archive of long lost guitar school/guitar world lessons, I may scan it and give it to anyone who is interested.

The excersises are not especially strange or magical in themselves, but merely a curiosity to gain insight into how one of the true legends of guitarplaying managed to get where he is today. The true magic lies as always in the imagination of the individual and how he/she incorporates these lessons into his/her own unique style.

The only strange point in these lessons is the one hour where Steve lays the guitar on the floor, hits an open string and walks around the guitar, just listenning to that note. When the note dies he plucks it again, and keep on walking, for an hour. So steves practise routine is just as much musical as it is technical.

Anyone who would like a copy of the lessons(if I can find them) just let me know.

.....I`m 17 and I play for the past 2 years or so.....and there were times that I stood at home practising for about 9/10 hours and I didn`t feel tired.....because I was doing something that I LOVE and I was pretty happy to practise in front of my pc...... and know I`m feeling the consequences..I can play many stuff that in that days were impossible.....and now I have time for girlfriends..sex..... etc... lol... remember: all the hard work is worth it....