Am i practicing too much?

ever since i started playing guitar 9 years ago, ive completely dedicated every free second to practicing and playing guitar. sometimes on sundays ill put in about 12 hours of straight finger exercises music reading and theory study only taking a break to eat or have a smoke. my entire family thinks that ive lost my mind and that im just waisting my time. i have even turned down a number of partying opportunities and dates with girls for the sake of playing. i dont feel personally that im crazy or anything, but the people around me are starting to make me beleive this. i tell them that its what i want to do with my life, but most of them just laugh at me, and tell me im waisting my time. im planning on going to MIT in hollywood next year so i can engulf myself in the instrument and learn everything about guitar that i possibly can while meeting other guitarists with the same dedication i put forth.
the amount of time i put in has been worth it because my skill has ascended much farther than i ever could have imagined. im just wondering if its possible to practice too much, and if i am, is there a better approach to take while practicing?

Dude...

All i can say is congratulations...

If i had the commitment to do that, well, u'd be hearing about me on CNN... LOL


I say just keep it up. U be rocking like carazy man...


:D

OK, you asked for it. Why don't you take on the 5th Caprice of Nicolo Paganini? Now THAT piece requires intensive study.

With all of that practice if you ever make it big, buy some Mercedes for everyone except those people that called you crazy!! By the way your not crazy and I like my mercedes is silver....

Your not crazy, I wish I had the drive to do that.....

But come on man, turning down dates with chicks to play guitar. :confused:

I turn down dates with chicks to play guitar all the time. It's always, "I can't party or go with you to the mall or talk on the phone because I have to practice." you are very much sane and you deserve the skill you have acquired, I can only practice 5-6 hours a day through the week because I'm 15 and I can't drop high school ( couldn't get parents to sign anyway ). You are not crazy and many fellow guitarists have talked with me about how easy it is to kill an entire day without knowing it, all the time gaining guitar ability.
Anything worth dedicating a life to is worth the full respect of your entire free time.
p.s.
smoking can take it all away.

WoW!
That incredible..as long as you aren't ditching your family or anyth.ing

Btw, don't drop highschool in order to play guitar more, because:

a) 5-6 hours a day is already more than enough, and
b) you need something to fall back on, what happens if you get tendonitis or tunnel carpel?

sorry I'm still not sure how to make other posts' quotes all fancy like..... but there is nothing to fall back on, ever. Music is all that is and all I will ever do. If I got tunnel carpel or tendonitis I would spend the rest of my days treating it in every way possible, a positive attitude can heal any wound. Tony Iommi lost his fingertips but that didn't stop him from doing what he loved! With the will to play I can play. ( this is not an attack on you at all, you believe you are doing a right and helping a kid to stay in school, I salute you .)
by the way, I withdraw my previous statement, "smoking can take it all away." because tendonitis cannot take it all away, my bad.

I wish I could practise a lot but I'm only just beginning so I constantly get discouraged...

Nothing wrong with lots of practice. You might want to get into a band or get some midi files to play to though. Just doing scales and exercises doesn't do a whole lot for your creativity. You need to learn how to improvise to backup music and learn how to play with others.

I practice like that too.

Just another quick suggestion.... unless you make it big in a major label band, or become a very popular session player, it's doubtful you'll be able to make a living from playing guitar. About the only other way to make money is by writing songs and either selling them to well known acts or licensing them for commercial use. I guess what I'm getting at is, besides guitar, you should be learning everything you can about the music business. How record labels work, what session players need in the way of experience and equipment... know how to do multitrack recording so you understand how it works in the studio, buy or borrow as many books as you can on everything from theory to room acoustics.

For instance just as one example, right now, could you lay down a demo recording in less than an hour showing off your skills with all the backup instruments, plus vocals, completely mixed and mastered. Then put together a decent looking web page with a link to your song in MP3 streaming format? Then make .aiff or .wav files available with several different including instrumentals so that they can be downloaded from an FTP site?

Cause stuff like that happens all the time... you'll get an email message asking for a rock tune in a style similar to U2 or whatever, with a classical guitar lead line and a few lyrics and vocals about finding a lost love or whatever. You've got one hour to get it written and recorded or you'll lose out on ten grand.
You've gotta have Cubase or ProTools, a classical guitar, a decent mic, tons of loops and plug-in software, mastering software, conversion software...etc..
plus know how to use it all as well as knowing how to put together a web page and have your own FTP space ready to go.

If all you know is guitar, you're screwed. You have to book studio time and musicians and pay for it out of your own pocket and probably take more than a week to get it done.
Meantime somebody else has already gotten the job... plus impressed the music supervisor enough that he calls the other guy next time he needs something really quickly. You on the other hand, won't get called again because you only have one chance to make a first impression.

im not saying you're crazy, but you've got to take a break. all that guitar playing could ruin your hearing because of the tones a guitar makes. i say you've got to just stop for a little and go outside and have some time to enjoy with your friends. soon if you continue like this your friends might leave you and then you'll be lone. its not good to have no friends man. please for your own sake, get a schedule and set some time away from guitar. okay try it for one week and see how it goes. but man you have alot of dedication and i wish i could be like you. but high school gets in the way. but please just get a schedule and like plan your week out. say youre only gonna play your guitar for 4 hours and then do something else for 8 hours and go back to guitar for a couple hours. just try it for a week and see how it goes.

That's true. Sometimes ya practice a lead over and over again and just can't get it. Then you go do something else for a coupla hours. When you come back you can play it no problem.
It's almost like your brain needs a chance to absorb the knowledge properly.

That is some dedication. But just like a professional athlete goes to college to learn additional skills, you need a back up plan. You are totally enveloping yourself in music which is a dream that probably most aspiring musicians would love to achieve. It just seems like from what you are saying that you are not getting any skills in any other areas. I’m a believer in backup plans.

Originally Posted by: FruitflyOK, you asked for it. Why don't you take on the 5th Caprice of Nicolo Paganini? Now THAT piece requires intensive study.

i learned half that song from an issue of guitarworld a while back. its actually quite simple because there are no bends or trems or stuff like that in it. also there are alot of different ways to play that song than what yngwe shows. the only thing challenging was to memerorize what ive learned because there are classical arrangements in there originally intended for the violin, and the scale structures require a great deal of stretching of the fingers. its also great for people that want a complete crash course in arpeggios and classical scale patterns. id have to say that the hardest thing ive learned to date is "for the love of god" by steve vai. it took me two months to learn all the nuances and bends that he does.he also does an awful lot of whammy bar stunts that i cant quiet grasp yet due to thier technicality. now go and try that song and tell me how hard it is!(you can find this track on the "passion and warfair" album, which is the greatest example of melodic shredding ive ever heard.)

Originally Posted by: iluvkirkhammettI wish I could practise a lot but I'm only just beginning so I constantly get discouraged...

turn your discoragement into motivation dude! whenever you get pissed harness that emotion and write a song about it using those emotions, discouragement doent mean you have stop playing. take a break, then go back to it.

Originally Posted by: schmangeNothing wrong with lots of practice. You might want to get into a band or get some midi files to play to though. Just doing scales and exercises doesn't do a whole lot for your creativity. You need to learn how to improvise to backup music and learn how to play with others.

alot of the time im playing over top of a riff or song i that i recorded. scales and stuff are merely half of what i spend my time doing. i enjoy improvisation and spend alot of my time doing this. i also record alot of my stuff when im really warmed up and then go back to see what i like and dont like. criticising my own work is the funnest part!

Ive got a question. How could you dedicate 9 years of your life to an instrument and not be pro yet??? Serious question. You should be bringin in some doe by now.

Originally Posted by: stacknyIve got a question. How could you dedicate 9 years of your life to an instrument and not be pro yet??? Serious question. You should be bringin in some doe by now.

im not really playing to get famous or rich dude, its just something i love doing. i would definatly like to become a guitar instructor someday. but i need more time to develope. im a strong beleiver in dedication. you dont get amazing by just dreaming about it!