to be as good as...

hey
ok, so everybody pretty much knows that im 14 and that i've been playin for 9 months right? alright, i know one thing. and that is that the more you practice...you guessed it...the better you become. i read in one of my Jerry Garcia biography's, that Jerry would practice all the time. If he didnt get in 4 hours of practice he would be fussy. Which makes sense, if i dont get in 2 i get worried. And thats on my ****ty electric guitar. When my acoustic/electric comes, i believe i'll be up to 4 or 5 hours a day. I know somebody on here will be like "quality practice not quantity", but i practice scales and modes and chords alot, im not really one to fool around 'too much'. i was just wondering how often do you recommend practicing for a kid my age (14)? I've been SEARCHING thouroughly to find out when some of my jam band idols ( trey,jerry,etc) started playing guitar and now know jerry started at age 15, but havent found **** about trey anastasio.

i don't know how much practice is "the best" for ya i guess it's what you feel
see, when i got started i was so excited i played 'till i literally couldn't make my finger move anymore (and bled alot) but after a time i cooled down (especially when my parents tarted screaming at me not to play after 12:00 AM :) )
and now i have luck if i find time for more than hour a day.

oh and about the bands thing (in another post of yours) i've got a band but we are not going for fame (at least for now) and only a handful of our frieds heard our recordings (but a lot more heard about them) we do it for fun

i was 14 when i started to play, and i played clasic guitar for one year, so i had to practice a hour everyday, and i didnt enjoy it very much because i didnt like clasical music that much.
now when i look back i can say that this year was the most important year for me as a guitar player. even though i didnt learn many songs or theory i learned how to aproach the guitar, which is very important. so my advice is practice as much as you can, i think that practicing when you are a beginer is more important than practice when you are advanced player, because the basics that you learn and practice in the beginning are like a ladder which later will be the tool for you to go on, and to learn easily any style you'd like

Originally posted by Psycho Amram
i don't know how much practice is "the best" for ya i guess it's what you feel
see, when i got started i was so excited i played 'till i literally couldn't make my finger move anymore (and bled alot) but after a time i cooled down (especially when my parents tarted screaming at me not to play after 12:00 AM :) )
and now i have luck if i find time for more than hour a day.

oh and about the bands thing (in another post of yours) i've got a band but we are not going for fame (at least for now) and only a handful of our frieds heard our recordings (but a lot more heard about them) we do it for fun

lol. well see i wouldnt do it just for fame either. But i always wondered how to get booked into big hallrooms like the fillmore and stuff. I mean who wouldnt want to play in front of 50,000 people at M.S.G? I never have trusted record company's, and i think if i ever got a good band together we'd make our own label. Just like one of my favorite bands, String Cheese Incident. SCI Fedelity, they made.
now i believe practice is just as important when your younger and everything as much as it is as you get older. I believe anybody ( especially those with bigger fingers and imaginations) can become a professional musician if they stay with it and practice their ass off all the time. You know what i mean? Im starting making riffs now, using mostly the B Major Pentatonic Scale, and the B major scale. Why did I choose B? because the song 'Fire On The Mountain' by the grateful Dead is in the key of B ( usually ), so then i got somethin to work off of that.
I just picked up some American Folk Music book, and i memorized the first few songs in there. I dont know how they go ( i made the arrangement up myself) they had the chords there, but didnt have the rhythm. And i think i'll be doing that stuff ( folk music ) throughout my life, continuously learning music, etc.


** Oh yeah and the big hands part- Thats just what i've seen, people with little hands struggle to play Barr Chords and stretch their fingers over frets lets say...5 frets apart. just my observations**

[Edited by Incidents Happen on 12-26-2001 at 04:20 PM]

I've practiced for a year 5 hours a day, but looking back, it wasn't very effective. I have come up with a two hours routine, and I've tried sticking to it for ten years. I'm a pro guitarist now, so I guess it has worked.
You said anyone with enough work could become a pro... I disagree. I'd say that anyone with practice could have a pro LEVEL, but being a professional musician involves a lot of things that don't have anything to do with music... I've jammed with guys that could shred me to pitiful chunks of meat with a guitar, but that were total idiots, and kept on turning their amps louder (that's an example) well, that kind of guy comes once on a session, but not another time. If you are a team players, have good social skills, and a small ego, you can become a pro. If you have talent and a lot of luck, you can maybe become a star. But lots of talented guys play in their bedrooms, because they do not have the authority and discipline it takes.

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
I've practiced for a year 5 hours a day, but looking back, it wasn't very effective. I have come up with a two hours routine, and I've tried sticking to it for ten years. I'm a pro guitarist now, so I guess it has worked.
You said anyone with enough work could become a pro... I disagree. I'd say that anyone with practice could have a pro LEVEL, but being a professional musician involves a lot of things that don't have anything to do with music... I've jammed with guys that could shred me to pitiful chunks of meat with a guitar, but that were total idiots, and kept on turning their amps louder (that's an example) well, that kind of guy comes once on a session, but not another time. If you are a team players, have good social skills, and a small ego, you can become a pro. If you have talent and a lot of luck, you can maybe become a star. But lots of talented guys play in their bedrooms, because they do not have the authority and discipline it takes.

good point. but work ethic is a big part. idiots cannot be pros, one reason is because of their work ethic.
5 hours didnt work for you? over the summer i'd practice 5 hours a day ( but mostly on Bar Chords, i was really new back then and struggled with bars) and i look back and that summer, i learned how to do bar chords better than any of my friends can.i watch some people on TV and i see them playing like an A major barr chord, and i can just follow whatever they do and eventually get the progression by watching what they do.

so you dont recommend 5 hours a day? heh, i'll do it anyways, it cant hurt ya. it probably helped you, you just didnt know it.

lalimacefolle your a smart guy. how old are you and how old were you when you started playing?

I'm 24, and I started playing the guitar around 13. When I said 5 hours weren't good, it wasn't because of the time, but because I didn't have discipline. VAI has a routine that works for 10 hours...

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
I'm 24, and I started playing the guitar around 13. When I said 5 hours weren't good, it wasn't because of the time, but because I didn't have discipline. VAI has a routine that works for 10 hours...

oh...10 hours!!! wow!

I've finally understood that he wasn't from the same planet...

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
I've finally understood that he wasn't from the same planet...

where did you find out that vai goes for 10 hours a day?

it was in guitar player, I've just seen the cover, I'm still looking for the article.

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
I've finally understood that he wasn't from the same planet...

did you hear his outakes album? i cant remember its name, but it is the album with the **** you song..
the guy is seriously sick :)

When I was in college I decided that if I was gonna make music my living I was gonna start appraoching it like a job and started to practice 8 hrs a day (that didn't include the jam sessions, gigs, and teaching I was doing).
Looking back on it I'm sure glad I did it (sure I missed out on a lot of great parties)but it has really paid off. Now that I'm making a living playing/teaching I wish I had 2hrs a day to practice what I want too. Put the time into it while you can, because you never Know what tommorrow brings.

good idea. i like how you think, approach it like a regular job, 8 hours a day. that makes vai's 10 hour approach seem more reasonable.

remember...there is a difference between playing and practicing. A lot of guys will pick up the guitar and noodle for a couple hrs, thats not practicing. I started playing when I was 11, but I didn't actually learn what practicing was until my early 20's.
Learn theory, learn to read (I'm not talking tab here), and get yourself a good teacher, if you got the work ethic and the personality you can go far.

Originally posted by chris mood
remember...there is a difference between playing and practicing. A lot of guys will pick up the guitar and noodle for a couple hrs, thats not practicing. I started playing when I was 11, but I didn't actually learn what practicing was until my early 20's.
Learn theory, learn to read (I'm not talking tab here), and get yourself a good teacher, if you got the work ethic and the personality you can go far.

man, chris, your almost making me piss my pants im so happy to hear that. I have a good teacher, work ethic and personality, and im learning theory ( and love it), only thing i dont have is how to learn to read music yet...my instructor told me i dont have to really learn to read music for a few years, but if i did it'd be really good.

as for 'noodling or practicing' goes, i do scales, chords, and try to work riffs out of the scales. thats considered practicing right? because i mean, i've been really workin the B major Pentatonic, and i memorized every note in it and can play it in my sleep backwards, forwards, the roots, everything in it, im taking it one scale at a time. and i do alot of riff-work, but its all INSIDE the scales, so therefore its like scale-work. thats not 'noodling' is it?

[Edited by Incidents Happen on 12-29-2001 at 02:53 PM]

I've had my best improvments as a musician come from actually playing out. Nothing like learning a Zeppelin tune or two on stage to make you fast on your toes.

whats that mean

I think hes referring to playing on stage. Although I think Chris really hit the mark, Ras makes an important point. You really will see drastic improvement in your playing if you incorporate some form of stage experience with you lessons, practice routine, etc... Open Mic nights or open jam sessions at restaurants, bars, book stores, or coffee houses are a great way to break into playing in front of an audience. Its a great way to meet other musicians as well.

As for the person who started this thread, the amount of time you practice really depends on what you are seeking to accomplish on the guitar. If you want to play like Joe Pass, then set aside a considerable amount of time each day because you will have your work cut out for you. If you want to play Green Day songs, you will probably need much less time to accomplish your goal. (No offense to Green Day fans) There really is no set time. But you should make it a point to "practice" every day. Like Chris said, right now you have more time than you will ever have to practice. It gets much harder once you get a job, family, etc...