correct practice?

i am lost in finding how to get the most out of my practices. i will take anything warm-ups, tabs, licks, a schedual. can you help me orginize my time to be more productive? thank you for the posts

Originally Posted by: weezthejuice789i am lost in finding how to get the most out of my practices. i will take anything warm-ups, tabs, licks, a schedual. can you help me orginize my time to be more productive? thank you for the posts

Well, it always helps to practice all your major scales in every key, and other scales if they are important to you. (Obviously if you want to play Sex Pistol covers, you won't need to spend much time practicing the Hungarian Minor scale). Basic diatonic harmony (the notes of the major/minor scale, harmonized in 3rds) is a great place to start. Familiarity with the scales, arpeggios and chords is quite good to have, and they are easy to find; just a matter of putting the time in.

Having said that, it would help a lot to know your goals. If you want to play Beatles style pop, then you probably don't need to practice all the chords from the jazz minor (melodic minor) scale.

I think you would get some much more useful answers if you took 15-30 minutes to work out some goals. It's okay to start general ("I want to learn jazz"), but it becomes much more actionable and exciting when you get very specific ("I'd like to learn 10 songs from the 5th edition real book by spring of 2010, and be able to comp and play an improvised solo for each one"-then make a list of 10 you tunes to learn and make a plan for doing it).

It sounds like you're pretty serious and want to get a real solid foundation. Still that foundation might be approached differently if your ultimate goal is to be in a Kiss tribute band as opposed to say, to get yourself enough classical guitar chops to ace your audition to get into a good music school with a scholarship. If you're going the Kiss route, it probably makes sense to spend minimal time on learning to play, and lots of time learning to get in costume and jump around on stage!

Regardless of your course, always try to take good care of your body while you play. Always stop and make appropriate adjustments if you're hurting or straining; it's not okay to "play through" the pain!

Anyway, have fun, and if you can get more specific, I'm sure you'll get some good pointers on particular exercises to do, etc.

Organising your schedual is key. Make sure you take everything that you want to learn like, Arps, scales, alternate picking, composition etc. and divide them in a 10 day period. You dont have t fitt all of the techniques in everyday, but try to seperate them equally. Concentrate on your weakest point more but master your strengths.

Practicing is great and you definately need to work on scales and chords. However, don't forget to play. It doesn't matter how many scales and chords you know if you can't put them together then you just know a lot of scales and chords. I pick a song I like and work on it for a while then go back to practicing. Next day it's amazing how much easier it is. Good luck.

Originally Posted by: mrkbrksI pick a song I like and work on it for a while then go back to practicing. Next day it's amazing how much easier it is. Good luck.

On a daily basis I kind of cycle thru my song list (a growing list in iTunes that I play to), practicing particular forms for speed, new lessons, and just jamming, maybe to backing tracks or just laying a structure for myself and going with it.

I confess that I mostly just jam :) But what I find is that everything works together. I may not have practiced, say the pentatonic runs in triplets, but when I go back to them, the other jamming I've worked on must have helped, because I'm better at it.

So, it's all good, although if approached with more discipline than I possess, I imagine you can progress faster. I'm in it for the fun and expression, I have no particular goals other than being able to be expressive.

Anyway, if you Google around a bit, you can actually find some suggested practice schedules. I was reading one a while back and it had forms you could print off to track your goals, etc.

Originally Posted by: Greg VinsonWell, it always helps to practice all your major scales in every key, and other scales if they are important to you. (Obviously if you want to play Sex Pistol covers, you won't need to spend much time practicing the Hungarian Minor scale). Basic diatonic harmony (the notes of the major/minor scale, harmonized in 3rds) is a great place to start. Familiarity with the scales, arpeggios and chords is quite good to have, and they are easy to find; just a matter of putting the time in.

Having said that, it would help a lot to know your goals. If you want to play Beatles style pop, then you probably don't need to practice all the chords from the jazz minor (melodic minor) scale.

I think you would get some much more useful answers if you took 15-30 minutes to work out some goals. It's okay to start general ("I want to learn jazz"), but it becomes much more actionable and exciting when you get very specific ("I'd like to learn 10 songs from the 5th edition real book by spring of 2010, and be able to comp and play an improvised solo for each one"-then make a list of 10 you tunes to learn and make a plan for doing it).

It sounds like you're pretty serious and want to get a real solid foundation. Still that foundation might be approached differently if your ultimate goal is to be in a Kiss tribute band as opposed to say, to get yourself enough classical guitar chops to ace your audition to get into a good music school with a scholarship. If you're going the Kiss route, it probably makes sense to spend minimal time on learning to play, and lots of time learning to get in costume and jump around on stage!

Regardless of your course, always try to take good care of your body while you play. Always stop and make appropriate adjustments if you're hurting or straining; it's not okay to "play through" the pain!

Anyway, have fun, and if you can get more specific, I'm sure you'll get some good pointers on particular exercises to do, etc.

my goals are to be one of the greats in hard rock and metal i want to learn everything that hase to do with that.

I personally believe that even 20 minutes of practice a day will get you there, but you are correct in assuming that its good to have goals and your time well thought out.

First, you need to determine what it is that you wish to accomplish. We all have different goals, so here is what a guitar player such as myself would probably like to focus on.

1. alternate picking
2. economy picking
3. legato
4. sweep picking
5. tapping
6. chord structures
7. scales/modes
8. jamming

Now after you have made a list of what you want to do, if it were me I would spend about 10 minutes on each. So, setting jamming aside, 7 x 10 = 70 minutes which is very manageable. Jamming can go for as long as you like.

If you want to get better faster, turn the 10 minutes into 20, 30 etc. For each technique I recommend working with no more than 2 - 3 exercises so that you stick with it and get those down pat. You may even want to limit yourself to 1 exercise here and there. Hope this helps!

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