practice time.

Originally Posted by: electric circus
carmine inturn asked "wheres the fun in that" and the post took off from there in a slightly different direction.

I am very sorry electric circus, I did not want that. But i really thought that a pinch of fun is necessary in every practice time.
Once again sorry,
Carmine

I usually just sit down and rotate through what I'm learning. Do a scale a few times, practice the intro to some song I like, do some chord changes, do the scales again, strum some chords, constantly rotating. Usually do this until my fingers feel like they're going to bleed. Keeps it enjoyable.

eric

you got the message. ive been bob.
you wouldnt believe the opportunities over the years ive had to let slide by because i knew i want ready, and it was my fault too.
im talking some real nice opportunities. jeff took my place a couple of times.

carmine

no problems bro. it happens on forums. someone says something interesting in their reply and then a comment was made. next thing ya know we have wondered slightly away from the topic. no biggie. i do it too.

philtho
man, i know what you mean. after not playing for so long its hard to believe that my fingers use to be very comfortable doing what they are having trouble doing now. lol it will happen, just gonna take some time to get it back going again.

razbo

i know what you mean by theraputic. man i dont care how good one plays, sometimes having the opportunity to crank it up and jam a few is very theraputic. well, for the player maybe. the folks next door might need theropy
now because of my "theraputic sessions". lol

Originally Posted by: electric circus
i know what you mean by theraputic. man i dont care how good one plays, sometimes having the opportunity to crank it up and jam a few is very theraputic. well, for the player maybe. the folks next door might need theropy
now because of my "theraputic sessions". lol

I wish I could crank it like that, but my better half concerns me way more than my neighbours. She already thinks I'm loud. And I'm not. ...Really. She doesn't understand how loud I'd like to be. :D

raz my friend, your not thinking positive here.
its like this, keep it cranked up, as long as you do
the your neighbours WILL ALWAYS look at the lil lady as
your "better half". come on man, show her the bright side of volume.

I suppose by organised I meant the Excel Spreadsheet I use to hold together all the bits I use to practice.

In there I've got a tab for each area I want to cover with links to other files or programmes and all the GT web addresses covering various lessons I want to go back to and what's next to do. That last bit is a sort of refinement of the bookmarks within GT.

This helps keep all my stuff in one place and means I hopefully won't forget to go back to something I wanted to. I use big red letters to highlight those bits or just something simple like "slow it down and play it more acurately!" on certain tabs :)

Then when I do open the spreadsheet up I sort of dip in and do whatever I want at that time, hopefully covering all the usual areas of warm up, strumming open chords and barre chords followed by scales and solo work. It sounds grand as I write it but it's just what comes naturally with a little bit of discipline thrown in - some days I push it, some days I don't! But it all fits in with my goals to get to a point where I can actually back it up when I say "I play guitar"

I never set times for certain areas of practice I'm afraid, that's just too much discipline for my liking. Some days I play 'til my fingers hurt bad, others I mess around for a half an hour but in the end the aim is to do enough over any given period to keep myself moving forward, something I've found hard in my previous attempts at guitar over the years.

That's my 2 pence worth....

Using a spreadsheet is an excellent idea.

I was thinking about this thread and it's odd that I approach music so "loosely". I usually analyze the crap out of anything else I do, using only the most efficient means to the end. It's ironic that I don't with music. I guess I feel it's more of an outlet than an end.

I have to say one thing, organized or not, I've generally been getting in an extra session most days over the past couple weeks and what a difference that is making.

Rock on!

Originally Posted by: SlickStringI suppose by organised I meant the Excel Spreadsheet I use to hold together all the bits I use to practice.

I'd love to see how you have the spreadsheet formatted. Any chance you could share that somehow?

+1 on the sheet

Guitar players using spreadsheets, what's the world coming to? :confused:

(says a certified Excel geek)

Originally Posted by: JeffS65Guitar players using spreadsheets, what's the world coming to? :confused:

(says a certified Excel geek)

I know! I despair of myself sometimes :D

My practice routine starts off with hand and finger stretches. Then I move on to 1.2.3.4 movement up and down the fretboard. After that I work the Pentatonic scale. Basically I practice speed drills, then I play some songs. That is it, after all why are you playing the guitar? cause you want to play songs!