I'm tired of boring exercises!!!!!

Well, it's summer again, and it so happens that my bandmates travel schedules conflict, so all four of us are never in the same state at once, and won't be for the next month :) Well, since I haven't had anyone to jam with lately, I've been doing some practice at home, on my technique. I've been practicing with a metronome, doing scale sequences and that little 1-2-3-4 quasi-chromatic exercise along with multiple permutations, and I play pretty cleanly at 100 bps sixteenths on almost every mode and a few sweeps, but this is getting boring!!!

Does anyone know of any fun exercises, or just anything better than going up and down scales? I guess I'm looking for the Tae-Bo of guitar instead of this old weight lifting routine I'm doing...

I'm not looking to shred 16ths at 150+, I just want to brush up... I noticed that nothing but jamming has gotten my playing a bit sloppy.

You know what's sad? I just found out that one of my slowest scales is the pentatonic scale... I mean, I can play it pretty fast in groups of three, but just going straight up or straight down the scale is killer! It's easy if you play legato (pick once per string, hammer on or pull off the next note), but playing it staccato is a *****!! I'm so used to my alternate picking in groups of three notes per string or going down in groups of three with scales that hitting two notes per string is amazingly difficult! The "funnest" technical exercise I've found is trying to learn Solfeggio in C Minor by Bach (try to alternate pick every note... I accidentally economy pick a lot during the song if I'm not paying attention... I need to tighten up!!). I'm not even going to try to tackle Flight of the Bumblebee yet, but I think that'd be fun too...

I wote these lessons here over a year ago and should help you get out of that "boring" chromatic practices.

http://www.guitartricks.com/2000/trick.php?trick_id=2410

I've been playing since i was 13 (Am now 30) and still use these exercises from time to time for warming up my hands and building speed. These same techniques can be applied to any scale in any key anywhere on the neck. Don't let all those tab numbers scare you...you'll see they follow a certain pattern.

Hey, Mike, thanks for the link. Exercise 3 is one I've been working on recently... I actually have to focus to play the groupings of four. Exercise 4 is quite interesting, and difficult to play at a pretty high tempo :)

Exercises 1 and 2 are what I've been playing for over a year now, and they're what's boring... I'm beginning to despise going straight up/down the scale in singles and groups of threes... at least since I hate them so much I won't use them in soloing (yes... I admit it... I've actually played some patterns in my solos before!!! *cries* but hey, I've grown up since then)

lol I still use patterns in my soloing still (I think everyone does) :-)

Hey, just to say I eaves dropped on this conversation and also took a peek at those exercises. I would agree - they add a bit more interest to practising scales, and also make me think a bit more as well.

I've been playing rhythm for a while now, but just got a new 'leccy, so have begun to practice scales and single note work - to turn myself into a lead guitarist/solo-er.

Very helpful

JE

for me guitar tricks fundamentals 2 is boring

It's interesting how people have different perspectives. I just posted on Lisa's forum thanking her for the exercises in fundamentals 2 that made practicing and learning scales fun. I love them!!!!

But on a more serious note, consider that we live in a culture that has us used to the idea of constant entertainment.

Ask yourself -- are you here because you want to be entertained by the process of learning or because you want to learn so that you can be a guitar player? If it's the latter, which I'm assuming it is, boredom and repetition are a part of learning a new skill, particularly a physical one. Generations of musicians have learned scales and been served by it. You shall prevail as well. ;-)

Boring exercises are an important part of the learning curve. Not just for learning to play the guitar but most things in life. As simple examples -: Have you tried playing golf or snooker? The experts make it look so easy on the telly but you try to hit the golf ball or snooker ball to make them go where you want!! Its IMPOSSIBLE without repetitive (boring) exercises.

I wonder if the talent for music isn't born from discipline, patience, maturity and desire...