8 hours?????

Let' say that someone want to play like Malmsteen...Does he have to study at least 8 hours a day?????

Depends whether you want to play like him in your teens or in your 60's. The more you practice, the sooner you'll get good.

No, it doesn't have to be that much... I sometimes play over 10 hrs in one day, but for sure that's not daily , I have other things to do in life.

For daily practice if you work or study, 30 min are quite enough ... and don't be frustrated if you can't play like malmsteen, cuz you won't be capable of doing so if you've just started out.

To be able to play Malmsteen's stuff, you'll need have at least a couple of years of guitar playing experience , may be less may be more.. It depends on you mostly.

[Edited by SLY on 01-13-2003 at 09:27 AM]

frankly, i find it hard to belive that you guys can play 6-8 hours per day.
sometimes im playing 5-6 hours every day BUT by playing i dont mean repeating same scales and arrpegios for hours, but just playing, strumming, improvising whatever.
Maybe im doing something wrong - i dont know, but it seems to me its impossible to play so much.
Anyhow, since were already talking about practicing , do you guys mind to share your practice routines?

I usualy pick up the guitar, and play whatever comes to my mind.

I sometimes warm up with chromatics & scales, or pieces like Steve Vai's Solo from crossroads movie... Paganini's, Jason Becker , Malmsteen's or other fast stuff to get my hands warm & in shape.

If I'm learning a new riff, I just keep on doing it slow till I memorize the pattern, then I raise up my speed gradualy to the point I want... If it's a very hard riff, I put it on my practicing agenda for daily practice till I totaly tackle it.

Normaly bec of my studying, I just try to keep up daily practice by playing about half an hr, increased to 3 or 4 hrs in weekends (if I didnt' have extra studying) ... and on holiday I like to spend as much time as I can with the guitar, jam with bands and do some gigs.

KEEP IN MIND THAT FIVE HOURS OF PRACTICE FOR ONE PERSON MAY HAVE THE SAME BENEFIT AS ONE HOUR OF PRACTICE FOR ANOTHER. INTENSITY, AND FOCUS WILL DETERMINE THE VALUE YOU GET OUT OF YOUR TIME. TO PRACTICE LONGER, I TRY TO KEEP IT INTERESTING, OR FUN.

Swedish national soccer coach said once, we don´t want to practice stuff we´re bad at, we only spend our time practicing stuff we´re good at and I can agree to some point, not the whole way but pretty far.

Of course listening to other music is important but don´t force your self to listen to different stuff just if you don´t like it just because it´s diferent ´cause you won´t get a sh*it out of that. I think the best and I mean THE BEST way of learning is when it comes naturally (spelling?), somthing you can learn whtout endless practice (but you´ll have to practice to develop it and take it to another level), for ex, I never had problem with stuff like 16-note triplets, chromatic stuff and string skipping but I still practice it hard so that people can say, you know that guy Dejan, he´s the master of triplet run (just kiddin´) but you got the idea.

BUT, what didn´t came that naturally to me is sweeping (still strugling with but I have took it to anoher level for me, from basic sweeps to more like Becker sweeps stuff) and picking arps across strings a la Crossroads stuff. That´s death for me but I practice it but I know that I probably wont be that good at it but if I mix it with some fast string skippings and triplet run via chromatic speed stuff, nowone will say, this guys sucks ´cause he can´t pick arps that good. As far I can shred chromatic scales at 250 bpm, I know that shreders will give me at least some respect but I don´t give a damn if some old man (personal experience) who played blues and folk music whole his life comes and listen to me at the music shop and than later say that I´m killin´ the fine art of guitar playn´ and that playn´ fast dosen´t belong into guitar music, well that´s another thing.

just gotta substitue intensity for time. i dont' have much time to do everything plus guitar and school. so i do some really intense practice sessions and i'm all good for speed and all the good stuff.
keep it up.

Funny that I never felt the same way like Aiwass. I used to play lot of chromatic stuff (now I do it little less but I can reach about 250 whenever), but chromatic scales get pretty boring and you don´t need to think and focus as you have to when playn´ 3 notes per string. You need to think about down-up-down and than next string up-down-up but most off all finger position changes. I found 3-note per strings scales on the site by a guy called Schmange (somthing like that) and not that I only play them normally, I have trandform them into string skipping so that I play 3 notes on E, 3 on D, than 3 on A and so on. It´s pretty cool. Another verision is to skip E-E, A-B, and D-G string (the last isn´t a skip). This is pretty rough cause of wild finger position changes but is very good for cordination.

Another thing that John Petrucci uses frequently:

e-14-15-14-12-----------
B-------------------14-12--

Play it in the 16-note triplet fell (14-15-14) and than (12-B14-12). All with pick of course. Maby you all ready know this lick but the point is that it´s good for cordination and than there are hundreds of combinations to do it.

WOW! I think I practice completely different from you guys now. When I was in high school, I pretty much did the same thing. Doing different exercises and learn different songs to master my instrument. My goals changed after high school though. I began to care more about being creative with my instrument rather than mastering all the techniques possible. Now I guess thats why I'm not one of those guys who can play 16th note triplets at 250 bpm. I practice more on the ideas of improvising. I'll warm up with some scales and random exercise to get warmed up. After that I mess around for alittle while getting my creativity in gear. The next thing is something I would do every once in a while, but I found it helped.

After a 10-15 minute warmup, I would pop in a CD and improvise my own thing over every song. I'd also go for playing the exact thing on the cd too, but the idea is to make your own tune to go with the song. I think of myself actually jamming with the band on the cd. I make sure I'm in the right key and everything, and make sure I'm following the music correct not just spatting out just anything. After years of doing this, I noticed that I can now pretty much improvise over anything. I get with a group of guys and I can play just about anything I want to with them. I'm no Vai or Petrucci, but I don't want to be either.

Now of course when I started this routine, It was crap. It was so hard to play something over a cd and make it sound natural, but it was fun and challenging so I stuck with it. With practice I became a natural at it. Now my friends would get pist cause when I hear a song, I'm always humming my own thing over top of it. I learned not to do that (just keep it in my mind), but once I get with a band it became an extremely important tool. Since cd's are mostly 45-60 minutes long, thats all I would practice. Now I'm into writing my own stuff, it is also a benefit.

It usually only takes me a couple of hours to write an entire song. Coming up with the original idea and writting it out probably takes the longest. Once that it done, I play it back through the headphone, plug my guitar into the recorder, and improvise the entire song. Last I go back, doctor up the little mistake or things I just don't want there. Bang I'm done. My whole idea is on a recorder in less than, my usual 2 hrs. Next steps are to write it out in midi, and finalize by adding bridges, and whatever else I choose to put in it to make it a complete song.

Throw on a cd and just jam w/it. It's cool too if you don't know what the chord structure is too just close your eyes and imagine where the sounds your hearing are located on the fretboard. It gets you thinking less technically and more creatively, also great ear training, you'll be surprised how fast you'll be able to recognize what scale(s) work over the peice or be able to identify what scale the guitar player is using to solo with once you learn to trust your ears. I reccomend starting with something simple and basic if you never done this before, like Santana or the Allman Brothers, or something Bluesy, Not Dream Theater or Vai, at least not in the beginning.

That's awesome! I think it's funnier than learning how to actually play the song like the cd. It does take alot of creativity, and builds on that strenght. I think music is more about that skill than any other. Well, it's good to see someone has done that cause I do think it's a nice alternative to a vigorous practice day. Kool. :)