How do you guys practice?

I always sit down and i just play soem covers of other peoples songs, i like doing that. Then I'll get some backing tracks up on the computer, and play over them.

I'm not a huge fan of a metrenome, but my parents usually encourage me to satrt off slow, if im trying to practice a michael romeo, or yngwie lick.

Or do you guys... learn strict scales in different keys? More of a theory learner i guess im trying to get across. I'm not really blazing fast, i cna pick about 10 notes per second without slurring, 10 cleanly, and sometimes 11 nps. I do not pick every note though. i do alot of hammer one and pull offs. But i do not slurr, i do pick about 60 % of the time. I think feel is more important ( although i like to sit down sometimes and practicing ascending "shred" scales).

That's really my way of practicing and what kind of player i am.

How do you guys play, and how do you practice?

I can tell you what I'm doing right now for practice - just working the pinky finger, getting it up to speed. That's all I do for practice it seems, finger exercises. It's like I'm starting over again. So I'll start off with finger exercises, then go over different solo techniques (alt. picking, sweeping, switching over a bunch of my old riffs to be played with the pinky etc), all the while keeping old tunes of mine in mind and an ear open for any new ideas that might come about from practicing. Then eventually I'll work into more chord stuff, or non solo stuff. Then I'll get bored.

I think I need a stricter practice schedule myself. I usually just jam out crap I know cold, then maybe work on some scales and stuff. Today I was working on tapping, but it's not coming too easy. I wanna do that tappin' part from Vai's "The Reaper".

Originally posted by Leedogg
I think I need a stricter practice schedule myself. I usually just jam out crap I know cold, then maybe work on some scales and stuff. Today I was working on tapping, but it's not coming too easy. I wanna do that tappin' part from Vai's "The Reaper".

Me too. When I play it usually consists of just playing some songs and noodling around on a few scales. Maybe a couple minutes of sweeping, but I need a better schedule.

Most of my playing/practice time is spent on theory. Chord progressions, arpeggios, minor and major harmonic scales....stuff like that. I'm fairly new to guitar playing so I want to learn as much theory as I can to help me jam with any type of music I want.
Once in a while I will jam along to some old school blues just for a break but that's about it.

I probably focus on speed far too much. About three months ago, I could barely alterate pick and tap as well as having no idea about what sweeping was. Then I found this site and descided to learn more than just songs I like so I started playing exercises whilst always using a metronome, to build up speed. Now I can alternate pick at about 16 notes per second and even faster with certain sweeping patterns, which is a fair improvement.

Well, when I practice (and I use practice quite loose) I usually play all sorts of things I'm already capable of since I seem to have a lot of fun doing that, the whole jam thing. I tend to put a bit of practice into scales and up and down stroking. I kinda wish I knew of other things to practice, but I don't. I'm starting to feel repetative. Seems like when that happens I go and learn something and get better.

Yeah, like right noe i'm finding myself in a rut with some michael romeo/yngwie scales, i just cant get those down as fast as they play. But i'm gunna keep on pracxticing.

Sweeps, i can do basically 3 string down and up stroking sweeps
i still neeed alot of more practice on those.