Practice.........
- Thread starter MrsBigtx
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tot_Ou_tard
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Welcome Mrs Mel Big (tx = Texas?)
What is your level & what is your rut like? Ie what are you doing now?
What is your level & what is your rut like? Ie what are you doing now?
Hi Mel,
There's a lot that you can do with 30-45 minutes of practicing everyday. But you're right that you will want to go for a structured approach to make the most of it.
The best thing to do first is to decide where you want to go. Do you have some specific things that you want to improve in your playing, new styles to pickup, songs to learn etc? Come up with some ideas for reasonable goals for yourself and use that as a guide for "what" you need to practice.
The way I see it there's two kinds of things that you will want to do with your 30-45 minute practice time:
- maintain your chops, and work to improve them
- learn new material whether these are new licks, new songs, etc.
So the main point of your practice will be to dedicate some part of that time to maintaining your skills, and another part will be dedicated to growing your skills.
For the "maintaining chops" category, the first thing that I would do is to get yourself a metronome if you don't already have one. Use this to keep time for any exercises that you do. This way you will be improving your timing while you are working on anything else. For this kind of practice it's good to work through some scales and arpeggios. Consider these to be like basic callisthenics. Find some exercises that you like for practicing things like Blues scales, major scales, minor scales, etc. You can find a lot of these on the web at guitar instruction sites. Try to find some exercises that fit with the type of music that you want to play. Don't forget to practice chordal work too. Alot of times people think that they have to sit there and practice picking exercises all day and for the fact that us guitar players spend quite a bit of time playing rhythm, so you might as well practice that too.
Next, you will want to find some ways to hit the "growing your skills" category. This can be anything you want such as learning a new tune, working on a solo that you're trying to learn, or just making up new licks of your own. But spend at least some part of your practice time doing this. Even if you come up with just one new lick it's worth it to spend this time putting away the excercises for a while and focusing on coming up with something new that you don't have under your fingers yet.
I usually start with some basic exercises first, when I get some practice time, and then I try to break away from the exercises and focusing on working out a new lick or something. However, you want to keep that metronome going for anything that you're working on so that it keeps you focused on playing "in the pocket" for anything that you do.
I hope this helps, -- Jim
There's a lot that you can do with 30-45 minutes of practicing everyday. But you're right that you will want to go for a structured approach to make the most of it.
The best thing to do first is to decide where you want to go. Do you have some specific things that you want to improve in your playing, new styles to pickup, songs to learn etc? Come up with some ideas for reasonable goals for yourself and use that as a guide for "what" you need to practice.
The way I see it there's two kinds of things that you will want to do with your 30-45 minute practice time:
- maintain your chops, and work to improve them
- learn new material whether these are new licks, new songs, etc.
So the main point of your practice will be to dedicate some part of that time to maintaining your skills, and another part will be dedicated to growing your skills.
For the "maintaining chops" category, the first thing that I would do is to get yourself a metronome if you don't already have one. Use this to keep time for any exercises that you do. This way you will be improving your timing while you are working on anything else. For this kind of practice it's good to work through some scales and arpeggios. Consider these to be like basic callisthenics. Find some exercises that you like for practicing things like Blues scales, major scales, minor scales, etc. You can find a lot of these on the web at guitar instruction sites. Try to find some exercises that fit with the type of music that you want to play. Don't forget to practice chordal work too. Alot of times people think that they have to sit there and practice picking exercises all day and for the fact that us guitar players spend quite a bit of time playing rhythm, so you might as well practice that too.
Next, you will want to find some ways to hit the "growing your skills" category. This can be anything you want such as learning a new tune, working on a solo that you're trying to learn, or just making up new licks of your own. But spend at least some part of your practice time doing this. Even if you come up with just one new lick it's worth it to spend this time putting away the excercises for a while and focusing on coming up with something new that you don't have under your fingers yet.
I usually start with some basic exercises first, when I get some practice time, and then I try to break away from the exercises and focusing on working out a new lick or something. However, you want to keep that metronome going for anything that you're working on so that it keeps you focused on playing "in the pocket" for anything that you do.
I hope this helps, -- Jim
just strum
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thanks....
I do use a metronome. Still figuring out BPM and what I should have set on. I like the idea of dividing half the time in maintaining, other half to new material.
I'm intermediate. I know most my chords, scales, etc. I want to learn how to improve, which I'm finding is not a easy task. I like blues, rock, pink floyd, clapton, John Mayer, among others.
I do use a metronome. Still figuring out BPM and what I should have set on. I like the idea of dividing half the time in maintaining, other half to new material.
I'm intermediate. I know most my chords, scales, etc. I want to learn how to improve, which I'm finding is not a easy task. I like blues, rock, pink floyd, clapton, John Mayer, among others.
just strum
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Still not sure what your rut is. How long have you been playing?
30 to 45 minutes is fine, but are there any days you can devote more time?
30 to 45 minutes is fine, but are there any days you can devote more time?
Hi Mel,
I've been playing for a long time (30 years now), and I still get into ruts.
I usually hit a rut when I get bored with my playing. In the past 30 years I've been bored with my playing many times. It seems to happen every few years. When this happens, I try to sit down and figure out what it is with my playing that I'm unhappy with. Usually it's just a general feeling that I'm getting stale and I have stopped learning new things, and nothing excites me about guitar anymore.
The best way to get out of a rut is to focus on something new, such as a new style that you want to learn, new technique, or just learning someone's solo from an artist that I really like.
First step is to find something that you're excited about learning, and then go after it. Once you start down this path it usually starts to clear up the boredom (at least this is what has worked for me). There's so much great stuff out there these days for guitarists to learn from. There are some fantastic instructional DVD's covering nearly every style, plus tons of great utilities for your PC to slow down recordings for learning licks, etc.
Robert's site ( http://www.dolphinstreet.com ) offers a lot of very useful videos on a variety of things, especially some great blues examples. There's also a site called http://www.truefire.com that has a ton of great video courses for a number of styles. I've purchased a few of them and they're well worth the money. (I'm taking one right now on Twang-style country guitar because I've always wanted to get better at that style, I'm really likng it)
Another good way to get energized is to take on a new challenge. I signed up for a guitar contest a few years ago and that really helped to give me the much-needed kick in the pants to practice like crazy and try learning some new stuff (fear is often a great motivator and instant cure for boredom
-- Jim
I've been playing for a long time (30 years now), and I still get into ruts.
I usually hit a rut when I get bored with my playing. In the past 30 years I've been bored with my playing many times. It seems to happen every few years. When this happens, I try to sit down and figure out what it is with my playing that I'm unhappy with. Usually it's just a general feeling that I'm getting stale and I have stopped learning new things, and nothing excites me about guitar anymore.
The best way to get out of a rut is to focus on something new, such as a new style that you want to learn, new technique, or just learning someone's solo from an artist that I really like.
First step is to find something that you're excited about learning, and then go after it. Once you start down this path it usually starts to clear up the boredom (at least this is what has worked for me). There's so much great stuff out there these days for guitarists to learn from. There are some fantastic instructional DVD's covering nearly every style, plus tons of great utilities for your PC to slow down recordings for learning licks, etc.
Robert's site ( http://www.dolphinstreet.com ) offers a lot of very useful videos on a variety of things, especially some great blues examples. There's also a site called http://www.truefire.com that has a ton of great video courses for a number of styles. I've purchased a few of them and they're well worth the money. (I'm taking one right now on Twang-style country guitar because I've always wanted to get better at that style, I'm really likng it)
Another good way to get energized is to take on a new challenge. I signed up for a guitar contest a few years ago and that really helped to give me the much-needed kick in the pants to practice like crazy and try learning some new stuff (fear is often a great motivator and instant cure for boredom
-- Jim
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