How do you practice guitar?

[kep67]

I'd appreciate any tips / ideas for practicing.
I've been playing for a couple years. Try to play for ~1 hr per day.
I practice during lunch and then before bed. Tend to have a couple songs at a time I work on and then strum bits and pieces of other songs.
I don't have any structure or set routine. Maybe that's what I need.

I don't practice scales or do any exercises. I don't really know how I'd do those.

Once in a while I feel like I plateau and make no forward progress. At those times I find I need to find a new song with new 'techniques'. I know I'm a lot better than a couple years ago but I'm not totally satisfied with where I'm at.

I do love my guitars.

Thanks for any help

Erik

[beaker]

Kep 67
I can tell you how my practices go, maybe you will get some ideas.....
Usually I bounce around with different things, I always have a couple of new songs to work on that are in the beginning stages. I try to follow Neils advice and have something going that is beyond my comfort zone..... After a while I want a little success so I play some stuff that I am already familiar with. It is important so have some fun and not have to try so hard all the time! Sometimes I practice the major scales and pentatonic scales. If you don't know where to begin just watch the acoustic genius series. You may need to make notes, and possibly write down your own tablature diagrams to use as reference. I have also used various scale dictionaries that are available online for reference. Sometimes, I just grab a Bob Dylan songbook and strum songs with simple chords and try to find ones with changes that I like. If you find yourself in a doldrum, then use one of neil's target lessons try to find some inspiration. I hope this helps. Beaker.

[BigBear]

Hi Erik! Welcome to the program from Oregon! We're glad to have you with us!

Have I asked you to go over to the Please Introduce Yourself thread and tell us a little about you? Where you live, how old you are, what are your musical tastes, what level player you are, that sort of thing. We are a very close knit community and we love getting to know each other. We've all done it and it's painless, I promise! :laugh:

As far as practicing goes, it is highly individual. Everyone must learn what works for them. Here's what seems to work well for me.

Like you, I try to play at least one hour per day. Chris (neverfoundthetime) made a good recommendation a few days ago that we all need to warm up before we play so now I do scale patterns first to get my fingers moving. I highly recommend you learn the major and minor scales and then the scale patterns (two full scales) that move all over the fretboard depending on the key you are in. Start with the Pentatonic scales (five note) and then work up to the full scale. As you play, say out load what note you are playing. This takes me 15-20 minutes.

Once my hands are loosened up I work for about half an hour (at least) on new songs I'm learning, 80+% of them from the TARGET program. If I'm working on something tough I may only get to work on one or two songs daily.

Then with whatever time I have left I work on my favorites, or best songs, and try to keep them sharp or I work on playing solos or the melody over the chords of these songs.

This is a very full practice and is tough to get done in an hour. But I try to keep it flexible. If I'm feeling good and playing well I will spend more time on tough material or new songs. If I'm really tired or less-than-motivated I may spend more time on songs I already know.

After awhile you'll find what works for you but I really emphasize you learn all the notes and scales on the fretboard. Neil always talks about the scales or notes in a song so if you speak the langauge you will get more benefit from the lessons.

Good luck on your guitar journey and I look forward to meeting you further on the other thread!

Cheers! :cheer:

[wadestar]

I need a second computer, I practice in such a hard way. First I sit here and watch, then I go to my room and try it. I miss stuff on the way so it is a bit at a time. I just do not like to practice in front of people why put them through that lol. So on the rare day I do have the front room to myself, that is my time to smooth things out. So I need one more computer. Then Pactice better.

[BigBear]

wadestar wrote:

I need a second computer, I practice in such a hard way. First I sit here and watch, then I go to my room and try it. I miss stuff on the way so it is a bit at a time. I just do not like to practice in front of people why put them through that lol. So on the rare day I do have the front room to myself, that is my time to smooth things out. So I need one more computer. Then Pactice better.

Wadestar- You are absolutely correct on this! I tried that, watching in one room and then going to another to play it. It doesn't work and here's why. I never got the timing right!

Many of the 4-6 level songs have some tricky timing on the chord changes. By playing along with Neil, or playing immediately after watching him, I could "feel" the timing I wasn't getting the other way of room to room.

So I bought myself a cheap folding table and set up my other laptop and some speakers on it in the room where I practice. What a difference! I can't believe a wasted almost a year before doing this. There is no comparison in what I get from Neil's lessons now versus then!

Find yourself a cheap laptop and some speakers and get connected. I cannot tell you how much difference it makes!

Good luck! :cheer:

[johnrfeeney]

try to find every note on fretboard up to 15th fret - doing one note at a time

i.e. find A on 6th string
then B on 5th
then C on 4th
then D on 3th
then E on 2nd
then F on 1st
then G on 2nd
then A on 3rd
Now I start with A but on the 5th string and continue

I do this with all the notes including # and flats

this is just one of the things I will do each and every day

[heyjoe]

Hi Erik

Heres the practise routine I posted on site 3 months ago, its about to get re-worked, as its time for a change, hope this helps.

My practise routine at the moment goes like this:

Warm Up
I play the following scales to get my fingers warmed up.
I'm using a metronome with all these too.
Where possible I'm actually playing patterns..repeating the scales to cover all six strings

1. Natural Notes scale 1st position
2. C Major scale 1st position
3. G Major scale on the 3rd Fret
4. A Major scale on the 5th Fret
5. F Blues scale on the 1st Fret
6. B Minor scale on the 7th Fret
7. D Pentatonic Major scale on the 10th Fret.

I'm using blues, minor, and pentatonic minor scales as I've never used them before, so I'm getting my ears used to hearing them. On some of the scales I'm trying to say the notes as I play them, at other times I'm working on which number they are. I vary that to keep my brain working.

Finger Strengthening
Next is a finger strengthening exercise. I borrowed this from another site (sorry Neil and Matt). It's a hammer-on exercise using different combinations of all 4 fingers. I use this to mainly get better co-ordination and strengthen my litte finger, as it needs it.

Note Recognition
Once again, borrowed from another site.
While I know the notes on the neck, I don't know them to the point where my mind can automatically go to the correct note at any time, so this needs working on.

So basically, you pick a note, any note, and then play it on all 6 strings, you can't play open strings, and you use the same finger to fret each note.
oh yes, and you use a metronome as well. sounds easy, but it isn't.
I'm working on one noter at a time- currently G. After you've done one note, choose another and repeat.

Songs
All the songs below were chosen for reasons-mainly because I either like the songs, or because I really really want to be able to fingerpick songs to a good standard.

The 4 songs I'm working on at the moment are:
Strong Enough-Sheryl Crow
Classical Gas-Mason Williams
Here Come the Sun-Beatles
Imagine-John Lennon

I added the last one yesterday as its a lovely song.
I'd class this bit as the really hard work section for me, some of it is done with a metronome, other parts I'm busy learning how just to get the changes right.

Chord Changes
The final part is basically having fun, but with a purpose, its just me having a play around with anything at all. However, when I do this, I'm focussing on playing 2 chords the way that Neil does, A and G. I make sure that these chords are played, and played right.

Normally doing this takes about 45 minutes to go through.
At the end of it I know I've gone through scales, finger strengthening, note recognition, song improvement, chord improvement, and all the while focussing on correct hand and body posture.

Joe