Practice help?

[Souls of Black]

Ok, so I just spent 146 min practicing. I really felt, about 60 of that was shit. Dammit, I started playing to radio (prob a dumb idea) they played a rush song and an ozzy song. After those two, I started playing w/o the radio, just me jamming away.

Cool for about 50 miutes, trying all kinds of shit, won't list all, but I was all over so to speak.

Then instead of the Met'nome, I HATE that clicker, I started me drum machine, and started playing along. Son o' Bitch that is so helpful, next 40 min or so, just rocked to a nice beat at 162bpm. I felt that was fast, so good practice? Thoughts?

I am getting my C7 in a week, I need tips... C'mon boardies....Steve?

 

[Liverslapper]

These are the things I do...not sure if it will help

Warm Up - I'll play some wide Trilling exersices and just work my way up and down the neck. i usually do them till i feel a burn. 2-fret trills with my index and middle finger. Then i do the 3-fret trills between my index and ring finger. then 4-fret trill with my index and pinky.

Use Alternate Picking!

I usually use a lot of pentatonic blues scales.

Then to mess around. Ill record a rhythm track and do a solo over the playback.

RECORD YOURSELF! - Improvise and just go crazy - then playback and listen to your strengths and weaknesses. I use this technique a lot. It helps

What i'll do is ill just turn on Winamp too and jam to a bunch of songs by soloin' over them.

Don't spend more then 1 hour on one thing on especially challenging things. Take a break and after awhile come back to it.

Try to make practising fun because if you don't, more then likley you will get ultra pissed and stressed. learning scales can be a bitch sometimes.

For Me Personaly - I do great after i take a few shots of hard liquor. i don't know why but that just happens with me.

Hope this helps.

 

[Noumenon]

For Me Personaly - I do great after i take a few shots of hard liquor. i don't know why but that just happens with me.

That or you suffer the same egothing as the rest of us. We are friggin guitar gods after a few shots of booze. Atleast according to our selves

 

[Liverslapper]

That or you suffer the same egothing as the rest of us. We are friggin guitar gods after a few shots of booze. Atleast according to our selves

indeed my friend

 

[FretsAflame]

Dude I fucking suck after 2 beers. If I'm playing I won't drink a damn thing. It shoots me straight to hell. And if I'm really drunk, then I actually laugh at how bad I'm doing...

 

[Seedawakener]

You should do some good exercises or cool exercise-like riffs... Like a lot of the symphony x solos and stuff... maybe the intro to sea of lies, or the solo thing at 04:43 on Dream theaters metropolis pt. 1 from the Images and words album. Even if you dont like the metronome... its REALLY good to use it anyway . Start out slow and make three takes that sound perfect in a row. if you manage to make three takes that are perfect increase the speed with maybe 3 bpm. Thats how I learn new songs and ts very effective. Dont play too long parts, break it down in to smaller pieces. You might already know about this, but its my tip.

and remember that it has to be perfect!

 

[Seedawakener]

and for anybody who needs a metronome: www.metronomeonline.com

 

[Phoenix5]

That will help, since the school I'm going to is in the middle of the damn country and I can't go purchase one until I go back home.

 

[Souls of Black]

Good tips from everyone! Thanks.

I really need to structure my practice ALOT more than I do. But most times, I just want to jump in and start playing. Pateince is not a big virtue.....

I do like the idea of playing along to met/drum machine and slow until you get it right 3-5 times. I will most certainly try this.

More tips would be welcomed....



p.s. Two days until I get my C7!!!

 

[Seedawakener]

It works I tell you.

glad I could help!

 

[flying_whale]

my practice session lately is like this:
warm up, and by that i play riffs. I play my riffs, and songs. then play master of puppets, all downpicked (intro-introriff2-verse-prechorus and stop there) to warm up my picking hand. Then i screw around in some key.
then the real practice starts.
I practice my ear and bends first. I took that from one of satch's videos from youtube. play a note, drop down 2 frets. bend in tune. i try that on all strings for a part of the neck (8thfret-22).
then i do trilling.
1h2p1 trill, and look at the 10 tips video i posted a few days for the trilling. I do that on all strings.
Then i practice leggatto with an exercise the guy from trivium recomended in a guitar world video (i hate them, but i believe there is something to learn from MOST players).
e
b
g----------------------------1h2
d----------1h2--------1h2
a-----1h2-------1h2
e1h2
etc i do that all over the neck ascending and descending changing finger combinations. Then i go back and replay that exercise with alt picking, although slower.
Then i do another of satch's exercise
1h2h4 and 1h3h4 on every string on every position ascending and descending.
Then i practice sweeps (3 strings).
That takes me an hour.
If i have time, i study the blues, trying to come up with "blues licks" by ear and through pentatonic scales. I play something random that comes in my mind in a pentatonic scale ala zakk wylde, with legatto. I do this for 20 minutes. I figure that i want to play in a blues band, for money, because the blues scene seems pretty profitable in seattle. Then i practice solos (my own or hammett's) I'm not at the level of playing nevermore solos yet, although i will try final product, the first solo.
When i'm done i play random shit trying to come up with ideas for solos, songs riffs, or i'm still trying to figure out by ear ,the tapping part in the sepultura territory solo. (i've been trying that for a month now), but i don't want to give up.

P.S.
Seedawakener, in your avatar, dunno why, WD reminds me of Thomas Jefferson.

 

[Souls of Black]

Lord, that sounds like a good routine. I will try some of it. I also need to go and check out youtube for Satch's stuff. Thanks Man.

 

[flying_whale]

Lord, that sounds like a good routine. I will try some of it. I also need to go and check out youtube for Satch's stuff. Thanks Man.

i posted the vids here, check out the post down the forum

 

[Souls of Black]

i posted the vids here, check out the post down the forum

Damn, how did I miss this.....:zombie:

 

[guitarguru777]

Heres the regiem i have been using for the past few years. Its something i learned from petrucci way back and have stuck with it.

1. start with arm, hand, finger stretches. i make sure all the muscles in my body that i use when i play are relaxed and warmed up. This is very important for me since i have carpel and RMS. (about 5 minutes)

2. start with a metronome at about 100 BPM and run through all they keys of the major scales in all positions up and down the neck using 8th notes then 16ths. If i mees up i start the entire sequence from start (usually takes about 10 minutes)

3. Then i do the same as above with all my minors. (about 10 minutes)

4. Work on your right hand (left if your a lefty) and run through alternate picking combinations, sweep picking, economy picking and and tapping. I usually keep the metronome at about 120 BPM for this. This is all about accuracy. Do this for abour 15 minutes

5. Legato licks and arpeggios (10 minutes)

6. Chord & Scale theory, hoe to connect scales how to build chords and arpeggios (30 minutes)

7. For the final 10 minutes i just run through some songs im writing or learning.

Thats my Hour and a Half 3 times a week. (i would do it daily but lifes been pretty busy recently)