How does your practice routine look like?

[TheLizardKing]

Re: How does your practice routine look like?

How funny, I was just going to post a topic on this forum about this exact idea. My "practice" routine usually consists of practicing a few songs, maybe turning on the radio and playing along with jimmy page on a solo. I also practice random scales at random positions just to improve my musical vocabulary but I know next to no music theory unlike Jimmy Page does. Does anyone have any advice on what scales and modes and keys I should be practicing playing?

[jimpmiller]

Re: How does your practice routine look like?

For Jimmy Page..Penatonics..all of them 10000X a day

[adamsj]

Re: How does your practice routine look like?

When I was in college, studying music, and playing about six hours a day, I spent about an hour or two playing exercises and scales. Learning all seven diatonic scale patterns is a must, especially if you then want to twist them and play modally.

Also, at that time, I'd spend about an hour each on jazz and classical guitar studies.

The rest of the time I mostly just played the rock stuff I was interested in at the time -- including a lot of Zeppelin, which you can never go wrong with as a learning tool.

If you need help with the seven diatonic patterns, I've posted a lesson on that. Go to www.BluesQuest.com and click on Lessons and Tips, then choose the article titled "Scales Are Everywhere."

I teach in a store one day a week and I stress learning these seven diatonic patterns to all my students, especially if they want to play lead guitar.

[Quencho092]

Re: How does your practice routine look like?

Oh and NO TABS or other written music. U have to use your own ears & hands to figure it all out. As a musician YOUR EARS are your greatest asset. NOT UR HANDS! If i lost my hands, I'd still be making music, just in different ways than now.

Very good point. If you're going to be playing at a gig somewhere, it's not a very good idea to have practiced all your songs off of a sheet. If you learned it by ear, you'll never lose it and everything will come out the way you heard it.

I really don't practice too much these days. I started playing when I was 13 and built up hand dexterity, etc, and learned all my scales and chords. Now I focus more on theory, songwriting, and working on improvising better and self expression through guitar, especially since speed and technique aren't extremely important for blues guitar and the 'blues/jazz/funk' that my band plays.

Believe it or not, if you practice alot one or two days in a row, then take a break for one day, it's usually a breath of fresh air for your creativity. Lots of times when I play TOO often and work on the same stuff too often I end up sounding a bit monotonous (Let's say I was working on SRV chops for a few hours a day-when I jam with my band, I end up sounding too much like SRV in all of the songs we play).

When you come back after a one day break, you will find yourself having the same skills and style that you were working on before, but you will be able to explore more sounds without having that style intrude upon what else you want to learn. It lets you approach on a different perspective.