[distressed_romeo]

When I have time to practice for hours every day (and I'm talking each day of the week, not just weekends) my chops skyrocket and my playing begins to feel totally effortless...

But...

When I have on only one or two hours in the evening, having spent the whole day day-dreaming about the guitar at my desk, my playing generally becomes a lot more creative, and I come up with ideas that I feel are more 'me', even if my hands aren't as responsive...

Wish there was a way to achieve a balance.

[Carrion]

I feel the exact same way :/

The way to achieve balance for me is to practice really hard 4 days a week and then jam or play around the other 3 day.

And for some reason it works for me to just stop playing guitar for 3-4 days and then pick it up again, I usually play better after a break then playing for hours everyday.

[Luan]

It's really hard to balance.
Totally true.

[shadowgenesis]

ermmm. well for me i hve too little time to be chops focused at all. Which, to some degree, sucks, but i am way less into technical playing and have been writing a shitload lately. I think the only way to find balance is to find more time. And if you can't do that.. well. You can't have your cake and eat it to i guess.

[oompa]

Originally Posted by Desecrated

The way to achieve balance for me is to practice really hard 4 days a week and then jam or play around the other 3 day.

And for some reason it works for me to just stop playing guitar for 3-4 days and then pick it up again, I usually play better after a break then playing for hours everyday.

i do something like that.

my curve is usually:

day #1: with rested, hungry and happy muscles i grab the guitar, devote a couple of hours and run through all my exercises, stretches, chops, righthand exercises, coordination exercises, sweeps tapping etc, and run them till i can tell that my control is clearly better on all levels, and "the feel" is there.

day #2: i warm up and after that i am at peak, im the best i get, and i play, practice new stuff, write, screw around etc. can play for hours and hours.

day #3: equal as above but slightly worse. every day from here gets slightly worse cus i lose some feeling, joy, technique and stamina etc day by day.

day #4: ^

day #5: i might pick it up to screw around alittle, i know my technique is now at its worst, so i might instead just try to learn things with no focus on getting them up to speed. or just dont play if im too weary. atleast i can't improve my technique anymore without resting a little.

day #6: dont play (could write stuff or learn something new by memory or something if i still have any inspiration, but no technique pushes in any way)

day #7: dont play (^)

back to day #1 fresh and clean, exercises. at day #2, i can now tell that i am better at all those new things i learned, for example i might be able to push an exercise or solo or something up a few beats, my control on new stuff is better etc.

its not like i have a stupid week schedual or anything, but this is usually how my playing peaks and drops in rough measurements, plus minus a few days here and there. dont know if it helps for you, but over the years i have realised that this is as good as i can get with job and a girlfriend, and i get about 3 days focused playing/week wich is totally cool, i couldnt do more without like.. a physio and a coach and no job

[Trespass]

Originally Posted by distressed_romeo

When I have time to practice for hours every day (and I'm talking each day of the week, not just weekends) my chops skyrocket and my playing begins to feel totally effortless...

But...

When I have on only one or two hours in the evening, having spent the whole day day-dreaming about the guitar at my desk, my playing generally becomes a lot more creative, and I come up with ideas that I feel are more 'me', even if my hands aren't as responsive...

Wish there was a way to achieve a balance.

Exactly how I feel.

Sometime after having gone out with people or a movie or whatever, I'll come home pickup the guitar and have like the Vai-ish level of balance between technicallity and musicality. But it'll fade after 30 or so minutes

[Randy]

There's a Tom Hess lessons somewhere, where he outlines something similar to this... can't find it though.

EDIT: On here somewhere -- Free Shred Guitar Lessons | Shredaholic.com