# Another practice schedule thread?



## angelophile (Jun 10, 2012)

Didn't see any current threads on practice routines/materials.

Maybe a boring topic but important.

I manage 20 hrs per week these days, want to get some more breadth/variety.

most of my practice is alternate picking work.

(I max at 16ths 170bpm, most stuff I can play at 16ths 155bpm) 

Maybe we could get a contest going of who can practice the most hours in a week ??!!


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## phrygian12 (Jun 10, 2012)




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## Winspear (Jun 11, 2012)

I used to manage 8-12 hrs every day but now it's about 4 on average I expect  

I have little imagination. Tending to just run chromatic exercises while reading all the time. I used to learn a lot of songs nice and slow but my guitar is an an open tuning for writing so I can't do that anymore until my custom arrives haha.

I have a huge list of techniques, some normal some very unique, that I'd like to master. But putting them into a workable schedule that I can stick to and creating exercises just hasn't happened yet. I need an entire day to myself to be able to focus on practice like that. When I'm just getting a couple of hours here and there I can't bring myself to do much more than write some riffs or run chromatics haha


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## Maniacal (Jun 11, 2012)

What's the prize for doing the most hours?


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## celticelk (Jun 11, 2012)

Maniacal said:


> What's the prize for doing the most hours?



Repetitive motion injury.


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## Guitarchitect (Jun 11, 2012)

One thing to consider, is that it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more time always = getting better.

Here's a practice story.

When I was at Berklee there was a sax guy who would talk about how he would practice 8-12 hours a day. Some people at the front desk hipped me to his schedule.

8am - he'd sign out a practice room and lock his sax in it. Then he'd go across the street to Dunkin' and get breakfast.

8:30 - breakfast digested -warm ups and technical drills.

10am - renew the room (to use it as a locker). Go to 2 hour class.

noon - renew the room. Get lunch with friends.

1pm - Shed new tunes, licks, etc

1:45 renew room for 2 hour block

2pm go to class

4pm renew room - shed licks, tunes

5/6pm renew room - get dinner

8pm - play in ensembles until 10 or 12. Go check out a show.

I'm sure he was absolutely convinced that he was putting 12 hours in - but he wasn't - he was putting 4-5 in. Still not shabby - but not 12 hours.

There are multiple questions to ask when thinking about getting things done. For example, How long can you focus on something? How long can you give something your complete and total focus without interruption in a single sitting? It's not 12 hours. or even 8 hours. Or (generally) even 4. It's probably 1-2.

Which isn't bad. Most people can focus intently on something for about a 1/2 hour.

It isn't a question of how much time you put in (unless you want to give yourself focal dystonia like Terry Syrek got) - it's about how much focused, quality time you can put in on something.

(This is why you will get SO MUCH MORE out of six focused 1 hour sessions than one unfocused 6 hour session).

Another question to ask is, what are you going to work on for that time?

Focusing that hard on scales may get you technical facility (only if you're practicing properly), but it won't necessarily make you a better musician.

Here's three suggestions:

1. An article worth reading on this topic: Annie Murphy Paul: The Myth of 'Practice Makes Perfect' | TIME Ideas | TIME.com

2. This is the practice book, I wish I had written.

Amazon.com: The Musician&#39;s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness (9780195343137): Gerald Klickstein: Books

3. I have a number of free practice related links that might help starting with this one.


Definitions and Documents Or Practicing Part IV « Guitarchitecture.org

(These start with basic but important ideas and increase in depth. For technical considerations - you may want to start with part 1 or 2). There are links to all of the practice related posts at the bottom of the page.

I hope that helps!


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## groovemasta (Jun 12, 2012)

^ Do you have this guys name? I'd like to check him out if possible.


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## Trespass (Jun 12, 2012)

Sure, you're technically profound, but if I threw you in any real life musical situation (reading lead sheets, reading score, improvising off of a groove, learning albums worth of material by ear to join a touring band etc.) could you do any of that?

Better yet, could you do it without embarrassing yourself?


Seriously. I know tons of metal guys whose time feel is incredibly weak, whether it's blues/jazz/R&B/funk whatever.

The worst part is, they delude themselves into thinking that they can do it, and that they know all these genres. You don't. I don't play Nickelback songs and claim to know metal.


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## Chromis (Jun 12, 2012)

When I first started playing I was averaging eight hours a day, more like 12 on weekends. So I guess around 50-60 unstructured hours per week for about five years; I've since scaled it back to around fifteen hours a week split into various sessions as follows:


Two improvisational jams per week of 1-2 hours, with a focus on musicality and coming up with original themes/licks;
Two speedwork jams per week of 2-3 hours, predominantly alternate picking as this technique requires the most effort in my opinion. I usually start 16ths at around 170bpm, building up by 5bpm at a time to around 220bpm or as high as I can get on that day;
One really long weekend jam, which involves a bit of composition, playing through my songs, and learning new techniques or ideas.

If I'm composing, recording, or producing, some of these sessions might be sacrificed to allow time for this.

I really think that *quality* of sessions over quantity of sessions is important, especially if you have a busy lifestyle! To be honest though, I'd _love_ to go back to the carefree days of 50-60 hours per week *happy memories*

Whatever your practice schedule, try to push the envelope of your ability once a week, and try to play something completely new once a week, as in my experience 'consistency plus playing at the edge of your abilities' is where the most ground is to be gained.

Hope that is useful. Very interested to hear if other people structure their guitar practice sessions 

C.


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## Maniacal (Jun 12, 2012)

Day 1

Alternate picking endurance and speed and metal riffs - 2.5 hours
The first hour or so is spent alternate picking for long periods of time. I will usually get to 200bpm 16ths relaxed and try to sustain this for 5 or 10 minutes. 
For the speed part I do burst exercises and metal riffs. I will try to pick faster every day, last time I did 187bpm 16th note triplets for 4 beats. Today I will try to top that by 1 or 2 bpm. 
I do lots of riffs with string skipping and odd groupings to get used to playing on an 8 again.
The metal songs I play at the moment are - Babylons Pride by decapitated, Observant by psycroptic, reduced to ashes by deeds of flesh and bleed by meshuggah

Sweep Picking & tapping - 1 Hour
I usually pick keys at random then play the triad, 7th and 9th arpeggios with both sweeping and tapping. Then I will do the same with 7th inversions up the neck. This helps me learn new arpeggio shapes at the same time as working on technique. 

Scales - 30 minutes
I will descend all the major, melodic and harmonic modes using 3 and 4 note per string with various sequences. For this I use legato and picking. I am focusing on descending at the moment as I am still in the habit of viewing scales and arpeggios going up. 

Improv - 3 15 minute backing tracks
For this improv I just try to tie everything together on the neck. Lets say I am playing over a D Dorian backing track, I will work through all the pentatonics, modes and arpeggios over the entire neck and try not to get stuck. Then I will play the track again and try to switch between techniques like tapping, sweeping, alternate picking etc. The third time I will focus more on playing musically and rhythmically, so I will make a line and then phrase it with different subdivisions and nuances. 

Day 2 is jazz, funk, covers and improv. I will go into detail if requested. 

Of course I will get slated as a metal shredder or whatever but that just isn't true. But please, feel free to insult my practice.


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## Winspear (Jun 12, 2012)

I'm trying to put together a routine like that now. 
I'm currently writing a few pages of exercises hybrid picking various intervals in different positions and octaves. Planning to write exercises to cover everything on both my tunings (standard ERG and open tuning). I don't have a normal tuned guitar at the moment, so all I can do aside from writing songs in my open tuning is play exercises rather than learn songs


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## Maniacal (Jun 12, 2012)

Give me a PM if you want any help


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## MartinMTL (Jun 12, 2012)

I have honestly never understood how people get 50-60 hours per week. If I can get 2 hours of actual metronome-based technique exercises in my day, I am doing very well. That type of practice is just so bland for me. I wish that it wasn't, but I don't want to force myself at the same time. So because of this, my technical abilities on the guitar do kind of suck (relatively). I simply get much more enjoyment out of learning songs/writing my own.


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## Winspear (Jun 12, 2012)

MartinMTL said:


> I have honestly never understood how people get 50-60 hours per week. If I can get 2 hours of actual metronome-based technique exercises in my day, I am doing very well. That type of practice is just so bland for me. I wish that it wasn't, but I don't want to force myself at the same time. So because of this, my technical abilities on the guitar do kind of suck (relatively). I simply get much more enjoyment out of learning songs/writing my own.



Try making exercises from songs that you can't play. For example I learnt the solo for On Impulse when it was way beyond my ability. Took months starting at about 30% speed but it's more fun than chromatic exercises and you have something to play at the end  
Done the same with lots of riffs etc.


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## Konfyouzd (Jun 12, 2012)

When I practice, I start off by playing stuff that I absolutely KNOW I can play--basically all my go-to licks/runs--for the first 10-15 min. This usually gets me good and warmed up.

After I'm warmed up I sometimes try to just push my speed on the licks/runs I was just playing to see if I can get any more speed/accuracy out of these blunt tools I call hands.

When that gets old I do one of four things:

1. I start looking for patterns between the patterns I see readily just looking down at the board and when I find something that I think sounds cool I try to construct a run out of it by pushing it through the different modes (usually in 5ths). I usually stay fixated on this for a good half hour easily. All the while I try different things like:

a. Playing ONLY that lick all the way through the run.
b. Splicing in other licks partway through the run to keep it from sounding boring.
c. Playing ONLY that lick all the way through, but changing the accents as I go along.​
2. Look for new ways to phrase the licks I already know and love.

3. Search Youtube for backing tracks to find context for licks that I really like to use.

4. Grab another guitar in a different tuning and see what I can figure out about it and how it relates to what I would play on any of my other guitars. I do this because I sometimes end up playing with another guitarist that uses another tuning and I find retuning cumbersome, so I try to remember what a lick sounds like with respect to the backing chord instead. I figure as long as we can agree on what a D, E, F, etc is then it doesn't *really* matter if we're tuned differently.


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## angelophile (Jun 13, 2012)

I'm in awe of people who do 12 hrs a day !

I once managed 9 hours.

when I was at the guitar institute in london they recommended using a digital timer for practice sessions.

I clock up my hours actually spent playing, not just time in the practice room.

Unfortunately I'm becoming nocturnal ! only starting work at 6pm

I'm enjoying working through a jazz real book, and sight reading Kreutzer's 42 violin studies.

I get frustrated trying to get all the alternate picked sequence ideas up to speed.

My target is to reach 200 bpm 16ths by the end of the year, doesn't seem likely though. I can trem pick about 220bpm.

I play my exercises both starting with a down pick and with an up pick.
If I stuck to one approach I would be much quicker.

for an idea of where I'm at, please check "jazzimprovs" @
http://soundcloud.com/danieljpeters

the technical stuff is near the end of the track


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## novacekn (Jun 14, 2012)

When I was younger I'd practice everyday for 8+ hours with a metronome every single day. Now I don't have a set practice schedule, just jam, improv over some backing tracks, play my favorite licks to keep them sharp, and try to learn songs that are technically over my head, like anything by Jeff Loomis or John Petrucci solos. I'd really like to get a set schedule, don't really know where to start though.


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## MartinMTL (Jun 14, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> Try making exercises from songs that you can't play. For example I learnt the solo for On Impulse when it was way beyond my ability. Took months starting at about 30% speed but it's more fun than chromatic exercises and you have something to play at the end
> Done the same with lots of riffs etc.



Yeah, thanks for the advice. My other problem is that I get ADD when I practice songs and i always want to try a new one rather than perfect one that I am learning. Really though, I will have to start doing this. Maybe in a few years I will finally be able to get the solo for Cylindrical Sea down 

And OP: That improv sounded very good. I really like some of the ideas you had in there.


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## Chromis (Jun 14, 2012)

novacekn said:


> When I was younger I'd practice everyday for 8+ hours with a metronome every single day. Now I don't have a set practice schedule, just jam, improv over some backing tracks, play my favorite licks to keep them sharp, and try to learn songs that are technically over my head, like anything by Jeff Loomis or John Petrucci solos. I'd really like to get a set schedule, don't really know where to start though.



I reckon that depends on what areas you wish to improve on. Choose the technique or style you've always wanted to master, and start hacking away


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## brutalwizard (Jun 14, 2012)

I was once averaging about 3 hours a day of GOOD consistent routine's

I play about 2 hours a day with maybe thirty minutes of practicing a lick off this video 



i am on example 4 and 5 (9:40) doing it at about 260BPM 8th notes


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## mindwalker (Jun 14, 2012)

I feel like a total n00b here....

1 hour per day... lol. On a good day.. 2 hours...

After working all day in sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours I just lack the motivation to play the guitar for longer than 1 hour...

Guess this is way I can't play 16th note chromatics faster than 160 bpm (and even that is pushing it quite a bit..)
If you're a 32 year old and still no guitar hero better to forget about it! The irony is that now I can afford all the gear I want, but I can't justify doing it


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## Chromis (Jun 18, 2012)

brutalwizard, I LOVE Shawn Lane! How are you getting on with learning his licks?

C.


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## phrygian12 (Jun 19, 2012)

brutalwizard said:


> I was once averaging about 3 hours a day of GOOD consistent routine's
> 
> I play about 2 hours a day with maybe thirty minutes of practicing a lick off this video
> 
> ...





That's awesome, but why not practice in various note values? 

I mean if you're going to be playing that fast in 8th notes why not use 16th notes and try that at 160? or sextuplets in 115? 

I use to practice about an hour or sometimes two hours a day, I need to get back into that. Actually I need to make a practice room that is cut off from the outside world. I seem to get distracted too easily now a days and I feel my mediocre playing is getting worse.


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## InfinityCollision (Jun 19, 2012)

mindwalker said:


> I feel like a total n00b here....
> 
> 1 hour per day... lol. On a good day.. 2 hours...
> 
> ...


How you practice is infinitely more important than how long you practice. You can improve by leaps and bounds even with only an hour or two a day if you're practicing _right_.


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## angelophile (Jun 20, 2012)

26 hrs done last week !

feeling the benefits, reached 16ths @180bpm comfortably.

I recommend learning violin studies (Bach, Kreutzer, paganini etc) very good for inner musicality, so easily lost in the slog for technique.

I find myself humming the tunes with my own variations.


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## starslight (Jun 23, 2012)

Guitarchitect said:


> 1. An article worth reading on this topic: Annie Murphy Paul: The Myth of 'Practice Makes Perfect' | TIME Ideas | TIME.com



Great article, thanks for sharing. Steve Morse has been giving similar advice for years, for example in this 2000 column on his practice routine:

http://www.stevemorse.info/tab/guestcolumn1.jpg

http://www.stevemorse.info/tab/guestcolumn2.jpg

http://www.stevemorse.info/tab/guestcolumn3.jpg


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## Konfyouzd (Jun 23, 2012)

Does the amount of time you practice so much as what you take from practice? 9 - 12 hrs/day seems excessive. Get a job.


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## dbuk01 (Jul 5, 2012)

angelophile said:


> Didn't see any current threads on practice routines/materials.
> 
> Maybe a boring topic but important.
> 
> ...



To save learning the hard way aim for quality not quantity of practice. I went through a lengthy stage of practicing on average 40-50hours per week and the resulting tendonitis was not fun - nowadays I try and break my practice up more with musical areas such as transcribing/ear training as well so it isn't so technique based! The worst bit is playing for hours and hours is so damn fun!


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## stuglue (Jul 6, 2012)

I have been spending time thinking about how to prepare to practice.
For me all areas of musicality should be practiced in one session, they shouldn't be separated, so for instance if I want to work on a technique I want to be improving another important aspect of musicianship at the same time.

Here's an example of what I mean

Say you want to develop your sweep picking. That is a technique. But I also want to develop my skill at playing over chord progressions. 
So rather than sit and work on the mechanics of sweeping I will take a chord progression, analyse the notes that make up the chord then work out the arpeggios in as many positions as possible and then I'll record the progression as a midi file (so I can start slow and work up to speed). I now have a backing track, I will then payplay the arpeggios over the chords using sweeping.

This has many benefits

1. I work on developing the technique of sweeping
2. I learn arpeggio fingerings
3. I learn how to solo over chords and I get the sound in my head

Now to make it interesting we should play over the chords practising both feels, straight 8ths and swung 8ths. This seems simple but really helps with phrasing as many rock guys can only play straight.

Here's a practical example

Take the four chords of a 12 bar
I IV V
analyse the notes of each chord
Now work out the fingerings for each dominant 7 arpeggio I'in each position
Next you have to comfortable with those positions
The next part is to link them up. This is the musical part of the practice and involves voice leading. 
Now the above points will take a long time, getting familiar with sweeping and memorizing fingerings alone is a big task
now you don't want to be a player that only knows a few keys. Take your chord progression and move it through the cycle of fourths, spend time moving the fingerings into different keys. 
This is hard work but the hours will fly but you'll have developed several areas of musicianship and you'll develop in multiple areas rather than awesome at one thing and deficient in all the others. This was the mistake I made when I was learning lots of enthusiasm but a narrow practice regime.
My final part of the practice session is then to learn a song, because after all, learning songs is fun.


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## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 6, 2012)

Wow I _play_ guitar for maybe 2-3 hours a week. Idk where you guys find time!


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## AliceLG (Jul 6, 2012)

TL;DR: Practice may make perfect, but is that what you really need?


If I manage to play ONE hour a day during the week I'm my own hero. During the weekends I can go up to 3-4 hours each day. All these hours are largely "unstructured". I warm up with some songs I like, then I run through most of mine. I play all of my leads again, first on the clean channel and then with all bells and whistles, to see if I have to zero in on something somewhere. Then I just start working on whatever song I might be writing at the time or start throwing up riffs and write down the few good ones that come out.

I'm far from technically proficient, it takes me some time to read notation, my ear skills are very limited, it takes me forever to figure out a riff without a tab, but all of that doesn't matter that much to me. I'm not a session musician, I'm a composer. I have a very good sense of rhythm, harmony and melody, and I feel that's all I need.

Don't get me wrong, I'm capable of some level of guitar wankery, I play a thrash-meets-death-meets-black-meets-prog kind of metal after all.


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## Enselmis (Jul 7, 2012)

I get 45 minutes of actual practice a day on a good day. Probably several hours of just screwing around but it isn't focused and working on specific things. Seems to be going alright.

I'd genuinely like to hear what people are playing for "8-12 hours" of practice in a day.


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## Fiction (Jul 7, 2012)

Enselmis said:


> I'd genuinely like to hear what people are playing for "8-12 hours" of practice in a day.



1 hour metronome drill, 7-11 hours noodling in front of the TV


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## Psyy (Jul 7, 2012)

Fiction said:


> 1 hour metronome drill, 7-11 hours noodling in front of the TV



This is unfortunately accurate to what my practice up until this point has been.  Seeing what Maniacal wrote and what Guitarchitect linked has been quite inspirational.


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## Maniacal (Jul 7, 2012)

4 hours of good practice will always beat 12 hours of noodling.


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## Nicki (Jul 11, 2012)

I used to practice 8 hours a day before I went to college. I was going off of material like Fretboard Autopsy and just running through that material over and over again. Then I got tendinitis in my left hand and had to drastically reduce my practice hours. I felt like I just wasn't making any progress so after I graduated and got a job, I started taking guitar lessons again and now I do 1 hour a day with 1 day off on the day I have my lesson. I've made more progress in the last year structuring my practicing and setting a realistic goal for what I want to be able to do at the end of my practice, then I have by just repeating the same shit over and over again for 8 hours.


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## angelophile (Jul 13, 2012)

Most of my practice is structured, but I'm going to try to get some unstructured time on keyboards doing ear training singing melodies and trying out new ideas.

+ Started keeping a log book of how quick I play specific exercises.

reaching 16ths @190 now


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## ducer (Jul 25, 2012)

So, I would like to ask you a question. I can commit around 2hrs per day (3-4hrs during the week) on guitar techniques and theory. I can call myself and intermediate guitarist (recorded like 3 LPs, gigged around 100 times currently, signed to some labels) however I never tried to practice anything. Only metronome and writing my own stuff/transcribing it into metronome. Now I'm 28 and I'm fascinated with progresive metalcore/djent stuff and funk music. Creativity is one thing but when technique and lack of theory stops you from moving on it is the good time actually to work on them  What can you suggest me to work from the scractch ? I thought to separate diatonical scales like 2 scales per day / economy picking + sweep picking / tapping + legato / stacatto. Anyone ?


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