How do u practice?

Count me in for number 4. I just practice everything. I dont have real organize practices. There are things each week that are most important to me and I practice those first. Some days I get to work on each area. But most days I have to work on a bit at a time.

Geoo

now how do we know what you mean by practice.Say is it a gig (with experienced players ) or are you talking about the beginner's practice :?:

If you search this forum for "practice" you will find several threads on this subject. I know I personally asked this question about 2 months ago..

i mean beginer practice. Also how do you search the forum i can not see a search bar ?

Up at the top, next to Faq, it says Search.

As far as being asked before, I have only been here since Feb and I think just about every question ever asked (including my own questions) have been asked at least once. No harm in re-hashing. Some times theres better and/or different answers.

Geoo

I start with strumming, I do a couple of chord patterns then I just randomly strum chords. Next I practice scales, then fills and licks. Next it's songs played note by note. Then chord melodies. Last I play and sing songs I know or are working on. I don't always practice in this exact order but generally do all these things. This is just something I came up with to give my practice some structure. It's probably all wrong.

I usually do scales, and songs I'm working on and sometimes i'll do alternate picking stuff or find and play barre cord songs since i'm weak in that area. Now i'm starting to play along with songs a lot more and stop using tabs

Do you pick a few things a practice them till your good at them?
Yes. That's the bulk of my practice time.
Do you do lots of excersices and scales ?
Yes. That's the bulk of my warm-up time, and part of my practice time.
Do you just learn songs ?
Not really. Specific songs are a part of my practice time, but only to ingetrate the skills I'm working on. I'm not so much 'learning' them as just playing them, either by sight reading or from head charts.

I do work at learning songs, of course... but I don't call that practicing. That's 'rehearsal' to me - practice is for focused development and maintenance.

I have been contemplating trying to learn songs that I like by my favorite artists.

Since I've been drumming for years it's easy to pick out the drum parts.

For guitarists, how do you know you have the right chords? Is it ear training or do you locate sheet music if it's available? Maybe because I'm still new or a re-born guitar player I don't have the necessary ear. NOT calling my self a guitarist just yet.

I want to be sure if I learn or attempt to learn a copy, I want to be dead on with the chords. Any suggestions? If it's ear training, I have a long way to go.... :?

There are a million different ways to practice and everone has their own opinion on the subject.For what its worth heres my advice:
If your just starting out the best way to practice is to learn songs and sing along.Download a couple of tabs (or buy a book)of your favourite songs and dive straight in.They will usually have the chord shapes on the the same page.Most people I know give up after a few days/weeks because they try and learn all the chords but cant relate that to a song.Better to learn a three chord song than 21 meaningless chord structures.You'll have alot more fun and greater sense of achievement and its this sence of achievement that will hopefully give you the incentive to practice and improve.
Sorry to ramble on.
Hope this helps someone.

There are a million different ways to practice and everone has their own opinion on the subject.For what its worth heres my advice:
If your just starting out the best way to practice is to learn songs and sing along.Download a couple of tabs (or buy a book)of your favourite songs and dive straight in.They will usually have the chord shapes on the the same page.Most people I know give up after a few days/weeks because they try and learn all the chords but cant relate that to a song.Better to learn a three chord song than 21 meaningless chord structures.You'll have alot more fun and greater sense of achievement and its this sence of achievement that will hopefully give you the incentive to practice and improve.
Sorry to ramble on.
Hope this helps someone.

Rants and and waffles and rambles all welcome :wink: yes learn open chords first then shift them well .Thats is the best way 8)

I've fallen into the rut of always practiceing the same chords, scale, and riff! :( I'm trying to get out of that!

I've fallen into the rut of always practiceing the same chords, scale, and riff! :( I'm trying to get out of that!

We all do that from time to time. Just the nature of humans, path of least resistance and all that. What you need to do is sit down and figure out:

A. What do I want to learn
B. What techniques, exercises, songs will get me to A.
C. Then practice those things.
D. Reward yourself at the end of your practice by allowing yourself to play the same old stuff or a favorite song that you know etc.

Get a notebook, or something and log what you do and how long you do it. As time goes by you'll have a better picture of what your strong points are, what your weak points are and what you need to do next.

It can be as simple as learning a new chord, or a new scale, or postion of a scale or as hard as you want to make it. :D

I've fallen into the rut of always practiceing the same chords, scale, and riff! :( I'm trying to get out of that!

Sometimes there is nothing wrong with this...let's ay you really aren't motivated to learn anything new that day but don't want to "skip" practice...then just take the chords you know and works on transitioning to them in different orders...mix it up a bit. Work on doing scales for speed on days like this (of course being accurate as well.). Refine the riffs you know...do them smoother, add fills, etc.

Then you'll be ready to learn something new the next practice.