Practice Troubles

You might, when you first wake up in the morning, after a coffee (or tea), get the guitar and practice. But make it something like 5-10 minutes only. Practice just one scale and do it methodically, with full attention on it. Don't wander off into licks and riffs. Just the one thing for a solid 5-10 minutes. Then forget about it and go on with the rest of your day. The idea is just to have your hands on a guitar, and when you do, do just the one thing. Sometimes we get to thinking that we've gotta do an hour or two a day otherwise we're not really practicing.

That's bull.

It's better to have 5 minutes of completely focused practice than it is to dabble for hours.

And while you're doing other things, you can still be practicing. A lot of what we do is mental anyway, right? Think of the scale patterns, see them as if you were looking at the fretboard. Then if you can, start naming the notes to each fret/string conjunction.

Another 'away from the guitar' exercise is humming/singing. This part is almost better not having the guitar in your hands. The idea is to listen to what's playing in your mind. There's always something there. Lots of times it's thought going aimlessly by, but there's music in there too. Try and see 'what's playing' at the moment and focus on it till it stands out from the other rubbish that's in there. And when the contrast comes up and the melody or riff or whatever is there in the 'foreground,' see if you can hum the thing. Even just parts of it. The first part, the first note. It doesn't matter. The idea is that it is there and you're 'bringing it out' into the world. That's the whole thing about music. You have to, we all do, at a certain point be able to play what we hear. The other extreme would be a guy who has the technique of a Satriani and has nothing to 'say' musically. That 'saying' part is the inner music.

And you don't need any kind of instrument to hear it and then to sing it.

And this is not something that's required. Just whenever you think of it, try it out during the day. And when you finally get home to your guitar, you can see if you can play anything you've hummed.

It's a great way to get a bunch of practice in without the benefit of having an instrument around.

Hope this helps. I know it has, me.

Take care.

Im actually really glad that this post came up, because at some point we all devise our perfect practice regimen after months and years of not being able to find a common approach.

I work in a hotel where I have 4-5 hours per day of nothing to do at the desk, something like right now. Since playing guitar is most of my life, sometimes it seems I do way more mental work away from it then time with it. So here is a link to a thread im going to start with hopefully some useful info.

https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=77190#77190

DemoEtc is right. I think you can break practice down into smaller units, that way you don't have to be put off by the prospect of practicing for the next two hours. I have about a half hour in the morning between getting up and showering etc and the time I have to wake my son up for school, so I spend that time just working on one thing that I need work on. (No shortage there!) Anyone that reads that new article posted here by Mike Walsh about a practice schedule is bound to feel frustrated. I read that and thought, well I can quit my job, leave my family, take my guitar and go live under a bridge, then I'd have plenty of time to work on this whole encyclopedia of topics that need practice. If you're a full time working musician then yes, you better spend hours and hours a day practicing. But for the rest of us we can be creative and slip practicing in any time we can. I feel my response isn't very helpful to your problem is it?.

Yah, that's the thing; break it down into manageable chunks and deal with the chunk until it's off your plate. Like at work. I still have "Prioritize" taped to my monitor. The exces come in (rarely but it happens) wanting different things done NOW.

"What are your drop dead deadlines?"

They tell you and then it's clear what has to get done first. FedEx goes out at what time? Oh yeah.

I think even professional musicians have to pry out little chunks of time to practice stuff. Well, rock/pop guys. Sleep till noon right?

Well I did because I went to bed at 5:45am.

BUT, sometimes that's where even the pros (meaning working guys) start to lose their edge a little bit. I mean, once you're playing every night or several nights a week, you get really really good. You get comfortable, you relax, have fun, gather stage experience (and stories to share here), and though your playing gets really, really solid, your technique doesn't neccessarily grow.

Unless you're putting new things in every night.

And that's also what happens (or did in the old days) with bands that 'make it'. Beatles, Stones, you name it. They work really hard in clubs, get that stage-technique down, then go in the studio, cut some tracks and then, if they're fortunate, get a hit and start to tour.

And then they have even less time during the day to sit down with a metronome and work on scales or fingering technique or anything else. They barely have time to sleep, and then whatever free time is left, they have to use trying to write the next album. You get into this vicious circle where you're doing what you love and always wanted to do, but that very same thing that you love is preventing you from getting any better at it.

Someone like Keef: he's probably not much better of a guitarist than he was in '64 or '65, but he's got this MASSIVE amount of stage experience and that sort of 'onstage guitar technique.' It's 'good enough' you know?

So I guess either way, whether you're full time or not, you've gotta scrape some time together, and I think, at least, that smaller amounts -- but used more regularly -- are easier to handle and give good results. I mean, when I had students WAAAY back when, some of the kids would have soccer or homework or whatever and never get around to any practice at all. That's what got me thinking. Just give it fifteen minutes a day if you can. That's all. That's all I'm asking. Just fingerpick this one chord for five minutes and then stop. That's all. Some of them did and some of them didn't. With small amounts of time like that, if there's a problem, then it's more one of time-management than anything else.

Hah. Like my daughter. Her cups and dishes never 'quite make it' into the dishwasher for some reason. When asked it's "Well, I was in such a rush, you know? Work and all."

I nod, but inside I'm thinking, "Okay, about 45 seconds to rince, open the door, put the cup inside and close the door. If you're too 'rushed' for 45 seconds out of your day then you had better take a look at how you manage your time.' Nobody is that busy unless they simply want to appear that way, so they don't have to clean up after themselves, lol!

Anyhow, sorry for the long post. It's just that I remember practicing with a metronome for something like 30 minutes nonstop -- until the muscles on the back of my fretting hand were burning -- and then go on. Pain. Actual pain. I was pretty obsessed actually lol. Do all the forms of major scales, minor, do a bunch of pentatonic stuff while watching The Beverly Hillbillies on TBN, do chromatic stuff and diminished arpeggios and then get to the club that night and realize that none of that was going to fit unless I stopped listening to the tune and just went into prearranged riffs. What would happen is I'd practice all of that and then just throw it out the window at the club because, well, people don't come to see a guy quoting riffs and running scales. They want to hear MUSIC and so if the solo was just setting the Strat on the stand, strumming it and letting it feedback while I stood aside and watched, or slipping the strap over my neck and then playing behind my head, well, to me at least, that went beyond scales, you know?

Take care.

Thankyou so much for that advice, it really is very useful and important. I'm tkaing it on board.

Thankyou

Peter