How do you practice?

[Notyour Beezwax]

I usually start out with some exercises fiding notes and focusing on technique. Then I practice scales and improvising looping chord progressions or backing tracks., I've been incorporating Papa Gates' Blues and Blues Master Class in this. Finally, I work on learning songs or riffs, right now that's Round And Round by Ratt and Yesterdays by Guns N' Fuckin' Roses. What does your practice routine look like? Do you focus on certain things or just play?

 

[Chris Johnston]

For me it's always changing, I tend to go through phases of what I want to improve - the past month it was spent heavily on refining techniques, so I'll sit with a click and practice the same sweep over and over, trying to iron out any weak parts. But more recently I've been wanting to improve my on the spot recall of melodies, so I sat today and put the Avenged Self Titled Album on and tried to pick out & harmonize with the vocal melody on my guitar on the spot - it was so much fun I ended up doing it for the whole album!

 

[William B.]

On a good day I think I do rhythm percussive warm-ups, like down strokes and stuff. Than do hammer-on pull-off warm up than chromatic stuff to tighten up from the percussive. From there I kind of just wing it, sometimes I'm trying to do pinch harmonics or slides. A lesson maybe or learn a tabbed song that I enjoy, even trying to jam with random songs. Sometimes I would get a few good sounding notes, I tend to overdo my sessions and sometimes need to break a few days. I like to work on little nuances in my playing and now I'm beginning to learn more theory and understand it better. Things tend to need time to sink in
almost forgot, usually I'm listening to music and that's where it all starts

 

[Alicia Willis]

I know it’s bad, but I don’t really have a particular practice routine. I tried it for awhile and it ended up feeling like a chore and I didn’t want to do it anymore.
so now, I take techniques and things I want to learn or need to improve on and find a song I love that incorporate them and use that as my practice.
I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and not make it seem so daunting. That’s just me though, I get anxious and frustrated entirely too easy haha.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Currently I am Not practicing much cause I don't have much time or the head for it. But I often Play some exercises while watching a movie or series, Like Syns Alternate etude.
If I do some serious practice I usually do some Metal warm Up Jam. Then learn something, practice it, repeat. Sometimes Play a Song in between when I feel Like I need a Break.

 

[Adin Shepherd]

Practicing (proper goal oriented practicing) is one of those things that I know I should have been doing since forever, but something that I have never been able to stick to, no matter how often I try.

I have been trying harder (again) to focus on stuff recently, mainly technique, while I am sitting on the couch in front of the TV. Probably not the most productive environment.

 

[ari.mac]

I usually start with practicing permutations and scales I know with the metronome. Then it changes from day to day...sometimes I practice songs I learned and work on rhythm, others I work on theory or school lessons, or try to learn new songs or solos to try new techniques. If on a particular day I am really really busy or just don't feel like playing I still try and get the permutations and scales done because I'm trying to tame my fingers and gain some decent control

 

[beatrix]

well. my practise routine is basically working out with some speed exercises, ALWAYS with the metronome, or learning a song with a difficult solo and focalising on the solo doing it slowly and then increasing the metronome gradually. then i use to improvise with backing tracks using the scales (exercising with a melody in the background) or learning the theory with my academy, with a guitar manual and certainly with the school. that’s it..and you?

 

[Donovan Etue]

I know it’s bad, but I don’t really have a particular practice routine. I tried it for awhile and it ended up feeling like a chore and I didn’t want to do it anymore.
so now, I take techniques and things I want to learn or need to improve on and find a song I love that incorporate them and use that as my practice.
I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and not make it seem so daunting. That’s just me though, I get anxious and frustrated entirely too easy haha.

I'm the same way haha. I know my technique will more than likely improve if I dedicate the time to sitting down, setting up a metronome at say 80bpm, and working on exercises but that quickly wears me out compared to working on my favorite riff that incorporates say string skipping or heavy down picking. If I'm really not understanding a technique I'll go through a find a lesson/exercise for it but for the most part I'll just keep on listening to the song, playing the riff, and trying to match those up to sound as indistinguishable as possible. Getting frustrated at a favorite riff feels better than getting pissed at an exercise after your 100th failed playthrough of it in my experience haha.

 

[Donovan Etue]

But I often Play some exercises while watching a movie or series, Like Syns Alternate etude.

That's about the only time I'll practice a few of the exercises I've memorized from here, Ben Eller, or wherever else I pickup an exercise. It seems to work out better for me too haha. My timing is certainly not impeccable but getting the basic technique down seems easier when I'm not hyper focused on my constant fucking up the part.

 

[Alicia Willis]

I'm the same way haha. I know my technique will more than likely improve if I dedicate the time to sitting down, setting up a metronome at say 80bpm, and working on exercises but that quickly wears me out compared to working on my favorite riff that incorporates say string skipping or heavy down picking. If I'm really not understanding a technique I'll go through a find a lesson/exercise for it but for the most part I'll just keep on listening to the song, playing the riff, and trying to match those up to sound as indistinguishable as possible. Getting frustrated at a favorite riff feels better than getting pissed at an exercise after your 100th failed playthrough of it in my experience haha.

Omg yes ! When you said “getting frustrated at a favorite riff feels better than getting pissed at an exercise” I felt that in my soul !!!! Lol
If it’s a favorite riff I feel more inclined to push through the frustration and get it, as opposed to an exercise. Riffs and songs I feel are more motivating in that sense because you do love them so much !

 

[carlosmqr]

I practice the same way as Alicia and Donovan xD Trying to learn new songs and finding techniques or speeds that I cant actually keep up with...then if I need I go back to a lesson and try to get it better. More recently I try to see a bit the music theory behind the song as well, wich is becoming more interesting as I start to understand a little bit more.

 

[Matt Wildcat]

For the longest time, my main way of practicing was just picking whatever song I fancied and trying to learn it, and I'd just wing it. Of course I realised that doesn't really work all of the time, so I tried going through the lessons, finding some exercises and got myself into a routine of using exercises to warm up and then working on one thing that I could use in a song (Sweeps was one of them). Then that kinda fell off the face of the earth So I'm trying to get back into that sort of thing, and play something fun at the end. Right now I'm going back to the basics and scales, since I have a bad habit of jumping too far ahead too XD

 

[Kat the metalhead]

I do some scales and permutations for about 15 mins. I also stretch my hands and arms too which is a must! Once that’s done i either choose a new song to play and practice it piece by piece or I will just play older songs I’ve learned so I don’t forget them. Some days I even just practice scales so I can play them faster and more clean. I forgot to mention I always practice with a metronome!

 

[Rad Synner]

I have a very specific routine on my side!

-5 min of legato permutations
-5 min of scales done with legato
-5 min of an alternate picking exercise given to me by Bill
-5 min of the alternate picking etude from Syn (I change them every 2 weeks)
-5 min of sweep picking etude from Syn (change every 2 weeks)
-5 min of Legato etude from syn (change every 2 weeks)
-Practicing my downstroke with Metallica songs ( Rotating between blackened, MoP and Creeping Death)
-Practicing my alternate picking rythm technic with Metallica songs as well (Rotating between Fight fire with fire, hardwired, Dyers Eve)

Now the reason I practice a lot of metallica song is because they are really difficult and to me, they are good exercise for rythm technique (at my level).
I also love them so... But yeah I slow them down to really play them well and in an articulate way and build up the speed because they are insane to play at full speed. It has really tightened my technique

For theory, I do them on the side as seperate more written notes. I have a full note book where I wrote down the theory to really understand their concepts I then impliment them in my playing.

I have been more or less doing that as a daily routine (With some adjustments) since june overall but I really found my footing 2 months ago and been maintaining this every day.

It has personnally helped me tremendously and I will only build up upon this formation over time but my initial goal was to find a routine where I dont feel like its a chore. Something that helps me progress yet that I can do on my worst days without it feeling like its too much. Anything I do after that is bonus.

 

[Gemma G.S.]

At this point I don't have a lot of structure in my practices. I've been going through the lessons and going over the ones I don't think I really "got" as well as some others, and practice whatever sounds like fun at the time! Pretty soon I'm gonna try and make myself practice with the good ol' metronome, because I know now how important that is for establishing rhythm. At some point I'll have an actual routine, probably!

 

[chris_is_cool]

At the moment: Start with some song that I know well, just for warming up. Then about 30-60 minutes of exercises, most of the time to a metronome. Usually a bit of chromatics with permutations, and at the moment a ton of exercises with the 3 note per string positions, with different groupings etc... Most of my practice energy goes to alternate picking, getting that really top notch is the #1 priority atm. Then a little bit of legato and tapping and fingerstyle. Economy and sweeping are completely ignored right now.

So that would cover about the first 30-60 minutes of playing for the day. After that, a lot of practicing the songs im working on at the moment, going through older songs, sometimes also just spontaniously learning riffs that I want to do that specific day. VERY little improvisation related so far, but I'm trying to work on that lately.

Overall, I'm averaging around 2 hours in total daily, sometimes up to 3 hours.

Edit: This is the usual structure, but there are deviations. If I grab my guitar and just feel like fucking around and learn some riff that's stuck in my head instead of scale exercises... then I will just fuck around and learn that riff. If I dont feel like turning a metronome on that day... then I'm not doing that. I like having an overall plan on what I want to improve and how to get there, but I'm not forcing myself to anything.