How do you practice/play alone?
 

Just curious, I have always played guitar by listening to whatever song I’m interested in and attempting to play along with the music. I enjoy playing with the original artist. Anyone else do this?

Sure. Lots of people do this playing along with YouTube videos or MP3s.

That's one of the reasons that some amps have the inputs for your iPod, etc.

Now, let's listen to the old fogies tell us about wearing out 45s and LPs on their record players doing this back in the good oi' days. ;)

I have to confess to being more of an electrical player, but my solution works just as well with my acoustic-electrics.
I used a guitar processor in place of an amp. In this case it's a Vox Tone Lab.
It does have an acoustic amp setting, and that's where my acoustics get their voices.
The Tone Lab feeds a mixer that allows me to play along with a CD player, turntable, lap top, etc. Then the mixer outputs to a stereo amp where I can select between head phones or speakers. With the head phones I can practice any time time at pretty much any volume that I want.
There are a number of processors out there that an acoustic player might employ. You will need to add some form of pickup to your instrument, but there is a lot of variety in that area also.

Not for me. I have song in my head and generally have a go at working it out - interspersed with stuff I know. Eventually it's there and I've enjoyed the journey.

I never call it practice because it's a pleasure and I don't do it for any other reason than I want to . . .

It's been like this for the last 55 years I've played (at) guitar.

It's one of Life's pleasures and long may it continue . . .

Hi, I am certainly one of those old fogies that used to struggle with putting needles on records !

Then running the cassette tape back and forth and writing down the words as best I could hear them.

The music I was listening to were mostly blues and bluegrass and the chord progressions were rarely challenging, but the words were the challenge for me.

Things are now different, so if I hear a song that haunts me, I simply google for the lyrics and/or chords (if I can't immediately hear the progression), then cut and paste the info onto a word document.

Test it, and (often) correct it)

Then format it in 14 point and position the chords over the lyrics in the way that I choose to do it.

I'll then practice it at home - amend the key as necessary, sometimes change the lyrics to suit myself, and note the intro, solo points and outro, and print out three copies - one for me and one for the chaps in the trio.

Then we'll work it out, and change /adjust as necessary.

For me, a song must be able to be written and read on only one page

All this may change if Article 13 really goes through as then all the lyrics and chord websites and YouTube will be blocked from me and everyone else in the EU.

Indeed many of my YouTube Videos (and I have over 200) may be taken down.

I confess that I rarely sit and practice nowadays - but I get together every Wednesday with "the boys".

This year - I am hoping that I might start another musical adventure with another band or revise me duo. We'll see.

This is me exactly, except I'm still able to read Arial 11 point font and I just print one copy. I practice from the sheet until I've memorized the words - I never bring my binders of songs out for a performance.

This. Every word.

If you want to improve your singing a digital recorder is a must. It will tell you how good...or how bad you sound and what to work on. Of course a good singing coach to get you started, after that record everything to mark progress. Play along with YOutube backing tracks...thousands of them to choose from. Get a looper pedal. This way you can record only one...or two...or three chord progressions to work soloing over. Experiment with major, minor, dim, scales, one over the other to see how they sound and work or not work together. Work on licks you learned and how to incorporate them. This way you are not dependent on undependable people to practice with.:)

I play finger style so when I hear a tune that I want to play I'll hunt down the tab for it, either free or I'll buy it.

If I have a song that I want to learn/play along with, I immediately find the chord sheets for it online and print those out. Then, find a decent tutorial (or two) on YouTube to work out the tough parts. Then find a good acoustic cover to practice and play along with.

Lastly, I get ahold of a digital recording of the song and play it through some studio editing software my son gave me, which will separated it into its individual tracks (doesn’t always work). I can then play along with just drum and bass tracks or just the piano or vocals, etc.

Beats the metronome app on my phone.

Similar here. Tab or (especially if I might want to sing along) sheet music for this flat picker.

Only when I'm playing in a cover band.

If I'm doing a cover as part of my set, I use the original to get a sense of the melody and phrasing, then perfect it on my own, adapting the arrangement and flow to fit my style of playing and singing.

I use a program called capo on a Mac to play along and learn the song. It slows it down as well as being able to go over each part in a loop. I then write out a chord chart..

Tom

You've described my approach to guitar enjoyment exactly !

This is what I do as well. I have no interest in copying note for note.

When I do, its youtube time and I pray that Marty Shwartz has a video on it.

If not, its hours of work. I learned Jessica by the Allman brothers this way and took half a day to just get the basics down.