How do you practice?

[lppier]

Just curious about the practicing habits of the forumers here - given that most of us have to work a day job, what are some of your tips for getting the most of the limited practice time you have?

For me, something that I use is the looper, to immediately hear the phrase that I just played, so that I can correct myself if it’s off.

Thanks!

[The Bard Rocks]

Nothing electric here. I play erratically, but when I have a gig with new or underused material, I play through a lot of potential selections, make selections for what I want to use, work out arrangements, get the instrumentals and vocals nailed down, decide upon the key and what instrument I want to use, then work on anything electronic, such as harmonys.

[TBman]

Most of the time I will just practice a tune I'm learning. Sometimes I will load the mp3 of the original into Transcribe! to slow down sections that are giving me a problem and play along and bring it up to speed that way, other times I wil just practice tough spots in slow motion.

On other nights I will do some arpeggios for my right hand work.

[El Conquistador]

I never practice. I do play a lot.

Steve

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=552325

[KevWind]

Standing up mostly

[LemonCats]

I just started seriously learning guitar the past half year(Before that I was just a total madman doing completely random things on a fender strat that an old friend left at my house..for the last 3? years..Yikes. I didnt even know how to tune it correctly lol)

So now I usually start off by going up the chromatic scale across the strings and then down the whole neck using pinky and pointer finger stretches once out of the first position. Just to warm up my left hand sorta speak

After that I just try to learn the songs I want to learn, via reading tabs, watching videos, etc. And that takes up 90% of my guitar time
Oh and learning music theory for guitar is the other half of that 90%

The remaining 10% is playing what I've learned and throwing it all together mixing the separate ingredients of the little i've learned into some weird chaotic soup of madness haha but enjoying it

....while being sad that It'll be awhile before I'm able to actually play what i'm hearing in my head

To just be able to play the dang guitar like i'd assume we all wanted to do when we first started. Not just the things we've learned but play the original tunes in our heads..like freestyle sort of speak
or to be able to compose

[JonPR]

If I was making the most of my practice time, I wouldn't be here typing this...

[rick-slo]

Work on playing tunes. Rarely feel the need or desire for working on separate practice exercises.

[Glennwillow]

I don't practice, I play songs I like to play and sing. If I pick up the guitar and play, I keep my skills up. If I don't, my playing suffers.

I have never played exercises or scales. To me, that's just no fun. I want to make music. Nobody has ever paid me to play scales for them.

- Glenn

[Pitar]

I just play as I do these days. Staying sharp means always playing.

[seannx]

One strategy I picked up from my youngest son (a music major at UCSD) is to stream shows (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) with the subtitles on, while I practice playing songs, and often sing, too. If I miss something, I can pause and go back. With this method I get more practice time in, and don't waste so much time just watching the shows.

I work on new songs whilst maintaining old ones.

I spend time on skills and theory which has made me a far better player because I can attempt more difficult songs.

So as an example I will play some blues stuff but recite the intervals and identify which scales I am using. I absolutely hate not knowing theoretical what I am doing but I certainly don’t believe it’s necessary for everyone to do it because some far better players than I play by ear.

I continuously brush up on theory and slowly add to it as and when I can so at the moment I’m looking at the diminished scales.

Sometimes I try some jazz but invariably I leave it alone because I have never really enjoyed the genre. That said I can play many ‘jazz’ chords simply because I made an effort to learn them.

[Silly Moustache]

Nah, I don't "practice" as such, not sure I ever did - never did anything disciplined or formal about learning to play guitar.

I get together with the boys the day before the club night to decide what we are going tp play, and try to remember or modify the arrangements, and I like working out new numbers, either for the trio or for my solo repertoire.

I had a solo gig last night so last weekend I decided on my playlist and went through them (with chat) to time them, and did the same again yesterday afternoon.

Sometimes, when alone, I'll pick up my Waterloo, or whatever and noodle. Sometimes I don't play for three or four days.

My playing is in a bit of a rut presently.

[DukeX]

I just play/practice my own stuff. That's enough to keep my busy.