Hi Murs. I want to try and make a good practice schedule but everything i've tried so far isn't going so well. I don't really know how i should be doing it and what i should be doing

Hin Steve

As far as I know 99% of practicing has to deliver results,
it's only 1% chance to do something completely wrong!

So,can you tell me more about your current practicing routine,
what are you focused on etc?

Well i'm trying to focus on stuff like picking and vibrato and more expressive stuff before i work on speed. I figured that if i get my playing sounding really good that by the time i come to play fast it'll come along with me. The thing is i can't really make good licks at the moment they all sound plain and boring and this is also true of my riffs.

Picking
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Practice small picking motion
Practice basic 3nps picking pattern across 2 strings
Practice alternate picking a scale box starting on both down and upstroke
Practice alternate picking across 2 strings
Winding Roads first lick

I have these sort of picking patterns just to help build up a bit of speed and to make sure that i'm doing alternate picking correctly. So for example one pattern that i practice to a metronome is this:

G-------7----7-----------
D---10---10---10-9-7-9 Repeated

As u can see not very big but it's still a pattern


Bending and Vibrato
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My vibrato i think has improved lately. I don't have any patterns i just tend to try and mess around with different vibrato types. I want to get a faster vibrato when i do wide bends but i'm not sure how i should go about doing this. Often i'll just pick one note and really concentrate on my bending and vibrato. Any tips on how to practice this would be great.


GMC Lessons
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Neoclassical Beginner solo (need to get the vibrato right)
Steve Lukather Style
Arch Enemy Style


Scales
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I'm only really comfortable in A minor so right now i'm practicing D minor and F minor to try and get as good at that so a practice for that would look like this

Scale Run through (just go through all the boxes
Boxes 1 - 2 play (improvise in just those 2 boxes)
Boxes 2 - 3 play
Boxes 1 - 3 play

Of course once i can do all of that then i'll expand to 4 then 5 eventually. The thing is i can play in A minor all day long and not make a mistake but i'm not making music either. It's just a whirl of notes basically nothing to it and i've been trying to improve on that for months but i'm getting nowhere. Right now though this is it, i also play some songs now and then when i feel like it and i'll throw on a metronome to just improve to sometimes but of course it never sounds decent so i don't bother trying to make a song or anything

I see the issue Steve,you DO miss some music here!

Listen to good singers to understand the vibrato,
like Stevie Wonder,Tom Jones,even David Coverdale.
Those guys have outstanding vibrato
and more you listen to it the more it comes
natural right from your hands,believe it or not!

As for the scales,keys and feeling boring while playing,
well,you just have to learn more tunes in different keys.
That will expand your theory knowledge
plus you will learn bunch of new licks.
Then you can incorporate it all into Am
cause you said you feel the most comfortable using Am.

Good thing about guitar is that you can play same fingering
and get different same by simply moving up or down the fretboard.
Start one fret lower from your starting point when you play Am scale
and do the same thing with your fingers,
that's G# minor scale, etc.

Hi Muris i'm still a little confused. I do listen to a lot of guitarists who have good vibrato and i try and recreate that sound but of course it's hard because that's them. I don't listen to singers because they don't inspire me at all when referring to guitar playing.

I know about scales and how they work etc as in how to switch keys but i still totally suck at music making. I'm not sure what i need to add into my practice schedule to improve on this. What did you do?

I think it's related to my previous post,
listen more to music in general,not only guitar or guitarists.
Learn some easy songs,see what's going on in there chord progression wise,
take a deep look into lead melodies etc.
Do not be afraid if something you compose sounds like something
you've heard before,that's fully normal and no one can avoid that 100%.

However and I'm afraid you're little bit wrong with
your statement about singers and inspiration,
every instrument (vocal is instrument as well)
should inspire you as long as it's good!!

About vibrato from other guitarists,
it might be hard to recreate some good vibrato if you're
new to vibrato but it'll come natural after a while,just practice.

You know,since we're talking mostly about music,
too much mechanic practice can hide the music side inside of you,
try to make really simple song,2-3 chords.

At the end,all technique we owe if NOTHING
if we have troubles to make some music
that someone will listen to.

Take Slash as an example:
The audience is singing his solos!
They have that vocal quality.

If you can sing what you play, or play what you sing, you've got it.

Check out this topic:
Tip Of The Day #16 (David Wallimann)

Absolutely,I forgot to mention that and thanks for bringing it,
sing AS MUCH as possible!