Hello again and once again thanks for looking at my topic here.

This is not really a lesson as first planned, but more of a general advice from me - hope some of it is somewhat useful.

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Introduction

My first lesson was a bit rough on the edges and very long and probably a bit badly arranged. This time around I'll try and give you some advice as to what a good warm up section should include and then you can do the search for warm up exercises yourself or come up with your very own exercises. The latter is a very good idea. It doesn't have to be super complicated exercises you come up with, but coming up with your own exercises will help you develop your creative side too.

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...So how should one approach practicing?

I for one have a bit too many electric objects in my room, which often keeps me from playing guitar. That could be the play station, computer or even just watching the TV. As I only have this one room, I cannot really go somewhere else and play the guitar, though that is probably the best solution to that. So, if you have a place or a room where there is no television, computer etc. that could potentially disturb you, go there and practice – it will be easier for you to concentrate on playing guitar. If you are stuck in either a room of your house, your parents’ house or a one room flat/apartment, you might as well embrace the opportunities that the TV, computer etc. offers.

I for one put some money into finding some good speakers for my computer and plugged my guitar through my pedal board into my computer. This means that if I find a good lesson or I suddenly come up with an interesting riff or lick in my head, all I have to do is turn on the pedal board and play the guitar, easily record and hear the riff or lick.

So this goes out as my first advice:

1. Do not blame the things/objects around you. They are not the cause of you not playing enough. Often it is just our own lack of discipline. If you have no other room to play guitar in, embrace the TV, the computer etc. Buy some Instructional DVDs, play along with them on the TV or watch some videos on GMC.net on the computer and play along to hose. Have your tabs or sheets on your computer, just one click away. And if you really want a good practice session in front of the computer, close all programs that aren’t needed.

All this may sound like either a small or a large step to you, so once again your approach to getting your discipline going may differ from other guitarists’ approaches. Just keep in mind that you are not supposed to be the best (either physically or mentally) over night – you probably have a lot of years ahead of you. So if you are like me and have a hard time keeping away from doing other non-guitar-things, just take small steps. The first step could be to just be concentrated on playing guitar for 5 minutes, the next day you do it for 7 minutes, and you then work your way up to whatever length you want your practice session. I for one say that a concentrated practice session 4 times a week of approximately 1-2 hours will work just as good as playing 8 hours a day. No one is saying you cannot fool around with the guitar at other times, but a good 1-2 concentrated hours every second day will work wonders.



My second advice:

2. Get your discipline going step by step, and don’t “overheat” your playing – a good couple of concentrated hours every during the week will work just as good – guitar playing is both a physically and mentally demanding discipline, your whole body needs time off the guitar every once in a while to let what you have been practicing soak in. Once you return you might have improved without really doing anything. That’s the wonders of the mind and body.

...What should your warm up section include?

Before you go into practicing or playing the guitar, doing some stretches or physical exercises are a good idea. We’ve all had Physical Education in school, so we all probably know a few exercises. These should mainly focus on the arms, hands, fingers and maybe even your back and other areas that could potentially become a bit sore when playing guitar.

Third advice:

3. Do some physical exercises before going into practicing to get your body nice and warm. And while you are playing guitar, try not to bend your back too much, but sit nice and straight.

Now you’ve picked up the guitar, and you wonder where to go from here. Well, it isn’t really that difficult, and I guess most people can figure this one out. What you need to do now is get both your fingers and both hands used to the guitar, fret board, strings etc. Sure you’ve played guitar many times before, but for your mind and hand to once again find recognition on the guitar and keeping that up, you’ve got to have a section where you slowly go through the frets and strings in different manners.

In my warm up section I include such things as 2 notes per string patterns, 3 notes per string patterns and 4 notes per string patterns. I feel these, to me, are the most common patterns. Furthermore I like to apply stretches to my warming up. Stretches between each and every finger, because getting every finger going properly adds a great lot to your guitar playing. These stretches are very individual – some can do large stretches other can’t – so find out what works best for you, is it whole tone between each finger or maybe more between some?

Fourth advice:

4. Warm up with patterns that you think you will be playing throughout your practice session – you will mentally and physically be ready for them before going into real rehearsal of those 2-3-4 notes per string patterns, as you’ve already been through those.

…and while you play the above, be aware of your picking strokes and your picking technique. If you’re working on alternate picking or downstrokes-only or economy picking, why not incorporate that?

Fifth advice:

5. Incorporate techniques you know you’re going to use into your warm up section.

You may want to do some chord-work too – preferably chords with greater stretches. You could either strum them or pick each string individually to hear that you are fretting each note as it should be fretted. This will also help your fingers work together if you are playing patterns that require more than one note played at a time.
6. Play some chords to get your fingers working together.

Without further ado, I’m just going to sum up a bit in a few lines:

1. Utilize the things around you to practice – the TV, Computer etc. Don’t blame them for distracting you.
2. Get your discipline going slowly – you don’t need to rush things or “overplay” your guitar.
3. Keep your back straight while playing, don’t bend it too much.
4. Warm up without your guitar to get your body nice and warm
5. When warming up on your guitar, make sure you get as many aspects as possible covered:
- - - a. Alternate picking to get your picking hand going
- - - b. Stretches between each finger
- - - c. X notes per string patterns
- - - d. Stretch-chord work

Great tips man, very useful

This is Wiki material.
I mean, I'd hate info like this to be buried in only a week or two..

ACtually it was more or less just thoughts from the top of my head. Could arrange it all better.

Yeah, but that's what a Wiki is all about!
Either you, or someone else, could re-arrange it afterwards.
Anyway, just a thought.

Thanks for the tips Caelumamittendum ,there is a lot of great toughts.

Nice lesson, i think it is really going to help me, as i sometimes am a little undisciplined

Jeg tager lige resten på dansk, da det bliver for svært at formulere mig
Det der "pedal board" du snakker om, hvad er det? og behøver man ikke andet end det for at optage lyd (altså foruden sine højtalere og sin computer selvfølgelig), og hvor meget koster sådan et?

This post has been edited by PassionPlay: Jun 23 2008, 08:37 AM

I think this is some very good advices Caelumamittendum I agree on the disicplin thing, also I like to play 2-3 hours of concentrated practice too, rather than many hours of less structured practice

Well, det kommer jo meget an på, hvilke outputs du har på dit pedalbræt. Jeg anskaffede mig for mange år en Boss GT6 multieffektprocessor. Når det så er sagt, så er det helt sikkert ikke det bedste valg. Men altså, der er jo både right output og left output og en masse andet fis, som betyder, at jeg bare kan smække et stereo stik i dér og så i line in på computeren. Det gør det hele lidt lettere - at optage osv, og så får du hellere ikke så meget baggrundsstøj med, som kunne være tilfældet ved at optage med mikrofon fx. Det er min umiddelbare oplevelse.

cool advices there.

I have organized a room specifically for my computer and my guitars.. i need the computer in order to practice the lessons here on GMC, so i dont feel it as being a distraction.

However, i've noticed how much warming up really does.. if you dont warm up, you will play like crap. FACT!
Yesterday i had a practice session and did my warming up.. i practiced an hour or two and then took a break.. after coming back from some shopping, my fingers were itching to play again, and i totally forgot to warm up..

Warming up never entered my mind at the time, and i played horribly resulting in me being angry with myself.. at least until i realised i hadn't warmed up..

Edited for language - Smells

This post has been edited by Smells: Jun 23 2008, 09:15 AM

Det lyder godt. Er det en løsning man skal bruge mange penge på? Det er ikke fordi jeg ikk vil ofre penge på det, jeg har bare ikke den vilde opsparing at tærre på lige i øjeblikket.

Well, umiddelbart skulle jeg ikke mene, at det er en løsning, man behøver at ofre mange penge på. Men "mange" penge er jo et vidt begreb.

Jeg mener at have læst, at der er et par stykker her på siden, som bruger en GT8, som er modellen efter min. Der kommer vist også snart en GT10, hvis den ikke allerede er kommet. Nyprisen for de nye GT'er er vist omkring 4000 kr, hvis jeg husker ret. Det gav jeg i sin tid for min GT6 - man kan så sige, at man får rigtig mange muligheder (dvs. mulighed for alle de effekter, du kunne tænke dig). Selvfølgelig er der folk, der vil argumentere for, at multieffektprocessornes effekter falmer i forhold til almindelige pedalers effekter - det er jo så en smagssag. Hvis man køber brugt, kan man dog finde dem i alle prislag (GT8 - 1700 kr - http://www.dba.dk/asp/soegning/detail.asp?...nceid=55181711).

Herefter er det bare at have det rette kabel, så man kan koble den til sin computer, og så selvfølgelig et jackabel til mellem guitar og pedal - og så skulle den være i vinkel.

Okay, tak for hjælpen
4000 er selvfølgelig en del, men det kommer igen meget an på hvor meget man brænder for sin guitar

Selvfølgelig, som sagt kan man købe GT'eren brugt. Det helt store indenfor den slags skulle være PODXT live, som vist er en tand dyrere. Når det så er sagt, så fås den slags selvfølgelig i alle prislag, fra 6-700 kr og op efter alt afhængig af, hvad man ønsker. Man kan sikkert også gøre det med ganske almindelige pedaler - med det rette kabel, som kan lave et stort han jackstick om til et lille stereo og den slags. Men det har jeg ikke sat mig ind i - men der findes jo diverse ting af den slags, der gør det muligt at koble alt muligt mærkeligt sammen

Ja, det må man bare få en af sine HTX venner til at hjælpe sig med

Hey guys, any chance of using English please, so we can all pick up on whats being asked, it could be useful to others as well? thanks

Yeah sorry, it was just something very technical, and i couldn't express myself clearly in english

Ever heard of PMs ?
You could easily have sent him a personal message, and kept the Danish conversation away from this public topic.
Next time, please.

Sorry for that, guys

He asked what my "pedal board" was and how to hook it up with the computer. Price and a bit of everything on that one I said that I use a GT6, but there are newer GT-models, and that Pod XT live probably is THE multi-effect to choose. They all come in various price-range, and we agreed that it was somehow cool!

No problem guys - just as Chris said using English would have allowed others to possibly contribute as well. But not a big issue .

Cheers,
Tony