Practice for me is sporadic because of business and family. I would say I binge practice. I may not play guitar for a day or two and then play for 6 hours. During those long stretches I will usually get involved in an original song or a video on this site. Sometimes I will get a project in my head and I cant get it out until I work on it. The sad part is sometimes I cant work on the ideas in my head and I will forget them. I record a lot of ideas on my phone and can draw them up later on even though I rarely do.

I know that there are certain areas of my playing that need addressed and I will try to focus on one of them and see where the night goes. I might start with a metronome and end up writing a song. Usually when I learn something new it sparks fire to something Id like to record.

Lastly I have realized that speed is an area that I have struggled and realized that I never learned many rhythm groups outside of 8th notes. Anything that I would play other than that would just fit loosely so Rhythm is main focus currently...

yes, there is no secret, that's all.

Great term !!

I definitely binge practice. Great term indeed!

When I don't work, much of the time I just don't want to play. Especially if I'd been doing a lot. I just finished doing a run of the show 'GREASE' (shows everyday, two weeks, 6 days a week, two shows on the weekends) along with a few other original gigs around it. I'm kinda burnt right now but I do feel a 'binge' coming on. There's some stuff I want to do.

This post has been edited by klasaine: Dec 9 2013, 08:07 PM

does "binge" mean compulsive?

Quite a bit Since joining GMC as an instructor, I usually spend the most time on Friday evening and Saturday night/Sunday Morning coming up with bits/drills/licks for the Sat and Sunday 2 Hour Metal Meltdown vid chat lessons.

I try to leave a few hours on fri/sat to do something, see a show, meet up with xbox friends online, etc. But the bulk of my weekend is prepping the lessons. The bonus for me is that it forces me to constantly challenge myself creatively trying to add in new bits while repeating important "foundation" bits, and allows me hours and hours of practice time

During the week, If I'm working on a Guest Solo, I might spend each evening with the guitar working on the solo and then base my weekend lessons on that.

As Doug Lane said (wise beyond his years and possessing musical ability beyond them as well) I try to integrate practice/music in to daily life so that it's less of a separate activity and just something I do every day as part of life. My guitars are right next to me and my recording setup loads as soon as I fire up the computer so it's just waiting on on me

Todd

Your lasts sentences share a very important tip for becoming a more productive musician. Having your set up always ready to start. It should take less than a minute since you say, I will record or play something until you do it.

On a normal day I would practice like every chance I get off work. Like on a break time, lunch break, coffee break. I would grab my guitar & just practice my ass off. Especially after work, so that's like 3 1/2 hours or 4 hours everyday.

But there are times when I feel like I'm repeating the same stuff over and over again then I just put the guitar down and do other things for a week. Then when I go back to the guitar, new ideas start coming out.

Yeah burning your fingers on the fretboard is good but sometimes it can also be the thing that will hurt you or slow your progress down. It's always good to rest every once in a while. In my humble opinion But then that's just me.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/binge

It's like people who don't drink alcohol all week then go crazy at weekend. They're called binge drinkers. A binge is a period of doing a lot of something at once

I'm a binge cake eater

Ben you and me will get along just fine

I do this too!

What I have also noticed is that sometimes I feel like I'm making progress even when I'm not really playing the instrument. What happens is that when I'm surrounded by musicians, do a lot of recording/mixing, read theory or do any other music related stuff that it helps me learn passively. So sometimes when I make a break from playing, I'm thinking - oh man, now I'll need to get my fingers going again - but they just work when I pick up the instrument and I try exploring stuff I learned "passively" which feels really weird as I didn't actually play it on the instrument before (rather just in my head), yet it feels kinda familiar.

and proud !





I'll be 'round yours in a few hours ok ??

This is a very nice post mate. You are talking about creativity, quality over quantity.



hehehe clear now! Thanks mate.




This is so true... real experience, connecting with other people, living the life, add to us an artist much more than 2 hours of repetitive chromatic exercises. It's very important (and difficult) to find a good balance.

So you guys all play a lot.

I wish i could play for 4 hours a day.

I also play almost every day for 2 hours but sometimes there is a day i have no time.

If i dont have to work the i sometimes play 4 to 5 hours.

But i'm Always buissy with work and i also doing school next to my regular job. And i sport 2 times a week.

If i practice then sometimes i'm learning new songs, most of the time repeating lessons.

And sometimes i come to a friend and we listen to backing tracks and improvise over it.

But at the end i really like to play!

grtzz tim

That makes two of us

Frankly, last year has been very hectic to me and I didn't have enough brain energy to practice as productively as I wished.. There are times and times and we all know that. This year, I am really looking forward to working a lot more for myself in terms of musical development, but for that I need to slowly get into the right mindset. Martial arts have helped me a lot with regaining my focus and discipline as there have been a lot of let's say 'bad thoughts' bombarding my spiritual peace.

I'm striving for 3-4 hours of solid practice daily. Not that I didn't have them till now, but I simply didn't feel myself there - it's like I had no purpose with the guitar. Crazy and hard to believe, huh?

I think that it's ok if you practice 2 hours in a very effective and focused way. And let me say that jamming with your friend is as important as practicing. Your are on the right track mate.






Interesting mate! How are you going to organize your practice? What things would you like to cover?

When I rejoined GMC back in September I think it was, I started practicing something like 2 hours a day for a while. Now it's back to my average of something like 10 minutes a day or even less at times!

This post has been edited by Caelumamittendum: Jan 3 2014, 03:23 PM

Too much work?

Can't say it is. I'm without a job at the moment, so I have all the time in the world. I think I just need to get back in the saddle. I think I sort of lose motivation and dedication when I begin to not see any progress. But then... who would see progress with so little practice? The mind works in mysterious ways, doesn't it?