QUOTE (Tank @ Oct 6 2007, 08:42 PM)
Anyone willing to take the plunge?
/T
I've been meaning to get a more rigorous curriculum down for my practicing for ages, but after reading your post you're taking the approach I wish I could and am in the process of developing it (have Petrucci's "Rock Solid Discipline" and have been meaning to map out a practice curriculum along with times. But you've inspired me to finally work it up.
So from where I'm starting:
I play seriously about 20 minutes of practicing a day (until my roommate gets home from work) then it's doodling on the guitar for about 2 hours a night, just riffing, be it exercises or bridges. The weekend can result in an easy 4 hours + a day.
I woudl consider myself an "intermediate" guitarist by technique, a "beginner" in theory, and an absolute "novice" when it comes to composing/creativity (never really tried aside from letting the hands wander).
I can play some of the simpler Iron Maiden solos, all rhythm parts/bridges, etc. I'm getting more into leads, but have difficulty sitting down and making myself learn more difficult passages when the timing doesn't leap off the page at me and will usually distract myself with something else.
I'm not in a band and am really kind of trying to figure out what I want my sound to sound like
. I've arrived at it (finally) after a year of playing much more seriously than the alt rock BS of my highschool days (I could play all of Bush - Sixteen Stone, so I knew a couple chords
). The sound I'm going to go for is somewhere between old Metallica, Blind Guardian, and Lamb of God (I like thrash and REALLY like Blind Guardian's sound. The tone on Testament by LOG and their simple melodies that are so aggressive appeal to me, also lots of their lead licks aren't played in the high frets. So I'm putting my pennies together to get an ESP Eclipse 2 with the ESP 81 (
and 60 (N). LOG uses Duncans, and I love their tone, but Blind Guardian really wins w/ 81's. I'll grow past thrash in general but I feel like it's a good jumping off point for coming up with my own compositions since they're typically less complex. Played it next to an LP Studio, and it's slightly more expensive and I enjoyed it much more than the Studio.
As for what got me playing guitar again, I started at 13 just to "be cool" with a Squier and a fender Bullet amp. Went to college, didn't pick it up at all really. Got out of college, started working and began to feel the need for a hobby that wasn't going out and drinking. Bought DragonForce "Inhuman Rampage" randomly from Target and said "Go on ebay and get another guitar" so I did. Fast forward about 1.5 years and 5 guitars later, I've arrived at my new hobby. Wanted to be able to play Through the Fire and Flames, but have recognized it now for the ridiculousness it is (albeit fun to listen to).
So, personal biography aside, this is the background I'm coming from so this is the program I'm coming up with, I figure I'll go with 2 week rotations, hitting incremental improvements all along the way.
Gameplan:
I'm going to shoot for an hour and a half a week night, 2 hours saturday, and 2.5 hours sunday. I'm going to get a notebook to record my progress. Still want to get my speed up, can play 16ths in the Petrucci chromatic exercise cleanly at (I think ) 148, I want to get this up over 170 eventually. So with my 12 hours, here's how I want to spend them.
Weekday workout:
-Warmup, theory 15 minutes (learning the fretboard)
walking up the fretboard on each string singing each note as I play it.
-Warmup, Petrucci Chromatic run, ramping up speed from 80 to about 120 w/ nome at 5 minute intervals for 15 mins total.
-Practice a scale (have 2 of the guitar grimoire series books, going to get into them and really map out what I want to learn) for 15 minutes with nome.
-Pavels alt picking exercise 4 for 15 minutes w/ nome.
-Practice some kind of legato 15 mins
-Practice sweep picking for 15 minutes (Pavel and Gabriel both have good ones, will probably go with Gabriel's)
Saturday - learn a song.
I can say aside from 90's alt rock trash, I can't play a song from start to finish. Can play a couple minutes of several songs, I need to learn the solos.
5 minute theory warm up
15 minute speed warmup w/ chromatics.
I'm going to start with "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden. 1h40m.
Sunday -
weekday warm up (theory and speed) - 30 mins
Improvise - 30minutes, just let my hands wander, try to come up with riffs on my own.
Practice song - 1h, pick up practice from the day before.
alt picking exercise - 15 mins
sweep pickign exercise - 15 mins.
I feel this is a good place to start, I'll be editing this when I put more thought into it.
Suggestions are welcomed! Esp. w/ getting into improvisation/composition.
Sorry for the novel.
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