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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ How Much Do You Practice?
Posted by: jammer91 Jun 17 2007, 11:25 PM
iM just wondering....
How much time do you guys practice in total PER WEEK?
Me, usually about a total of 3 hours per week.... lol i know that sucks, and my summer goal is to push it up to about 10 hours per week!!!
Everyday im gonna post how much progress i have made by posting how long i practiced that day.
Even you guys can do that too to see if youve met your expectations.
GooD LUck!
Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 17 2007, 11:36 PM
well its good to see that you are setting a goal of 10 hours per week. the more practice the better but perhaps you should try to up that if you are truely serious about being a great guitarist, personally during the school year i give it a good 2 hours everyday plus when ever i don;t have much to do ill sit around and doodle with the git maybe another hour ish? during the summer when there is nothing to do all day i could end up spending 5-7 hours a day on the guitar. Wake at 10, eat, 10:30-12 play guitar, eat, 1-4 play guitar 5-7 do whatever, 7-8 play guitar, 8 head out for evenin. This is a basic days schedule it changes but as you can see at least 5 hours get played per day and i don't consider myself to be anything special. your improvement will also depend how well your practice. this is just my opinion im sure youll get some others
Posted by: FretDancer69 Jun 17 2007, 11:43 PM
i try to keep a minimum goal of 5 hours per day.
5 x 7 = 35 hours per week.
Posted by: spdalton Jun 17 2007, 11:49 PM
Ugh, I wish I had the time to be able to practice that much every day!
I have about 3-4 hours of school work each night, and by the time that is done I have no energy left to practice efficiently. Holidays are coming up soon though 
So hopefully I can get 15 hours a week or so.
Posted by: Owen Jun 17 2007, 11:51 PM
I'm a bit on and off, today I practiced for 11 hours, yesterday I only did 2.
Other times I can go weeks without practice.
Posted by: FretDancer69 Jun 18 2007, 04:16 AM
yea, sometimes i dont practice that much, sometimes i feel very tired, and other times i simply dont have any inspiration at all. 
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 04:18 AM
Atleast 5 hours a day, when i work, but when i dont its like 12 hours or so. Those are just basic estimates not exact. Somtimes i cant even get one day of practice in because i work al lday or something, but other than that i think i get neough practice time in!!
Posted by: lespaulrocker Jun 18 2007, 04:19 AM
i try to get 40 a week, but usually im somewhere between 25 and 30
Posted by: Lurgen Jun 18 2007, 05:38 AM
I manage to squeeze in half an hour every single night minimum during the week, and four to six hours total on the weekends. Early on I discovered that short, 30 minute bursts of practice worked well for me, so I often sit down to practice two or three times in a single day. I also have several guitars, so I leave at least one upstairs in the living room. That way I can pick it up and fiddle around while watching TV or waiting for dinner to cook. Those little 5 minute sessions make a surprising difference to my day
I'm not sure boosting my practice sessions to 5 hours a day would make much difference either - there is a limit to how fast you can learn something. Plus I'd hate for what is intended to be a hobby to take over my life! That, and I don't think I've had five hours to dedicate to any one thing since finishing high school (many years ago!).
A couple of my friends have started learning the guitar as a result of me picking it up, and I suggested they aim for a 30 minute structured practice session every day and a 30 minute "fun" session each day.
Edit: So to answer the question directly, I practice for 8 - 15 hours per week depending on my workload.
Posted by: Ibanex Jun 18 2007, 05:48 AM
Didn't practice for 3 days now. My mom took my guitar away
Posted by: Lurgen Jun 18 2007, 06:01 AM
Ouch. I was without a (good) guitar for four weeks and it drove me up the wall!
Posted by: JOhn Jun 18 2007, 07:30 AM
don't practice much because my parents want me to study so much every day
Posted by: Marraboy Jun 18 2007, 09:08 AM
Dudes and Dudettes...
I try to practice a couple of hours each night. It makes a difference. I think if I went for 5 hours I would get sick of it and smash my guitar up!
JT
Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 18 2007, 03:20 PM
I try to practice a couple of hours each night. It makes a difference. I think if I went for 5 hours I would get sick of it and smash my guitar up!
JT
I'm travelling on business and can't play again until Friday
Posted by: aerohit Jun 18 2007, 04:04 PM
Its summer vacations here, and I am spending them here in my institute itself. That gives me the freedom to practice all night long...yippie 
Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 18 2007, 04:21 PM
Andrew you should take your guitar with you on business thats what id do, if its practical.. i havn't had alot of time to practice this week due to EXAMS! AHHHHHHHHHh
Posted by: stratman33 Jun 18 2007, 05:03 PM
I normally get about one hour a day. I dont see what the point is of practicing like someone said 12 hours a day!Guitar is one of my hobbys, not my whole life! I'm also progressing great amounts with just playing one hour per day. I probably would go to 2 hours, but i have my baseball tournament, and thats about every day. And i'm in the car alot driving to the places, and when i get home, boy am i tired! I normally sleep for a bit and then watch TV, play guitar, go swimming and thats my day normally.
Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 18 2007, 05:07 PM
thats what id do, if its practical.. i havn't had alot of time to practice this week due to EXAMS! AHHHHHHHHHhKind of a pain travelling like that. Even with a hard case. Too big to carry on, so you have to check it and hope it doesn't get dinged up.
I'm practicing more than I had been in the past, but not as much as I should. I'm putting in maybe 30 minutes at a time a couple of days a week. Then whenever I let the dog out I pick the guitar up and practice my scales.
Posted by: Robin Jun 18 2007, 05:13 PM
Minimum 1 hour. If I didnt have a job I'd probably play all day, but I dont have enough time/energy to play all day. But I guess I usually play 1-3 hours, sometimes more, but I also play 1 hour with my band almost every day, but I mostly just play riffs when playing with my band, a couple of difficult chords maybe, nothing special really.
Anyway, somewhere beetween 1-5 hours every day or something.
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 05:31 PM
See thats why you only play that much dude. Because its your hobby! Guitar is my life so i HAVE to play that much, I NEED to play that much.
Posted by: The Uncreator Jun 18 2007, 05:51 PM
A Normal day i get about 5 hours of practice, on a day with nothing to do, no plans or work, i can get up to 12-15 hours, and thats about twice a week at most.
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 05:56 PM
Lucky 12-15 thats sounds so much fun!!
I think the most I have ever practiced in one day though. Would be 16 hours. I stayed up late that night
!1
Posted by: The Uncreator Jun 18 2007, 06:09 PM
My record is 27 hours, that was when i got a new amp AND Guitar.
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 06:18 PM
yea if i try that then well i wont get bored. Ill get to the point that it feels like i am gonna pass out for staying up for so long. So if i could i probably would. I would ahve to take like caffeine pills and stuff to stay awake, but it would be worth it
Posted by: mattacuk Jun 18 2007, 07:18 PM
I do 3 hours a day intensive practice. I really push myself during that time. My hand generally feels like its going to fall of afterwards 
And on that subject, I think when people talk about practicing X so many hours, I often wonder exactly what those hours are filled with. I should imagin 2-3 hours intensive training a day would be alot more benificially than a long drawn out session !:)
Posted by: preownedguitar Jun 18 2007, 07:42 PM
Practice guitar till you play one full song without any mistakes, then take a guitar solo you've never tried and play it till you perfect it in your opinion. Then practice improvising and things you feel uncomfortable with.
Could be 1-4 hours depending on what you choose.
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 07:43 PM
Mattuck explain yourself on "intensive training". Do you push down harder on the frets haha sorry excuse that one. Practice one thing over and over and over and over etc. etc.. Do you sit there and do legato non-stop literally non-stop for an hour or two?
Posted by: mattacuk Jun 18 2007, 08:53 PM
haha sorry excuse that one. Practice one thing over and over and over and over etc. etc.. Do you sit there and do legato non-stop literally non-stop for an hour or two?Ryan, yes pretty much. I start off with sweeping shapes for roughly 2 hours. I repeat the patterns for an thing up to half an hour a shape. Then i move onto alternate picking exercises, where I will play something over and over untill its perfect.
It just suits me i guess !
I know everyone has there own way of doing things, which is great !
Posted by: Smikey2006 Jun 18 2007, 08:58 PM
God i wish i had the time to make guitar my whole life and practice like some of you guys do i hate school. my plan is to finish and open a guitar shop and then play allll day long
Posted by: Ryan Jun 18 2007, 09:54 PM
i hate school. my plan is to finish and open a guitar shop and then play allll day long Sounds awesome dude!!
Posted by: Resurrection Jun 18 2007, 09:55 PM
Some serious practice times are being quoted here!
I'm trying hard to maintain 1 hour each evening during the week and a bit more at weekends, so maybe 10 hours a week in total. Like some of the other people who've contributed to this thread, for me it's a question of balancing the time I spend on guitar with all the other aspects of my life. I admire the dedication of anyone prepared to devote 8+ hours a day to guitar practice, but it's just not feasible for me. On the plus side, I find that having limited practice time does motivate me to make the very best use of what time I have. One of the really inspirational aspects of a lot of the material on GMC is how each lesson gives many different areas of guitar playing an intense and simultaneous work-out!
Posted by: Eat-Sleep-andJam Jun 18 2007, 10:07 PM
I like to get 2 hours a day in . School is almost out and life is good right now so the guitar will be played all summer. Im getting to that point were my peers and my guitar teacher, etc etc consider me talented. But as soon as I relize I have talent thats when i go down hill so I like to think of myself as terrible in order to acomplish the goals I want to accomplish. so overall about 14-20 hours a week.
- john
Posted by: Scott Gentzen Jun 18 2007, 10:23 PM
i hate school. my plan is to finish and open a guitar shop and then play allll day long No time to play when you're running a business. Unless you don't have any customers.
Posted by: JVM Jun 18 2007, 11:24 PM
I'm not sure - I sit around and play all day pretty much. I'd say upwards of 6 hours a day, but it's not structured or anything, and kind of off and on. However I have noticed big improvements since I started doing it, so I guess it's working
Posted by: Lurgen Jun 19 2007, 01:57 AM
I think the biggest insight this thread has given me so far is that a huge number of our forum regulars are still in school
Posted by: edgor67 Jun 19 2007, 02:15 AM
Since I started in Nov I'm up to 2 hours a night. My alarm goes off at 4am. I'm home from work by 4pm. I take care of my grown up stuff and dinner with my lovely wife and sneak off to practice. I do scales,riffs, blues 1,2,3, and am working on Metal Blues and a Hendrix CD Rom. I feel bad when I'm whipped and don't practice (like tonight). I'll get back into my routine tomorrow. I had a busy weeked with travel so I'm road lagged. I'll evolve to 3 hours a night. I have to stay up until 1030 or 1100pm or I woun't sleep through the night. Don't get old. Sleep becomes a necessary inconvience. ROCK ON my friend.
g
Posted by: Ryan Jun 19 2007, 02:32 AM
Yea i just graduated. So thats why im able to get that nice 5 hours in a day, and sometimes a nice 12, but once im out on my own. I think it might drop
.
Posted by: Lurgen Jun 19 2007, 03:45 AM
I hate you so much
Seriously though, enjoy the time while you have it. Work steals so much of your life that it's not funny
Posted by: Ryan Jun 19 2007, 04:03 AM
Seriously though, enjoy the time while you have it. Work steals so much of your life that it's not funny
Yea i work to, but its only 30-40 hours a week!!
Posted by: jammer91 Jun 19 2007, 11:09 PM
Today i was REALLY REALLY busy going out with family and doing some errands (such as going to school on a holiday and arguing with my principal to let me drop all my science subjects and take commerce subjects).
I spent like half an hour looking up lessons on GMC and viewing them.
When i really got down to practicing it lasted for one hour.
Posted by: CrashOops Jun 21 2007, 08:02 AM
for about 4 days a week after work I'll come home, play for maybe half an hour or so, eat dinner, read up on gmc for a bit, practice some more. some days it's only that half an hour, others I look at the clock and realize it's bed time. the other 3 days of the week is usually spent with my g/f, and since I cant see her except for those days ( she works different shifts than I do) my guitar playing suffers on those days. I try and make it up on the days I do play though
Posted by: dimeisgod Jun 21 2007, 05:59 PM
lol i had a 97 average at school i started playing guitar and now its about 70 ... parents mad as hell but wtf this is what i enjoy doing!
Posted by: zubeh Jun 21 2007, 06:56 PM
Yeah I hate how much school interferes with guitar. I'm lucky to get 2 hours a night during the school year. Over the summer though I get anywhere from 4-6 hours a day. I've realized how important guitar is to me though so I'm going to try and get a 3-4 hour minumum during sophmore year.
I'm so jealous of the people who can do 10-15 (or 27..wow). After 6 hours I get tired of guitar, hopefully I'll build up endurance though.
Posted by: dimeisgod Jun 22 2007, 05:37 PM
I'm so jealous of the people who can do 10-15 (or 27..wow). After 6 hours I get tired of guitar, hopefully I'll build up endurance though.
yeah.. im only in ninth grade and its hard tget a good practice every day without damaging my average.
about the 10-12 hours: dont hurt yourself, better of playing 1 hour a day than hurting yourself and never being able to play again.
Posted by: Semmelknoedel Jun 27 2007, 09:25 PM
I'm practicing about an hour a day. sometimes a little bit more, so it comes up to 8 or 9 hours a week. It' s not relly much, but i think its ok.
Posted by: The JEM Jun 28 2007, 09:55 PM
i dropped a lot of programs so now i practice about 3 hours a day in school and since its summer i play like 5 - 8 hours, sometimes less or more but that's an average
Posted by: benhowell Jun 28 2007, 10:00 PM
Without spoiling the party, its not necessarily how many hours of practice you do, but what you practice that is important.
If you have a scheduled routine based on scales, harmony, theory, arppegios, jamming, composition and learning songs/standards, you will get beyond what anyone will by just mindlessly jamming.
I wish i had a more structured routine when i first started playing, it would have saved alot of time later on!
-Ben
Posted by: tonymiro Jun 28 2007, 11:53 PM
As with Ben I'm an advocate of structure. I aim for a minimum 2 hours a day (occasionally manage anywhere up to 8) to structure it.
I try to do minimum each day structured 20mins warm up, 20 mins all scales and modes plus 20 mins focused on one , 30 mins technique then 30 mins harmony and song/melody/riffs/soloing. If I can go beyond 2 hours I tend at the moment to focus more on technique as I've got into bad habits. I also try to do harmony/music theory away from the guitar for 30 mins (including reading music). When I'm on holiday and away from my guitar then I try to do at least 1 hour theory including visualising the fret board and patterns and arpeggios on it; chords, scales, modes and formulae; triads and inversions and the like. Just started trying to vocalise/sing scores/music to improve my sight reading and ability to listen, visualise and hear notes and music.
Sadly I can't say I stick to the above as my daughter (7 years old bless her) can be pretty demanding at times.
I do however think Ben is spot on - structure, at least for me, prevents me from aimless meandering.
Cheers
Tony
Posted by: SLASH91 Jun 29 2007, 12:42 AM
I'll practice like an hour throughout the day on average but I play anywhere from 2-3 hours at night. Sometimes more.
Posted by: Sircraigery Jul 4 2007, 07:44 AM
I'd say 2-3 hours a night. In the last couple months I haven't improved that much as far as fast fingers go, although the theory side of things has gone through the roof. So all in all, I'm a much better player. I must get a good schedule going for practice like Ben was saying.
Anyone have any suggestions on what I should practise? Should I spend 20 minutes on timing, 20 minutes on scales, 20 minutes on scale fusing? Or am I completely missing the point here?...Normally I just rip some of my favorite songs playing to a drums machine.
Posted by: kevin-riff-after-riff Jul 4 2007, 11:00 PM
i practice THIS music....
not very much tbh
should do more practice
i do bout 30 - 60 min a day, but one or two days a week i dont practice, cba....
i need to be less lazy
Posted by: jammer91 Jul 5 2007, 12:52 PM
I finally found time to practice. I always leave 4:30 to 5:30 in the evening to practice. If i miss that timing then i have to practice atleast half an hour a night. At times i pick up my guitar and start practicing after lunch. My playing improved within a week.
I know it may be hard for you to be commited (thats something i lack), but i made it clear to everyone that i have to practice no matter what (even so sometimes i miss those sessions).
So now i practice about .... 8-10 hours a week (previous record was 3 hours a week)
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