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Posted by: chetta2323 Dec 11 2008, 08:33 PM

any tips???

Posted by: Tolek Dec 11 2008, 08:36 PM

Tips to what exactly?

Posted by: chetta2323 Dec 11 2008, 08:39 PM

on like how to stay up and what to practice ect.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Dec 11 2008, 08:41 PM

What are you going to practice ? I would just recommend making pauses regularly in your playing...

Posted by: sigma7 Dec 11 2008, 08:42 PM

drink lots of water first of all to eep ur muscles and body hydrated...
and dont stay up all night because ull get soo tired you wont learn anything, it will be a waste of time

Posted by: chetta2323 Dec 11 2008, 08:44 PM

well not limke all night but like until 1 or 2

Posted by: Tolek Dec 11 2008, 08:49 PM

QUOTE (sigma7 @ Dec 11 2008, 08:42 PM)

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Dec 11 2008, 08:52 PM

Regarding tips I would suggest focused exercise practice for a certain technique using a metronome ? Or maybe practicing scales by jamming solos to backing tracks ? Have fun...

Regarding practicing time : its not good to practice when you are tired..But if your not tired and you feel inspired and focused go for it..I like the evening time to play guitar, that is the part of the day when my concentration and study abilities are on max

Posted by: Ctodd Dec 11 2008, 08:54 PM

heheh, you shouldnt need tips to stay up all night and practice... if you feel that it might happen just let it happen on its own, but don't force it...

this reminds me of when I got my first real guitar... (and the one I still use today)

got back from the shop at about 7pm.... went to sleep at about 4:30 am

Posted by: berko Dec 11 2008, 08:59 PM

Its much more rewarding to practice in the evening but only when you're still fresh. It can help if you make sure that guitar is the very last thing in your daily schedule (I mean before brushing your teeth ). This way and having a good sleep over it your brain can store your new info of your muscles very deeply. It's much more useful than falling off the chair of being completely exhausted

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Dec 11 2008, 09:07 PM

I practice mostly at night, so I can recommend making regular pauses where you go to wash your face a bit to stay focused, and drink some coffee. But you can't practice all night if you are not used to practicing while night. As soon as your concentration is starting go away, just lay down and go to bed, you won't learn anything like that.

You can practice all kinds of things during night, like different picking techniques, runs, chords, rhythm, arpeggios, songs, simple exercises, bends, vibrato, etc.

Posted by: chetta2323 Dec 11 2008, 09:26 PM

look guys i get back from school at 1 30 and i wirk out 4 an hour and then sleep until nine so im welll rested and refreshed

Posted by: sigma7 Dec 12 2008, 01:00 AM

in that case drink lots of water, and coffee, takes breaks and stretch, play scales, the whole shebang

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Dec 12 2008, 01:17 AM

Find what gets you going in your practicing and stick with it. As you practice on regular basis, your practice time will increase as it will become your regular thing in life -just like eating and sleeping!

So thats my suggestion for time frame.

For topics to practice , work on songs, techniques, jamming , recording , songwriting and ear training - these are some of the most important areas in development.

Good luck!

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 12 2008, 05:49 AM

haha I jam all night all the time, sometimes you get in the zone and don't want to put the axe down...

Get lots of caffeine (I prefer alcohol but I'm a bad influence and it's a depressant - but it works for me haha) drink water in conjunction with the caffeine... get some awesome backing tracks and go to town.

Maybe try to learn a new song that'll get you in the zone, then practice some technique building, then do a free jam. For me that can take up a whole night

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Dec 12 2008, 03:48 PM

Seems everybody is giving good advices here If you are refreshed in the evenings then just drink some coffee around 10 o clock, and start practicing then. 5 hour session should be enough, after that you can go to bed not because it is late, but because you will need some time to rest and allow the things you have practice to settle down a bit before tomorrows session. So one coffee, and plenty or water, and something easy to eat, nothing heavy, and you will be OK mate.

Posted by: TheOldOnes Dec 12 2008, 03:56 PM

One thing you may find is that you will be less able to learn new stuff late in the evening - however, there has been a lot of studies showing that learning continues during your sleep period (only if you deep sleep AND have Rem sleep - missing either one negates the learning process). In fact, this type of learning is much more efficient than learning something early and practicing it all day. By efficiency, I am talking about the practice time it takes to learn and perfect a riff.

Try learning a few riffs before you go to bed and then try again the following morning.

Posted by: FrankW Dec 12 2008, 06:24 PM

It's not a good idea to overdo anything, or you'll burn out. But, interestingly, John Petrucci refers to drinking coffee in one of the DVDs I have. I can't remember if it's his instructional video, or one of the live DVDs.
That's what I do. I'll not overdo it though, because too much coffee is not a good idea either. It does "wake me up", when I want to put in an extended amount of time playing. I'm not talking about staying up way past bedtime. I'm talking about a "pick me up" during a practice session. Be careful with that, though.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Dec 12 2008, 08:25 PM

Hmm I never drink coffee or any other energy boosting drinks.It can get addictive and not that healthy..So I wouldn't recommend that..If you can't stay focused or awake you shouldn't force yourself doing so by drinking something

Posted by: Eat-Sleep-andJam Dec 13 2008, 03:48 PM

Drink Redbull/ Jolt/ and Monster.

God Speed.

Posted by: superize Dec 15 2008, 11:02 AM

Dont force yourself to stay up late if the body wants to sleep then it needs to sleep.... You have to be 100% focused or else the playing wont give any results......

the longest i have stayed up and played is till 3 in the morning and then i wanted to play and feelt that i had the energy to do so.....

So remember dont force yourself to do it........

Posted by: showyourfist Dec 16 2008, 05:13 PM

QUOTE (fatb0t @ Dec 12 2008, 04:49 AM)

haha I jam all night all the time, sometimes you get in the zone and don't want to put the axe down...

Get lots of caffeine (I prefer alcohol but I'm a bad influence and it's a depressant - but it works for me haha) drink water in conjunction with the caffeine... get some awesome backing tracks and go to town.

Maybe try to learn a new song that'll get you in the zone, then practice some technique building, then do a free jam. For me that can take up a whole night

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 16 2008, 06:23 PM

glad I'm not alone then haha

Posted by: Mark. Dec 16 2008, 08:38 PM

Uuuuh Beer?

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Dec 17 2008, 10:42 AM

It doesn't really make sense to force yourself to stay up all night long, after some point you will just be too tired. If you reach this point you won't be able to concentrate properly anymore and your playing will only get worse. It is definitely better to stop in those moments and go to bed, or at least take a break, but insisting on going on with practicing won't get you anywhere. The funny thing is that at some point you won't even realise anymore that you are not playing good anymore. It already happened to myself while recording for one of our albums. I wanted to finish a song at any cost and recorded until late in the evening, even though I was way too tired already... when I came back to the studio on the next day I listened to last evenings takes and just deleted everything