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Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Oct 31 2011, 04:14 PM

It's so important to practice the things that we like. Making a practice plan requires a look in the mirror, and seeing if this is really the stuff we want to hear later on when we play.

We play what we practice - so, always practice the exact things you like to play!


What do you guys think about it? It may sound like something normal, but did you every get into situation of practicing something just because you've seen it somewhere else, or someone told you what to practice (although you knew inside that this is not your thing)

Posted by: Daniel Realpe Oct 31 2011, 04:34 PM

This is essential. Looking back to when I learned to play. I started with everything that I liked and nothing else. Only later on when I had decent understanding of the guitar and technique is when I started focusing on scales and arpegios independently.

Posted by: Sinisa Cekic Oct 31 2011, 05:37 PM

+1 on that.

Unfortunately I didn't have anyone to give me useful advice. It's been a few years until I started to practice systematically..

Posted by: dark dude Oct 31 2011, 06:29 PM

I try to go down the logical route of learning and practicing technique for material that I want to play, as does everybody else, I'm sure.

However, there have been times where I ignored "You should do this and this" because with my lesser experience, I didn't see it as important (e.g. legato for better hand sync.), and I have suffered because of that.

Definately a great idea to constantly check your playing against several others who are more experienced, but that's obvious

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Oct 31 2011, 11:08 PM

Sometimes along the way, the knowledge comes on it's own. We should practice what we like, what we want to play. This is what will provide smoothest practice session and result.

Posted by: John72 Nov 1 2011, 02:42 AM

Yes, I've been practicing the alternate picking lesson almost exclusively lately. It's going to take me a LOT of work to get it up to the speed of the lesson. Unfortunately, I'm not able to always sit for a specific amount of time. So, when I have a few minutes, I pick up the guitar and start playing the lesson. If I'm able to play that for 15-20 minutes straight, then I'll practice some scales, arpeggios, etc. Sometimes, I don't practice at all, I just spend the time I have jamming.

I'm sure this is a horrible way to do it, but it seems to be the best I can manage with the interruptions and little time I have. A practice schedule is something I've been thinking about. Even if its something like Monday I practice scales when I have time. Tuesday is for alt picking, and so on. I just think it would take a lot longer for me to achieve my alt picking goals.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Nov 1 2011, 05:37 AM

Good topic! I always practice the thing that I like but curiously I can't use everything in every situation. For example... I like Sweep Picking but I couldn't use it in any of my current band's songs yet. It doesn't work.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Nov 1 2011, 10:44 AM

Yeah, some styles just require specific techniques, I guess that's normal. There comes the fact that we learn bunch of different things, but end up using only few of them. Well, this is normal too I guess, cause it's important to know where to keep things simple and where not..

The question is, should we be spending time learning them in the first place, if some of the things are forgotten or not put into good use?

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Nov 1 2011, 11:24 PM

Sadly, due to the increasing lack of time in my life, I can't stray too much I used to study a lot of country stuff for instance, but I simply don't have as much time as I'd need.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 6 2011, 10:02 AM

Hey, that's not so bad.. you've got the right kind of idea already - use what time you have to focus on a specific area. To take it a step further, what I would do is try and cover more than one lick in that time. Say spend 5 mins (or a certain amount of perfect repeptitions, say 50 or 100) on one lick, 5 on the next, 5 on another and there you go, you've practice 3 areas and practised them efficiently. 20 mins of focused, effective practise is more beneficial than hours of aimless noodling.

I read a story years ago from a book about learning classical guitar (some of you have either seen the book, or probably own it somewhere) by F. Noad.. from the best of my memory he was talking about a friend of his who either went into the army or national service. He was worried about not getting enough time to practice and worried about losing his technique. He narrowed down the areas where he thought it was most likely to help him maintain technique and developed a really brief practice session where he went through perfect reps of each lick or motion that was designed to preserve his ability. Not only did he keep his ability but he found his technique actually improved. So it goes to show, it's not how many hours.. it's how you use the time you have. Or it's not how much time, it's how many perfect reps you fit in. You'd be surprised how quickly you can play 50 or 100 repeptitions of something (providing it's a short lick)

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Nov 6 2011, 11:17 AM

+1 true, very true!

Posted by: Syrio23 Nov 7 2011, 03:10 PM

Hi guys, if i understand what you had say about the right direction i'm in trouble.
In this period i play my guitar 3 hours a day and i study on a method "A modern method for guitar - William Leavitt", all my respect to Leavitt but i hate this method. I only do this because i learn to read music and the note on the fretboard and it's good but i play orrible song, while i'd like to play rock, metal or somthing of blues...
So, do you think i'm in the right direction?

Posted by: Ben Higgins Nov 7 2011, 03:13 PM

I would always recommend anybody to play mostly things that they enjoy, or learning the guitar will become a chore instead of fun. I suggest to keep a small amount of practice time for that book, if it's giving you skills that you really want.. and then devote the rest of your practice time (and I mean the bulk of it) to techniques and songs that you enjoy and are things that you want to do

It's always crucial to maintain inspiration and motivation in our practice at all times or we risk getting bored and stuck in a rut. I hope that makes sense

Posted by: Sinisa Cekic Nov 7 2011, 03:57 PM

A lot of wise opinions here! Just one thing to add: I wish that I had the opportunity in the early days to record myself while exercises - you are much more objective and see exactly where are those errors, and then start to fix it, each item systematic. So - shoot each exercise, will be paid !