My practice routine is the kind of thing you can do in an hour. I do it in an hour, but do it several times a day, its also modular so you can change it up
Here goes:
First I start with a warmup. This varies, but for the past few weeks it's involved legato, stretching (I usually don't actually stretch my fingers before I play, maybe I will, but they stretch naturally as I play) and some pinky strengthening. Usually I'll start with the legato, index finger on the second fret of low e, and do a index-middle-pinky legato, going 2-3-5. I go up the strings with that pattern, then back down then I move the index up to the third fret, and do a index-ring-pinky legato on 3-5-6. I go all the way up to the 12th fret, alternating the whole way between legato with my middle and with my ring finger. Or you can use both, it's good to throw it in sometimes to work out the pinky and add some variation. Then I go all the way back down.
Next I do some pinky and alternate picking workout, just chromatic stuff from the 15th fret down to the 12th, using each finger. So AP as fast as possible, 15(pinky)-14(ring)-13(middle)-12(index), up and down the strings, and variations of it.
The main goal of the first two parts is to decide on something, a technique or whatever, that really needs improvement, and devote this section to doing just that for however long it takes.
After that I'll do some scalar stuff. I pick a scale and do each note on the low e string, starting with the open string (unless the scale has no E) and going up as high as I can go, then back down to the first box, where I do the box as fast as possible. I then do the string thing again, and come down to the second box, and so on until I've done all the boxes. Then, I start on the next string up, so I end up doing something like 30 boxes, depending on how many notes the scale has in it, as well as the scale on each string a number of times.
After this, I'll work on any lessons I've been working on lately, usually I just pick an area I know I need improvement in, and work on a lesson that helps with it, as well as any self-made exercises I come up with. The goal of this is just to challenge myself, kind of like the first two parts, but just basically not to do anything thats easy for me.
After that I go through songs I know, then I end with just jamming until I need to put the guitar down. A while later, I pick up and repeat the process
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This post has been edited by JVM: Aug 7 2007, 07:55 AM
Gear: Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, Gibson '67 RI Flying V, Mesa Boogie F-30 112 combo, crazy pedals.
