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My Practice Log, Going on a new path

Iluha View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 12:44 PM
Dec 22 2007, 12:44 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	Hey guys, Iv'e been playing guitar for allmost 5 years now, and I never once practiced with a schedual, only randomley when I felt like it, so I thought to myself: "Ok, so I don't like to sit alot of time and practice, but I also don't want to randomely improve because more than likely it will give me at best minor results, so what should I do?" So I figured I should write down a schedual of pracitce, which won't be too long but will still contain all the technique/theory I want to improve, and I will try and follow it on a daily basis, atleast 5 days a week, and as an added motivation I decided I will write a log about it, in hope that it will inspire some people who are in the same situation, and don't have much time to practice or don't want to sit too long and practice. So after using this week to examine many lessons on the site, I built a practice routine: Short Overview: warm ups/strech - 5 minutes technique --------- Alt picking - 10 minutes ------------------------ alt picking 1 - 2 minutes alt picking 4 - 2 minutes Thirds - 2 minutes alt picking chops - 2 minutes muris alt picking - 2 minutes Sweep picking - 5 minutes(muris sweep) tapping - 5 minutes(licks without picks) theory ------ major scale - 5 minutes key transfer - 5 minutes improv - 10 minutes Lessons ------- Asturias - 10 minutes B Major - 10 minutes Vibrato 1 - 10 minutes legato riffing - 5 minutes TOTAL TIME ---------- 1 hour 20 minutes I wanted to give a in depth explantion on what exactly I'm practicing, but it will make this post TOO long! So I will post the in depth explanation on my first update next saturday, but if anyone wants to use this alongside me, feel free to PM me for full details! Good luck to me and anyone else wishing to follow this "method"! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

Ivan Milenkovic View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 01:50 PM
Dec 22 2007, 01:50 PM	Instructor Posts: 25.396 Joined: 20-November 07 From: Belgrade, Serbia	That's a good method if you can manage to work on one exercise 2 minutes. That's kind of short for me, maybe 5-10 minutes is more appropriate for AP. You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- - Ivan's Video Chat Lesson Notes HERE - Check out my GMC Profile and Lessons - (Please subscribe to my) YouTube Official Channel - Let's be connected through ! Facebook! :)

muntahunta View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 03:02 PM
Dec 22 2007, 03:02 PM	Learning Roadie Posts: 783 Joined: 6-September 07 From: Newcastle	i was thinking of doing something similar, but i ended up practicing for the time i was going to write a log.... which is good You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- Guitars: Epiphone Les Paul Standard w/ Dual EMG 81 Pickups. Size 11 Strings. Ibanez GRG170DX w/ Scallopd frets 17-24 - w/ Dimebucker and APH-1. Tanglewood TW28 STR DLX CE INDIANA Acoustic Guitar NEW: Dean Deceiver w/ EMG 81/EMG 85 Pickups Effects: Pod XT Live AND Pod X3 Live Recording: Cubase SX3 My Bands Myspace Act Of Silence Songs: Fly From The Inside (Cover) So Far Away Down Break The Cycle Never Again (Cover) Crash Wake Me More Acoustic Songs: Chris Kerswell Soundclick Page Check out Munta's Step By Step Songwriting Lesson

Kapto View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 03:57 PM
Dec 22 2007, 03:57 PM	GMC:er Posts: 211 Joined: 9-December 07 From: Spain	I don't know about you guys but when I practice hours go by so fast and I have the feeling I've done nothing. I do practice alt picking, Muris sweep, Gabriel's rock lessons, scales, etc.. but there's sooo much to learn..........so far I'm not very happy with the results but time will tell... You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- "It's a long way to the top..."

chast View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 04:28 PM
Dec 22 2007, 04:28 PM	Learning Roadie Posts: 807 Joined: 20-July 07 From: Germany	Hey Iluha I hope you will have some success and you know that I am going to read your blog You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- "They play it extremely fast, it doesn't make any sense, but it's Slayer so it makes a lot of sense" :)

mattacuk View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 08:48 PM
Dec 22 2007, 08:48 PM	Lets go fishing! Posts: 5.526 Joined: 21-December 06 From: illinois	QUOTE (Milenkovic Ivan @ Dec 22 2007, 12:50 PM) That's a good method if you can manage to work on one exercise 2 minutes. That's kind of short for me, maybe 5-10 minutes is more appropriate for AP. I agree !! No wonder I get eye strain after 2 hours alternate picking a day !! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- *mysql> SELECT FROM master_name WHERE ((firstname = 'Paul') AND (lastname = 'Gilbert')); "The Fundimental Difference between Paul Gilbert and Buckethead is that Paul Explores the Good side of the force, while Buckethead Explores the Dark Side of the Force" :)**

Iluha View Member Profile	Dec 22 2007, 09:07 PM
Dec 22 2007, 09:07 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	QUOTE (Milenkovic Ivan @ Dec 22 2007, 02:50 PM) That's a good method if you can manage to work on one exercise 2 minutes. That's kind of short for me, maybe 5-10 minutes is more appropriate for AP. Well the list is only a minimum list I guess, the times I wrote are the minimum I'll be working on each exercise, I might practice some exercise more, just as long as it wont get me bored You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

Iluha View Member Profile	Dec 29 2007, 07:49 PM
Dec 29 2007, 07:49 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	First Week So, it's time for a first update, and I have to tell you, it didn't go too well for me this first week The main problem I had this week is that I got home everyday preety late, around 8pm and a couple of days at 9pm, everyday except for thursday in which my commander(I'm serving in the army right now) gave me a day off, so basicly I was only able to actually sit and practice on sunday and during the weekend which just barely makes my minimum of 4 days a week practice. Another problem I had is that like Ivan noted, 2 minutes per drill did proove to be too short, and on top of that the wide variety of drills for alternate picking felt too tedious and unnecessery to me, so I changed it, so now it contains 3 drills instead of 5. Also I found that I rather focus more on alteranate picking as I am really lacking in that field, while I don't use tapping so much so I decided that atleast for now the only tapping I will practice are the taps in Muris's Bmajor lesson. So with these alternations in mind, my schedual now looks like this: warm ups/strech - 5 minutes technique --------- Alt picking - 15 minutes ------------------------ Pavel's alternate picking 1 - 5 minutes Pavel's alternate picking 4 - 5 minutes Muris's alt picking - 5 minutes Sweep picking - 5 minutes(Muris's sweep picking) theory ------ C major scale - 5 minutes Key transfer(A drill by my guitar teacher) - 5 minutes Improvisation(this week I used the collab's as improv practice) - 10 minutes Lessons ------- Vinod's Asturias - 10 minutes Muris's B Major - 10 minutes Lavendell's Vibrato 1 - 10 minutes Pavel's Legato riffing - 5 minutes TOTAL TIME ---------- 1 hour 20 minutes As for progress wise, since I had little time to practice, I made little to no practice, I'm still playing all the alternate picking exercises at 40 bpm to strict alternate pick and get rid of my habit to allways use economy picking. I play the sweeping lesson at 90 bpm, I can play it faster just not perfectly clean yet. I got a good grasp now of the C major scale on the low E and A strings, so this week I'm adding the D string and hopefully the G string. I think I'm getting better at improvising, check out my take in Ivan's blues collab, that's a pure one take improvisation. On Astuarias I only practiced it for one day because I had to change the strings on my classic guitar and playing it on my electric is just too painfull, so I'm practicing the first 3 bars at 60 bpm. On B major I made some progress, I can play everything at the speed of the lesson(70 bpm) but not perfectly cleanly on some parts, so I'm practicing the tapping in the 5th and 6th bar at 60 bpm, the sweep at 56 bpm, and the 9th bar at 40 bpm because it's alternate picking and I don't want to economy pick it On Vibrato 1 lesson, I made no progress at all, because I havn't practiced it at all my fingers were too soar for it! hopefully I'll start practicing it this week And finally on Pavel's Legato riffing lesson I can play the last part(13 bar-end) quite nicely but still not completly clean so I'm just practicing it in lesson speed(100 bpm) the other parts of the lesson I'm practicing at 60 bpm. As I said, I hope that this week I'll have more time to practice, and hopefully I'll make some progress so that next week I can record and actually show how I'm doing so far You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

PlayAllDay View Member Profile	Dec 29 2007, 11:33 PM
Dec 29 2007, 11:33 PM	GMC:er Posts: 323 Joined: 30-September 07	Good on you Iluha, I'm enjoying your 1st prgress report and look forward to reading more. You have a great approach. You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- Lead me not into temptation - I can find the way myself...

rokchik View Member Profile	Dec 30 2007, 05:02 PM
Dec 30 2007, 05:02 PM	The Dark Canuck Posts: 2.729 Joined: 22-March 07 From: The Great White North	Great approach Iluha! I've been keeping a journal for a few months now and I find it helps me a lot....especially when tracking progress. As you have also noticed it helps you see what aspects of your playing you need to spend more time on and also how to restructure your practice routine accordingly. I enjoyed your first update and look forward to seeing how you progress. rok You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Iluha View Member Profile	Dec 30 2007, 05:06 PM
Dec 30 2007, 05:06 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	QUOTE (rokchik @ Dec 30 2007, 06:02 PM) Great approach Iluha! I've been keeping a journal for a few months now and I find it helps me a lot....especially when tracking progress. As you have also noticed it helps you see what aspects of your playing you need to spend more time on and also how to restructure your practice routine accordingly. I enjoyed your first update and look forward to seeing how you progress. rok Exactly, it also helps my motivation to actually practice, seeing how I progress! Thanks, I'll try my best to update every week You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

Iluha View Member Profile	Jan 5 2008, 06:07 PM
Jan 5 2008, 06:07 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	Second Week So this week was better, though far from perfect, but much better and I made quite some progress. The biggest progress I made is in the Alternate Picking department, I got rid of the habit to automaticly economy pick! and once I got rid of it my practice bpm jumped from 40 to 90! I can also play it at about 110, but still not perfectly clean so I'll stick to 90 and work my way up. So what kept my week from being perfect? Time, once again, I barely made the minimum of 4 days a week, Mostly because of New Year's Eve, I got home quite late at about 7 pm, was only 30 minutes home before me and my friends drove to a house we rented for the night, and you can only imagine the hangover I had on tuesday and on sunday it was kinda the same story, I got home only at about 6:30 pm, and than at 7 I drove to a concert(it was an hour drive). so basicly I practiced on Wendsday-Saturday, and even THAT wasn't perfect!! so there was again some sacrifice this week The sacrifice this week came in the theory departmant, I havn't practiced the Major scale at all, nor did I practice the key transfer(F Dorian - G# Dorian) at all. In the sweeping I moved up to 100 bpm, and I think I might stay at this speed for a while to get my muting right.. Maybe a 4 bpm increase till next week if all goes well. Oh and finally, I decided to drop learning Pavel's Legato Riffing lesson for now, after seeing I REALLY am lacking in the rythm department, so I decided to go with something a bit easier for now, though I only made this decision today so I still havn't practiced it at all, the lesson I put instead is Gabriel's Muse Style Lesson. As for the lessons, I hardly practiced them so I didn't really make progress only progress in how clean I play in my current bpm. only significant progress I made is in Muris's Bmajor lesson, I can play those taps at full speed now, only got the final alterante picking to work on. The Major dissapointment I had this week is that I was planning to record alot of things, and in the end the only thing I recorded was my part for the Rock/Metal Collab, which didn't come out too well, I think I just got tired from this week as it was really packed with activity for me.. Hopefully I'll get all those recording done by the end of this week! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

PlayAllDay View Member Profile	Jan 5 2008, 11:53 PM
Jan 5 2008, 11:53 PM	GMC:er Posts: 323 Joined: 30-September 07	Youre still getting a lot done Iluha even though you are having the practise time frustrations. It's great that you are mastering the Alt Picking - Gabe's Muse lesson will support that nicely too, Rokchik put me onto that lesson and I just love it. Keeping this log is great and I love seeing how youre doing when you check in. Thanks mate! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- Lead me not into temptation - I can find the way myself...

shellshock1911 View Member Profile	Jan 6 2008, 04:35 AM
Jan 6 2008, 04:35 AM	GMC:er Posts: 689 Joined: 26-March 07 From: Columbus, Georgia, USA	I used to have a strict practice schedule and for me, doing the same thing day after day after day for the same times and everything made me lose motivation pretty quick so I found that like an organized but still kind of random schedule works good for me. If you can do the strict one, more power to you. You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! --------------------

Iluha View Member Profile	Jan 6 2008, 04:28 PM
Jan 6 2008, 04:28 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	QUOTE (shellshock1911 @ Jan 6 2008, 05:35 AM) I used to have a strict practice schedule and for me, doing the same thing day after day after day for the same times and everything made me lose motivation pretty quick so I found that like an organized but still kind of random schedule works good for me. If you can do the strict one, more power to you. Ah but this is where my plan is unique, I only follow it as long as it doesn't get boring, when it gets monotone and boring, I change things up making it intresting again Thanks PlayAllDay! I'll continue updating every saturday You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

PlayAllDay View Member Profile	Jan 7 2008, 02:40 AM
Jan 7 2008, 02:40 AM	GMC:er Posts: 323 Joined: 30-September 07	QUOTE (Iluha @ Jan 7 2008, 12:28 AM) Thanks PlayAllDay! I'll continue updating every saturday Excellent You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- Lead me not into temptation - I can find the way myself...

rokchik View Member Profile	Jan 7 2008, 04:59 PM
Jan 7 2008, 04:59 PM	The Dark Canuck Posts: 2.729 Joined: 22-March 07 From: The Great White North	Gabriels Muse lesson is a great one Iluha. It will definatley help with the AP for sure. Can't wait to see how you've done this week. You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Iluha View Member Profile	Jan 12 2008, 05:57 PM
Jan 12 2008, 05:57 PM	GMC:er Posts: 1.737 Joined: 14-April 07 From: Karmiel, Israel	Third Week, Getting close to a month! Will I ever get a smooth practicing week?? actually when this week started I was positive this week I'll have smooth sailing, on sunday and monday I got home VERY early and could practice according to plan, but on other days, well that's a diffrent story So basicly this week I only practiced during sunday and monday, I wanted to practice over the weekend but than I wrote this ballad and I just spent the entire weekend working on it, you can hear a part of it in the Uploads forum. Despite all that, surprisingley I made some progress, I made my goal of being able to play the alternate picking exercises on 94 bpm, I can play the sweeps much more cleanly now on 100 bpm, and I think that by next week I should reach atleast 106 bpm. In the theory department, I stopped practicing the key change exercise for the time being, I'm quite aquainted in it and decided it's best to put that time in the scale learning. And speaking of which, I changed how I learn the C major scale completly, atleast for the time being, I now learn it by my much hated "box" systed, but with a small twist, for example instead of looking at the second mudlation as a C major, I'm looking at it as D dorian, etc. I will expand on this subject next week if anyone is intrested. As for lessons, I decided I need to make a small change to make my schedual a tad shorter, I simply wrote to myself that for now the Asturias lesson, and Lavendell's Vibrato 1 lesson are optional to practice, I didn't make any progress in those two As for the other two(Muris's Bmajor and Gabe's Muse Style Lesson, which by the way is harder than it looks), I'm quite close to learning them both completly and I hope that next week I'll record them to show you what I achieved! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- My Latest Upload: Here! My Practice Agenda/Blog: Here!

sam47 View Member Profile	Jan 13 2008, 01:12 AM
Jan 13 2008, 01:12 AM	GMC:er Posts: 81 Joined: 21-December 07 From: pennsylvania	This is a great idea! I'm not going to start out as indepth as you are just keep track of what ,when and how much I'm doing. It's a 100 page notebook so I'll start out seeing what I do in 100 days. If it works out (which I can't see whay it wouldn't!), I'll get another notebook. Thanks Iluha for the inspriation and motivation. You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

PlayAllDay View Member Profile	Jan 13 2008, 09:19 AM
Jan 13 2008, 09:19 AM	GMC:er Posts: 323 Joined: 30-September 07	Fantastic news about your progress Iluha - can't wait to hear your uploads! You are at GuitarMasterClass.net Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content! -------------------- Lead me not into temptation - I can find the way myself...

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