Define Practice:

In the past, it was something like this:
Scales and finger exercises
Work on any new material I needed to have ready for band practice
Brush up on old stuff so I don't make the same stupid mistakes
Try some new covers to see what might sound good for us
Work on writing new material

Now, it's more like this (only a few, not all):
Spend all week in a hotel wishing I had a guitar with me (If I'm not flying for work, I may have one)
Get home and try to find time to play
Start with some finger exercises
Play some of the more difficult tunes the band plays
Try to learn a new cover
Try to finish some of the new songs I've started writing
Just try to spend any time with a guitar
 
Some interesting suggestions here. I have always avoided a metronome, even though my timing is lacking. I have been befuddled about how to make use of it, as silly as that sounds. Time to watch some videos!
 
RVA said:
Some interesting suggestions here. I have always avoided a metronome, even though my timing is lacking. I have been befuddled about how to make use of it, as silly as that sounds. Time to watch some videos!
Click to expand...

I cannot recommend it strongly enough. I didn't use one for most of my earlier playing and suffered because of it. Now, I'm pretty consistent about it, even for leisure playing or practicing scales or whatever. I have noticed a real improvement in my personal playing because of it.

I use a metronome app called, "Tempo" that I use on my iPhone. It's pretty flexible and I like it a lot.
 
smitty_p said:
I cannot recommend it strongly enough. I didn't use one for most of my earlier playing and suffered because of it. Now, I'm pretty consistent about it, even for leisure playing or practicing scales or whatever. I have noticed a real improvement in my personal playing because of it.

I use a metronome app called, "Tempo" that I use on my iPhone. It's pretty flexible and I like it a lot.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip and the motivation Smitty
 
I used to do finger drills / scales with metronome but got away from it out of laziness / poor shop practice.
I will try to bring that back into the fold.
 
RVA said:
Some interesting suggestions here. I have always avoided a metronome, even though my timing is lacking. I have been befuddled about how to make use of it, as silly as that sounds. Time to watch some videos!
Click to expand...

I use a wood metronome and PC app also. Most of the time though...when the band wants to add a song...we record a drum track and then i build the complete song in my home studio. I then send each band member a copy of the track without their instrument...

By the time I have the song finished...I am proficient in all sections of the song and can play from memory....including performing the lead vocals if need arise.
 
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Nutter thing is if your stuck in pentatonic prison, it's not as bad as it seems. Move the same fingering up or down a 1/2 step and U acquire all//some of the "tensions " of outside playing off the original pattern. If you don't, change to a different pentatonic fingering that you already know. Muscle memory won't take a hit BUT your ears will have to adjust.
 
About 1:50 or so he went a song " Layenda " written by Sir Isiac Albenez! All spelled wrong of course … I lifted it and since it's in the key of B as was the same as Rebel Yell by Billy Idol. So I worked it into the solo, gently, on the PRS, and impressed all the guitar geeks in the audience. Well then I was known in local circles as someone who you'll never quite know what he comes up with, I always told em where I get my S*^T from , " solo every time "but very few ever picked up on it. Another time I quoted a Rush solo every time "but very few ever picked up on it but again, no one even tried to do it. It was an open string lick like Satch uses in the " Summer song ". cept I had to put some 1-4 fingerings in to give it that diminished sound that can resolve almost wherever I feel like! I got the ideas from what the jazz players did in their solos, which was to quote other songs during an improvation. Try it you might like it
 
Yogi Berra Explains Jazz:


Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The
other half is the part people play while others are playing something
they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the
wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if
you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it.
It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't
know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for
the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the
ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead.
Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either
before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they
happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of
music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different
from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that
well.
 
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