How much do you guys legit practice?

How much do you guys practice?

  • Total voters
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BuddytheReow

BuddytheReow

Moderator
I've been playing guitar off and on for 20 years now. I took more or less a 5 year hiatus from playing due to grad school, CPA exams, getting engaged and planning a wedding on top of a full time job. Once the dust settled a few years ago and had a lot more free time my wife reminded me that I've talking about getting back into guitar for years. She was trying to say "get up off the couch and go do something." So, I finally started getting back into guitar and that was 2019. Boy, was I rusty! The good news is that it all came back (the songs and the technique) to me really quickly with a bit of time and effort. I'll say 3 weeks at 20-30 min a day and I was back to where I thought I was when I put the guitar down.

The pandemic last year really put my playing into overdrive (pun very much intended here) and I was probably playing 2-3 hours a day last summer while working from home: an hour in the morning to get the boring practice routines out of the way, 30-45 min during my lunch break to learn a new riff/solo/song, and about an hour after dinner just playing whatever and having fun. I should also mention I bought a new amp last spring which definitely fed this (relatively) healthy addiction. A Boss Katana Mk II. I told myself this would be all I needed since it had so many effects built in to it. Yeah, right. I got back into pedal building late last year and my playing time plummeted really fast, but that's ok since I was still enjoying myself.

Last week I told myself I needed to start actually practicing again rather than just fooling around for an hour each time. I chose to work on my scales. After 20 min my brain and fingers were pretty wiped and was done for the day. The next day I tried it again. Holy shit! I'm getting better at this!!!! Speed and accuracy are definitely improving after working on something for 20 min each day. Seeing direct results makes you want to keep practicing.

Anyways, enough of me babbling...

How much do you guys legitimately practice in a given day or week? Practice as in get an exercise book or metronome and start grinding it out that way
 
I often practice scales which I quite enjoy (what a weirdo).

Recently my practice has been focused on my playing dynamics in soloing over a simple chord progressions. Just trying to find interesting runs that fit and sound interesting.

I’ve been looking at truefire courses as a way of doing some more learning. I’m self taught so been thinking about trying to find a guitar teacher as well.
 
Now days I might get to pick up my guitar once a week for about an hour or less, sometimes more often depending on how the kid is sleeping/ or If I’m trying to work on a pedal (which it seems there is always one on the bench. I would like to get back to a daily practice routine but that might be a couple years before I can get back to that.
 
At some point in your playing career you should definitely take lessons regardless of your skill level. Your teacher will give you pointers and an honest critique. For example my upstrokes and downstrokes (insert masturbation joke) were not even so they sounded like a dotted eighth sixteenth combo (swing style). I couldn't tell until he pointed it out to me. A metronome definitely helped me fix it, but I still struggle sometimes.
 
@BuddytheReow hahaha are you me?? I bought a Katana Mark II specifically so I wouldn't need pedals right before I got into building an absurd amount of pedals. I've been playing guitar since I was 12, and I'm 28 now - but didn't play much when I was at college and never really have gotten back to the skill level I was at when I was 18 playing for multiple hours every day. I took lessons from when I was 12-16. I'm having more fun now though, but I've definitely started to get back into the rhythm of practicing more.

I play at least an hour most days and on the weekends play as much as 3. I try to practice for at least 10-15 minutes to warm up. I usually find that near that 10 minute mark I'll just naturally run a scale or exercise that will just kind of lead me into riffing.

One exercise that has paid insane dividends for my fretting hand dexterity is the spider walk and I really cannot recommend it enough. It's just playing 5-6-7-8 on each string while making sure to only move the finger that is fretting the note you are playing. That link is a really good overview.

Semi-related to the spider walk is that I practice scales while keeping my index finger clamped down to the fret board, imagining that it's basically a capo. I can't remember where I saw this as a practice exercise but I remember it being from a jazz guitarist. Between this and the spider walk I have noticed a huge improvement in the accuracy and ease of fretting, with my hands taking much longer to get tired.

I've been trying to find exercises specifically for picking as my right hand gets tired faster than it used to. If anyone has any good recommendations I'd love to check some out.
 
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vigilante398 said:
I very rarely play, let alone practice.

All my pedals are theoretically for use with an instrument, but realistically they're just shiny expensive decorations.
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This. Once I quit doing gigs 15 years ago I just became a gear collector and occasionally use my guitars and amps to try out the pedal I just built to make sure it works. When I was playing all the time I used to practice 3-4 times a week for 2-3hrs at a time. I can barely play a chord anymore.
 
I'll tell you how often I actually play ....

Every now and then I read posts here and for a split second my mind thinks "Oh wow, these folks play guitar too? What are the chances that we're all pedal builders and we play guitar? ... oh, wait." 🤦‍♂️
 
JamieJ said:
Is it a worthwhile investment?
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I feel like I get my money's worth, and that my playing and fretboard knowledge is improving.

Because I'm paying for truefire, I feel more incentivized to use it. Before I would jump around on youtube, but this gives me a bit more structure and organization (I can still jump around to explore because there's so many courses, but when I find one I like I'll stick to it beginning to end). The price of the yearly all-access pass is cheaper than like 2 lessons from a guitar teacher.
 
spi said:
I feel like I get my money's worth, and that my playing and fretboard knowledge is improving.

Because I'm paying for truefire, I feel more incentivized to use it. Before I would jump around on youtube, but this gives me a bit more structure and organization (I can still jump around to explore because there's so many courses, but when I find one I like I'll stick to it beginning to end). The price of the yearly all-access pass is cheaper than like 2 lessons from a guitar teacher.
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Part of why I stopped playing was that I had plateaued, I have a handful of things I play really well, but I'm not improving or learning anything new. I was thinking about taking lessons again, which is what I did last time I plateaued and it helped a lot, but truefire looks like it might be a good option for the position I'm in right now. Thanks for sharing :)
 
vigilante398 said:
Part of why I stopped playing was that I had plateaued, I have a handful of things I play really well, but I'm not improving or learning anything new. I was thinking about taking lessons again, which is what I did last time I plateaued and it helped a lot
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EVERY GUITARIST HITS THIS POINT at some point in their playing career, myself included. I have 2 bits of advice that helped me get over the hump.

First, learn something new. A new guitar solo, chord progression, or cool ass riff. Something that's not in your normal repertoire. It may inspire you to branch out into other areas to learn new skills and make you better so that when you go back to your normal stuff it's easier to play.

Secondly, get a metronome and SLOW THINGS down. This seems counterintuitive but bear with me. Focus on accuracy and timing more than anything else. Your brain will hate you at first since it's so simple and boring, but stick it out. Once you've got it real good turn up the bpm slightly and repeat. You will eventually get to the point where you plateaued and you'll notice its a bit easier (a few days, maybe a week.). Accuracy is more important than speed. Speed comes with time and patience.
 
I practice everyday. At one point 3hrs was the minimum but I'm no longer aspiring to land a symphony job/be a hired gun. More like at least an hour a day everyday sometimes substantially more.

All this talk of private lessons and metronomes is rubbing me the right way. I always feel the need to chime in and encourage anyone who's considering private lessons to go for it.
 
I haven't practiced in ages, and if anyone has listened to my sound samples you know what I'm talking about. I play either bass or guitar most days, but it's either playing along to songs I know already or noodling around for shits and giggles.

Years back I was taking lessons and practicing daily for at least an hour or two (actual practice). The only way I have ever really practiced seriously was when I was taking lessons so that I wouldn't embarrass myself when I went back for the next lesson.

I stopped upright lessons about six years ago after my wife lost a job (I'd only been taking them less than a year) and honestly didn't play very often for years. Before that I took electric lessons for a few years and that was the most progress I ever made and the most comfortable of ever felt on bass. It was only about three or so years ago that I started playing regularly again and I've not taken it seriously at all, just kind of noodling around.

I'd like to take lessons again as that's about the only thing that makes me want to practice but finding time with a kiddo right now is hard. Not sure if you've ever tried to play an instrument in front of a 2 year old but it doesn't really go over that well.
 
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