Tell me about your guitar playing or practice habits

jimilee said:
I have a dog that's more of a furry toddler. My favorite is, "Now what the hell are you doing?"
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One of my dogs is named Chewbacca, or chewie/chew for short. Whenever he’s doing something bad, I shout “Don’t, Chew!” And then immediately break into song with “forget about meeeee” or “want me babyyyyy” (or sometimes even “wish your girlfriend was…”
 
I tend to play a lot more when I’m waiting on the supply chain for the next build..

With two young kids, I get to play about 10 minutes after they get to kindergarten, then another 15 during my lunch break, then after they’re asleep and the housework is done I get about two hours to do hobby time. I should use this for exercise but guitar and soldering usually takes precedence.

Going through Justinguitar and learning something new can be really beneficial, just to get out of the comfort zone.

Robert said:
I practice all sorts of exotic scales on a regular basis, I just don't know what they're called.
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Experimental jazz
 
When I was a kid, a favorite exercise was to pick a random radio station and attempt to play along by ear for hours. I do the same now with my record collection. Keeps my ear limber and helps me stay out of ruts of playing the same things all the time. Keeping it to radio/vinyl so that there's no opportunity to pause and think it through or choose something easy.

I'm not trying to roll up in here to push a hardcore scale/etude regimen or the benefits of private instruction. We all know you gotta eat your vegetables. I mean... obviously yes to that but these days my approach is to foster my own enjoyment more than worrying about progress.
 
As a guitarist, bass player, and lap steeler who plays in several bands, my practice is mostly just going over whatever material is next in line for a rehearsal or gig. My next gig is on steel and there's a few new ones for me to work on, so that's what I am currently getting around to working on.
 
I try and play a little everyday 10-15 minutes at a time. Most of the time it’s just random jam. I know enough theory to be dangerous (Nashville notation and such), but I do tend to find myself thinking “I need to learn some new chord progressions and scales”. I tend to end up in the pentatonic bs realm too much since that’s what I was taught. On occasion I’ll bust out some weird modal stuff. I tend not to try and learn songs outright, but will play to backing tracks/songs on occasion. My last gig was playing bass at a friends church 2yrs ago. I was offered the opportunity to sit in on bass for a friends gig this past weekend, but I am not comfortable enough in my playing to drop in with no idea the set list or having practiced at least a little. Wish I could, but I haven’t put the time to be like that.
 
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Practice is a funny word. Not really one for scales or learning other peoples' music (occasional song or riff yes, but I couldn't play a whole song by another artist if I wanted to) so most of my playing is laying down a riff and finding a part B or a bridge with it that I can then bring to play with my drummer and whoever else shows up. I practice live by myself with a loop station and live with others without the loop station. And then if there's a movie on I think to myself "this is a waste of time... I could be playing guitar" so I get that and noodle for a few hours till it's way too late and I have to wake up in a couple hours to start the work day.

Can't wait to have a kid to see what all the fuss is about. Ha!
 
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I have a stack of guitar techniques magazines that i work out of, I have a few books laying around I look at on occasion. I finally built up a headphone rig that has made my life a million times easier and has the instrument in my hands even more than it was before. With two mouse clicks and the flip of a switch I can be recording basic tracks for riffs and songs, which is why I play, I like to write.

The guitar is a world on infinite undiscovery to me, I am constantly finding new ways to do stuff and new techniques using the limited tools I already have.
 
jjjimi84 said:
I have a stack of guitar techniques magazines that i work out of, I have a few books laying around I look at on occasion. I finally built up a headphone rig that has made my life a million times easier and has the instrument in my hands even more than it was before. With two mouse clicks and the flip of a switch I can be recording basic tracks for riffs and songs, which is why I play, I like to write.

The guitar is a world on infinite undiscovery to me, I am constantly finding new ways to do stuff and new techniques using the limited tools I already have.
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I miss writing and recording music the most. And playing with other people
 
My guitar practice/playing tends to be:
10% learning new songs (usually from youtube)
5% learning a song on my own by ear
30% revisiting songs I partially learned or already know to get better at them
20% truefire lessons
30% pointless pentatonic noodling
5% watching Tom Bukovac videos and giving up
 
I play/practice 1-4 hours daily. I do quite a lot of things. Many times I default to pentatonic blues licks just because. I normally only will do that for half an hour at the most. Recently I have been using the major pentatonic and major scale and then transitioning to the minor pentatonic and minor scale. It's a great way to expand the basic blues box and inspire creativity.

Often times I will practice the modes in various ways.

1. Legato practice. I can't really even do legato but I like to practice hammer ons and pull offs at least.

2. Oftentimes I will practice the F Lydian scale in a descending pattern but instead of going 5-3 I would go 5-2, so I would skip a scale degree. Then whatever note I skipped I would then descend from there, and that just keeps going on until I'm on the last note.

Sometimes I will just practice the major scale in various keys or the modes in C major with straight alternate picking or legato with a 8th or 16th note rhythm ascending and descending.

I also play jazz a lot so I practice that.

I play chromatic octaves across all strings, play tunes from start to finish several times, experiment with chord voicings, and experiment with chord progressions.

I also play more common chord progressions with no fancy voicings just normal major and minor chords. I normally do a 6-5-4-3 progression or some variation of those chords.

I practice more stuff than what I wrote on here but I didn't want to write an essay.
 
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I try to play every day but sometimes things like work get in the way, like today. I seem to be playing mainly to test new amps or pedals I've built these days. If I'm in a band I will rigorously play through our set frequently. Right now I'm not so i've been working out Beatles songs from time to time. Stuff like Helter Skelter and Birthday are a lot of fun to play. McCartney has an unusual guitar style with lots of index finger bends which helps to break me out of bad habits. Who bends with their index finger? McCartney does!

It also depends on which guitar I pull out. The Casino lends itself to Beatles songs, unsurprisingly. It sounds incredible actually - what great guitar! If I pull out the Les Paul I inevitably drift towards early ZZ Top. The Gretsches? Loads of stuff - early Elvis, Rev Horton Heat, Nick Curran, and a load of my own stuff. A 6120 or Duo Jet is my sound and I can just play for hours, in various keys, various tempos, songs or just improv. Even surf guitar and Shadows instrumentals - Apache sounds amazing on a Gretsch. Then there's the 335 which brings on my T-Bone Walker. Actually on my 335 I can play almost anything.

One day I must get an acoustic.
 
Harry Klippton said:
Seems like this has come up a lot recently here: we build too much and don't play, etc etc, so I ask you, what are your playing or practicing habits like?

What do you do? Maybe I'll find some inspiration in your habits
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I hardly ever touch my guitar these days, but on bass I tend to shed Real Book charts and if I'm trying to make any progress I work on learning the heads since lots of solos are/were often required of me. It's been a while since I've actually learned any new ones though. ;)
 
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spi said:
My go to chord is A minor.
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You guys are all weird, E minor is right there and it's the right chord for every situation.

I don't play guitar much at all these days. I decided I need to get myself back into a band, as playing with other people always pushes me to be a better musician, but that always gets tricky because bands are either looking for someone that can shred (I can't) or someone that can sing (I can but my memory for lyrics is awful).

Even more common there's a full established band that's just looking for a drummer, and I'm a much better drummer than I am guitarist. I used to do drum covers on youtube as a way of encouraging myself to practice, but I haven't even done that in over a year.
 
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