What is your practice routine?

[tapper mike]

When, how much and what?

[donkey tugger]

I sit down with the intention of perhaps learning some technique or practicing something, then after about 30 seconds think, 'hmm that's a nice chord/riff' then f**k off the practice and write a song. The luxury of not being in a band or needing to learn any one else's music I suppose.

I did spend a bit of time working at slide guitar recently actually, and the practice did pay off, so an old donkey can learn new tricks...

[BertKoor]

I just don't, which means I won't improve, which is fine by me.

But if you do want to practice, here are some open doors:
* Identify what you want to get better at, set a goal.
* Find some good exercises targeted at that.
* Make a schedule (eg 30 minutes every day, or 2 hours every sunday) and stick to that.
* Allow some warm-up time every session.
* Record yourself every now and then to assess the progress.

[DesolationRow65]

5-10 min warm up, mobility, blood flowing stuff, etc.
30 technique practice
15-30 min of fun-based, improvisations, song stuff, creativity building

Individual technique exercises are no more than 3 min each set.

[jancivil]

People are going to tend to be at wildly varying levels here, it appears.

In the beginning mainly practiced the pieces I was going to be performing. This was other people's music. I didn't practice scales after the first couple of years, that's beyond boring; I would just practice the actual scalar run in the piece. For the hands I did abstract practicing at times.

GUITAR: Left hand, slurs. "hammer-ons/pull offs". I would work towards a very pronounced effect, as much of the second note as I could muster, or a clean slur. And I would endeavor to not, as Holdsworth put it, have that 'twang' in the pull-off, just a very liquid sort of effect. Right hand: I had to work on the strength of my ring finger particularly, as well as artificial harmonics with the [index +] little finger. So I would just do exercises for the former and find examples in music for the later. I would watch TV during this, typically; because once I'd established what it should sound and feel like, it was a pretty mindless type of activity.

When? All the time. 8 hrs a day I felt was de rigeur. I had to perform at a high standard or be embarrassed basically. Yeah, I got sick of it. During my first year at CCM I took acid all the time, I worked on my 'for jury' suite - actually any/all of my repertoire tripping, typically. That's when it didn't suck, it was amazing.

Then, the last practicing I remember involving my own music was I would strive to create a raga and work out what vakra was going to amount to a real composition. That is, where to zig and where to zag, forming principles which should amount to 'form', or shape the improvisation best. When? I didn't have a mode of operation like that during that time. I probably somewhat retained the slurs exercises.

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

20-25 minutes of practicing a thing, 5-minute break, repeat indefinitely.

[pljones]

Once upon a time I took lessons. Between lessons, I practised. So long ago, I remember no further details. Recently, I got asked to contribute to a cover of a song, so I did practise that - but only until I could play something that sounded reasonable, no stroke-perfect performance. Generally I just jam - if I find a groove I like the feel of, I'll play it until I'm playing it comfortably then start playing around with it. This generally ends up (a) not starting that far from my more comfortable motifs and (b) morphing into one of my more comfortable motifs. When I'm in the mood, I'll try really hard to start from somewhere further away from "home"...

I keep telling myself I really need to work out a practise regime and try sticking to it. It's a nice story to listen to between jams.

[jancivil]

I'm trying to get my right hand better for finger drumming. There's nothing interesting about that, though. It isn't going anywhere due to nerve damage.

[tapper mike]

I would go through scale patterns major, minor, harmonic and natural minor for each key a day then I'd work out arpeggios for the key. And two days per fortnight I'd work through them all not through circle of fifths but via minor thirds. Did that for decades. As well I'd play through rhythm changes in all 12 keys. Then "Blues for Alice" in all 12 keys. Which really helped in jazz settings as pick up gigs would require that you be able to perform any given piece in a different key to satisfy the vocalist or band leader.

In jazz cover bands everyone expects you to know their favorite 500 songs out of the gate even if you'll only play 50 at a given gig. By 40 I could pull about 2000 songs jazz/blues/rock out of my hat. I used to have a few notebooks filled with my own transcriptions and setlists. At 58 I rarely go through all of that these days. I've just gotten lazy.

Plus most is not needed for the path I'm on right now which is strict chord melody tapping. It takes me considerably longer for me to learn songs and they are also easily forgotten. The only time that changes is when I'm out playing live which is generally in summer and fairly rare.

I would go back to something close to that regiment again if I had a linnstrument. I've got a pair of Launchpad Pro's right now but it's not the same. Mostly having to do with range.

Before my linnstrument died on me it gave me a new lease on life. I've wanted a z-board since they came out in the 90's with it's 12x24 grid surface

The huge price tag kept me away. Working with the linnstrument was great. I started to work out course ware for it... Then the damn thing died on me. At the rate things are going I don't see owning one again in the next year.

[kattstrike]

Personally, for learning a new instrument/song - I try to do 10-20 minutes a day. I tell myself that such a small amount of time is inconsequential to my day (and often I end up practicing for longer).

In terms of practicing production techniques/sound design - I'll usually spend 1-2 hours 2/3 times a week.

Recentley, I've been terrible - but I'm taking up the cello next year, so I'll get back into it

[dellboy]

I started playing the violin a year ago. By far the hardest instrument to learn for me, mainly because it has no frets, and I have pitch problems. Anyway, I have persevered every day for at least half an hour, and am making pleasing progress.

The upside of playing an instrument with no frets is that the audio imagination that develops is also useful when playing instruments with frets and keyboards. I have improved at both the piano and guitar without hardly playing them much. It seems to be a happy by product.