What is your daily practice routine??

the other day, this was my practice routine: 10 minutes or so warming up, then 1,5 or two hours of playing the solo to Metallica's Blackened over and over and over again. I found out that was a quite effective way of learning a solo.

These days, I play about 6 times per year, when my budd and I get together in his basement and get a little lit up.  We then proceed to wail at mostly improv jamming for about 3 hours, then we go outside for.....more refreshments. 

The funny thing is, we've never played better.  We been playing instruments for over 20 years and are much better players now than when we sat in our bedrooms "practicing" for hours on end.  What we have learned is that playing music for fun is much from the heart than from the memorization of riffs or scales.  The key phrase being "for fun" of course.  Obviously if you are a pro learning parts for your recording or specific songs for your gig, you need to work on that.  But if your goal is to have fun jamming at improv with a trusted friend, a "practice routine" is not necessary.  We can go months without playing, and as soon as we put our Les and bass back on, the inspiration just floods back into our aging carcasses. 

The stuff we can come up with now during free jamming is so amazing compared to what we did when we were in a band together.  Yeah, we're the only two who will ever hear it (aside from his wife upstairs) but that's OK.  We play for enjoyment, not for money or to perform.  It is the relative rarity of these sessions that make them so fun.  If we did it every weekend I suspect it would be far less magical to us. 

If I actually practiced the guitar as much effort as I put into air guitar (and bass, drums, keys, sitar, sax, etc.), I'd be the most amazing multi-instrumentalist ever. But sadly, I've fallen out of favor with it all lately, or maybe it's the other way around. But I'm really good at the flipping vinyl.

I don't really have a practice schedule, I can some times go a week or so without playing any of the various instruments I own (guitar, baritone guitar, mandola, keyboard and theremin).

When I do play I tend not to focus on technique or learning songs, I'm much more into experimenting with effects and creating soundscapes. For a warm up I might play a bit of East Hastings by Godspeed You Black Emperor or if the mood takes me a few King Crimson riffs.

About a month ago I replaced reading (and a lot of homework) with guitar dont tell my teachers. so now evry night I play guitar an hour when I'm suppost to be doing homework and for another hour before bed. I have practice with my band 2-4 times a week for 2-4 hours and also am teaching myself to play slap bass when I guit bored of the six string.

Edited by Proletariat - October 20 2007 at 18:58

Sit at the Casio and play for 5 minutes.

I just started being serious with the guitar.

my practice routine.... ahhh... close eyes.. grab a CD.. and plays along.  It's how I learned to play when I started.... it keeps thing fresh after many years of playing. Since I have quite an eclectic collection of albums.. prog and otherwise.. you never are sure what you will get.  Country, jazz, new wave, metal, blues, prog

I personally practice at least an hour daily (depending on how much school work I have in store for me), and take my guitar to school w/ an amp to play in a practice room during my free periods. I warm up playing the G-major scale up and down about 10 times over, then the A-chromatic scale, then i play the first riff of erotomania for fun :D

Since i'm trying to get into my school's jazz band, i've been practicing jazz chords and playing along with a score that has guitar chords above each measure. If i'm in my non-jazz mode, i either come up w/ new parts for my band or try to learn a new dream theater or symphony x song or something (those are the most challenging and fun to play ^^)

Edited by activetopics - September 23 2007 at 15:10