How much do you practice? Petrucci?

I'm self taught as well, but a lot of people believe I have had lessons, because I use very 'correct' scale fingerings and my left hand fingers are very economical.

^ . Guess it adds up to that.

The truth is, is you want to be the best, you have to put in the time to be the best.  If we all could become legendary on an hour a day alone, no one would stand out.

For me, I get an hour or two of practice in a day (not including playing during the school day and band performances), between 4 instruments..... pitiful I know.

I actually envy those with a routine. When I'm not playing guitar I'm playing hockey and when I'm not playing hockey I'm playing guitar...but inbetween playing guitar or hockey I also listen to music and go on the computer...to learn new things on guitar or new dekes or 'dangles' in hockey.

I'm a bit confused today, I've decided to try some different plectrums and bought a few Clayton 0.45mm Ultem picks and 0.5mm Acetal picks to replace my rapidly aging Gibson Ms (0.75mm) and I'm finding that instantly I'm more creative and have written more today than in the past 2 months! Am I really weird or were the Gibson picks holding me back?

That's probably the case I know that I've been looking forward to try these new picks out (I ordered them a couple of days ago) but I didn't think that the effect would be this good.

On the subject of strings, I've never understood why people like Ernie Ball strings, I've always preferred D'Addarios and Rotosounds. Ok for one of my guitars I don't have a choice when it comes to strings as D'Addario make the only double ball end strings I'd trust (yeah I've got a Steinberger).

Going back to the main subject of the thread, my university studies have really got in the way recently but now that I've got all my coursework out of the way for the moment I'm hoping I can start practising a lot more and therefore write and record more music.  

Steve Vai had practiced 10 hours a day when he was around 14 or 15...I read a lot about it and it's actually transcribed in an issue of 'Guitar World' with Vai and Satch on the cover..I think the issue was called 'Return of the Shred' or something like that.

SpaceMonkey wrote: ^^ Vai has posted his 10-Hour workout numerous times through the magazine. I remember reading how he has improved upon even more. Instead of 10 hours now, it's 30 hours stretched between 3 days. (That would be 10 a day for three days for our mathematically impaired members) But all he does is give more time to each area being trained/conditioned. I forget where I've seen this one at, though. I want to say it was GW, but I'd have to find the article.

Edited by HughesJB4 - February 21 2008 at 06:03

SpaceMonkey wrote: It had to be way before Jan. of this year. It's been at lest 3 months since I last purchased an issue. I just don't remember. But I have seen the 20th Anniversary JEM Ibanez and it is a beauty.

I'm building my own guitar at the moment and it's only going to cost me £250, I've only got the body, neck, and bridge at the moment, I should be getting everything else I need next month. It's only going to be a Stratocaster copy but I'm using really decent components like some Fender TexMex pickups and a Wilkinson VS100 tremolo.