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Re: Musical Instruments Thread
so since i've moved into my house about a year and a half ago i've only picekd up my guitar about a half dozen times, but started learning about 1997ish
i want to get back into it, what do you guys recommend is a good amount of times to practice a week? and for how long each time? someone told me an hour a day, but i have a dog and 2 kids so its not exactly easy to get the time either, but any advice is appreciated...i'd consider myself to be ad a midling level of skill...i know a crap load of chords and even do some simplistic lead stuff, and can sing and play rhythm..also know some theory, its really just about taking it to the next level
learn more lead stuff, and learn to sing and play more complicated shit at the same time, alternate and sweep picking ... like i said just upping it a notch
i play a samick acoustic and also a epiphone les paul standard
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
Hey Neemo. I haven't played a lot in a while. I usually try for a half hour each week, when it's just me and the cat. When I get together with the boys (once a month or so) we might jam together. For the most part, I play the same as you; I know chords and stuff and do a few lead parts here or there, but I mostly play rhythm. The beauty is jamming with the boys... we learn from each other and have lots of fun. I'm like a jukebox of party tunes. We played 4 hours straight one night, and didn't repeat a song once. What I didn't know, they told me the chords and I played along. I find with the amount I play, I get by, but no improvement, other than sharpening my current skills. I recommend an hour or two a week of serious practising... maybe lock yourself in the garage.
I like to sing, but I'm not that good. I probably know 100s of songs (mostly chords and stuff) on guitar, dabble in harmonica (got the headgear, yes, so I play guitar and harp the same time), keys (got an old Casio), and I've moved to my new passion, the ugly stick:
My guitar's a Segovia acoustic. I really need a new one, but this one's served me well. I started playing in 97.
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
I'm like you guys. Probably worse. I can't solo for shit. Can play chords & rhythym, but years ago lost my originality. At first I could only play bizarre shit, or 4 chord punk originals. But now all I can play are covers. Easy songs, or easy versions to songs at least. I have a decent stock of 30-40 that I know.
My biggest problem is strumming. I'm terrible at it. Mostly my strum pattern on each song goes
1
1-2
1-2-3
And I have to fight it really hard to not strum that pattern.
Neemo to answer your question I think an hour a day is ridiculous at our age. And unrealistic unless your in a working band. I BS said it well that an hour a week is attainable. I'm like you, I'll play a bit for a while, then other months my guitar sits unused for the whole month.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
I'll offer some advice for what it's worth....but i'm no master...so take it with a grain of salt:
1. Try and hang with other musos. It's amazing what you pick up from a variety of people. But don't stress about how good you are. Just keep
it fun. Improve for yourself and to play more chalanging and exciting solos. But there's always some motherfucker who can play better than you. And a lot of people want to turn a jam into a dick measuring contest...so just let them be the big man but keep learning all you can from anyone in any style who plays.
2. Listen to a lot of guitar. I bet you already do this. But like start listening to techinque in the playing. Where are the harmonics? Is a certain part picked or hammered? What effect is that? Is there a phrase being repeated? How big a bend is a note? is there a slide up to it? etc Does it sound like an open chord C or a barre chord C? How many guitars are on this recording, is it an overdub etc etc. At first this is really hard but when you do a lot of this as well as your pracise one day you suddenly start to recgonise other people doing things you do and you can sort of work out what you like, how to incorporate it...and it overall makes you play better I think.
3. Keep your guitar out. No cases. No cuboards. I want it on a stand in the corner of your room next to your pc or some other room where you are a lot. This means you see it every day. And it tells your brain to get around to playing it. Out of sight out of mind brother. And if you have a few mins to play it - not like a full session but just a moment as the wife is finding her shoes or whatever you can do it. It sounds dumb but it makes the difference. Pack it up all safe in a case in the garage and you just turn it into 10 mins work getting the shit out and putting it back, and who the fuck has 10 mins for that. Yes I am that lazy. But i'm dead serious. the difference between the guitar being loose at hand and somewhere away is about 90% of what makes me play that day or not.
Like if i leave my guitar in the car after a band rehersal one week cos i'm tried, that's it - i'm fucked - i know it's going to be there a week latter at band pracitse. So make the effort to set up a space that's condusive to being able to play. For me this means my guitar is loose and near my pc. So i can play along with tube, or download tab, or strum while jacking off to porn or whatever the fuck lmao.
4. Don't stress about the time you play. Stess about the frequency. Sure in a perfect world you'd become a Zakk motherfucker and play 12 hrs a day for like 10 years straight or whatever the hell he did. But most of us mortals can't do that kind of thing. or at least I don't have the balls for it. respect to zakk. So if you can do what your friend says...an hour a day...you are really sure to get impovemnts...and that's a great amount to be doing i think...but it's not all there is. It's mostly how often you do it. Like for example an hour a day for 6 days is in my opinion MUCH MUCH better than a 6hr session once a week. Because it's about training movments and mussle memory into your brain, and while this takes time - the repetition is the most important part of it. So i think the theory follows that it's better to do 10 mins 6 times a week than 60 mins once a week. And so on. so just keep a guitar handy and try and get in a routene of playing something on it each day. Some days you might settle in for a full hour like a good boy, but try and touch it on a day you can't. Just spend like 2 or 5 mins before bed and run through a mode or something. Play it for 30 seconds while your kids are in the bathroom on the way to school. Anything, any touch is better than none.
5. Practise smart, not long. Work out where you suck and practise that even though the reason you suck is prob cos you hate doing it, can't do it, don't like the sound etc. If you suck at sweeps, make yourself sweep for a few mins a day. Doesn't have to be intense and forever, just do some. Or if it's alternate picking you can't do. Find a little 1 minute picking exercise or soemthing and open every session with that until u can. It might take 2 years. But in 2 years time you'll have skills you wouldn't have had if you had hidden from the stuff you can't do. I think 5-10 mins working on a skill you're average at is going to be more benifical long term than several hours of playing stuff you've already mastered.
6. Keep it fun. We all need to practise. And like i said above focus on smart practise. But hell. lets be honest. Scales are boring as bat shit (unless u can shred shred them and even then they suck) and other non-musical technique exercises are even worse. if you don't ever let yourself play somethign fun you'll rather smack your head into a wall than do guitar. So make sure every now and then u give yourself a session of just fun. fuck the practise. Just play whatever it is that achieves nothing but gets you off. For me this is La Grange by ZZ top. I'll bang on a backing track of it and just noodle my own solos over the top, or my take on the recorded solos...and sure i should be spending my time sweeping to the metronome or whatever...but those seconds where I feel like a guitar god in my bedroom count and make me keep playing some other day.
7. think guitar when you arn't playing guitar. Lets say you can't play for the day. And you are stuck somewhere mindless like a train. Or a bus. Visualise yourself playing a scale. Like seriously. think about how your fingers would move from each fret in first person. Try and see it like a pc shooter game view. What do you see when you look down at the frets. Pick a mode or something and try and work it out note for note what it looks like and imagine yourself playing it. Sounds fucking dumb as shit but I honestly think on some level it helps program the brain! It's better to play for real...but if you can't...it helps make sure you don't get that lost feeling when you get back to the guitar days latter and feel like you are starting from scratch.
well...that's all my advice. Hope it helps anyone. Like i say, i think i'm adaquate but i'm no rock god or anything, there's always someone better..in fact theres 1000s of people who are better...and dudes like bumble make me feel like i have no business even owning a tar....but I love to play and these are my tricks that have helped me get better than i was once.
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
3. Keep your guitar out. No cases. No cuboards. I want it on a stand in the corner of your room next to your pc or some other room where you are a lot. This means you see it every day. And it tells your brain to get around to playing it. Out of sight out of mind brother. And if you have a few mins to play it - not like a full session but just a moment as the wife is finding her shoes or whatever you can do it. It sounds dumb but it makes the difference. Pack it up all safe in a case in the garage and you just turn it into 10 mins work getting the shit out and putting it back, and who the fuck has 10 mins for that. Yes I am that lazy. But i'm dead serious. the difference between the guitar being loose at hand and somewhere away is about 90% of what makes me play that day or not.
Like if i leave my guitar in the car after a band rehersal one week cos i'm tried, that's it - i'm fucked - i know it's going to be there a week latter at band pracitse. So make the effort to set up a space that's condusive to being able to play. For me this means my guitar is loose and near my pc. So i can play along with tube, or download tab, or strum while jacking off to porn or whatever the fuck lmao.
This right here is the magic bullet. Leave your guitar out in the open where you come often enough. I used to have the exact same problem with leaving the guitar in the car after rehearsals, not touching it for a week until the next one, and so forth... I have now bought a second (well, third, but who's counting 
) guitar, an additional amp and they are right next to my TV set. Even during commercials I tend to pick up the thing and just noodle a little bit.
Personally, I wouldn't say I'm an extremely good player. I do play lead in my band, typical blues-rock type solo's, but my real passion is song writing. If I don't pick up the guitar often enough, I have zero output. The more I play, the more I will stumble upon a riff that I deem good enough to turn into a song.
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
thanks monkey! karma!!
scales is one thing i have never really practiced...should i learn a couple? what are your recomendations for the ones to learn? i'm asuming blues scale is one...is there another? or 2?
put the new strings on last night...now i try to get it out tonight, normally i leave it out in th eliving room...but at xmas my wife regulated it to the bedroom upstairs...time to bring it down again
was thinking of buying a half size nylon string acoustic for my 5 year old...whast do you guys think? 5 too young?
- Mikkamakka
- Rep: 217
Re: Musical Instruments Thread
Good thread! 
:rock:
I wanna buy a new electro-acoustic guitar. I hope there is an expert who can give me advice. I'll post the 'contenders' later this week.
