Good topic John. Many of us, like myself, did not attend music school and have spent decades prioritizing family and career. Music has strictly been a hobby and finding the time (and energy) to practice is often a challenge. That said, guitar is a livelong passion and I will continue to play as much as possible with a 'beginner's' mindset 😃
After 43 years of playing, I’ve found learning melodies is most important. Learn in one key, transpose to others. Learn in multiple positions. Harmonize and reharmonize. Add a bass note. Fill in the middle. Take those new chord shapes and move them diatonically. Finally, I look at tone center shifting and voice leading into non diatonic sections. It’s all a puzzle. Practice as much as you can and don’t stress. Just remember we’re all trying to service something bigger so incorporating these things into a song or melody is the goal.
I like what you said, specially around focusing on melody (I find from there, one can just plug in harmony to see what goes well with it; I can't really do it the other way around. At least not yet), and not stressing. If this is a hobby as I imagine it is for 95% of players, then just always make sure to enjoy the process.
Thank you both. Developing complex solutions is fun but retaining and applying them isn’t sustainable over time. What is sustainable and useful is having a musical dialogue with others. It can get esoteric and abstract but just as in conversation, it will come round full circle. The melody is like dna. In guitar, we think way too much about chords. Learn as many song melodies as possible. Listen to saxophone, violin and other monophonic instruments.
@@pearsonart Truth.. Music is very much a language - I like to think of solo performance as akin to delivering a speech, duet playing as a two way conversation, and ensemble playing as a panel discussion, inexhaustible avenues of communication..
Love this topic, John. And I think we both had similar experiences growing up. I remember starting guitar and skateboarding at the same time, and I decided whichever came more naturally to me was the hobby I would continue. Needless to say, the skateboarding lasted mere weeks. My mate Will committed to the ten hours per day routine due to being a huge Vai fan. By contrast, I got into Petrucci’s Rock Discipline which twenty years later remains my go-to practice resource. I now have and good career, a wife (with her own burgeoning career) and two children under 8-years old. I have no desire to be so selfish as to lock myself away and practice, although my wife probably wouldn’t get THAT annoyed if I did. I struggle to carve out ‘good’ practice over the course of a week, but Nick Johnston’s ‘Homework’ Patreon was a great way to resolve that. I’d honestly recommend that to anyone. It’s lo-fi, raw material but it comes from a great maestro, hard to argue that.
Nice video, John. When you talked about Larry Carlton and the idea of having small ideas that may not be super complex, it makes me think of music vocabulary development and how in our every day conversations with people, it's less often that we use large, complex words or phrases and that it's mostly just simple communication. Putting that into practice, I'm trying to build a mix of simple (3-4 note phrases with endless rhythmic possibilities and complex (ie. The Eric Johnson pentatonic runs) vocabulary. Im certain that in the end, the bulk of my improvisation will be made up of simple stuff. Keep up the good content!
Great ideas!! And as always, great playing!! I have a spreadsheet of things to work on. Each week, I copy/paste for the new week, make some adjustments, and don't worry if I can't get thru everything for a given day. If I can get only 10 minutes or an hour that's OK.
I do something similar with a Word document, that I update periodically, print, and keep in a binder. Definitely helps the whole "so what should I play?" issue.
Hej John, thanks for this video. I think I am sometimes having trouble being content when life gets between me and my planned routine, so this was helpful. For myself, I am getting up at six in the morning to pratice an hour and then head off to work as I find that evening hours are not as productive for me :) A drummer also told me he liked to practise polyrhythms when away from the instrument e.g. by ‚dancing‘ one rhythm and saying/clapping another. cheers
I've been looking into ultradian cycles for guitar practice. It's about practicing in 90-120 minute blocks, then taking short breaks. Seems to help with focus and learning. Sleep's crucial too - I've noticed the harder lines to play are often easier after a good night's rest, since the brain continues to process information.
As a busy dad of 3 I make sure I have a guitar easily at hand. I have a wall hanger for a guitar in the living room, bedroom as well as my practice space so that when I don’t have time to seclude myself I still am reminded to play and I can pick up a guitar for 5-10min and noodle. Also, the best decoration is a beautiful guitar hanging on the wall.
I take truefire courses for a couple hours on Saturdays and about an hour on Sundays. Through the week I pick up the guitar and play backing tracks on truefire and youtube at least once a day even if it is just to play one track. I have downloaded a bunch of their jams in different genre. I have been gigging fairly regularly my entire life. Truefire has helped me find new inspirations other than the cover songs I have been playing forever. I'm 64 and still finding things to learn.
I've tried a lot of practice concepts. Lately and I guess for me the most beneficial way to practice is, if I'm playing and find a way for me to navigate over the fretboard that sounds musical. Because that kind of practicing sticks in my head. I hope, that this leads me more to an own voice. This could be a riff, lick or a melody. Important is, to analyze it afterwards, to sort it out and to use it in different scales or progressions. Same goes for backing tracks while soloing over.
As guitarist with a family myself really great advice John. I definitely felt when your daughter came and smacked your guitar while playing lol. It really hit home!
I made sure I practiced every day when I became a Dad. ( he used to pop in and tell me to turn it UP while he went to sleep)I make sure I pick up the guitar every day, and I work on writing a tune over a couple of weeks. I miss the "interrupted practice days" they went so fast ❤
My (lack of) structured practice routine does suck! But mostly because I have no clue on what to study / practice. So I mostly just learn new songs for the bands I'm in (and rehearse existing ones to keep them fresh) plus a bit of noodling and following the muse. I do have the guitar (or bass or both) in my hands every day. Many remote meetings (that I'm muted for) turn into practice sessions.
Fripp does a lot of practising to keep the King Crimson rep under his fingers. Vai talked about the stress and anxiety of keeping the guitar parts he had touring with Zappa in his fingers, not the least that they had a big number of potential tracks on the setlist that would change as Zappa saw fit (as well as coping with the touring schedule of travelling, sound checks / rehearsals, the gigs and then having to find time to practise before sleeping or travelling again) - he probably finds it easier now that he most tours FTLOG and Tender surrender - tracks that he's played for decades? Vai seemed to be a bit stressed with having to learn and adapt Fripp's style to his playing for his tour with Belew et al in Beat. Guthrie Govan always suggests in interviews that he just plays and doesn't consider what he's ever done as practising or following any rigid metronomic style of practise or exercises. Again, for clinics and the like he seems to pull out well-trodden paths like 'Wonderful slippery thing'. As for evidence of the definite need to keep playing (much like a runner needs to run regularly) - EVH had an embarrassing encounter with an audience at some trade show (Namm?) booze didn't help but he clearly hadn't been playing for a while either. Led Zepp showed another example of what happens if you haven't played or rehearsed for a while - even songs that you've toured and played for years at Live Aid in 1985 - again booze played its part. Both redeemed themselves with later gigs. In reverse, bands that are doing big tours the musicians learn their chops just from the frequency of gigging the same set list over and over, night after night for months at a time - perhaps suggesting that, unless you have particularly complex parts to play, gigging might be practise just as racing regularly in zwift is probably some of the best training for getting better at racing in zwift. I don't think any of these guys are noticeably getting better though. I think the key aspect of most professional, famous musicians is, they have their act and they pretty much stick to it - regardless of who else comes along or what the kids are doing. They aren't trying to learn new things particularly. Vai pretty much always plays what Vai plays - sure he's done this Fripp thing but from the clips I've seen he still pretty much is doing Vai. He did one number on an Ibanez guitar that was a strat with a jem hole cut in it which had some fancy bending in it, it borrowed a lot from sisters - and, of course, Vai has had issues with his shoulder, including a couple of operations, so maybe that was part of it. I think if you look at really old Guthrie clips and compare he's definitely thought more about his picking hand and optimised it but, by and large his playing is more or less the same. The only 'famous' guitar player I've seen who has learned some new technique and actually developed and improved as a result in front of our eyes is Tim Henson when he learned Tosin's thumb thing - and it was remarkable for that - because here's a guy who already has chops, has a unique riffing thing, has an audience - but he's spent months going back to playing like a beginner to learn something else. You'd never see Richie Blackmore or EVH doing that. Eddie's playing in 1978 was pretty much as good as he ever played - he never practised to improve or learn something new. Of course, you could argue they didn't need to - he was EVH after all, but like they say - if you get famous make sure you enjoy the music you're playing because that's all you're ever going to play and your audience will expect you to play it. And when some kid comes along who is doing something new unlike the bedroom guitarists who all start learning his riffs you'll be too busy being Steve Vai or EVH to do that. Eventually, of course, we all reach an age where it becomes pretty difficult to pick up something new even if we've optimised the chops we can play and feel like we can play them better than ever before. This is the point at which many of them rationalise away the new kid's playing saying "too many notes" or "there's no feeling" or "It just sounds like a music box" - Blackmore did this for a while he was clearly not happy that Joe Satriani's and Vais were demonstrably putting more craft and knowledge into playing than his generation. By contrast both Vai and Satriani seem unphased by seeing kids doing stuff they never could and full of praise - but they do have some wise words about it being more than just technique or sitting making clips by yourself.
Ordinarily I scroll past long comments but I'm glad I took the time to read. It's refreshing to find someone who has such an accurate perspective of players and who they are. Much respect.
EVH added a lot of stuff after the first album. His playing changed most obviously between The 3rd and 4th albums. The slapping and tapped harmonics on Mean Street is almost a direct analogue for Tim learning Tosin’s thumb thing. The Holdsworth inspired long legato runs weren’t present until Fair Warning. Synyster Gates between Nightmare and The Stage really leveled up his playing. Slash keeps getting better. Making more complex or a different kind of music can be as much or more of a skill increase as learning a new physical technique.
I like dropping out a bit on my band mates at practice sometimes. Just to see how tight we really are and to just throw in the occasional curve ball. I haven’t got kicked out yet lol.
I have only started to take guitar seriously in the last 6 months having found the right methods to actually get better. When I say serious I mean I have the desire to just learn how to be a good guitar player rather than someone who just sings and play a few songs (nothing wrong with this if its what you are into) However the new found seriousness is also in tandem with a 10 month old. I feel its important to focus on sonethjng small and build it to mastery. Use quiet couch practice on something loopable. I try and get up 2hrs before everyone else. This is working for me but I just really want better skills. My two cents anyway
I get better when I take the time to practice fundamentals. When I was a grade school sax player I sat there with books practicing scales, patterns, I made it to the highest state level of competition, it only makes sense to approach guitar in the same way
Great post John! My 2 Cents worth, if you have limited time and don't need just "chops", work on learning melodies, either with or especially without the recording.
I go through phases where I'm playing and improving a lot but then my wrist starts to hurt and I have to take breaks where I can't play at all... it's miserable 😔... any advice on how to deal with that?
I’m the same way. Years of playing organ in church, typing at work and video games have taken their toll. I stretch often and use KT tape if I have to. I love playing so I’ll soldier through
Left hand? Get your guitar "high up" and the neck pointing up so that there is less of an angle for your wrist. A bit like modern metal players or classical guitar do. Only play wide spreads after being fully warmed up. Be wary of skinny necks, a more hefty neck makes for more strength (I love my Ibanez AZ for that, nice "shoulders" without being a baseball neck). Don't warm up playing the guitar. Warm up your hand with friction (as if washing your hands "dry") and your left arm elbow tendon with stretches. Don't jump into high speeds immediately. And a last one IMPORTAND (I had to search for the right way to say this, I am not an English native speaker), finger flicks: flick every finger of your left hand at least 5 times. This last one makes a big difference. You can compare left and right hand by wiggling the fingers of both hands after finger flicks of the left hand, you will notice the difference...
@@GuitarHugo thanks for the reply... all very good advice specially the finger flicks gonna look that up... iv been playing with the guitar at nip height for about 2 weeks now and it really does help
Improving your practice routine might be as simple as making sure you have a guitar visible and within reach. Whilst I’ve got a bunch of decent guitars, most times they’re in a separate space to the one I’m in - that’s not helpful. What I do always seem to have to hand is my iPad - there must be some way of getting at 1 guitar in the same room, and hooking it up to the iPad, then listen on earbuds or headphones so as not to disturb those I share a space with?
![I Practiced 7 Hours a Day [for a bit] - How Much Should You Actually Practice?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/z1-CFZPGTHs/mqdefault.jpg)
Good topic John. Many of us, like myself, did not attend music school and have spent decades prioritizing family and career. Music has strictly been a hobby and finding the time (and energy) to practice is often a challenge. That said, guitar is a livelong passion and I will continue to play as much as possible with a 'beginner's' mindset 😃
After 43 years of playing, I’ve found learning melodies is most important. Learn in one key, transpose to others. Learn in multiple positions. Harmonize and reharmonize. Add a bass note. Fill in the middle. Take those new chord shapes and move them diatonically. Finally, I look at tone center shifting and voice leading into non diatonic sections. It’s all a puzzle. Practice as much as you can and don’t stress. Just remember we’re all trying to service something bigger so incorporating these things into a song or melody is the goal.
I like what you said, specially around focusing on melody (I find from there, one can just plug in harmony to see what goes well with it; I can't really do it the other way around. At least not yet), and not stressing. If this is a hobby as I imagine it is for 95% of players, then just always make sure to enjoy the process.
Absolutely, the ultimate goal is to improve at playing Music, not just guitar…
Thank you both. Developing complex solutions is fun but retaining and applying them isn’t sustainable over time. What is sustainable and useful is having a musical dialogue with others. It can get esoteric and abstract but just as in conversation, it will come round full circle. The melody is like dna. In guitar, we think way too much about chords. Learn as many song melodies as possible. Listen to saxophone, violin and other monophonic instruments.
@@pearsonart Truth.. Music is very much a language - I like to think of solo performance as akin to delivering a speech, duet playing as a two way conversation, and ensemble playing as a panel discussion, inexhaustible avenues of communication..
Solo playing as delivering a speech. Yes, very good analogy. It seems few of us get to the level of Joe Pass or Julian Lage.
Love this topic, John. And I think we both had similar experiences growing up. I remember starting guitar and skateboarding at the same time, and I decided whichever came more naturally to me was the hobby I would continue. Needless to say, the skateboarding lasted mere weeks.
My mate Will committed to the ten hours per day routine due to being a huge Vai fan. By contrast, I got into Petrucci’s Rock Discipline which twenty years later remains my go-to practice resource.
I now have and good career, a wife (with her own burgeoning career) and two children under 8-years old. I have no desire to be so selfish as to lock myself away and practice, although my wife probably wouldn’t get THAT annoyed if I did. I struggle to carve out ‘good’ practice over the course of a week, but Nick Johnston’s ‘Homework’ Patreon was a great way to resolve that. I’d honestly recommend that to anyone. It’s lo-fi, raw material but it comes from a great maestro, hard to argue that.
Nice video, John. When you talked about Larry Carlton and the idea of having small ideas that may not be super complex, it makes me think of music vocabulary development and how in our every day conversations with people, it's less often that we use large, complex words or phrases and that it's mostly just simple communication. Putting that into practice, I'm trying to build a mix of simple (3-4 note phrases with endless rhythmic possibilities and complex (ie. The Eric Johnson pentatonic runs) vocabulary. Im certain that in the end, the bulk of my improvisation will be made up of simple stuff.
Keep up the good content!
Great ideas!! And as always, great playing!!
I have a spreadsheet of things to work on. Each week, I copy/paste for the new week, make some adjustments, and don't worry if I can't get thru everything for a given day. If I can get only 10 minutes or an hour that's OK.
I do something similar with a Word document, that I update periodically, print, and keep in a binder. Definitely helps the whole "so what should I play?" issue.
I really enjoy your vids and find them interesting and informative. Please keep them coming.
Hej John, thanks for this video. I think I am sometimes having trouble being content when life gets between me and my planned routine, so this was helpful. For myself, I am getting up at six in the morning to pratice an hour and then head off to work as I find that evening hours are not as productive for me :) A drummer also told me he liked to practise polyrhythms when away from the instrument e.g. by ‚dancing‘ one rhythm and saying/clapping another.
cheers
I've been looking into ultradian cycles for guitar practice. It's about practicing in 90-120 minute blocks, then taking short breaks. Seems to help with focus and learning. Sleep's crucial too - I've noticed the harder lines to play are often easier after a good night's rest, since the brain continues to process information.
Great points! I love the realistic and practical perspective
MOst of THIS Improv has been some of the BEST Music let alone by at which is 're BEST instrument anyways. You GROOVED like No other in TH1S John'NC!!!
As a busy dad of 3 I make sure I have a guitar easily at hand. I have a wall hanger for a guitar in the living room, bedroom as well as my practice space so that when I don’t have time to seclude myself I still am reminded to play and I can pick up a guitar for 5-10min and noodle. Also, the best decoration is a beautiful guitar hanging on the wall.
I take truefire courses for a couple hours on Saturdays and about an hour on Sundays. Through the week I pick up the guitar and play backing tracks on truefire and youtube at least once a day even if it is just to play one track. I have downloaded a bunch of their jams in different genre. I have been gigging fairly regularly my entire life. Truefire has helped me find new inspirations other than the cover songs I have been playing forever. I'm 64 and still finding things to learn.
I've tried a lot of practice concepts. Lately and I guess for me the most beneficial way to practice is, if I'm playing and find a way for me to navigate over the fretboard that sounds musical. Because that kind of practicing sticks in my head. I hope, that this leads me more to an own voice. This could be a riff, lick or a melody. Important is, to analyze it afterwards, to sort it out and to use it in different scales or progressions. Same goes for backing tracks while soloing over.
I've gone the Yng-way; dont "practice" anymore, just improvise. I've gotten WAY better in the last 3 years compared to the 20 before that.
@@AmericanNationalist852 I can totally comprehend that. The last couple of days were way more creative.
As guitarist with a family myself really great advice John. I definitely felt when your daughter came and smacked your guitar while playing lol. It really hit home!
Love this! Thank you Sir!
Either 10 minutes or an hour, keep the learning path, either teacher, online lesson or book, keep growing
Definitely
I made sure I practiced every day when I became a Dad. ( he used to pop in and tell me to turn it UP while he went to sleep)I make sure I pick up the guitar every day, and I work on writing a tune over a couple of weeks.
I miss the "interrupted practice days" they went so fast ❤
My (lack of) structured practice routine does suck! But mostly because I have no clue on what to study / practice. So I mostly just learn new songs for the bands I'm in (and rehearse existing ones to keep them fresh) plus a bit of noodling and following the muse. I do have the guitar (or bass or both) in my hands every day. Many remote meetings (that I'm muted for) turn into practice sessions.
The Scary Good sounding playing starts at 1:31-3:57, so HAUNTINGLY GOOD!!!!
Good video!
Fripp does a lot of practising to keep the King Crimson rep under his fingers. Vai talked about the stress and anxiety of keeping the guitar parts he had touring with Zappa in his fingers, not the least that they had a big number of potential tracks on the setlist that would change as Zappa saw fit (as well as coping with the touring schedule of travelling, sound checks / rehearsals, the gigs and then having to find time to practise before sleeping or travelling again) - he probably finds it easier now that he most tours FTLOG and Tender surrender - tracks that he's played for decades?
Vai seemed to be a bit stressed with having to learn and adapt Fripp's style to his playing for his tour with Belew et al in Beat. Guthrie Govan always suggests in interviews that he just plays and doesn't consider what he's ever done as practising or following any rigid metronomic style of practise or exercises. Again, for clinics and the like he seems to pull out well-trodden paths like 'Wonderful slippery thing'.
As for evidence of the definite need to keep playing (much like a runner needs to run regularly) - EVH had an embarrassing encounter with an audience at some trade show (Namm?) booze didn't help but he clearly hadn't been playing for a while either. Led Zepp showed another example of what happens if you haven't played or rehearsed for a while - even songs that you've toured and played for years at Live Aid in 1985 - again booze played its part. Both redeemed themselves with later gigs.
In reverse, bands that are doing big tours the musicians learn their chops just from the frequency of gigging the same set list over and over, night after night for months at a time - perhaps suggesting that, unless you have particularly complex parts to play, gigging might be practise just as racing regularly in zwift is probably some of the best training for getting better at racing in zwift.
I don't think any of these guys are noticeably getting better though. I think the key aspect of most professional, famous musicians is, they have their act and they pretty much stick to it - regardless of who else comes along or what the kids are doing. They aren't trying to learn new things particularly. Vai pretty much always plays what Vai plays - sure he's done this Fripp thing but from the clips I've seen he still pretty much is doing Vai. He did one number on an Ibanez guitar that was a strat with a jem hole cut in it which had some fancy bending in it, it borrowed a lot from sisters - and, of course, Vai has had issues with his shoulder, including a couple of operations, so maybe that was part of it.
I think if you look at really old Guthrie clips and compare he's definitely thought more about his picking hand and optimised it but, by and large his playing is more or less the same.
The only 'famous' guitar player I've seen who has learned some new technique and actually developed and improved as a result in front of our eyes is Tim Henson when he learned Tosin's thumb thing - and it was remarkable for that - because here's a guy who already has chops, has a unique riffing thing, has an audience - but he's spent months going back to playing like a beginner to learn something else. You'd never see Richie Blackmore or EVH doing that. Eddie's playing in 1978 was pretty much as good as he ever played - he never practised to improve or learn something new.
Of course, you could argue they didn't need to - he was EVH after all, but like they say - if you get famous make sure you enjoy the music you're playing because that's all you're ever going to play and your audience will expect you to play it. And when some kid comes along who is doing something new unlike the bedroom guitarists who all start learning his riffs you'll be too busy being Steve Vai or EVH to do that. Eventually, of course, we all reach an age where it becomes pretty difficult to pick up something new even if we've optimised the chops we can play and feel like we can play them better than ever before. This is the point at which many of them rationalise away the new kid's playing saying "too many notes" or "there's no feeling" or "It just sounds like a music box" - Blackmore did this for a while he was clearly not happy that Joe Satriani's and Vais were demonstrably putting more craft and knowledge into playing than his generation. By contrast both Vai and Satriani seem unphased by seeing kids doing stuff they never could and full of praise - but they do have some wise words about it being more than just technique or sitting making clips by yourself.
Ordinarily I scroll past long comments but I'm glad I took the time to read. It's refreshing to find someone who has such an accurate perspective of players and who they are.
Much respect.
EVH added a lot of stuff after the first album. His playing changed most obviously between The 3rd and 4th albums. The slapping and tapped harmonics on Mean Street is almost a direct analogue for Tim learning Tosin’s thumb thing. The Holdsworth inspired long legato runs weren’t present until Fair Warning.
Synyster Gates between Nightmare and The Stage really leveled up his playing.
Slash keeps getting better.
Making more complex or a different kind of music can be as much or more of a skill increase as learning a new physical technique.
@@HaxMollowayyet another accurate perspective. It's so pleasing to come across in this venue.
Love your videos man! But think you might need some new joggers 😂
@johnnathancordy - silver sky seems to have a nice snarling tone tone today. 👍
My kid does that all the time and he loves hittingthe strings and getting my picks
I like dropping out a bit on my band mates at practice sometimes. Just to see how tight we really are and to just throw in the occasional curve ball. I haven’t got kicked out yet lol.
With the age of the driverless car upon us, soon we'll be able to go on a 10 hour road trip and have a guitar on our lap the whole way.
I have only started to take guitar seriously in the last 6 months having found the right methods to actually get better. When I say serious I mean I have the desire to just learn how to be a good guitar player rather than someone who just sings and play a few songs (nothing wrong with this if its what you are into)
However the new found seriousness is also in tandem with a 10 month old.
I feel its important to focus on sonethjng small and build it to mastery. Use quiet couch practice on something loopable. I try and get up 2hrs before everyone else. This is working for me but I just really want better skills. My two cents anyway
I get better when I take the time to practice fundamentals. When I was a grade school sax player I sat there with books practicing scales, patterns, I made it to the highest state level of competition, it only makes sense to approach guitar in the same way
I so appreciate your vids but I've just gotta say this..... I've gotta have that hoodie in my life!
If your kid is enjoying your guitar practice session, then you've made it as a guitarist😄
Great post John! My 2 Cents worth, if you have limited time and don't need just "chops", work on learning melodies, either with or especially without the recording.
I go through phases where I'm playing and improving a lot but then my wrist starts to hurt and I have to take breaks where I can't play at all... it's miserable 😔... any advice on how to deal with that?
I’m the same way. Years of playing organ in church, typing at work and video games have taken their toll. I stretch often and use KT tape if I have to. I love playing so I’ll soldier through
@@csharp57 thanks iim gonna give the kt tape a try
Left hand? Get your guitar "high up" and the neck pointing up so that there is less of an angle for your wrist. A bit like modern metal players or classical guitar do. Only play wide spreads after being fully warmed up. Be wary of skinny necks, a more hefty neck makes for more strength (I love my Ibanez AZ for that, nice "shoulders" without being a baseball neck). Don't warm up playing the guitar. Warm up your hand with friction (as if washing your hands "dry") and your left arm elbow tendon with stretches. Don't jump into high speeds immediately. And a last one IMPORTAND (I had to search for the right way to say this, I am not an English native speaker), finger flicks: flick every finger of your left hand at least 5 times. This last one makes a big difference. You can compare left and right hand by wiggling the fingers of both hands after finger flicks of the left hand, you will notice the difference...
@@GuitarHugo thanks for the reply... all very good advice specially the finger flicks gonna look that up... iv been playing with the guitar at nip height for about 2 weeks now and it really does help
Improving your practice routine might be as simple as making sure you have a guitar visible and within reach. Whilst I’ve got a bunch of decent guitars, most times they’re in a separate space to the one I’m in - that’s not helpful. What I do always seem to have to hand is my iPad - there must be some way of getting at 1 guitar in the same room, and hooking it up to the iPad, then listen on earbuds or headphones so as not to disturb those I share a space with?
Fender mustang micro (plus) might be an option...
@@GuitarHugo I’ve ordered one - should be here on Wednesday.
Nice!
The Scariest Guitar Player continues at 16:40, I could see someone getting the Creeps from his Techniques!!!! ELODIE!!!!
My advice for finding more practice time is to throw the smart phone in the bin and buying a flip phone
Cannot sit in front of the TV without noodling.....
Most practice routines seem designed for fifteen year-old truants. I'm just glad if I can pick the thing up most days.
I went digital specifically so i could play at night. Now i get in at least an hour of practice, usually 2, each day.
Blimey.
Do a kickflip