learning process question

[ajdowton]

Hey guys,
I'm getting serious about my playing, and am therefore formulating a practice plan. I was just wondering whether there is any concensus amongst our Ibreathe collective about whether its better to practice techniques all at once or focus on achieving a good level in one and then moving on. I mean, I have maybe an hour a day, and around half of that I'm thinking should go to technique. So should I spend a half an hour on my alternate picking, or 10 on alternate, 10 on legato and ten on sweeping? Also, should you have the same schedule each day, in aid of building up a technique, or have a "legato day"??

Appreciate any advice.

Cheers,
AJ

[rmuscat]

eric said it all in the work out series ...

what i suggest is to AVOID having legato days, etc .... personally i think you're better off doing 10m legato a day for seven days rather then 1hr a week. Obviouslyou can then say ok I did 1 week doing 10m legato a day. I'm running out of exercises, so let me spend 1 hour on legato today to develop new exercises for the next week.

Reasons: first of all you get 1.10hrs a week instead of 1hr :P and more seriously you get repetition and consistency which is important. With a 6/7 day gap you tend to start forgetting things and running out of practice.

I still STRONGLY suggest you look at Eric's "Workout" series. 3 parts.

hope that was useful

[forgottenking2]

I think it depends... once you have all your techniques rounded up then yes I agree with muscat but if you are like most of us and have certain techniques very well developed and some others lacking (like a very good legatto technique but a lacking AP for instance) I'd sugest concentrate on the one you're lacking for a while... But then again I've done that in some periods of time, and then a little bit of everything every day also... so I guess it's all a matter of what seems to work for you.

[Slaindude]

Just don't forget to improvise a lot and to integrate what you have learn and/or practice. A lot of people can play exercice like hell but they worth **** when it to come to improvise.

[metalprep6969]

Hey guys i'm kinda in the same boat. I'm pretty new to IBM, and I wanna start using the articles to help my playing, but there are so many i don't know where to start! WHat do you guys suggest? I consider myself an intermediate player (i can play better than James Hetfield, but not as well as Steve Vai, somewhere in the middle, and my goal is much more towards the Vai side of the spectrum in terms of skill). I need most of my help with music theory and technique, i'm pretty expressive in my playing.

Also, i have some beginner students (as in they just got their guitars) of my own and I'm not sure how to teach them. I started them off doing chromatic drills so they will get some control over their fingers, showed them the 12 tones used by western music and showed them how to tune. Other than that we haven't done that much, what are your ideas for what i should start working on with them?

Thanx a lot guys, i'd be nowhere without this site.

\m/

[johnnyhollywood]

OK look under Workout by Eric V and Art of picking by Eric V

What ever u guys wanna practice... the most important BEGGINER tech is picking...

Metalprep:
I recommend: Tech your students chords and rhitmic stuff... like nirvana´s about a girl or some beatles... Thats da basic of da basic, if it is a class, probally they want more tech>theory so teach picking techs, arpegios, etc kz?

[Koala]

Hey metalprep, if you wanna dig into the theory side of things start of with Guni´s Intervals article. Its the best way to kick off.

[DanF]

Better than Hetfield eh? hehehe.

I know what you're getting at but I've gotta say I think Hetfield is one of the best rhythm guitarists in the world. To get back to AJs questions I think that it's best to practice a bit of everything everyday. It's funny on the one hand I want to use a weightlifting analogy about doing splits (ie I work upper body on monday and legs on weds. with cardio does after each) but on the otherhand you really can't isolate your hands. You wouldn't even want to, it's the synchronization that makes you a crisp player.

Other than that I don't think my technique qualifies me to say what's the best approach ;) Good luck though and great question!

-Dan

[kirk_wannabe]

I agree with DanF concerning everything.

Hetfield is a fantastic player, considering he knows no theory. He is up there with the best rhythm players, but I suppose if you can read music, then you are already better than him in that sense.

For my daily schedule I do all the scales I know, up to the 12th fret and back, however doing them like....um.... 3 notes at a time going up and back...then 4 notes of the scale.....then 5..... and so on.
Even after a couple of weeks my metronome playing has improved from 100 to 115 without mistakes, so for develping speed, I highly recommend that.

I can't really comment about the technique either as I am just trying to work out mine properly, which I find very frustrating.

[EricV]

Hey guys i'm kinda in the same boat. I'm pretty new to IBM, and I wanna start using the articles to help my playing, but there are so many i don't know where to start! WHat do you guys suggest? I consider myself an intermediate player (i can play better than James Hetfield, but not as well as Steve Vai, somewhere in the middle, and my goal is much more towards the Vai side of the spectrum in terms of skill). I need most of my help with music theory and technique, i'm pretty expressive in my playing.
I suggest starting with Guni´s articles ( intervals, chord scales etc. )
The theory explained therein, such as harmonizing a scale etc., can be applied to other scales as well. I think that there is less to learn than there is stuff to understand. Therefor, I consider it important to learn the very basics and understand the system and processes behind those basic theory elements

Regarding technique, maybe you wanna check out my Art Of Picking-series, plus the Legato- and "Smoothing it out" articles. String-skips, sweeping and stuff like the stretch pentatonic you should focus on once you have seriously worked on your picking and legato.
For some challenge in between, check out etudes like the ones in Mike C.´s articles.

Remember that you wanna focus on the stuff you need for whatever YOU wanna play. No one can play EVERYTHING. Try to keep it fun ( of course, there are some things you need to work on that aren´t as much fun ), and find out what you wanna do. Then work towards that goal.

Also, i have some beginner students (as in they just got their guitars) of my own and I'm not sure how to teach them. I started them off doing chromatic drills so they will get some control over their fingers, showed them the 12 tones used by western music and showed them how to tune. Other than that we haven't done that much, what are your ideas for what i should start working on with them?

If they´re a bit older already ( above, say, 11 or 12 )
Teach them some basic chords ( C, A, G, E and D maj, Em, Am and Dm ), and teach them some basic songs based on those chords. Try to make them understand song structures ( Chorus - Verse etc. ) and have them play along.
Teach them how to clap simple beats and subdivisions.
If they like rock and metal, teach them some cool riffs ( "Paranoid", "Iron Man", "Crazy Train", "Enter Sandman" ) or full songs ( "Numb" by Linking Park, "Someday" by Nickelback... those are extremely easy with Dropped-D Tuning )

Keep it FUN for them. Cut back on mechanical exercises and chromatic stuff.

Regarding theory, have them memorize the 12 notes and teach them how to find notes ( you can do this as a game, which can be fun )
Try to teach them stuff that they enjoy playing. Try to show them what´s next so they don´t mind working on the basics.

For younger kids, rhythm exercises, simple melodies, very simple chords and stuff is a good idea.
Hope this helps
Eric

[Metal Dan]

This is what I do:

I consider myself an intermediate player. I certainly have my chops together... but there are some gaps in my playing and I certainly need to get my **** together. There is a lot I want to cover... and I figure I can get about 3 hours a day in if I manage my time correctly. I am VERY serious about making some leaps and bounds and I will spend the time needed to cover all of this.

With the material I have on hand I developed the following schedule:

Day 1
Picking Exercises – 1 hour
Alternate Picking
Sweep Picking
Books (Metal Methods) – 1 hour
Aural Skills – 30 minutes
Songs – 30 minutes

Day 2
Picking Exercises – 1 hour
Alternate Picking
Sweep Picking
Classical – 1 hour
Scales (includes improvisation practice) – 30 minutes
Songs – 30 minutes


There was simply too much for me to cover each and every day so I broke it into two days, alternating between each day. The technical stuff (Alternate and sweep picking) I do EVERY day. I will also work on any songs I am learning every day as well. This way I can cover a lot of material, but keep the consistancy needed to learn and improve.