excercises are so boring.

rich2k4 · #1 05-28-2008, 05:30 PM

how come no one ever recommend using songs to learn your techniques?

right now i want to work on my alternate picking, so i am learning yngwie's far beyond the sun, and paul gilbert's technical difficulties.

i use amazing slow downer to slow them down and then gradually get them up to speed.

then when i want to work on.....lets say my sweep picking, all i do is pop in jason becker's altitudes into amazing slow downer, and learn that. it goes through every single common sweep pattern in both major minor and probably diminished, that is used by almost all guitarists.

legato? why not learn some satriani tunes.

sitting with a metronome and doing plain old exercises are severely boring to me, i don't have the patience.

but, if i am able to practice licks from a song that utilize a special technique, and use amazing slow downer to be able to play along with the song, it makes it much more fun.

giggedy · #2 05-28-2008, 05:41 PM

I actually love practicing, but that is good advice for those who don't.

rich2k4 · #3 05-28-2008, 05:52 PM

it's still practicing, only this time you are using passages in songs as your exercises.

this will make you want to do them and make it more fun because, if you don't do them, you won't be able to play the song.

dewey decibel · #4 05-28-2008, 06:20 PM

Ever read any of my posts? It's pretty much all I recommend...

Learn everything in context! Your technique should suit what you play, not what you play suiting your technique. Of course it can help to isolate and practice a specific passage over and over again and figure out the best way to play it, but drilling a scale or pattern over and over again is the wrong approach IMO.

rich2k4 · #5 05-29-2008, 10:43 AM

exactly

GovernorSilver · #6 05-29-2008, 03:27 PM

I spent too much time practicing drills instead of songs during my first stab at playing guitar. One time I was at a party where people were passing an acoustic around and playing songs on it. I was embarrased that I knew so few songs, despite the practice I put into scales, arps, etc.

Since I took up guitar again nearly 2 years ago, my practice routine has been oriented around tunes and compositions. I'm making better progress and having more fun with the guitar as a result.

I'll still turn to the "bitter medicine" drills to fix technical issues that I encounter (eg. open-string hybrid picking exercies) once in a while, but the emphasis is songs and compositions first.

Ken Ho · #7 05-29-2008, 04:39 PM

I always reccomend utilising songs as teh means to develop skills, or "do exercises". I have been pretty heavily flamed for it too at times.
There was a great editorial I read by Tom Kolb, where he talked about one day while he was at Berklee, his room-mate came in wiht a coule of guys and waatched him shred complex jazz scales for a while.
Eventually his roomy asked "so, can you play a atune for the boys then'
Ay that point, he figured he actually needed to learn some songs.

jzucker · #8 06-01-2008, 01:59 PM

Depends on what your goals are. None of your heros got their chops just playing along with songs .

matte · #9 06-01-2008, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rich2k4

how come no one ever recommend using songs to learn your techniques?

right now i want to work on my alternate picking, so i am learning yngwie's far beyond the sun, and paul gilbert's technical difficulties.

i use amazing slow downer to slow them down and then gradually get them up to speed.

then when i want to work on.....lets say my sweep picking, all i do is pop in jason becker's altitudes into amazing slow downer, and learn that. it goes through every single common sweep pattern in both major minor and probably diminished, that is used by almost all guitarists.

legato? why not learn some satriani tunes.

sitting with a metronome and doing plain old exercises are severely boring to me, i don't have the patience.

but, if i am able to practice licks from a song that utilize a special technique, and use amazing slow downer to be able to play along with the song, it makes it much more fun.

get busy.

GuitarsFromMars · #10 06-01-2008, 02:11 PM

stop typing,play ur gitar...

GovernorSilver · #11 06-02-2008, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hibachi fibonacci

get busy.

Would you recommend it over the Mel Bay version?

matte · #12 06-02-2008, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GovernorSilver

Would you recommend it over the Mel Bay version?

i haven't seen the mel bay edition. fingerings are a very personal issue. i have a system that works for me that involves seeing the entire board in one position. i don't see this echoed in a lot of guitar-centric publications.

GovernorSilver · #13 06-02-2008, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hibachi fibonacci

i haven't seen the mel bay edition. fingerings are a very personal issue. i have a system that works for me that involves seeing the entire board in one position. i don't see this echoed in a lot of guitar-centric publications.

Understood. Working out fingerings for myself as opposed to following someone else's fingerings (that work better for him/her than for me) why I plan to learn the Bach Cello Suite #1 Prelude via the arrangement in Suzuki Viola School vol. 5 (since I already own that book) instead of the Bach For Bass book. Standard notation also lends itself to experimenting with different fingerings.