But practicing for more than 1 hour trains stamina. Unless your practicing consists of purely rudiments. 1 hour of rudiments will really kill your fingers and also your musicianship. But if you are practicing pieces for band or for fun or whatever, i think more than 1 hour is fine. Just run through the entire set. Usually a set won't be more than 2 hours. Let's say you have 15 pieces, just run through them all once. Then take a break for an hour or so and do it again.

yes , you are right . speed isn't everything .

i hated the feeling of "i am not enough" guitarist , thats why now i just chill and play for fun.last time it was just once an hour..for maybe 2 years ?

i stopped practicing since mid 2005 . and what i realized was i became a sh*tty guitarist . so what if i can sweep pick , string skip tap ..i realized my basic technique vibratos and pulls/bends SUCKED (thanks to bode for pointing this out)

many times when we are desperately trying to "reach the speed" . We forget about our basic techniques .

Anyway..to answer your question. For those of you who wants to shred fast..

I am sure everybody has a favourite lick right ? the ones you overused during improvisation..

Practice that favourite lick . Why ? because that lick is what you are comfortable with..
make variations , start with all legato , then change to all alternate picking..play at different speed..just maintained that same pattern

after you get more confident ..this is where the fun part comes..change your notes..example

gapnap's fav lick 1
----8-7-5-----------
-----------8-7-5----

Change it ..
----9-7--5-----------
-------------9--7--5-

work your way up , keep changing your lick to be more and more complex .
MOST IMPORTANT PART IS YOU MUST BE COMFORTABLE PLAYING IT ..not to mention you can play LIVE looking effortless..

later ,when both your left and right hand starts to click together..
you will find that sweeping , string skipping , legato , alternate picking can be mastered within hours..(its hard to explain in words here , basically , the confidence ...you see yourself alternate picking cleanly , you tend to think like ..'ah..what alternate picking lick?bring it on i am sure i can pull it' )

thats why til now , i still think instructional videos , such as malmsteen's lick showing videos or any shred guitar website that says " learn this A diatonic + melodic minor sounding lick" won't improve your technical playing at all..

anyway , the weakness of this way is . Too fast food , you will be missing out alot of basics. yeah this was how i practiced last time . i am sure there are better ways out there .Don't forget to have guitarist friends to encourage you and challenge you . Cheers

This post has been edited by gapnap: Mar 7 2007, 07:54 PM

my practice sessions no fixed regime wan.. when i feel like playing then i play i dont specifically set a time to play and stuff

My "practice" diet involves running through Cliffs of Dover and Still Got the Blues then it's jamming to whatever is playing on the TV.. haha..

yeah true .....never tried playing non stop back to back for more than 1 hour though but I take your word for it.

hey winkybear.. i found your post

poor thing you didn't get your answer anyway..

both wrist and whole arm moves..

basically..what the guy in the vid was doing is right..

you sweep with your whole arm moving downwards

as for your wrist , you move because you need to mute other strings that arent being played

hope this helps

Hehe thanks. Yea Im doing it that way now. My guitar wont be back till end of the month though.

Date: 13 Mac 2007
Duration: ~ 2hrs

Aim/Purpose: Learn a solo piece

Late afternoon session
5 mins: Fingers/arms stretching & loosen up
1 hr: Learn a new lead/solo (sitting position)
BREAK / REST
Night session
1 hr: Continue learning the particular solo (45 mins in sitting position, 15 mins standing posture)


Observation: Half way thru learning the solo. Solo rendition sounds too mechanical I think I need to loosen up. Feels too tense especially the pentatonic (D form) decending part... very sloppy

Additional info: Im learning the solo in Metal Method guitar lesson Stage 4 ie
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_DZ3a4bjRhs , ( 01:38/02:20 part of the vidclip)

This post has been edited by Banzai_san: Mar 14 2007, 01:01 AM