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I don't have the willpower to make myself practice because defeatism triumphs over any gains most of the time. I'll try again though.

One time I improvised a riff that I thought was pretty cool, but I just realized the other day that it's essentially the Doom main menu theme.

Achtane wrote:I don't have the willpower to make myself practice because defeatism triumphs over any gains most of the time. I'll try again though.

One time I improvised a riff that I thought was pretty cool, but I just realized the other day that it's essentially the Doom main menu theme.

This is the way.



Nothing wrong with doom themes

qersty wrote:I just pick out songs with parts that sound cool in them and watch youtube vids about theory once in a while but I dont get much of it

That's because you stopped buying milkshakes.

I suck at practicing. Almost never sit down a just practice, unless there is something very specific I need to learn, like a song I'm supposed to play live or a part in a sing a should play better.
What makes me a better player these days is playing with other people.
Either playing other peoples music, and being forced to learn new stuff, sometimes more complicated than I am currently capable off, or playing free improvised music.
It's when improvising I really notice what is in my "tool kit", and what I need to get better at(still suck at practicing and actually getting better at it though).

I hate "praticing" in the traditional sense. Obviously I'm an absolute loser technically (and theoretically mind you, I'm decent at creativity though) but doing scales or whatever with a metronome really kills creativity and the fun for me. I've never really enjoyed playing covers either. I'm not driven by becoming a "great guitarist" etc. Also, I have ZERO patience and hate myself way too easily. I need the inspiration first (which I work hard for).

So I'd say I pratice songwriting (anywhere from trying to come up with new riffs, chord progressions to messing with a pedal to rehearsing/jamming with the band) a lot more than actual playing. Once I catch something I like, that automatically makes me play more on my own which in term makes me better. I'm still, and always have been shit technically but have never REALLY wanted to be able to shred like hell etc. I think if anything else, consistency is the key for me.

The few times in life I feel I've really improved are when I've been on tour, probably cause I've enjoyed it so much and played 30-60mins every night. That's the only times I've really had realisations of what to change in my playing to get/sound better. Also, I'm a very slow learner so I rarely feel or notice improvement (which prob is down to my lack of patience) but when I do level up it usually comes with a "whole new concept".

So I've been trying to figure out a practice routine just to keep my chops from going to shit during quarantine, and I've got this figured out.

So I start with warm ups based on this article: https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/tip ... ding-speed

So a few passes of the 1-2-3-4 exercise up the neck to a metronome, then a few passes of the burst method as outlined in the article above. 4 of the normal, 4 of the burst. I do that cycle twice. From there I play along to songs I have compiled on a playlist that are just fun to play along with. I try to change that up as much as I can to add some variety to my listening experience. After a few songs on that, I usually run through my bands EP at least once to finish up!

Yeah I do those same 1234 and "burst" exercises whenever I get round to practicing. Simple and effective (if a little dull)

BitchPudding wrote:So I've been trying to figure out a practice routine just to keep my chops from going to shit during quarantine, and I've got this figured out.

So I start with warm ups based on this article: https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/tip ... ding-speed

So a few passes of the 1-2-3-4 exercise up the neck to a metronome, then a few passes of the burst method as outlined in the article above. 4 of the normal, 4 of the burst. I do that cycle twice. From there I play along to songs I have compiled on a playlist that are just fun to play along with. I try to change that up as much as I can to add some variety to my listening experience. After a few songs on that, I usually run through my bands EP at least once to finish up!

This is rad.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:Yeah I do those same 1234 and "burst" exercises whenever I get round to practicing. Simple and effective (if a little dull)

Agreed, but practice is rarely fun. Thats why I have the cooldown.

Usually when I practice I have a show going in the background.

Practice can be fun once I get to the more interesting things but yeah. Fun isn't so much the point. I sometimes have a podcast or something going as well

I like to get nekkid and stand on my head in the corner and play that bendy thing from "Joe's Garage."

Velcro Bottom wrote:I like to get nekkid and stand on my head in the corner and play that bendy thing from "Joe's Garage."

Forget my method, this is CLEARLY the right way to practice.

I like to hear what noise will come out of me...so I try to always do different things. When I was younger I would pick up an instrument and always play the same thing...these days I almost never play the same thing and if I find myself going to my stock patterns, I consciously try to mix it up or change my hand position to always keep things fresh and never boring.

I enjoy looping and jamming with myself so I’ve learned to use a pair of loopers w an order switcher in between making it possible to build and tear down and create something new underneath and fade out. It’s exciting for me to think of it as a performance (I call them concerts for no one) but they are for me....and as listen back to them when an record them.

I am a bassist primary, but also have guitars and synths and noiseboxes. Occasionally I’ll be listening to a song and just look up how to play it and learn it on the spot...but rarely set out for specific practice. I have a bunch of learning books from Janek Gwizdala so occasionally I’ll open one up and learn an exercise and then mess around and jam leveraging the new ideas or patterns. When I learn an exercise, I like to really break it down to understand what’s happening musically and how to apply it in different contexts and keys. I have his chordal harmony books also and slowly am creeping my way through those. It is all about applying the learning for me so I can internalize it and add it to my bag of tricks and have new places that my fingers want to go to.

I also am a GAS addict so I always have gear that I don’t know as well as a I should so I enjoy focusing on learning a piece of gear or exploring a mode or option and that always leads to musical exploration and jamming for me. I even have a bleep bloop board where I use pedals as the instruments and then reroute them through each other and back around almost like a modular synth (I am trying to try not to get into modular).

cosmicevan wrote:I like to hear what noise will come out of me...so I try to always do different things. When I was younger I would pick up an instrument and always play the same thing...these days I almost never play the same thing and if I find myself going to my stock patterns, I consciously try to mix it up or change my hand position to always keep things fresh and never boring.

I enjoy looping and jamming with myself so I’ve learned to use a pair of loopers w an order switcher in between making it possible to build and tear down and create something new underneath and fade out. It’s exciting for me to think of it as a performance (I call them concerts for no one) but they are for me....and as listen back to them when an record them.

I am a bassist primary, but also have guitars and synths and noiseboxes. Occasionally I’ll be listening to a song and just look up how to play it and learn it on the spot...but rarely set out for specific practice. I have a bunch of learning books from Janek Gwizdala so occasionally I’ll open one up and learn an exercise and then mess around and jam leveraging the new ideas or patterns. When I learn an exercise, I like to really break it down to understand what’s happening musically and how to apply it in different contexts and keys. I have his chordal harmony books also and slowly am creeping my way through those. It is all about applying the learning for me so I can internalize it and add it to my bag of tricks and have new places that my fingers want to go to.

I also am a GAS addict so I always have gear that I don’t know as well as a I should so I enjoy focusing on learning a piece of gear or exploring a mode or option and that always leads to musical exploration and jamming for me. I even have a bleep bloop board where I use pedals as the instruments and then reroute them through each other and back around almost like a modular synth (I am trying to try not to get into modular).

So much of this is exactly the same about how I feel about myself / playing. Minus of course the large war chest of funds that you have at your disposal

Like you I consider myself a bass player first - I have tried to dabble in other instruments but noting really stuck too me as well as the bass guitar has.

I can feel the modular temptation and gas addiction - when I first joined I used to dream about ordering pedals in my sleep. The BST here made it even worse seeing as overwhelmingly ILF Is full of sold good dudes. Even last month Goroth gave me a sold solid deal on a bitquest that I had a hard time saying no too.

MaxMaps wrote:

cosmicevan wrote:I like to hear what noise will come out of me...so I try to always do different things. When I was younger I would pick up an instrument and always play the same thing...these days I almost never play the same thing and if I find myself going to my stock patterns, I consciously try to mix it up or change my hand position to always keep things fresh and never boring.

I enjoy looping and jamming with myself so I’ve learned to use a pair of loopers w an order switcher in between making it possible to build and tear down and create something new underneath and fade out. It’s exciting for me to think of it as a performance (I call them concerts for no one) but they are for me....and as listen back to them when an record them.

I am a bassist primary, but also have guitars and synths and noiseboxes. Occasionally I’ll be listening to a song and just look up how to play it and learn it on the spot...but rarely set out for specific practice. I have a bunch of learning books from Janek Gwizdala so occasionally I’ll open one up and learn an exercise and then mess around and jam leveraging the new ideas or patterns. When I learn an exercise, I like to really break it down to understand what’s happening musically and how to apply it in different contexts and keys. I have his chordal harmony books also and slowly am creeping my way through those. It is all about applying the learning for me so I can internalize it and add it to my bag of tricks and have new places that my fingers want to go to.

I also am a GAS addict so I always have gear that I don’t know as well as a I should so I enjoy focusing on learning a piece of gear or exploring a mode or option and that always leads to musical exploration and jamming for me. I even have a bleep bloop board where I use pedals as the instruments and then reroute them through each other and back around almost like a modular synth (I am trying to try not to get into modular).

So much of this is exactly the same about how I feel about myself / playing. Minus of course the large war chest of funds that you have at your disposal

Like you I consider myself a bass player first - I have tried to dabble in other instruments but noting really stuck too me as well as the bass guitar has.

I can feel the modular temptation and gas addiction - when I first joined I used to dream about ordering pedals in my sleep. The BST here made it even worse seeing as overwhelmingly ILF Is full of sold good dudes. Even last month Goroth gave me a sold solid deal on a bitquest that I had a hard time saying no too.

I was glad someone grabbed that BitQuest. BitQuest is on my must try list for far too long...it's kind of shocking I've never owned one. I actually don't have a war chest of funds at my disposal...hence the critical need to slow it all down. I was saved this year by my work having a good year and switching me to work from home in March, so I sold my car by May which put a lot of funds back in my pocked plus apparently I was a bit of a social butterfly pre-pandemic since as soon as the pandemic started, my family's expenses fell through the floor so the mrs and I started spending more for hobbies (which she really doesn't have any that are pricey like I do) to help keep us sane during this time...we also didn't take any family vacations this year which is usually $$$, our kids didn't go to camp last year more $$$ saved, so even though I spent an embarrassing amount of money on gear this year, we still managed to save some. My wife got laid off and unemployment with the added bump, she actually ended up making more money by not having a job than when she did have a job. Go figure. Don't get me wrong...I'm totally blessed in my situation and I try to constantly remind myself...and as such, we really try to do our part to support the struggling local businesses in our community to keep them afloat, and I also need to help out those in need by purchasing their used gear