Need help with practicing

[ghost_of_karelia]

OK, so I've been hammering out tunes on a 6-string for about 16-odd months now. I've never had a lesson in my life, and I've learned pretty much all I know from learning and playing songs by my favourite bands, most notably Mastodon and In Flames. Here's the thing: right now I'm pretty much worn into a rut with my playing, and I don't know where to go.

My picking hand muting is quite sloppy (I only found out about it roughly a month ago), I miss notes ALL THE TIME, I have real trouble playing standing up, and my guitar itself is a bit of a mess - slightly-off intonation, weirdly high action further up the fretboard, whiny pickups, all sorts. I'm saving up for a new guitar, but this'll do in the meantime. Anyway, getting to the point of this paragraph, there's actually a lot for me to technically be shaping up on.

The point is that I've pretty much exhausted the learning and playing of songs. It's boring. I don't run any technical exercises whatsoever, and thus I rely on the constant repeating of the songs I've learned to get better. This is getting very monotonous, even when I learn new songs in genres I don't usually play.

(also, I can't write for shit, and want to, thus I need to get a lot better at recognising all the scales and modes and whatnot - and perhaps more importantly, where the fuck all the christ-damned notes are on the fretboard!)

Here are my questions for you lovely forum-folk, then:

- What exercises would you suggest I run as a practice routine?
- How often?
- Any help with building knowledge of where notes lie on the fretboard?

Also, linked to the "recognising frets" thing - I play in either D standard (DGCFAD) or C standard (CFA#D#GC), and thus I don't know when I'm meant to read notes as they would be in standard EADGBE, and when I'm meant to read them as where they actually are on my oddly-tuned guitar.

Thanks in advance for putting up with my clumsy writing, and for any help you can offer!

Peace!

 

[GizmoJunior]

OK, so I've been hammering out tunes on a 6-string for about 16-odd months now. I've never had a lesson in my life, and I've learned pretty much all I know from learning and playing songs by my favourite bands, most notably Mastodon and In Flames. Here's the thing: right now I'm pretty much worn into a rut with my playing, and I don't know where to go.

My picking hand muting is quite sloppy (I only found out about it roughly a month ago), I miss notes ALL THE TIME, I have real trouble playing standing up, and my guitar itself is a bit of a mess - slightly-off intonation, weirdly high action further up the fretboard, whiny pickups, all sorts. I'm saving up for a new guitar, but this'll do in the meantime. Anyway, getting to the point of this paragraph, there's actually a lot for me to technically be shaping up on.

The point is that I've pretty much exhausted the learning and playing of songs. It's boring. I don't run any technical exercises whatsoever, and thus I rely on the constant repeating of the songs I've learned to get better. This is getting very monotonous, even when I learn new songs in genres I don't usually play.

(also, I can't write for shit, and want to, thus I need to get a lot better at recognising all the scales and modes and whatnot - and perhaps more importantly, where the fuck all the christ-damned notes are on the fretboard!)

Here are my questions for you lovely forum-folk, then:

- What exercises would you suggest I run as a practice routine?
- How often?
- Any help with building knowledge of where notes lie on the fretboard?

Also, linked to the "recognising frets" thing - I play in either D standard (DGCFAD) or C standard (CFA#D#GC), and thus I don't know when I'm meant to read notes as they would be in standard EADGBE, and when I'm meant to read them as where they actually are on my oddly-tuned guitar.

Thanks in advance for putting up with my clumsy writing, and for any help you can offer!

Peace!

You already have a pretty good start with what you need to work on because you recognise your flaws. By running through some scales you'll develop an ear for what notes sound good together. A good website to use is GUITAR SCALES. As well it will let you select what tuning your using and show you the notes of the scale you select. Though it would be valuable to you to learn some music theory even if you're just learning intervals, chord construction, and the theory behind scales. Check out musictheory.net. As for your writing you are gonna just have to write music. Like everything else it takes practice. The first song you write isn't gonna be the best and that goes for everybody. Good luck!

-Brandon

 

[lawizeg]

musictheory.net is SUPER useful.

 

[ghost_of_karelia]

Cheers guys

Already got a pretty strong grounding in music theory (funnily enough from that site!), it's just fitting all the scales, modes and other bits and bobs into a regular practice routine that's stumping me. :|

 

[lawizeg]

Cheers guys

Already got a pretty strong grounding in music theory (funnily enough from that site!), it's just fitting all the scales, modes and other bits and bobs into a regular practice routine that's stumping me. :|

Haha, sorry about that then. Try making your own scales from what you know, that helped me with actually knowing where stuff was. So instead of just memorizing a shape, decide on whatever scale you're going to make, say... D minor, then map it out in a few positions on the neck.
This is how I learned to use modes too, so...give it a try! Hope it helps

EDIT: Also, you probably have heard this stuff, but make sure you're actually practicing to a metronome. Don't just do stuff so you can play it, make sure it really locks in if that makes sense. Check this video out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtGi0EqVT7s

 

[ghost_of_karelia]

Haha, sorry about that then. Try making your own scales from what you know, that helped me with actually knowing where stuff was. So instead of just memorizing a shape, decide on whatever scale you're going to make, say... D minor, then map it out in a few positions on the neck.
This is how I learned to use modes too, so...give it a try! Hope it helps

My fault, should probably have put it in the OP. Mind's all over the place today, cheers for the help though! Shall defo give it a shot

 

[Solodini]

Take the riffs you know and work out what notes are being used. Learn to use intervals to find certain notes. Pick a string, think of a note, work out what interval that note is from the open string and work out how many frets up that interval is. Play note. Go across the other strings and work out what that interval up from each of their open notes is i.e. D string, trying to find A: A is a fifth up, which is 7 frets up. A 5th (7 frets) up from the next string, G, is a D. A fifth up from the next string, C, is G. A fifth up from the next string, F, is C. and so on.

In terms of getting more mileage from what you've learned so far and learning to write, take the things you know how to play and chop them up into chunks which sound like logical divisions of the riff/melody. Be conscious of the notes of each chunk. Rearrange them and piece them together to make something new. You don't need to use every chunk. It may sound crappy. You can either ditch that and rearrange the chunks again to find something better, or you can chop your new crappy version into different logical sounding chunks and rearrange them. Pay attention to what intervals and sequences within sections catch your ear in a way you like. This is you starting to build your musical vocabulary. Try inverting the intervals and see how that affects the sound.

Continue in this vein and you'll become much better. There'll still be plenty of crap you write but you can learn from it.

In terms of frequency and duration of practise, I tend to suggest frequency over duration. You may do fine with one long session as you settle into an idea and can slowly build speed and proficiency, but I think it's better to raise your base level of ability. Practise often, even if just for 10 mins, and your ability to jump into playing a passage well from the beginning should improve. It may take a while longer to become able to play faster but when you reach that stage, it is likely to be a consistent speed you can achieve right off of the bat, not needing to build into it over an hour long practise. Many people seem put off when they do the long practises for years and with each practise they get up to whatever high speed but then the next time they start from the ground up and never feel like they're progressing.

 

[Connor Caswell]

Go to Tomhess.net and all of your questions will be answered through the articles he has on his website!! Seriously check it out!!