desertbluesman Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 When I was in my prime. I practiced scales 3 or so hours every day that I could. It was as you can imagine, a boring and tedious set of repetitious exercises that I never enjoyed. I do still play scales every practice day and I am bringing my accuracy back into play, but I am more focused on pauses and longer sustained & singing vocal like notes, than I am on speed. I still have to slow myself down consciously whenever I practice, because I am habituated from years of wanking on filling in every singe measure with notes. Still, scales make for a more accurate bit of playing because it loosens up my fingers and brings back the touch sensitivity to a point that I am comfortable playing. Quote dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Song80s Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 scales/arps 20-30 mins per day. Mostly maintaining what I have. At my age, 66, I am not sure 2-3 hrs of drills will provide a tangible difference to song writing/recording. Being creative and recording/mixing is the priority. Quote Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ? My Soundcloud with many originals: [70's Songwriter] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Iverson Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 Well, scale and arpeggio practice doesn't HAVE to be boring. You can try DIFFERENT scales and arpeggios over backing tracks, to see how they sound, and experiment with different rhythmic ideas - not just eighth notes, in other words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 I should set aside practice time dedicated to scales and every once in a blue moon I do. For the most part I spend about 5 minutes each time I pickup the guitar on scales. I only need to refresh my memory so I don't forget the 4 major/minor pentatonic and diatonic scales. Sometimes the 5 minutes turns into an hour or two LOL! I enjoy playing my scales and coming up with little original lead lines from playing around with them. Most of my practice time is spent on arranging and developing new tunes and memorizing chords and lyrics. The scales come in very handy when trying to come up with some original leads for my tunes. Each of us must decide how we want to spend our practice time. For me, I just have fun with it. Scales play a very integral part, as do chords, in my guitar theory and history. Quote Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted June 12, 2019 Author Share Posted June 12, 2019 I do scales just to loosen up my fingers, and re connect my fingers with the guitar feel. At 76 years old, my hands are sure not what they used to be. But I only do about 15 minutes of scale work in a practice session. Back in the day however, I did a lot more scale work than I do these days. No matter how much I do, it is always a great way to reacquaint my fingers/hands to the neck feel. Once I am done with that scale work and some chord practice, I can play much cleaner than if I started out playing against my backing tracks straightaway. Quote dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 +1 DBM, Scales are a great way to warm up and get the fingers moving. they also get me in the right frame of mind to start thinking about the guitar and tune out the rest of the world... Quote Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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