Practice Regime

Hi all, I'm not sure which category this belongs in so I've put it in General chat.
I suppose in a way this question arises from another thread " How long do you practice?" and reading it and all it's comments made me realize that I'm not making the most of my (practice) time, so I've decided to have a serious think about a) how much time I can spend practicing and b)how to divide that time and prioritize it so I can improve my skills.
How would you fella's approach it?

I've told myself I'd set up a practice regime to follow loads, but I never get round to it. I still intend to though. Anyways, I guess you need to include (depending on your style of music)...

- Warm up (chromatics, scales, arpeggios)
- Songs (learn a new song, work on a song)
- Improvisation
- Songwriting (even if it's just making little riffs, to get better)
- Music Theory
- Rhythms
- Advanced techniques (sweeping, tapping)

That's only a few of the things, and it's aimed at all rounders like myself... and yeah - I bet there's a lot I didn't cover, so the first step would to be write a list of all the things you play (techniques, genres) and all the goals you want to acheive and then work it out from there.

I just made a practice schedule today. I divide it into scale work, like playing the scales, playing in thirds. Right now, I'm working on C and G major and A and E minor.

Next, I do technique, stuff like hammer-ons, pull-offs, making chords for each of the scsles sound good.

Then I do some songs or method book work...

I'm just trying to get basic stuff down right now, so there's nothing too advanced. I'm on vacation now, so I have lots of time to do it all, but I might alter the amount of stuff I do once school starts back up.

non related to the thread but Doz congrats on surpassing guitarboy666 in number of posts lol. speaking of what happened to him havent seen a post from him in quite awhile. i hope his parents didnt figure out how much he like to drop the f bomb on here and ban him :)

Thanks for the comments fellas. I'm doing pretty well all the things you're talking about, but the problem is that all I'm doing is getting better at the things I have already achieved rather than achieving anything new.
Any "rut busting" ideas chaps (and/or chapesses, she who must be obeyed has been reading me the riot act about being a bit more PC. Fat chance!).

I never thought about having a planed layout for my practice I always just play. Sounds like a good idea. Deefa I was in the same rut seemed like I was just doing the same things over and over, I just started listening to different music that I haven't heard in a while. Like and old Jimi Hendrix cd that I've not played in a long time. I listened to new music and got on the net and found the tab for some new songs just broke the monotony.

@goodtunes: I used to be hundreds ahead of him... but he sort of posted like mental non stop. Shame though, because know he hasn't posted at all in ages.

I think his computer must have melted down from all the posts. lol. He has not been on his myspace since January as well.

Yep! Sounds like a major grounding. Either that or his folks found out how old I am and thought I was doing a bit of 'grooming'!

Ah, from what you say then les_paul, he probably hasn't ditched the forums and I reckon he'll come back.

I hope he hasn't bit the dust because that has happened in other posts i've been on. Anyways, I don't really warm up although I agree it is a good idea. I practice the scales I already know and try to learn new ones. I listen to a lot of the same songs and try to play them. Then I write and try to play really fast.

IMO how you practice can really determine how much you get for the time you spend. thats just something i have learned from other non guitar stuff. a little good practice is prob better than alot of "bad" (if there is such thing) or just banging away at the strings time.

i gotta say that i have to come up with a practice routine myself if i am gonna get any better anytime soon. i dont know if yall remeber or if i have said b4 but i just recently picked up the guitar. i have hit a wall and havent gotten any better in the last few weeks. i can only play a few chords. i am gonna start doing a warm up of going up and down the frets on each string to get some muscle memory and dexterity built up. then also i figured it would be good to practice some scales i saw GS's lessons on another thread and they looked good. i also bought a little gig bag book full of nothing but scales with the music and tabs on top of each other. i hope following and trying to memorize a few will jumpstart me into better practicing.

sorry to ramble but its late and i dont wanna go to bed because that means when i wake up i gotta go to work.

I agree with your post, about the good practice vs bad practice.

I dont have a schedule anymore but used to a long time ago I guess for me its what ever I feel like working on or playing.