anyone wanna share the way they practice and riffs they use to build from

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I'm a big advocate of ear training, it seems to a lost art with guitarists now-a-days. Learning licks/riffs off of albums allows one to build a riff vocabulary .

The first solo I ever learnt was George Harrison's solo from 'Let It Be', it was tabbed out in 1972, the year I started learning to play. The author talked recording the song to a reel-to-reel tape recorder and finding each note. He also explained that the pentatonic scale was movable. This one fact was the key for me!

Although he recorded to reel-to-reel, he recommended recording songs to cassette, so that you rewind and fast-forward without damaging your vinyl albums, remember this was 1972.

I spent hours learning songs, since I knew that the pentatonic scale was movable, this allowed me find the key of songs. I would play the song and play the scale until it 'fit' the song. Than I learnt other scales, you have to know some theory, so that you know what you're playing.

I still play along with my favorite artists on CDs, and video concerts. I have a Tascam CD-GT1 that I use to with CD, there is a newer version CD-GT1mkII http://www.tascam.com/Products/cdgt1mkii.html.

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Tony Houston

I don't really practice as such,I just "fiddle about". Formal practice never worked for me,as it made playing feel like a chore. Most of my guitar teachers were very frustrated with my lack of dicipline and my technichally sloppy playing. This being during the eighties when brilliant technique was very much "in vogue". When everyone of my guitar playing friends wanted to be the next Steve Vai,I wanted to play like Ace Frehley. I must have been the only guitarist in town who couldn't play "Eruption"! I was very insecure about my guitar skills(or as I often felt;lack of such) as a teenager,but became increasingly comfortable in my musical skin as I grew older.Now I give sod all about it,I just love playing!

I record myself when I practice. I start my next practice session listening to the previous practice. I like to get 30 minutes of practice in a day. Not jamming or playing songs but practice. Recording makes it much more productive and I can track my progress.

I spend 30 minutes a day doing finger/fretboard exercises before I do anything else.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

try playing to backing tracks.
they help you a lot.

it helps me alot when i do some recording...

Don't turn down any musical experience. I mean practice (not play) but any chance you get to learn anything about music take it. You can learn alot by being around musicians. Drummers can teach you how different time sigs can effect a song how to keep a consistent beat, things like that. Things that may take much much longer sitting in a room by yourself. Don't be afraid of bass players either they might smell a little funny but they're not bad people. Oh yeah practice scales chord charts picking styles and that kind of stuff too, but become a music sponge and you will become a better musician.

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"Up and down that road in our wornout shoes talkin bout good things and singin' the blues"-SRV

My best practice tip is to spend time just listening to music and I mean actually listening to it.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

As a ninth-grade zit-popper I sat down with "Fresh Cream" shortly after it was released and taught myself, note-for-note, every lick and riff that Eric Clapton used on that album. I wore out two copies in the process and it took me about six months, in between squad practice for the football and wrestling teams. After that I never looked back. I jammed with others as often as I could and either formed or joined a number of garage bands. Within a year I played my first professional (ie: paying) gig. And the rest -- as they say -- is history.

HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I turn on the TV and put on a digital music channel. I hit the pause button and let it store up about an hours worth of tunes. after an hour I come back a loosen up my hands. When I am ready I hit play and jam with the tunes. It works well because I can back it up and play it again or skip songs that are out of tune with my guitar or that i just don't like.

I did mostly the blues channel for a long time, but now I do acid jazz and rock as well.

I think the hardest lesson for me to learn was to not get too hung up on one project. Sometimes I would try to do something and it seemed like I just couldn't master it. When it feels like your growth as a player has hit a brick wall and you just don't don't see any improvement, that's when it's time to just let it go and work on something completely different.

Example: years ago I when I was just a young lad I was trying to sort out the chord progression for Thin Lizzy's The Boy's Are Back In town. After about a week or so I was getting really close but there were some chords and fills that just seemed to elude me. This was back way before there were tabs for everything at your fingertips. I finally gave up and started to work on some Jazz stuff I had been toying with the year before. Trying something different helped me to get off that plateau I was on and when I went back to Thin Lizzy several months later I nailed it in just a few hours and was back to growing my skills. It's kinda like body building that way.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

thats the spirit dude.you do it the way your love.... to hell with the world...

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***God made men and men made guitar***

Take any song you like and play it minus one finger at a time with a metronome. Then study some style, theory, and tunes. Then jam.

I do a routine like that as often as I can. If you pretend you have no index finger guitar gets hard fast. Also, challenge your picking hand every time you drill. Maybe all up strokes or down. Then alternate and so on.

I started some drills about 3-4 weeks ago and it was all I could do to play them at 72, now I'm up to 95 no problem. My goal is about 112 then change things up. But do not put to much time into this, only 10-30 min a day. you get 99% of the same benefit as an hour.

The things I'm most focused on now are: Playing dynamic and relaxed at the same time, picking technique, and picking up new phrases from scales I don't normally use that sound bluesy. Also, realizing in real time the notes available to me from the chord being played in addition to the scales I am currently using. Also, mixing the lead and rhythm into a seamless flow in time. Man, I have a lot to do. I need work on everything.

I agree with this. Learning guitar is a cumulative process. The skills involved are built upon one another. If there is something you just can't seem to master, move onto something else for a while and go back to it later.

Otherwise, I think the best practice tips are to play daily (even if only for a few minutes), make sure to leaning entire songs (not just scales and practice exercises), practice with a metronome, and try to jam with others whenever possible. For me, an hour of playing with other musicians seems to be worth several days worth of practicing on my own!