Just got done playing one of my 45 minute sets today, set 3 to be exact. I play a different set every day as usual, but making music in a craftsman like way, just makes me smile inside. No need to sell it, or show off with it, just doing it makes me happy.
Practice.... something I haven't done for rock and roll in years. My development as a player stopped years ago when I stopped sitting down with the latest guitar hero album and trying to learn it note for note.
Now my only practice is for when I'm playing in church and that is pretty easy stuff. I have better gear than I've ever had (by far) and my ability continues to slip further and further as a player, due to two things. 1) Lack of practice. 2) Nerve damage and now even more the arthritis in my hands. Guess after all these years, it's time to slow down MOST of the time and concentrate on feel, touch, tone instead of speed/precision and then the other things.
I have not developed any skills in years either. I stopped learning new stuff a long time ago. And I never did many cover tunes. I never learned anything note for note off of any albums except a few of Roy Buchanan's songs, and only passages I was awed by. I simply took lessons from awesome players, three of them one blind guy from Neptune NJ named Al Del Russo, the late Emily Remler the famous jazz guitarist, and Bob Aslanian (who was Al DeMeola's guitar teacher) From them I learned various things, and applied them to my daily practice routine. I always thought, I never wanted to play in bars, so I started recording and learning that, it took me many months to get proficient at it. Plus I was in on things at the start of MIDI, starting with a Mac Plus and MOTU's Performer 1 MIDI only sequencer. Then graduated to later versions of the Performer app and later Macintosh computers, plus I had an Otari MX 70, 1" tape, 30 IPS reel to reel multi track deck, and an Otari MTR 12 2 C half track 30 IPS 1/4" with Dolby SR which gave it the noise floor of early digital. I had 30 synthesizers and samplers all run by that Mac Plus with a Tac Scorpion 24 ins and 16 back and forth to the Tepe deck and out to the half track. It was awesome set up and cost me a hundred fifty grand of my ill gotten gains. (I still have several pieces of that equipment left hooked to my DAW, but I sold most of it for 1/2 what it cost me). (I never earned that money to begin with anyways so it don't hurt to think about that loss).
My guitar playing has evolved however, I can not longer play steady 32nd note runs with any exotic scales like I used to, I am way out of practice for that stuff. But I do not have to think of what I am doing using major & minor scales or major and minor pentatonic scales. I just go from sound to sound trying to form words from the notes and phrases out of the words, inserting silences is the hard part for me. I improvise every song except for the licks that fit with only that song some of which I play the same way all the way through each time. But most of my stuff is just improvised over the changes until I get some lines I like and then keep them.
every night is the same for me.... I turn on the amp, wait 30 seconds, then the "standby. I turn on some delay, chorus and reverb, and then to my OD pedals.... by the time I click on the 3rd Metal Zone, I spend the whole time just fighting the loud squealing noises coming from my speakers. ;D Eventually either I give up, or Amy comes in and says "ok, the misquitos are all gone. Please for the love of GOD stop!" ;D ;D
The new job makes practice almost impossible.
When I do practice however, I don't treat it much like practice. I generally warm up with whatever I feel like warming up with. Sometimes those are exercises I've known for years. This can consist of scales, bendy things, chordy things, rhythmic things, or tappy things. Just whatever moves me to play at that moment.
Once that is done, I try to learn new stuff. This may be a particular lick that I've never nailed, part or all of a song that I like, sometimes I piddle with music outside of what I typically like to play. Country music has led to jazz music. I'm not a fan of either, but the point is to get outside of my typical go to ideas. This generally starts with the Guitar World mag that I get every month and playing through it.
Finally, I through on set of headphones or grab my blue tooth able radio and just jam to random stuff on my iPhone.
Barring that I may just noodle until a get something in my head worked out, this tends to be my favorite thing. I write a lot in this manner.
