How do you practice/prepare?
 

Im very curious to find out how all you you guys practice and prepare for playing your various instruments.



I myself play Trumpet and practice while listening to a CD/recording of somebody else playing the song, and then try to mimic it, once it sounds like a direct copy I start adding my little "twists" to it.

The way I prepare is in my opinion, quite interesting little habit that will probably kill me off before i'm 20... Because the higher notes, and longer notes of trumpet require a lot of air, I hold my breath. I practice holding my breath while in my pool (3 and 1/2 minute record:p:), and during class (hehe...). I have to admit that I seriously believe that doing so has enlarged my lungs and made me play better. Also when nobody is looking I practice blowing air out my mouth for looooong periods of time.

uncanny I do that ...
"Also when nobody is looking I practice blowing air out my mouth for looooong periods of time."

... just before I have a sm420ke! I wonder if I'd be good at the trumpet aswell!

Dude, smoking reaaaallly does not help you with breathing. I recommend you try to quit if your into instruments, particularly wind or brass.

Yeah, I start my practice sessions at 4:20 as well:p:

I usually listen to some music that im in the mood for. I look for mainly good guitar solo's, then jam with them on set.

Before i'm about to bust out the tasty jams on guitar I always climb a mountain.

Which one may i ask?

Depends on how hard I wanna rock.

A good mountain is great for warm ups.. hell yes.. but after a 4:20 smoke who can be bothered. I usually just stare at my shoes for a while.. then grab the closest flute to hand and start a blowin.
I've performed some tasty licks with this method indeed. yeah.

I practice piano by learning songs off of sheet music, but when I'm playing guitar I use tabs, and/or just mess around.

It's not quite as metal as climbing a mountain but the shoes thing does work.

I play guitar and...If im alone i'll usually just play along with the song im learning. If im with someone else someone will play rythm while the other plays lead (usually the lead just ends up making thier own riff using the chords given on the piece)

I just play whatever comes to me on guitar. And then I might play a song that I'm currently working on. And then back and forth.

I either grab my Ipod and my studio headphones and jam to some Nirvana or RATM or work on some pieces for my band.

I practice scales @ 60 BPM in whole notes

guitar hero 3 or rockband

seriously. it's the greatest practice tool ever haha. way more entertaining than repeating scales along to a metronome. at the same time it prevents me from falling into the trap of sounding like everyone else when i actually do pick up one of my guitars.

greatest finger exercises ever.

Playing fretless so do alot of finger exercises so I come down on the right note every time. Also ear training--listen to a piece of music, hum the note in my head, find it on the bass.

When I'm practicing the drums I put my ipod headphones on and play.

When I practice guitar I don't really have a specific method.. i just pick up the guitar, play some of the easy things I know, maybe speed them up a bit, then I start playing new things.

Actually, Guitar Hero 3 is far different than playing actual guitar because it has way too many notes being thrown at you, and in my oppinion it makes it pretty difficult to learn the song afterwards because you're so used to the games feel.

really? the video game is different than the real thing? you don't say...

i have yet to see a GH tune that i used to play for real (like one, cherub rock, suck my kiss, sunshine of your love) throw more notes at me than i actually played when i practiced covers. after playing for 15 years the thought of sitting down and regurgitating covers - again - makes me want to give up playing guitar.

GH keeps my fingers nimble - hence the comment about it being a great finger exercise. i never said it was a surrogate for playing the real thing, just my method of choice for practicing. at this point i don't feel the need to practice scales or chord progressions. what i do feel the need for is an activity that helps maintain the dexterity of my fretting fingers and the stamina of my picking hand. GH provides that in spades.

Covers can be fun for warm ups but these days I usually just flop it out and give it a good seeing to then start shredding. If it's the afternoon then I usually have to have a nanna nap between the fap session and the shreddin.
But yeah it warms up my fingers perfectly, recommended.

I really dont practice all that much. But if I have to, I always eat one hour before playing my sax. Then I do a chromatic scale as fast as I can all the way up and down three times or more. Then I eventually get to the song that I'm working on. The sad thing is, even though I ate before hand I'm starved once I finished.

i hope you rinse your mouth out before you play. if you don't you will probably have to get a lot of your pads replaced very soon. i play sax too btw, whats your set up? and you should really practice your scales with a metronome.

i usually start with long tones/overtones, then scales, then excercises like playing riffs in all 12 keys or playing out of my jerry coker book. then i move on to playing different tunes out of aebersold books. and then maybe work on a transcription or two. all in all i try and get 3 hours a day.

Dont worry, I do rinse. Otherwise not only will I have to replace pads, my sax would stink! Haha...Anyway, what do you mean by set up? Do you mean brand? Its a Jupiter, professional type. I personally prefer them to Yamaha.:thumb:

On guitar or bass, I just meddle with a few songs to get warmed up and I'll do that for a while. Then screw around with the delay on my Boss pedal and then go from there.

Before shows, I play covers on my guitar backstage and then we'll go through an acoustic jam of whatever it is we'll be playing.

Metronome
 

Hi all. Do you guys know some good online metronome?? I've found bestmetronome.com but I'm not sure is it good enough.

lol I swear GH has made my actual guitar and piano skills sloppier and lazier.

Before playing i like to think of a tree falling in the forest, but i`m always careful to not be in the way of the falling tree - Damn! Those things can hurt.:usehead:

i think the ratio of controller to instrument is a big factor. i've noticed the same as well but a large part of that is due to losing my jam room a few months back and not really playing at home. can't really crank up 2 amps and a pile of pedals in an apartment.

the only really improvement in my playing technique from playing music games is on bass with a pic. i'm WAY tighter than i ever was. otherwise the games are really just fun hand exercises.

I'm a drummer. When I warm up I just play "creep" by Radiohead. It has a good pace and gets my leg loose for the bass drum.

I'm a piano player and to warm up I often play 'Karma Police' by Radiohead :)

Karma Police is a good song. My girlfriend plays keyboard and sometimes we play that together.

That's cute :)
It's the first song my band and I ever performed live, it's fun to play with people.