Your ratio of practicing excercises vs songs?

[roadbiker]

I'm working on better finger independence, dexterity, maneuvering, and speed for both hands and am using several exercises to do it. I'm spend a lot of time practicing scales (chromatic, major, pentatonic, etc.), the spider exercise, some exercises from Pebber Brown, and the using the book, Guitar Aerobics. I find that these are really helping me get better. I used to focus only on learning songs to play and practicing them until I could play them reasonably well. Now, from playing the exercises I find it much easier and quicker to learn the songs that I like and even songs of my own creation.

I guess where I'm going with this is, what kind of balance do you strike between practicing songs vs. playing exercises? After all, the reason we play is to play music, not scales.

I'm really curious to see your responses.

Jim

[cigarfan]

For me it depends on how close I am to playing out. If I'm close, say within a week or two, I'm polishing my songs and getting them to a place where I don't really have to think to play (if that makes sense). If I'm practicing just for me, about 50/50 exercises to songs. I have found that's a good mix to keep me progressing and to keep me interested.

[lmacmil]

I much prefer playing songs to exercises so I do very little pure exercise.  As a result, I am just a mediocre guitar player but that doesn't retract from my enjoyment.  I do an open mic every 2-4 weeks so am constantly learning new songs although don't strive for note-for-note perfection.

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

I have the guitar aerobics and use it intermittently, seems just when I get a groove going on the book something happens and I slack off for a few weeks.  I'm really not good at just straight up practicing scales and such.....find them boring.

For me, I feel the fact that I play mostly fiddle tunes (for some odd reason.... ) I get more than enough practice on finger dexterity.  I have periods where I play with alot of hammer-ons/pull-offs and other times I focus on cleanly flatpicking each note of the tune and work on speed.

The other day I was lamenting to my instructor that I can't "play faster" and he gave me the old playing fast is overrated talk and then gave me a few exercises based on the pentatonic scale.  Well, they turned out to be exactly the runs I have been playing in tunes like St. Anne's Reel, Black Mountain Rag, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Billy in the Lowground and even Blackberry Smoke's "Good One".

I also grab my guitar when watching a movie or football and practice picking with my right hand to get faster and again mostly just playing the fiddle tunes I know.  They are great at getting you moving top to bottom and up the neck a position or two.

I went to see TSO last month and wanted to learn how to do the "O Holy Night" lead guitar.  To my surprise I was able to play it pretty well - not at Al Pitrelli's speed of course but passable for just a few hours of practice.  It reminded me of the time I was talking to a woman who did alot of rock guitar gigging - she asked me what I play and such and I said "oh, just fiddle tunes you know nothing great"........ .  She laughed and said that she thought they were good songs to play to practice flatpicking as it crossed over into rock guitar leads......I had never really thought of them that way........

So my long windy reply boils down to for me - I get to play and practice at the same time.

[PTC Bernie]

Exercises, BORING!   

Songs, GOOD!   

If you don't feel that the songs you play are testing your skills as a guitarist, there are always more difficult songs out there.

[roadbiker]

Two that I have challenged myself with are Never Going Back Again and Fire and Rain.

The exercises may be boring, but in my experience they definitely help.

Jim

[Tugboat]

I try to do 10-15 minutes of exercises when I practice. I don't always do it but I do it much more often than not. I also have a habit of biting off more than I can chew when I learn new songs and stubbornly refusing to give up until I have it learned. 

That hampers how many songs I know but it's really cool when I can finally play a difficult (for me) song.

[Riggie]

I much prefer playing songs to exercises so I do very little pure exercise.  As a result, I am just a mediocre guitar player but that doesn't retract from my enjoyment.  I do an open mic every 2-4 weeks so am constantly learning new songs although don't strive for note-for-note perfection.

I don't practice at all, except when learningba new song. I play out 2-3 times a month and get paid thevequivalen of 150-200 USD per gig. I'm a reasonable rhythm player and can do the odd solo. I know I should practice scalescand theory but just can never be bothered.

[Riggie]

Sorry for the typing errors, iPad keyboard is a pita!

Just did a chek on exchange rates and I get 250-300 usd per gig. How does that comparevwith US bar gigs?

[Strumming Fool]

I've never used exercises in all my playing years. (If I had, I probably would be a better player.) I'm one of those guys who assembles something before reading the instructions or begins to play a board game before reading the rules. People tell me that I'm a talented guitarist, but I don't think I'm as technically adept as many others. I just try to make the best of what I've picked up over the years by playing what I hear....

[luckycanine]

90/10% for playing, exercising respectively....approx..  Hard to maintain focus on exercises as boredom is a vile creature. WC

[Ehenson]

I usually play a couple scales as a "warm up" then it's on to songs.

[Jake_Henry]

I was told by a professor at Berkeley in Boston...  1/4 of your time in reviewing old music, 1/4 in learning new, 1/4 in technical exercises, and 1/4 in improv.  I've tried to stick to that and it's making a real difference in my playing.  That, and the metronome.