Hey, I know you aren't practicing.

[Achtane]

I wish I could practice when I'm not practicing... I'm in three bands (3-5 practices/rehearsals/whatever a week) and I still wish I had time to practice outside of practice.

Yeah, I know, because ALL the facilities seem to cost a fortune , I have usually ended up with three or even more bands playing in the same place, to cut down the expences.

The avarage rent for a regular one room storage that can be worked into a real practice studio, with a toilet and running water, cost like 500€ or more a month. And a readily equipped and sound proofed room rented from a reahearsal rental company costs twice that a month, so the Youngsters and the students can't afford that at all without a recording company that probably has a deal with the rental companies.

That's insane, dude. My main band practices in our bass player's basement for free. My second band pays $10 each a month for our space. My third band plays in my best friend's living room in the most relaxed part of Milwaukee. Guess I got lucky.

What kinda space is your second band using? Me and a friend have been discussing getting a climate-controlled 5'x10' storage unit...they're like $90 a month. Can't use either of our houses and I don't think it's possible to really dampen the sound within my old garage. Sometimes it would be cool to live out in the boonies.

[Ghost Hip]

What if we make music instead of practicing?

[sonidero]

That counts like double, or it's epic, or all the way across the sky and such

[starcastic]

What kinda space is your second band using? Me and a friend have been discussing getting a climate-controlled 5'x10' storage unit...they're like $90 a month. Can't use either of our houses and I don't think it's possible to really dampen the sound within my old garage. Sometimes it would be cool to live out in the boonies.

It's an office building a little bit outside of town. It's fairly isolated so we can be as loud as we want after the businesses in the building close at 5:00. Rent is $100 a month and we split it with another band.

[Bassus Sanguinis]

my now project practises in three rooms from a bomb shelter friends have (contract stating the usual 'for time of peace') dirt cheap, too. 20euros a head a month, shnared with some twelve geezers, three bands.

Got to say, the social facilities, and dampeden acoustics (used with friends mobile studio additional recording projects, too) made me an impression

Alas, the price comes with the location: yesterday it took me nearly two hours to get back home by two different commuter trains, and the traveling there and back cost 20euros. ...so back to the drawingboard, have to get to go someplace different next week...

AND the new drummer was MAD COOL! Thrashed through old Celtic Frost, arranged some Black Sabbath covers at couch with a cup of fresh coffee and practised one of my own. In three hours.

[madmax1012]

i'm in a little funk where i feel like i'm not getting any better at guitar. it's kinda disappointing to me. anyone got any suggestions to get me out of it? i can't smoke pot anymore, but i appreciate the suggestion anyway

[unownunown]

play a song you think you know pretty well and record it. i notice a ton more mistakes when i'm playing something back vs listening to myself while i play

[Haki]

i'm in a little funk where i feel like i'm not getting any better at guitar. it's kinda disappointing to me. anyone got any suggestions to get me out of it? i can't smoke pot anymore, but i appreciate the suggestion anyway

I felt like that after doing a lot of theory and not necessarily working on technique. Then I went back to songs/parts that I either couldn't play up to speed or with lots of mistakes before the theory thing started. What I found was that I could now play most songs in tempo without fucking up. That made me realize that I was still improving despite not feeling like I was.

[madmax1012]

here's the thing. i don't play any songs. at least other people's songs. i usually just jam my own stuff. i'm self taught, and if anything, i can hear a song and figure out parts of it by ear, but i don't think i've ever learned a song front to back from tabs. i guess i just don't like learning other people's work.

[DarkAxel]

play a song you think you know pretty well and record it. i notice a ton more mistakes when i'm playing something back vs listening to myself while i play

the thing is you probably make those mistakes BECAUSE you are recording

[Bassus Sanguinis]

here's the thing. i don't play any songs. at least other people's songs. i usually just jam my own stuff. i'm self taught, and if anything, i can hear a song and figure out parts of it by ear, but i don't think i've ever learned a song front to back from tabs. i guess i just don't like learning other people's work.

I don't mean to be needlessly abrasive, but, since You asked:

go join some bands, learn their songs. And since You sound like a sport, learn songs You like, learn them by detail. Play daily half an hour with/over the radio, no matter if You actually like the music or not. Borrow notebooks from library, print tabs, whatever - just don't give Yourself excuses for not working on it, like , on daily bases. Whether You like it or not, You'll end up playing better than You did, trust me, if You put some effort in playing their songs as they were Your own.

Boring? Otherwise it can get worse than boring. You can get stuck with self-gratification and mannerism, repeating and recycling Your own stuff over and over again and going nowhere from below the glass ceiling the mannerism has set above You. I did, after playing some seven-ish years. Luckily, the remedy is as easy as painful to ego.

This is nothing personal. Yes, this goes for me, too. People just have the natural born tendency to be lazysonsofbitches and enjoy rather being comfortable with where they are than choose hard work for being better, if somebody else kicks their asses. THAT's what You need band mates for, to tell You You played like a cunt when You started daydreaming in middle of the easy section of the song etc.

[metalmariachi]

I practiced this after noon, and came up with ideas for two new songs.

Of course I was inspired by the arrival on my RRR.

MM

[proroby]

Practice? We talking bout practice! Practice! Come on now, we talkin bout practice!

[theavondon]

Practice? We talking bout practice! Practice! Come on now, we talkin bout practice!

Not a game. We're talkin' about practice.

[Monkeyboard]

here's the thing. i don't play any songs. at least other people's songs. i usually just jam my own stuff. i'm self taught, and if anything, i can hear a song and figure out parts of it by ear, but i don't think i've ever learned a song front to back from tabs. i guess i just don't like learning other people's work.

I don't mean to be needlessly abrasive, but, since You asked:

go join some bands, learn their songs. And since You sound like a sport, learn songs You like, learn them by detail. Play daily half an hour with/over the radio, no matter if You actually like the music or not. Borrow notebooks from library, print tabs, whatever - just don't give Yourself excuses for not working on it, like , on daily bases. Whether You like it or not, You'll end up playing better than You did, trust me, if You put some effort in playing their songs as they were Your own.

Boring? Otherwise it can get worse than boring. You can get stuck with self-gratification and mannerism, repeating and recycling Your own stuff over and over again and going nowhere from below the glass ceiling the mannerism has set above You. I did, after playing some seven-ish years. Luckily, the remedy is as easy as painful to ego.

This is nothing personal. Yes, this goes for me, too. People just have the natural born tendency to be lazysonsofbitches and enjoy rather being comfortable with where they are than choose hard work for being better, if somebody else kicks their asses. THAT's what You need band mates for, to tell You You played like a cunt when You started daydreaming in middle of the easy section of the song etc.

^this

Solely playing other people's stuff is not good. But only improvising doesn't work either. Learning a song front to back is a good way to learn new techniques in an enjoyable setting and demands a certain precision and perfection that improvising does not. Doing so by ear also trains your most valuable asset.

That said don't stop improvising. But learning a song every now and then is very good for your chops.