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I play for anywhere from 2-6 hours a day these days. Ideally, I'd like to always keep it on the high side, but life gets in the way.
Here's my routine:
I start off with warm-ups. Simple scales/patterns to get my fingers flexible, and the blood flowing. Usually about a half hour.
Then, I'll get into working on certain patterns and excercises that I've developed for myself based on where I want my playing to go, and where I feel that I need improvement. Lately I've been concentrating on pinky strength, chromaticism, and right hand technique. This can go from anywhere from an hour to three, depending on how much time I have.
Then I'll get into playing songs, practising melodies, or jamming along to tracks that I've stored into my looper. This part of my routine is what takes up the rest of my time.
A couple of thoughts:
I have, in the past played for 8 or 10 hours at a time. On the one hand, you get to an amazing place with your playing where you feel like you can do anything, but unfortunately -at least for me- too much of that, and your fingers start swelling up like sausages.
As it is, with the routine that I have, I wake up with stiff fingers in the morning, but I feel as though it's a good kind of stiffness from hard work. Not the bad kind that hurts, and where I feel as though I'm abusing them.
I've been called a good or (and here I blush) great guitar player before, but although it's a nice compliment, but I know that I'll always have more to learn, and areas to work on. I'm a fairly strict self-taskmaster, maybe too much of a perfectionist, but I still really enjoy playing.
After all these years I've come to the realization that my real talent lies in meeting challenges and overcoming them. In my case, it's definately more perseverance than natural talent!
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