What Kind Of Music Do You Play? How Do You Practice?

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Axe-Master
I have gotten to know some cool folks here. One thing I don't know a lot about is the kind of music you play?
I am really curious about the style(s) of music you like to play, and whether you do covers, originals, or both.

Thought this would be a fun thread to start to get a better feel for the different styles and tastes in
music being played by folks here on the forum.

Also, a few related questions: what do you play when you practice? how do you practice? do you practice
anything specific, or do you mostly just play freelance, and have fun? :)
 
Hi!

For my part, I only play pieces that I created, what I like in the style is instrumental, soft atmosphere with extreme solo! the improv sessions, I love it! from blues to Steve Vai's solo through Al Di Meola.

I still practice, but less than my 6 hours a day when I was young! I start by warming up my old electrician's fingers, I loop a few things and I lead over it, when I like something I record it and work afterwards.

With my obligations and the family I have less time to play but question of mental balance I have to play at least 5 hours a week lol. after 35 years I still find myself feeling this passion!

I bought an Ax fx III lately to add an arsenal of weight to record a few songs and have to say I'm very happy I made this decision!
 
Well, you've heard what I write/record, that's really all I play. I'm all over the place with that stuff, but I suppose it all fits under semi-proggy hard rock/metal.

I haven't practiced since I was in high school, 20 years ago. At most, I'll write something in my head and then have to practice it before I record it so I can play it right. If I had to play all the songs I've written right now, I'd be screwed without practicing them for a while first! Occasionally, if I learn something new I might practice it for an evening to get it under my fingers but I never keep the practice up.

Really, I'm comfortable with where I'm at as a player and my focus is being a better songwriter, I couldn't care less these days about learning more guitar techniques. I take massive dips in my playing abilities when I get into mixing mode or when I'm focused on other instruments and it usually takes me a couple weeks to get back into shape, but such is life. I go through phases where it's just a means to an end (writing a song) and days where I love feeling the strings under my fingers.
 
I play in a acoustic duo that is mostly covers, but we do about 9 or 10 originals and also in a country-rock cover band that plays a few originals a night as well. Love it - both female lead singers are awesome and it's a great time. I also write my own songs and have an EP out on band camp that is ALL me - singing and everything. I'm not a great singer and my songs are never going to be a 'hit' - but - I don't actually care. I'm super happy with how they came out and they are exactly what I wanted them to be. When I listen to them to see if I still like them, I do. I'm definitely better in a band situation as a guitar player though or as a contributor to a larger project. :). Cool thread.

Oh, also - I should actually practice but I usually just play and noodle, and then practice the stuff that I have to play live like a day or 2 before. I wish I was a better guitar player, like could do all the flashy things that I see a lot of people doing but instead I'm just really grateful that I can play at all, and that if I have an idea, I can translate that to guitar or keys, and create something from nothing. I just really love playing.
 
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Lately I've been trying to learn some Petrucci - Damage control - the new Petrucci Rig by @Cooper Carter is on point since my Guitar has the Liquifire/Crunchlab set - it's right in the Suspended animation set of tones.

Also some Andy Timmons (The Prayer/The Answer):

Any suggestions for a good Andy timmons based sound?

Other than that, some good noodling sessions with Fremen's Drones of Arrakis and some others.
 
Kind/style: live is P&W, but for myself is rock/blues/classical (as in classical guitar).

Practice material: mixture of technical exercise, repertoire, new material, and ear training (this is relatively new for me).

Practice method: mostly structured, trying to knock out technical drills earlier in the day when I have more energy, it's easier to convince yourself to play fun repertoire pieces or new material even when you aren't the most energetic/motivated later in the day.

I'm also big into looping. I enjoy setting up an entire song with guitar, Beat Buddy, looper, and guitar synth. I use a Boomerang III looper which is awesome for live performance. I lay down my own backing tracks this way for practice with soloing.
 
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Good topic. My listening music ranges from classic rock to 80's new wave, to 90's alternative to prog. Used to play in a covers band playing the first 3 at different times, including an acoustic trio with great harmonies. For practice, I decided a couple years ago I wanted to be able to play any of the songs I used to do, but not just slop through the solos, or ad lib them. I'm the kind of player who likes to play the songs accurately, and there's many that really aren't "expert-level" that I still cannot. I'm quite content with learning others' music, as I don't write/record.

So I decided that I'd get serious in improving my technique, but instead of using boring exercises, I'd just use parts of songs from my favorite guitarist, John Petrucci, working with the metronome, gradually getting the riffs up to speed, and even learning some that I never will (cuz they're just sick!) I pull up stuff from Paul Gilbert, Jake, and Yngwie as well, and once I can get my hammer-on/pull-offs fast enough, plan to tackle some EVH too.

But I also thought of another reason for trying to learn complex music. You know how they say doing crossword puzzles is good brain exercises? Well I figure a lot of JP's stuff can be good for the same thing. Not necessarily the blazing fast stuff, but things like the main riff of In The Presence of Enemies. It was the first thing I attempted in that "brain workout" way of thinking, and at my age, even though it's not that hard to play, it can be a challenge to get through the whole thing without losing my place. So I do that with a lot of his stuff.

For the strictly fast, technical riffs, once I've memorized it, I'll go back and forth between playing it with the metronome set at a speed where I can get the whole thing, to just running at full speed, mistakes and all, then pushing myself to go a bit faster than the first one. I'll break the riff into smaller pieces, and just cycle them, using double-speed bursts, and reversing the pick strokes..., anything to make learning the riff give me more than just the riff itself.

But it's hard to not noodle around with the Axe sounding so good, or spend too much time tweaking presets, because I picked an inopportune time in my life to be doing this, what with having other responsibilities, because the growth certainly doesn't come as fast as it used to! Damn, I wish we had all these tools available when I was in my teens & 20's!
 
I grew up in the 60's when FM rock stations played everything from folk to hard rock, so I grew playing everything as well, but bluesrock is where I mostly live. At my age I don't practice anymore, I just jam, letting the sound of the preset dictate how I play. Sometimes I'll put on some backing tracks, but I get bored with that after a while.
 
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Jazz. A lot of original fusion but lately I've just been playing a lot of bop, jazz standards. I practice 4 hours a day. That's up from a few years ago of 3 hours. When I was in my teens and 20s it was 6 hours a day. I have a pretty stringent routine. I feel like I'm starting to make some progress!
 
Roland said:
Nowadays I play in a pop covers band. I practice the bits of songs that need me to learn a new technique, and run through sections of songs that require me to build muscle memory.
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Much the same here, although I play in a primarily classic acoustic/electric rock cover band (with a few country songs thrown in for variety). I'm the electric guy in our band, but lately our acoustic guitar player has been working out of town every other week, so I've been working on some of his guitar parts for gigs where we have to play without him.
 
I get probably an hour a day to play and I spend too much of that time noodling. I don’t really enjoy covers and I wish I would spend more time developing all the short song ideas that just die on the vine.

I play most naturally in Rock though I’m a blues player at heart. I greatly enjoy progressive rock and delve into progressive metal and thrash at times. Usually it depends on what guitar I pickup that night.
 
I'm a blues, rock, some jazz and country, kind of player, who tends to hang out with Neo R&B and soul players. People sitting in can, and will, request songs I've never played before so I have to rely on my ear training and theory to figure out chords quickly and then on my memory of the songs and its sounds or style to come up with a good backing part. Sometimes I'm totally stumped, sometimes I get a great groove, but I love the challenge. And, if the song has come up a couple times I'll add it to my playlist to get it more embedded in my head, and then track down the chords and get them in my head. So, it's not organized, we have maybe five minutes advance notice of a song, and often times we get the key and the rhythm and whoever actually has a decent idea of the song will lead us into it.

Last night, after one song that should have been 12 bar blues, my co-guitarist turned to me and asked "Did that song change mid way?", and I told him it changed four or five times unexpectedly, but... we survived it. :)

We're not doing covers, we're just doing interpretations, which is our safety net. As the song progresses it becomes more cohesive until we've got something we're really happy with. Usually. Sometimes it's a train wreck but that's not too often. And, I must be pretty good at fitting in because they enjoy having me on stage with them, and I'll come home, sometimes ranting, sometimes still on a high because everyone and everything clicked and the songs grew wings and flew and flew.

It's a major mental exercise but is so satisfying.

As far as practicing and exercising... yeah, kinda. I figured out CAGED before it was such a thing, and played big-band jazz guitar for a couple years and love jazz and fusion, and years ago knew all the esoteric synthetic scales, so I'll practice and try to keep those intervals and sounds in my head because they help when soloing and coming up with good melodies. But I don't want to imitate someone else, I want to sound like me, suck and all.
 
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Pro freelancer here- my main gig is a corporate dance group that does mostly private gigs and city type functions- as such I don't really need to practice for this as 95% of the stuff is the same gig to gig.

I also play in a Rush Tribute group that covers the entirety of their career. This one requires effort as the music is more complex. Typically the band will get a gig and decide on a set list and that will be the focal point for practice. Main topic is recreating/maintaining solos. I've been listening/playing Rush since early 80's so arrangement wise I know the tunes inside and out even if I haven't learned the song yet. Creating appropriate sounds is time consuming as I go preset per song on my AX3 to try and nail period correct vibe.

I also play with a Prince Tribute that requires minimal practice although lately complicated by singer now playing guitar trying to double my parts making locking in a bit of a frustration. For our upcoming dates, I will be trying to invent my own parts so I'll need to scour YT looking live live versions where Mike Scott et al may be playing a different part or whatnot and try to get the spirit there.

New venture- King Crimson 80's band. Now this is a challenge! To get Discipline album up to speed might be the most comprehensive amount of practice I've done for any gig. Just the stamina needed to play the Fripp parts is what I'm building currently. I have most of the parts under my fingers but getting in tempo and keeping it there is really pushing my limits! If I miss a day or two, its back down the metronome! Not sure I'm gonna cut this one but gonna give it some time- kickin my ass....

Cool post and interesting to read guys thoughts as such.
 
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