Practice questions

vince

Hey All,

I've trained myself to stay away from reading this forum during the school quarter so I can get good enough grades to get in grad school... But alas, in the midst of finals, I am still reading it and posting.

Anyways my question..
I've been learning on my own for a while, and I always fall into the same pattern. I sort of sit around, practice a few scales, chords, and arps, then play the few songs I know, and then just solo over nothing. I'm aware this is probably the worst practice schedule ever, and I'm finally out to change it. My question is this. Should I work on just noodle soloing until my ears develop (which they seem really far from doing) or should I just teach myself a bunch of songs from tab. What is the best way to teach oneself?

Thanks so much-
V

Jack

Between your two choices, I'd definitely go for learning tunes, but don't stop with simply learning the solo...you should learn it (or parts of it) AND figure out why certain things sound good over certain chords/progressions. Then when similar things show up in other tunes you'll have a vocabulary of phrases that you can use and adapt...

Best,
Jack.