Practicing The Guitar
Routines
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One of the most common things I've been asked in the past is "How much should I practice?", and the answer to that (in my opinion) is as much as you want to! Unless you are particularly trying to improve a certain technique or learn a song, if you feel like playing then pick up the guitar and play whatever you feel like.
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Currently I'm studying for a Guitar exam, so my warmups include alternate picking scales, arpeggios and I use Jason Beckers's "Perpetual Burn" as part of it too. I think it's important to try to push yourself in terms of technique, to try and avoid stagnation with your playing.
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Maintaining Motivation
This is something I come across quite frequently too, the classic "I'm at a brick wall with my playing, and it's making me lose drive and motivation".
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There are quite a few ways to address this kind of issue, and I will repeat what my friend Chris (KillrBuckeye) has talked about on his website.
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1.) Restring your Guitar
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When you have dead strings, I find I can become a lot less motivated to play than when my strings are new and bright sounding, you can pick up new strings for between £10 - £15, and it's well worth it to regain drive.
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2.) Give your Guitar a professional set up (or pay for one)
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Over time, your guitar will no doubt suffer a bit of wear and tear, and the hardware will slip away from it's optimum condition. There are a few things involved in this: Truss Rod Adjustment (which affects the curvature of the neck), Intonation (which affects the tuning of the guitar over the 12th fret), Action (the height of the strings above the fretboard), Fret condition aka Fret Dressing (which involves making sure that each fret is level and the same shape) and making sure that the electronics are in good working order.
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Learning to be able to perform this kind of maintainance is a great skill to have, and can really improve the feel of your guitar and bring it back to life if you are losing motivation. Paying for a professional set up is also a good option if you have the money for it, a good set up will cost you between £50 - £100 (depending on what the condition of your instrument is in, and what you need doing), you should be able to find a guitar tech from looking online in your area, or visiting a guitar store near you and asking in there for contacts.
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3.) Learn a new technique
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If you've hit a brick wall with your playing and don't know where to go from there, why not consider learning a new technique? There are lots to choose from: pinched harmonics, sweep picking, economy picking, tapping, hybrid picking, legato, or make combination techniques. For instance, sweep picking combined with tapping, or hybrid picking combined with straight legato runs.
4.) Revisit some of the old music you used to play
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This one I find myself coming back to quite frequently, as playing some of the old music you used to can sometimes reignite the passion for the instrument, you could have forgotten how fun it can be.
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5.) Write some original material/Join a band
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If you've been playing other bands music for the entire time you've been playing, sometimes that can cause stagnation, so why not try coming up with some original material? They don't have to be masterpieces, and if it's something you have never done before it can take time to fully get an understanding of what goes into writing music, but all musicians start somewhere!
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6.) Consider investing in a new piece of gear
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From experience, everytime I got a new piece of gear, whether it be a new guitar, new amp or new pedal, I've always had a sudden burst of inspiration to play after playing around with all the new sounds that I could make. One of the first pedals I ever got was a Zoom G2.1u, which had a variety of sounds and effects, along with an expression pedal for pitch shifting and Wah-Wah simulation.
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MORE TO COME LATER
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