I do scales for maybe an hour;
not scales as in playing them up & down & up & down &...
instead I come up with some easy chord-progressions,
and then I solo like crazy, trying to ram in all the
modes, scales, techniques, styles, tricks and tips I know of.
Of course maybe you should learn some tricks, styles, scales and stuff but I do not do that very often.
Usually I have days where I just have to learn something new,
so then I just sit al day with the guitar, hanging out here
learning some nice tricks, learning scales, setups,
theory etc. until my brain bleeds, and thats pretty much the
only time I practice 8-10 hours in one day.
However, these days are rare, most of the days I just
work with what I've got, maybe trying to explore whats really
possible to accomplish with a e-minor-scale, a missing
A-string, an enormous tube-amp and a really bad temper.
These jamming-sessions are important to me because they give
me an opportunity to develop "my" playing.
Lets say you have a scale, a trick and a technique.
You play the scale.
You play the trick.
You play the technique (for example sweeping)
Well ok, that was'nt all that fun.
But you keep playing them, and playing them, and playing them,
and oh wait, whats this? wait a minute, if I combine
a 3-string sweep with this first part of the trick, uhm no..
maybe I can change it a little, hmmm it sounds to dark and moody,
but if I do this little run in this scale, maybe I can....
As usual my post is way too long, I apologize.
Hopefully you'll understand some of this rubbish I've written,
but probably not, anyway I have a last tip for ya:
NEVER and I do mean NEVER play unless you want to.
Don't play 6 hours a day just because you feel you have to,
that will make it more and more of a 9 to 5 job, and
you might lose your will to play, forever!
