Daily Exercises!

[geirovia]

If you got for exampel two hours a day with technique training, what kind of exercises should you practise, should you concentrate on more on scales than arpgeggio?
I need help to set up my daily exercises, what and how much?

what are you training, and how does your technique session look like??

[David J.H.]

One thing that I'm beginning to suscribe to is something that my teacher firmly believes: basically, your repertoire should be your technical focus. Spending hours a day on tremolo, artificial harmonics, and tibetan throat-singing is great, but wastes time in the long run if you aren't actively pursuing something that utilizes those techniques in your repertoire. The reasoning behind this is the idea of your arms and hands having a "muscular memory," which is proof positive in any athelete. In many cases practicing technical spots within a piece can become an exercise in-it-of itself, after all, isn't that what you're working towards anyway? When you find trouble spots within a piece it's good to consult studies and etudes for reinforcement, but once you've started working on legitimate guitar literature it's time to think about expanding your repertoire. If I had to recommend something it would be running scales and arpeggios in any flavor or variety for 15 min/day. You could also examine the pieces you play and curtail a sort of guitar "fitness" plan around them. Feel free to disagree! (i once did)

[adrian]

For the most part I agree with geirovia. I'd also add that it's important not to force yourself to play exercises and music you don't like, in the hopes that it will do you some good. I think it's much more important to find your technical or musical weaknesses, and then work on excerpts and exercises which target those areas. Then, return to the pieces you enjoy which challenge those aspects of playing.

As for finding the balance between arpeggios and scales, etc., I'd say each player is different, and therefore you should focus more on whatever you have more trouble with. There's no set formula for this.