i am of the opinion that "noodling" is fine. however, i would definately not call it productive. i find that it actually takes quite a bit of mental power to actually LEARN something. in fact, that is one of the things i go over in my new book. in fact one of the very first things, in the introduction section "how to practice CORRECTLY" im one of those people who does either one or the other, i either PRACTICE or just PLAY. and another thing that i am astrong believer in. if you PRACTICE for 45 minutes a day and really challenge yourself during that time, i honestly believe you can be an INCREEDIBLE guitarist. i say i "Believe" it because i dont practice NEAR that much (even though i tell others to) and i know if i did, i would be so much better by now after 17 years of playing. just my opinion. is that you with an ibanez prestige RG? do you like it?

yeah, it does take more time to learn if you practice like most people. shoot me an e-mail at this address: rizadchizad@yahoo.com

i will send you a copy of my rough introduction to my book, it describes my technique for "practicing" i think mine is a bit more in depth, and i expect a lot of a person. it would be great if you could do a little review of it for me. please keep it private though, i am not letting EVERYONE see this stuff.

hey fred. shoot me an e-mail at rizadchizad@yahoo.com i want to send you some stuff to try out and review for me if you are still interested....

Satan, I sent you a text with my work email address on it. The one I have here won't let me in for some reason. I gotta' add more memory to this thing!

no noodling is NOT a bad thing and can actually lead to some interesting "discoveries".

When I was "out among 'em" I used to do it all the time. Sit in the hotel and watch TV and play. That's how I learned "The Flintstones", "Theme from the Munsters", "KIng of the hill", etc..

When you're out there not a hell of a lot else to do. I don't really "practice" per se anymore. If something interests me I'll learn to play it. Of course.. I've been doing this for years so that helps. :-)

I have spent a lot of time trying to develop my playing technique, some times its good to just pick your guitar up and bash out some riffs few lead lines and have a good time, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. I do try and do the things they say you should. I always play warm ups and sequences before really going for it. most practise nowadays is spent working on my bands material, how crap would I be if all my solos sounded like exercises.

I do work on new things, but remember as you become an adult your attention to learning diminishes so really you may spend about 20 minutes if your in your 40s but you are really gonna have to focus.

Noodling is good for creativity. Trying out different stuff, occasionally you stumble on something cool and one thing leads to another and you make a tune/song/something.
But it won't advance your technique nowhere near as quickly as systematic practice.

I find focused practice extremely boring. So I only noodle. The result is that 6 years after picking up I'm only as good as some people become in just 1 year of systematic practice. I don't care. It's not a competition.