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Practicing scales is also a good way to develop dexterity and finger independence.

Yes, my Precious, you have drunk the Kool-Aid...

I generally practice for 2-1/2 to 3 hours a day; more on weekends.  What I practice changes, in that I only practice a single thing (skill, technique, riff, what have you) for about 5-10 minutes at a time, and then move on to something else.  I've been doing this for almost 3 years now.

By the way, practice most emphatically does NOT make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.  The guy above who recommended practicing slowly hit the nail squarely on the head.  The goal here is to take your mind out of the equation, and we do that through muscle memory, basically teaching your fingers the skill in question.  Thing is, they don't know when something is "right" or "wrong", they can only do what they have already done (over and over and over).  If you take the time to do something slowly enough that you NEVER make a mistake, your fingers will dutifully reproduce it as you get faster.  Soon (relatively speaking), you're playing at performance speed with no mistakes, and your conscious mind is out of the loop.  When you start doing it, it's kind of spooky; sometimes it becomes a bit of a trick to keep your mind "out of the way" and just let your fingers go!

So, what I do:  1) have a list of things to practice (written or mental, just know what you're working on); 2) go so S-L-O-W-L-Y (I'm talking mind-numbingly slowly) that you make no mistakes (for guidance here, see Jamie Andreas' "The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar"); 3) Use a metronome; 4) record yourself, so that in a few months you can listen and see how far you've come.  You only need to record yourself once a week or so, date the tapes or files, then go back and listen in three or four months.  You will be amazed.

The 5122 isn't a semi hollow, it's a full hollow body with a sound post.  A semi-hollow is like a Gibson 335 or an Epiphone dot, which has a plank down the middle.

There is nothing currently on the market which can compare with the 5120/22 for value for the dollar, IMHO.

That's the essay I was looking for yesterday and couldn't find.  Thanks.

I put a tuner on my Taylor and my Gretsch this morning, and I did find that I'm pulling the f# chord just a touch sharp, but that might well have been finger position (not quite getting the barre right over the fret).  I say that because both the G and the F were right on, so I don't think there was a significant amount of neck flex involved.

I hope that everyone else has been reading and benefiting from this discussion, Guitarpix.  It's important that the attitude toward barre chords shifts from dread to anticipation; these forms are absolutely essential to a lot of material, and make so much of it so easy!

It might come down to differences in the ears and the instrument; I'll freely admit that my ears aren't the most sensitive in the world.    As to the instrument, I'm playing on Gretsch archtops in classical position, with the back snugged right up to my chest and my right forearm naturally rests across the "corner" between the side and top of the lower bout (I'm also doing mostly fingerstyle these days, for what that's worth).  With an archtop electric, suppressing some of the 'liveliness' of the guitar is pretty well necessary for controlling feedback.  Plus, I really like the feeling of the guitar back vibrating against my chest, but YMMV. 

I came up with how to do this a couple of years ago, when I was struggling with barre chords and thumb cramps on a daily basis.  I was watching some concert footage, and asking myself, "how do these guys make it look so easy for so long?"  At the same time, I was working through "Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar" (which I highly recommend to everyone, by the way), and the muscle and touch-awareness that is put forth in that book suddenly just clicked -- use different, stronger muscles to do the same job.  Suddenly, the chords were ringing and I could do it for 10 minutes straight from the get-go.

I don't have a guitar with me at the moment, but I'll slap a tuner on and check it tonight when I get home.  Gretsches have pretty narrow necks (not so narrow as a Rickenbacker, but still), so it ought to be detectable.

Just curious here, how do you keep the guitar away from your body when you're playing?

Barre chords are very nearly effortless when done right.

First, leave your comfort zone.  If you normally practice sitting down, stand up (or vice versa).

Second, the effort for the barre chord DOES NOT come via the thumb!  Your finger muscles are used to hold your fingers in position, and the effort on the strings comes from the shoulder and bicep.  You'll need to put some counter pressure across the body with your strumming/picking forearm, and getting comfortable with that takes practice.

Once you have the idea, you can actually lift your thumb from the back of the neck, and still play the barre chord!  Your thumb is only used as guide at that point.

If you're not working on this stuff for 5 minutes, every single day, then you're slacking. Quit your whining, and do the practice. ;-)

Sounds like you might be interested in something like this:  http://www.folkofthewood.com/page5308.htm

It's a flatpicking technique called "crosspicking" and can be quite useful.  While there isn't any video on the site that I'm aware of, there's plenty of tab to get you started.

I have never notice any day-to-day improvement in my playing, and I practice about 2 hours a day, six days a week.  You see the improvement when you look at what you are doing now as compared to six months ago.

Fred Kelley Speed Picks.  Look here:  http://www.fredkellypicks.com/products-page/speed

One of the things that distinguishes a "more advanced" player from a "beginning" player is the ability to use alternate fingerings, to not lift fingers that you don't have to, and not to place fingers that you don't have to (all aspects of the same thing, really). 

If you want to learn barre chords (and you do, so much music is vastly easier using them), it really isn't that big a deal to learn to place the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.  Once you have those down, the alternate fingerings will be useful in the rest of your playing.  I find myself fingering chords in different ways depending on what I've just done and/or what is coming up all the time, and it really isn't something that I have to think about at this point.

What you're having problems with is the mismatch between fretboard radius (which has nothing to do with setup, it's a manufacturing decision) and the flat profile imposed on the strings by the tunamatic bridge.  Fortunately, there is a solution.  There is a product known as a "Tru-Arc (tm)" bridge (which is a modification of the Gretsch "Rocking Bar Bridge") that can match your string radius to that of your fretboard.  You will need to know your fretboard radius, and send an email to Tim Harman (harmanz (at) psci (dot) net).  The bridges come in brass, aluminum, or stainless steel, and different materials will affect your tone in various ways; Tim will be happy to work with you and determine exactly what you're after.

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with Tim or Tru-Arc in any way, other than being a satisfied customer.  I just ordered my fourth bridge from him last week.