Schedule your practice routine

Posted by Chris 20 May, 2008 

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One mistake I think a lot of people make when it comes to practicing is to not practice efficiently. They just start playing along to a song they want to learn, or grab a tab and try to learn the a song, or just go through some exercises. Although every bit of practice helps, you are not getting as much out of your time as the effort you are putting in. This is why you should schedule your practice routine.

As an example, here is a good one hour routine and I'll show you how I apply it.

  • 0-10 mins - Warm Up
  • 10-20 mins - Fingering Drills
  • 20-40 mins - Playing Skills
  • 40-60 mins - Fun Time

So with this plan in mind I am now practicing like this:

  • 0-10 mins - My Super-Duper secret warm up exercises*
  • 10-20 mins - 2 x exercises from the 30 Day Guitar Workout
  • 20-40 mins - Lesson from Blues You Can Use Book 1
  • 40-60 mins - Work on one of the songs I want to learn

In 1 hour, I get to cover all the areas I want to work on. The beauty of this is if you have more time (which I normally don't) you can just extend out all the periods and still get a balanced workout.

I'd love to hear how others break up their practice time and what they find useful.

* My Super-Duper warm up routine won't be secret for long. I'll be sharing that shortly. It's a killer.

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    • ^
    • v
    My Nightly 2 hour practice routine -

    00:00-00:15 15 Minute Warmup
    Alternate Picking Symmetrical and Chromatic Exercises, Sweep Arpeggios, Legato, and Hybrid Picking
    Source: Terrifying Technique for Guitar

    00:15-00:45 30 Minute Scale Study Study
    Source: The Guitar Grimoire Scales and Modes

    00:45-01:15 30 Minute Fretboard Study
    Source: Guitar Fretboard Workout

    01:15-01:45 30 Minute Music Theory Study
    Emphasis on chords and harmony
    Source: Music Theory for the Guitarist

    01:45-02:00 15 Minute Free Time
    Program equipment
    Review previous material
    Watch instructional DVD
    Study a song

    What I want to accomplish:

    Today -
    *Insert today's goal here

    1 Week -
    2 Chapters in the Theory Book
    2 Chapters in the Fretboard Workbook

    1 Month-
    Learn to play every major scale mode in any key and any position on the neck
    Learn to play Major, Minor, Dominant, maj7, m7, 9th, and 13th chords in any key and any position on the neck

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