Lets talk about your practice routine. Does it go something like this? You pick up the

guitar, begin working on a song you want to learn, noodle around a bit, play a song

you already know, noodle around a little more and your hour of practice is done. The

next day you do the same thing. This seems to be your usual routine when practicing.

You have a friend down the road that started playing guitar the same time as you but

he seems to have advanced way beyond where you are now. You ask him how long

he practices and you find out he practices the same amount of time as you. What is

going on?

You start thinking maybe your friend is just gifted. You even start doubting yourself

thinking maybe guitar is just not your instrument! STOP! Wipe these thoughts right out

of your head. There is a more realistic answer to this.

What your friend has discovered is the proper way to practice. He figured out what his

goals are and organized a practice session that will most directly help him achieve his

goals.

Lets begin by taking a look at what a practice routine may look like.

~ Warm up ( running through scales, finger exercises etc…)

~ Rhythm exercises

~ Lead techniques

~ Improvising

~ Cover song you have been working on

In this example let imagine this person jams with friends in his basement on Saturday

nights for fun. He has been playing rhythm guitar up till now and only working on cover

songs. The other guys have been experimenting a little with some improvised jams.

Well this guy, lets call him Joe, is lost and doesn’t know what to play. The other guitar

player shows him what three chords to play while everyone else takes turns soloing

and creating things on the spot. Joe wants to join in on the fun also!

It just so happens that the other guitar player also teaches guitar down at the local

music shop. Joe explains his concerns of how he wants to be more involved with what

has been going on. His friend is more then happy to help come up with a practice

routine that will help him with this goal.

They establish that the things that are important for Joe to work on are his lead

guitar techniques and creating music on the spot (improvising). So they work out a

practice routine that will cover these subjects but also continue to help work on his

current skills. He will use this routine an hour a day for five days a week.

Breaking things up like this insures Joe will be covering a variety of areas he needs

to work on during each practice session. Working on a little of each subject every

day is much better then practicing one subject on one day, moving to subject two

on the next and so on. You would only cover each subject once per week with the

one subject per day approach. By practicing a little of each subject everyday Joe

will cover each subject five times during the week.

The other thing about practicing one subject per day is you will get fatigued. Your

mind can only stay focused for a certain amount of time. Yes, you are getting a lot

of practice on that subject but how much of it is focused practice?

If you break it up into smaller more concentrated sessions you will improve quicker.

Also by doing it this way you will avoid boredom. Instead of getting tired and

pushing yourself to continue you will end up moving onto another subject before

you reach this point. Although some subjects may not be as fun as others it will

make your overall practice sessions much more enjoyable!

Another good approach to your daily practice is to work on the things you least

enjoy first! Get them out of the way. If you wait till the end of your practice session

to work on these things most likely they won’t get done. These will be the subjects

you will always put off until tomorrow. Before you know it the whole week went by

and you didn’t work on any of these subjects at all. If you get them done and out of

the way you can feel the satisfaction that they have been covered and you can

then move onto subjects that are much more enjoyable to work on.

If by the time you get to the song or solo you really want to work on you find

yourself to tired it may be a sign you need to restructure your practice. Don’t make

your practice routine all work and little play! Ask yourself what it is you really want

to work on and get better at. Structure everything else around that. For example

say you want to learn that Metallica song you always wanted to play. Make this the

biggest part of your practice session. Still practice the other subjects but make sure

you make the major portion of your practice that song! Don’t assign each subject

20 minutes each and the Metallica song 10 minutes. The Metallica song should be

20 to 30 minutes and the other subjects 10 or so minutes each. Of course we all

want to become better players but do you want to become better at scale and

chord exercises or do you want to become better at playing music? Never forget

why you are doing all this work!

It’s always a good idea to switch things up every now and then. If you use the same

routine all year long then you will get bored to death. You need to find other ways of

approaching the subject you are working on. Lets say you have been practicing your

arpeggios up and down the neck for a few weeks. Now try using them while working

on sweep picking or maybe finger tapping using the chord tones on one string. Doing

this will help combat boredom and decrease the chances of burnout. It is also much

better to attack a subject from many different angles as opposed to only one. This will

give you a more thorough mastery of that particular subject.

If you structure your routine right then practicing like this will not only help with

avoiding burn out but will also help you become a more well rounded musician. It’s

great if you can play a shredding virtuoso style solo but it’s not to impressive if when

you go back to playing rhythm guitar it all falls apart. Listen to some of the great guitar

players out there like Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani etc… They are

equally skilled in both rhythm and lead guitar. Not to mention many other area’s. They

knew the importance of working on many different areas of their guitar playing as

opposed to concentrating on just one!

So get a good practice session going and I’ll see you when you tour through my area!

www.rock-lessons.com