What is your practice routine?

[pauldil]

Most week days I have a very limited amount of time (about 30 minutes to one hour total) in which to practice guitar. I get up at 5:00AM in order to get in about 30 to 40 minutes, then I can sneak in about another 20 minutes if my kid's school buses aren't late before I have to go to work. Because of this time restriction, I try to work on different things each day, starting with about 10 minutes of just sightreading studies (because I suck so much at it, I have to play very slowly, which is a great warmup). After that, though, I don't have a real solid routine. Some days I concentrate on technique, other days I might work on a specific tune,... it just seems too haphazard. Given the time constraints, is there a better approach?

 

Thanks,

 

Paul

[Sylver]

Originally posted by pauldil:

Most week days I have a very limited amount of time (about 30 minutes to one hour total) in which to practice guitar. I get up at 5:00AM in order to get in about 30 to 40 minutes, then I can sneak in about another 20 minutes if my kid's school buses aren't late before I have to go to work. Because of this time restriction, I try to work on different things each day, starting with about 10 minutes of just sightreading studies (because I suck so much at it, I have to play very slowly, which is a great warmup). After that, though, I don't have a real solid routine. Some days I concentrate on technique, other days I might work on a specific tune,... it just seems too haphazard. Given the time constraints, is there a better approach?

 

Thanks,

 

Paul

If you're having problems self studying and managing your time, you might want to think about taking some lessons. Having concrete goals when you sit down and practice can help you to focus your energies, and be more consistant.

 

The other thing is, an hour a day is actually a lot of time for some people, especially if they already have chops. Me? I get about 4 days of 4 hours a day, and three days at an hour a day. On the one hour days, I usually tend to run some scales and exersises, then, just jam a bit. The 4 hour days, I tend to do everything.

[TurboDog]

Dude, I am the king of haphazard practicing. And to get up that early to practice...man, I wish I had that kind of discipline.

 

It tkes me a good 5 minutes to get the fingers moving right. So that first 5 minutes is chromatic runs (starting slowly) to wider stretch scale playing and then some wild chords maybe.

 

From there on, it's a crap shoot. I usually practice on whatever I feel like. I will go through weeks of trying to get faster, so most of my practice time revolves around that. Then I'll go through periods where I want to expand my library, so I'll try and learn new songs.

 

Sometimes I crank the cable radio and play along with that. Or maybe a CD.

 

Granted, no matter what I'm working on at the time, I always run through some scales, or difficult chord sequences to keep those up.

 

I think if your practice is too regimented, it starts feeling like work. That's the last thing I want. You just havbe to find the right mixture of discipline/enjoyment.

 

The only exception to above comments is if I hear a tune in my head that I have to put on the fretboard right away.

[Jedi]

Hey Paul,

 

Give up a little more info. Are you trying to be a shredding lead player? Just be good enough to write songs and sing to? Or something in between? Let us know. Getting up at 5:00 AM to play for an hour is very admirable. I love to hear about folks really caring for their craft. That's Great!!! Just need a little more info so that we can really maximize that hour.

 

Namaste

 

Jedi

[Steve LeBlanc]

Seems to me you have a good handle on it.

 

My 2 cents...

 

Sit down with a spiral notebook and write a little routine for each day...doesn't have to be complicated:

 

Sightreading

Scales (Pentatonic and Symetric scales at different tempos)

Bach's Invention #8

Arpeggios (Major7 and Minor7)

Chord Voicings

This is just an example of an hour routine I did yesterday

 

Get yourself an eggtimer with a bell if you don't have one, decide how much time you want to spend on each thing and just do each one until the timer rings.

 

This approach worked great for me on piano...I haven't practiced guitar much at all until recently. I only have time for about an hour a day so like you I'm making the best of it.

 

I hope to have credible guitar technique in a month or two...if you really stick to this kind of routine...change it up often AND play with other musicians when you can the sky's the limit.

[pauldil]

Thank you, gents. Jedi, here's a little more info:

 

I guess I'm a jazz wannabe, but I listen to a lot of different players in various styles. I've been playing for about 35 or so years. Started with the Beatles, later got into Carlos Santana, who led me to McLaughlin, who led me to Miles & Coltrane, then many others, like Wes & Joe Pass. Growing up in Chicago, I also got a chance to see guys like Buddy Guy and Otis Rush play, so there's a big blues influence there too. I also love BB, the Allman Brothers, Jimi, SRV, Carlton, Vai, Satriani, Sco...

 

I guess what I'm trying to find out in this thread is if there could be a more effective way of using the little time I have during the day. Given a one hour window, do others find it better to work on many things, say 6 things for 10 minutes each, or do you find it better to work on one thing for the entire hour, or somewhere in between?

 

Currently I have been working on a Johnny Smith chord melody transcription on this other post with the very gracious help of dturner, and that has me very focused. I guess that's what's really making me re-think my practice habits. Just wanted to get some ideas from you folks.

 

Thanks,

 

Paul

[pauldil]

Thanks, Steve. Just went to your site and loved the first three tunes!! Listening to "wonder Why" as I type this. Great stuff!!

 

Paul

[Steve LeBlanc]

Cool Paul...hope you're not listening for guitar technique...my guitar playing has made a lot of strides since I recorded that stuff. I'm really a piano player struggling to get the guitar.

[Steve LeBlanc]

Given a one hour window, do others find it better to work on many things, say 6 things for 10 minutes each, or do you find it better to work on one thing for the entire hour, or somewhere in between?

I do both...sometimes my practice hour will be spent just jamming one groove for an hour. Sometimes I'll just solo over a progression for a half hour and pick 8 bar segments to practice different scales etc. over it. I do this with drum machine sometimes or I'll pull out some Prince CDs or something fun to jam with.

 

I didn't realize you'd been playing so long, I'm trying to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time so I'm cramming a bit, you might not need to do that as much.

 

As long as you mix it up you should be able to improve. I think basic finger strengthening and conditioning is important but doing to many repetitions of scales and stuff becomes detrimental if overdone.

 

Hope my experience helps you in some way.

[Jedi]

Yeah Paul,

 

I did not know you had been playing for so long. I only have about 1/3 of your experience so it's not much I can tell you. I'd feel more comfortable with you teaching me someting new. Also, I'm not much of a jazz player, so again, I'm just about useless to you.

 

So given that, all I can say is experiment on a weekly basis and find out which practice routine or combination of practice routines are the most effective. Being very observant is probably the best way to improve. Also, I would argue for three things with 20 min. intervals, rather than 6 with 10 min. I don't think 10 minutes is enough to really get something sticking, but that is just my limited experience. So basically, that is my point. Approach your practice like Bruce Lee approached his martial art with "Jeet Kun Do." One of the main tenets of JKD is absorb what is useful and disgard what is useful. This post needs to be put under that microscope. LOL. But really, just watch your progress on a weekly basis, and if you get confused or don't know if you're going or coming-Another great quote from the great Bruce Lee

 

"Walk on, your journey will unfold."

 

I hope this helps in some small way,

 

Jedi

 

Now if you were trying to shred. Then I might be able to help.

 

Then again, Jazz guys kick ass.

[Tedster]

100 fingertip pushups.

2 hours of scales

Tie my pinky to the ceiling and an anchor to my first finger to facilitate better stretching.

Chord powerlifting

Attaching electrodes to my fingers and hooking them up to a distributor cap from a 4 cylinder engine.

 

Now that I'm warmed up, I can start practicing.

 

[pauldil]

Sylver: Having concrete goals when you sit down and practice can help you to focus your energies, and be more consistant.

Turbodog: I think if your practice is too regimented, it starts feeling like work. That's the last thing I want. You just have to find the right mixture of discipline/enjoyment.

Steve LeBlanc: As long as you mix it up you should be able to improve. I think basic finger strengthening and conditioning is important but doing to many repetitions of scales and stuff becomes detrimental if overdone.

dblackjedi: Being very observant is probably the best way to improve.

Thanks, guys. A lot of food for though here. I think I've got to do a better job of setting REALISTIC goals.

 

dblackjedi: Also, I'm not much of a jazz player, so again, I'm just about useless to you.

Jedi, I'm not really much of a jazz player either, I've just been not much of a jazz player a lot longer.

 

Tedster: 100 fingertip pushups.

Tedster, If I had 100 fingertips, I could play much faster!

 

Thanks All,

Paul