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Creating A Practice Routine

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19 views

Creating A Practice Routine

Uploaded by

chimera.dragona
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Creating A Practice Routine

I used to advocate the practice approach of; Split your practice session into chunks. Work on
5 or six things in a session, and time each section so you’re giving equal time to each thing
you’re working on.

This approach can definitely work for a lot of people, and I have used this approach MANY
times; written out a practice routine, set a timer on my phone, and worked on individual
things, whether that’s technique, learning new chord shapes, finding intervals etc.

However, when I look back on my time spent playing the guitar, I realise that when I’ve truly
improved certain elements of my playing, my practice routine normally looks like this: Sit
down and spend three days working on something. Record it, analyse it, adjust it, record it
again, analyse it etc.

So how would I NOW recommend to set up a practice routine? Well it would be somewhere
in the middle (or at least this is what I’d do myself).

I’d say – pick a technique, subject, area of music or guitar playing and focus 80% of your
time on truly learning it, and embedding it. Then use the last 20% of your time to re-go over
things you’ve recently learned or want to remember, because as soon as you stop doing
something altogether, the skill slowly diminishes. This is why, once a week I’ll play all my
chords, some songs that I need to remember, intervals and scales, go through a few tunes in
the Real Book even if I’m working on something specific. This is to make sure I keep my hand
in on the things I’ve previously learned. So with that in mind, here’s how you could create a
practice routine. Let’s say you’re learning modes and you’re only playing Monday to Friday…

Monday – Dorian mode. Learn it in all positions. Play to backing tracks. Start with the first
note on your first finger, then middle finger, then ring finger, and finally little finger. Record
yourself playing over backing tracks – where was it fluid and where were you getting stuck?
Focus on the sticking points.

Tuesday – How was Dorian? If Dorian is still rusty, don’t move off it. In fact, play Dorian
every day until you’re happy with it.

Wednesday – Dorian

Thursday – You’re happy with Dorian now. So move onto Phrygian mode. Learn it in all
positions. Play to backing tracks. Start with the first note on your first finger, then middle
finger, then ring finger, and finally little finger. Record yourself playing over backing tracks –
where was it fluid and where were you getting stuck? Focus on the sticking points.

Friday – Dorian, Phrygian, and anything else you want to work on. Go through all of your
pentatonic shapes. Chords, songs, etc.

Or, it could look like this if this type of practice works for you:
Monday – 3 hours to practice. 30 minutes on Dorian, 30 minutes on Phrygian, 30 minutes on
Lydian, 30 minutes on Mixolydian, 30 minutes on Aeolian, 30 minutes on Locrian,

Tuesday – 3 hours to practice. 30 minutes on Dorian, 30 minutes on Phrygian, 30 minutes on


Lydian, 30 minutes on Mixolydian, 30 minutes on Aeolian, 30 minutes on Locrian,

Wednesday – 3 hours to practice. 30 minutes on Dorian, 30 minutes on Phrygian, 30


minutes on Lydian, 30 minutes on Mixolydian, 30 minutes on Aeolian, 30 minutes on
Locrian,

Thursday – 3 hours to practice. 30 minutes on Dorian, 30 minutes on Phrygian, 30 minutes


on Lydian, 30 minutes on Mixolydian, 30 minutes on Aeolian, 30 minutes on Locrian,

Friday – 3 hours to practice. 10 minutes on Dorian, 10 minutes on Phrygian, 10 minutes on


Lydian, 10 minutes on Mixolydian, 10 minutes on Aeolian, 10 minutes on Locrian. An hour
playing through some songs. An hour playing pentatonics over backing tracks.

However you decide to do it, here are a few principles I’d stick to:

• Don’t just sit and widdle. This wastes time and you’re not learning or improving
• Focus – concentrate on what you’re doing at all times
• Feedback – record yourself and listen back. Focus on what you’re hearing. Is it on the
beat? Is it accurate. Are there notes you can hear that shouldn’t be there and should
be muted?
• Focus on playing cleanly. You can start slow, play cleanly and speed it up, or do what
Shawn Lane did – start fast, then clean it up. Either way, nobody wants to hear
sloppy playing
• Be patient. I saw a great quote the other day; Nature does not hurry, but everything
is accomplished”
• Use what you’ve learned. Play to backing tracks, incorporate it into your jam sessions
or rehearsals

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