What do you think of my practice routine?

[Boytbpc]

Hello all, first, I've been haunting the Playing and Technique forum for only a couple of weeks, but everybody here has been extremely helpful and have provided me witha ton of info, so I would like to say thanks.

Here is my the backstory: I'm tired of being an OK player and want to step up my game. Recently finished masters degree, so using my newly acquired free time to focus on the my playing. Using the info I have gleened from the couple of threads I have started and participated in here, I have put together a practice routine. If you could review it and add your insight, I would be even more appreciative.

I plan to continue this routine until the completion of the Guitar Fretboard Workbook. At that time I will assess my playing and construct a new routine.

Guitar Practice Routine
· Natural Note Focus (Guitar Fretboard Workbook, p. 19)
o 1 natural note per week
o Diagram note location daily using all 5 shapes
o Play note and say note and location, i.e. A, 4th string, 7th fret.
o 5 minutes per day
· Note Identification (Guitar Fretboard Workbook, p. 19)
o Play known licks or random notes
o Name note and location, i.e. “I’m playing A, 4th string, 7th fret.
o 5 minutes per day
· Scales
o Using same note for Natural Note Focus, play scales for all note location
o Major
o Minor
o Major Pentatonic
o Add scales as you learn them.
o 5 minutes per day
· Guitar Fretboard Workbook
o 1 chapter per day
o Add exercises to routine as they are taught.
o As long as needed to complete
· Practice difficult chords
o Pick 2 chords, 1 of which I’m having trouble with.
o Set metronome to speed where changes can be done 100% accurately.
§ Only increase tempo to what you can do, not what you want to do.
o Practice changing between two chords
o Identify pivot fingers
o 5 minutes per day
· Key Practice
o 1 key per week
o Start with C, progress through the circle of 5ths
o Practice every chord change within key, i.e. C > Dm, C > Em, …, Dm > Em, Dm >F
o Use a metronome
§ Set tempo to what you can do 100% accurately, no flubs no flams
§ Track tempo, increase as needed
o 5 minutes per day
· Song Time
o Learn a new song every week
o 10 minutes per day.

[mike walker]

I'm not sure you'll be able to adhere to these timings.

Stay very focussed.

[Boytbpc]

I'm not sure you'll be able to adhere to these timings.

Stay very focussed.

As in how many minutes per day? I've been refining this for the past 10 days, and so far this is what I've come up with. I've kept to the timings using my trusty online stopwatch. :)

[FatJeff]

Looks like you have a plan. May I suggest that rather than starting your key studies in the key of C, start in either F# or Db. Tackle the "hard" keys first, and after fighting through those, the other ones will be a lot easier and you won't get discouraged.

What are your goals, by the way? One thing you might want to consider is that a plan may not work in the long run unless you have clearly identified goals/criteria for success. Are you aware of "SMART"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

Also, it is not clear to me from your list what your overall time for practice in. It looks like it might be in the neighborhood of 45 min / day.

Finally, tell me a little more about how you learn songs in this routine. I'm curious what your methodology is.

[fr8_trane]

I would put WAY more emphasis on learning songs and transcribing solos. That will put the focus squarely on MUSIC instead of dry exercises and in the long run will have a better chance of keeping you motivated.

Here's an Idea:

You take a song and you start by learning the melody. You learn how to play it all over the neck in multiple octaves. You sing along with the melody, you name the notes as you play them. Try Playing the melody in octaves and diatonic thirds and 6ths. Always have a metronome going the whole time.

This is developing you ear and your fretboard awareness all while learning a musical melody.

Now focus on the chord changes. Again lean how to play them all over the neck using different voicings.

If there is a solo, transcribe it or if you can't read/write music just learn it note for note. Ask yourself what scales are involved? Are there any other scales that might apply? Check out alternate versions if there are any to see how others have approached the same chord progression.

After you do this for a dozen songs you now have a repertoire. What do you have after practicing the melodic minor scale up and down the neck for a month?

[guitarz1972]

I would put WAY more emphasis on learning songs and transcribing solos. That will put the focus squarely on MUSIC instead of dry exercises and in the long run will have a better chance of keeping you motivated.



+1. Take it from a guy who's practiced pretty much per the OP's regimen for several years now, and as a result can play three-note-per-string scales at 120bpm in 1/16th notes...but knows like four songs. lol

[Baminated]

Nice schedule, however, you're leaving out rhythm/groove/timing/time theory work

There's basically four primary colors (concepts) in practicing music, with everything else being a subset.

THE FOUR T'S

In order of importance
(1)Tone (not from a gear perspective). getting a good tone with , including but certainly not limited to, your pick attack and fretting finger placement , etc . . etc . . . etc . . . is the first thing which draws people to want to listen to a musician further.

(2)Timing - If the timing is off, then the "tones" won't make much musical sense, or sound "jilted"

(3)Technique - . People can get away with sounding amazing with great tone & timing, with less than optimal technique, so technique is one of the last things to consider, yet NOT TO BE IGNORED either. People need to be able execute their music in a better way via technique

(4) Theory - The very last consideration

[Boytbpc]

I was going to do a long multi-quote, but it was ungainly, so I'll try this.

My goals in this practice were:
- Improve my chording: fast changes, clean, no wrong notes or buzzing.
- Learn all the major scales
- Gain a mastery on the fretboard: able to quickly identify notes and patterns.
- work on my timing by using a metronome for all practice activities.

Things I need:
- A method to learn new songs: suggestions?
- I don't have the skill yet to listen and transcribe a song

I really appreciate all of you input. I ran through the entire practice tonight and am making some changes. First and foremost, not going to do a chapter of GFW a day, going to slow it down to one chapter a week so that I get full absorption of the material.

[guitarjazz]

Practice playing with others. Get experience. Learn to read music. Learn styles. Keep a music diary.

[fretbuzzed]

Shed tunes and Train your ears. These two thing are really important. If you go to play with other musicians they wont care about anything else. In the end when you're on a gig and players start reharming tunes or playing things you don't really know, being able to hear where they are going and jump on quickly is the key. There are a ton of incredible musicians who use scales , chords and arpeggios within the context of "PLAYING" that don't know what they are using in the moment but can play musical and amazing things because all they've ever learned is music.
An exercise is great to get you over a hump in a piece of music you're struggling with but building a huge repertoire of exercises for the sake of technique will leave you sounding like guitar center on a saturday..

If i were you I would focus on ;
tunes you like ( learn the melody,bassline,chord changes and sing the song)
tunes that have a unique sound too you
( figuring out why they're different and developing your ear to recognize the sounds instantly)
tunes thats seem to have technical sounds that you want to develop( cool licks and tricks)
And Ear Training (recognizing the changes of a song on the radio without your instrument) ie: is the song I IV V or I vi ii V etc...
recognizing tunes becomes pretty quickly after awhile Start by humming the roots DO RE ME style and digesting the movement between Chord and how they sound compared to the I chord.

This probably sounds boring but it will put you on the fast track to playing music much quicker and more fully developed the the linear strategy of exercises...

[fretbuzzed]

[QUOTE

Things I need:
- A method to learn new songs: suggestions?
- I don't have the skill yet to listen and transcribe a song

Then this is where you should start. Hum the melody and figure out the notes on you guitar. Then hum the root of the chord and find it. Then try out different chords around that note. Is it MAJOR? MINOR? 7TH? or something more? Soon you will start to instantly recognize certain "colors" and ACTIVELY pursue the things that trick you until you understand how the sound tricked you.

Good Luck!

[guitarjazz]

The method to learn a new song that most of us garage band veterans used was this: you hear a song you really love, so much that you played it over and over till you started to pick up pieces of it because you wanted to play it with your buddies.
Later when the time came to learn other people's song we were more skilled at picking out the song . Btw transcribing means writing it down. We didn't learn to do that till years later but we did 'learn by ear'.

[Jday413]

For transcribing or learning by ear, i use a program called Audacity. It is a free download and available for mac and pc.

There is a very short learning curve to the program though, but once you figure out what you're doing, you can loop sections, slow them down, change the key and all that. It's wonderful. And free.

[Rockledge]

It seems as if you have a rather demanding regimen already in place. If you just finished for a masters degree chances are term papers have left you with the discipline, I have no doubt you will adhere to your schedule.
If there is anything I would add, I think you should take one day a week and completely deviate from your normal schedule and reserve that one day for just playing, playing what you feel without adhering to any specific styles, rules, or regimen.
Learning all the rules and the stock moves and all the head work and finger gymnastics is great, but you cannot forsake the feel, and you get the feel when you abandon all else and just cut loose and play.
Not only that, it is when you aimlessly and mindlessly cut loose and play that you discover ways to implement the stuff you are achieving in a practical way.

[TheCount0212]

Cudos for being organized, and no offense, but frankly the plan is kinda silly.. it's like "OCD meets ADHD"...there's no way you're going to adhere to that schedule w/o having one eye constantly on the clock.:messedup
If you're going to practice for, say, an hour, it's better to focus on two things for 30 mins ea. rather than 12 things for five minutes each. Deep focus and repetition are always more conducive to learning.
Spread things out over seven days: Mon. I'll do x and y... Tues will be a and b.. etc...

[Boytbpc]

Cudos for being organized, and no offense, but frankly the plan is kinda silly.. it's like "OCD meets ADHD"...there's no way you're going to adhere to that schedule w/o having one eye constantly on the clock.:messedup
If you're going to practice for, say, an hour, it's better to focus on two things for 30 mins ea. rather than 12 things for five minutes each. Deep focus and repetition are always more conducive to learning.
Spread things out over seven days: Mon. I'll do x and y... Tues will be a and b.. etc...

No offense taken, I've become OCD about organization and planning in the past two years, doing my masters degree, working full-time, and got married. If I was super-organized, something would have slipped through the cracks. Also, I kind of feel that not being directed in my guitar playing has gotten me here, and i am not happy with where I am, so I should probably do something about that.

Everything in the routine until "Practice Difficult Chords" is taken straight out of the Guitar Fretboard Workbook. Doing them for 5 minutes per day is pretty easy to do, I use either my egg-timer or an online stopwatch and play until it dings. :)

I do like everything up to and including "Play Difficult Chords" so far. That last one has really helped.

Everything after "Play difficult chords", I'm undecided on. I just go in an Amazon order that contains a couple of different method and song books. I'm going to go through them and see what I can put together. I'll probably take your advice and make the second half of my routine dedicated to one thing per day: playing/learning songs on Monday, Harmonized Scales on Tuesday, etc. rinse and repeat.

[Jon]

Things I need:
- A method to learn new songs: suggestions?
- I don't have the skill yet to listen and transcribe a song

+1 on the other guys who've said that this is the most important thing - all the other stuff is a way of polishing/enhancing/understanding the music, but you have to learn the music first - this should absolutely be the core of what you are practicing every day.

If you did nothing else, learning stuff by ear every day will by far reap the most rewards - some of the best musicians in the world did nothing but this.

[Michael_V]

I spent too many years practing the way the OP is proposing, and it left me feeling informed but unmusical. Rather than repeating my mistake, make sure everything you do is in some way musical. Please don't spend your time just playing scales and naming notes. It won't lead you inexorably toward music. Trust me. You have to intentionally make music with them. Always. Don't just blindly play patterns but intentionally start and end on the root, or the third, or root to octave up fifth. Whatever. As long as it is intentional and musical. Use embellishments. Pay attention to your hands, the vibrato on your ending notes, your phrasing. Bend up and down to notes. Make music.

[guitarjazz]

+1 on the other guys who've said that this is the most important thing - all the other stuff is a way of polishing/enhancing/understanding the music, but you have to learn the music first - this should absolutely be the core of what you are practicing every day.

If you did nothing else, learning stuff by ear every day will by far reap the most rewards - some of the best musicians in the world did nothing but this.

The most important thing is to play with others. Without this the woodshed is pointless.

[Jon]

The most important thing is to play with others. Without this the woodshed is pointless.

IMO you have to have some form of vocabulary in order to do that - if you have technique and theoretical knowledge but no musical ideas, vocabulary or something to say through your music, playing with others will not automatically bring development - I feel that your musical identity is forged in the time you spend listening to other musicians and copying the things they do that spark your interest. Playing live with other musicians is definitely important, but you have to be able to play music (to some extent) in order to do it.

For me. you can develop technique and understand theory but these are just tools - actually having music inside you that you can call upon is like growing planet from seeds - you have to plant and nurture them to allow them to develop, and I think this comes from that direct relationship between hearing something and trying to play it on your instrument.

[guitarjazz]

IMO you have to have some form of vocabulary in order to do that - if you have technique and theoretical knowledge but no musical ideas, vocabulary or something to say through your music, playing with others will not automatically bring development - I feel that your musical identity is forged in the time you spend listening to other musicians and copying the things they do that spark your interest. Playing live with other musicians is definitely important, but you have to be able to play music (to some extent) in order to do it.

For me. you can develop technique and understand theory but these are just tools - actually having music inside you that you can call upon is like growing planet from seeds - you have to plant and nurture them to allow them to develop, and I think this comes from that direct relationship between hearing something and trying to play it on your instrument.
As a long-time gigger and woodsheder I appreciate your points. It's a bit of a chicken/egg thing isn't it? I think a long practice list like that is like reading the dictionary and expecting to know how to converse.

[Rockledge]

No offense taken, I've become OCD about organization and planning in the past two years, doing my masters degree, working full-time, and got married. If I was super-organized, something would have slipped through the cracks. Also, I kind of feel that not being directed in my guitar playing has gotten me here, and i am not happy with where I am, so I should probably do something about that.

Everything in the routine until "Practice Difficult Chords" is taken straight out of the Guitar Fretboard Workbook. Doing them for 5 minutes per day is pretty easy to do, I use either my egg-timer or an online stopwatch and play until it dings. :)

I do like everything up to and including "Play Difficult Chords" so far. That last one has really helped.

Everything after "Play difficult chords", I'm undecided on. I just go in an Amazon order that contains a couple of different method and song books. I'm going to go through them and see what I can put together. I'll probably take your advice and make the second half of my routine dedicated to one thing per day: playing/learning songs on Monday, Harmonized Scales on Tuesday, etc. rinse and repeat.

I think you are taking the right approach. There is nothing wrong with adhering to a specific regimen with goals. The only thing is, with music, if that is all you stick to then in the end you sound like a musician who has learned to paint by numbers.
But you are doing it the right way, particularly if that approach got you a masters degree. You have already proved to yourself that your method works.
I did the same thing with drums, after being a casual drummer for years I decided late last year to set myself up on a daily practice and learning regimen, and I was amazed at how much faster I accomplished my goals than I expected.

[mike walker]

As in how many minutes per day? I've been refining this for the past 10 days, and so far this is what I've come up with. I've kept to the timings using my trusty online stopwatch. :)

I see, that's cool then.:)

One important thing is getting a sound. Piano players refine their touch over years to get a sound out of the instrument.
Balance is important. IOW, making sure the top/bottom of the chord, isn't needlessly popping out.
This kind of thing takes quite a while to yield results and the 5 mins on this and that thing, would make it difficult to master.

Just a thought. Keep up the good work, fella!!!

Mike