How would you structure a 2 and a 1/2 hour practice session?

[sidk47]

What do you do to practice guitar for 2 and a 1/2 hours?

What would you work on for that time?

Do you do solfege, improvisation, ear training, learning songs or solos?

In what proportion?

Do you use any time management techniques like the Pomodoro technique?

Please share your insights with me so that I too can improve my practice sessions.

Thanks.

 

[Machew]

1. Warmup 15 min
2. Scales 15 min
3. Chords 15-30 min
4. Song 1 - House of the rising sun - 30 min
5. Song 2 - Walk this Way - 30 min
6. Song 3 - Could you be love - 15 min
7. Improvisation

This would be my current routine.

 

[JonR]

What do you do to practice guitar for 2 and a 1/2 hours?

What would you work on for that time?

Do you do solfege, improvisation, ear training, learning songs or solos?

In what proportion?

Do you use any time management techniques like the Pomodoro technique?

Please share your insights with me so that I too can improve my practice sessions.

Thanks.

Personally, it would be 100% learning songs. But that's me. I like to enjoy myself when I practice, and even though I know I'd benefit from things like solfege or working with a metronome, I don't have the inclination.

I also hate the whole idea of organising a practice session in any way. I play what I want, for as long as I want. Then I stop. That might be after 10 minutes, it might be after 2 hours. (Actually these days a solid 2 hour session would be unusually long. I did spend around 5-6 hours yesterday (I didn't count) transcribing - and learning to play - a piece of music, but that's unusual.)

 

[jogogonne]

I agree that not knowing your goals and level, and tastes, that it's difficult to give a recommendation, but I can tell you how I spent yesterday, just for kicks, which was more like 5 hours.

2 hour - Spent about 2 hours working through a Bb blues etude for my teacher w metronome, adding little improvs here and there
1 hour - b/c of the thread on TGP, spent an hour looking at Eruption tutorials and trying to have at it. Got frustrated with it and gave up
1 hour - spent an hour playing piano, rare these days
1 hour - on a whim, spent an hour trying to transcribe the demo song that came on piano .. and wishing I played more piano, lol

 

[sidk47]

Hard to say not knowing your level, style, and goals. Impossible even.

Level: Intermediate to advanced
Style: Mainly blues
Goal: To become like Clapton or Hendrix.

 

[JonR]

Level: Intermediate to advanced
Style: Mainly blues
Goal: To become like Clapton or Hendrix.

Cool. I suggest doing what they did. I.e., copying people like this:

Get those down - I mean really down - and you won't have much - if anything - left to learn.

 

[sidk47]

Cool. I suggest doing what they did. I.e., copying people like this:

Get those down - I mean really down - and you won't have much - if anything - left to learn.

Hang on, where are the tabs?
I can't play music without tabs.

 

[donnievaz]

1 hour - b/c of the thread on TGP, spent an hour looking at Eruption tutorials and trying to have at it. Got frustrated with it and gave up

I'd bet there's a whole lot of this going on. I should try it but I know I'm not fast enough for the non-tapped sections. I've been learning the Hotel California solo for the last 4 days here and there. Much more within my speed limit.

 

[stevel]

Level: Intermediate to advanced
Style: Mainly blues
Goal: To become like Clapton or Hendrix.

Well, what do you think THEY did in their practice sessions?

I very seriously doubt they did anything more than learn songs as best they could. Tons of them. Then took what they could from them and did those things on their own songs.

That's how it works.

 

[veinbuster]

I would never plan a practice session that long. On a day I spend that much time practicing, it would be broken up into 3 chunks.

30-45 minutes classical: a short warm up, then working on pieces that suit my style. Carulli and Paganini are favourites. Bach duets on one guitar is something I’ve been trying to get together.

30-45 minutes steel string acoustic: some days I’ll work on technique, alternating between chord voicing and lead. Other days I’ll play songs. I pick songs I like, regardless of whether or not guitar plays a role in the original.

30-60 minutes electric: much like what I described for acoustic, but different songs. My electric vocabulary is a bit wider.

Order may vary, but I usually go classical in the morning.

 

[Bluesful]

People structure practice time?

 

[mrmatt1972]

1/2 hour drinking and socializing
1/2 hour blues jams and warm up, try out each other's guitars
1/2 hour more drinking and socializing, maybe show a new tune to the guys
45 minutes run through a set
15 min loud useless jamming

 

[Matt-o-caster]

My practice routine is usually between 2 and 2.5 hours, and goes something like this (when I don't get too stoned and meander off on a tangent for an hour...lol):

- Warm-up: 30 min (both left- and right-hand warm-up exercises)
- Scales and picking exercises: 30 min
- Vibrato exercise: 30 min (one of my goals for the past few years has been to get as close as possible to mastering my vibrato technique)
- Theory based exercises (currently working through the Fretboard Fluency book by Joseph Alexander): 30 min
- Jamming/improve: 30 min
- Cool-down: 15 min

 

[Rabbitears]

I am an advanced beginner and this is how I would currently use the time

30 mins warm up, arpeggios, and scales
30 / 60 lesson materials from my artist works course (guthrie trapp)
30 mins finger style songs
30 improvising / messing with effects pedals

 

[GovernorSilver]

Currently working on fingerstyle arrangements of Autumn in New York and Georgia on my Mind.
Simple guitar arrangement of a euphonium melody
Simple guitar arrangement of a trumpet melody

 

[Jon]

Level: Intermediate to advanced
Style: Mainly blues
Goal: To become like Clapton or Hendrix.

I would spend all your practice time learning Clapton and Hendrix songs and solos by ear, recording as you go.

 

[Doomrider78]

Warm up for 10 minutes and then pick 2 albums you like and play along, working out stuff as you go. Don't just mimic the playing, understand what is going on (chords/keys etc).

If you come across something you can't play, spend a bit of time working on that technique.

 

[davess23]

Hang on, where are the tabs?
I can't play music without tabs.

Was this sarcastic? I suspect so, but sometimes it's hard to tell in print.

If so, ignore what I'm going to say, which is: If you're an intermediate to advanced player, you have the skills to transcribe without relying on the tabs. I read music (slowly, but I can read) and I use tabs, but at some point I discovered that it can be great musical training to just put the recording on and try to figure out how to play what you're hearing. Especially when you have video so you can get an idea of what the player's hands are doing, transcribing on your own can be at least as effective as using tab.

 

[The bear]

People structure practice time?

Yes. I have done it, but I can usually keep a schedule like that for 7-10 days before I free things up.

 

[The bear]

1. 30 minutes slow scales with metronome
2. 30 minutes sight reading(classical, omnibooks, etudes, tunes)
3. 30 minutes technique(scales, arpeggios, violin studies)
4. 30 minutes study of new material(standards original material, transcription)
5. 30 minutes improv over old and new material(with metronome, drum genius app, backing tracks).