Practice Routine

How, what and when to practice.

Aditya Dutt
1st Term

Why a routine?
It is important to structure your practice time if you want to make as much progress as
possible and be efficient in the practice room. Your practice routine can be customized in
numerous ways, and much of your practice needs will depend on what your goals are, what
you’re working on at any given time and what aspect of your playing you’re trying to
improve. Your practice needs may change from month to month, and your practice needs
will most likely also change throughout your career. Regardless of how you structure your
practice routines, there are certain core topics that you want to make sure you include. Based
on a 120 minute (2 hour) practice session, what follows is a basic breakdown of topics you
could include in your daily practice routine. Note that approximate suggestions for the
amount of time spent on each subject are also included.
Getting Started

1. Warm up exercises (10-15 min/10% of the overall practice time)

2. Technique (20 min/15%)

3. Harmony/Theory/Ear training knowledge as applied to your instrument (20min/15%)

4. Music Reading (10-15 mins/10%)

5. Improvisation (15-20 min/15%)

6. Repertoire (15-20 min/15%)

7. Songwriting (15 min/ 10%)

8. HAVING FUN (10-15 min/ 10%)

Total 120 minutes/100%

1. Warming up
Warming up thoroughly before you start practicing is extremely important. This will allow your
muscles to be prepared for the challenge ahead and will, in the long run, also help you avoid injuries.
Warming up will also get you mentally focused, which will help make the upcoming practice session
as efficient as possible. A warm up routine can consist of physical exercises such as gentle muscle
stretches or simple mechanical exercises, but can also include mental tasks such as visualization of
music you are about to practice or mentally going over correct posture, fretting and picking hand
technique and so forth. There are many good books that address various warm-up routines; I suggest
doing some research and experiment with what you feel works the best for your needs. Note : you
should never attempt to practice or play anything that is at the edge of your capabilities without
warming up properly and thoroughly!
2. Technique :
What you need to focus on in regards to technique practice will to a large degree depend on what
your overall musical goals are. Keep in mind that you may need to focus on different aspect of
technique during different periods in your evolution as a player. But generally we can divide technical
studies into these areas :

1. Left/Right hand exercises intended to target and develop

• Correct technique

• Minimizing and controlling movement

• Coordination/ synchronicity (L/R)

• Speed (L/R)

• Dexterity/endurance/flexibility (L/R)

• Vibrato/Bends (L)

• Legato playing (L)

2. Improving your timekeeping/time feel

3. Ear training

4. Developing your sound/ dialing in equipment

This part of your practice routine should address all the technical components regarding any part of
your future goals. You may want to sit down with a more experienced player or a guitar teacher to
identify your weakness in your technique and to plan which exercises you should focus on. Collect
and Customize exercises to target your weak areas, and work daily WITH A METRONOME to
measure progress and to keep your practice consistent.

NOTE : when working on technique always remember to pay attention to any discomforts or pains
etc. as you want to avoid any overuse of your muscles, which can lead to tendinitis, carpel tunnel
syndrome or other syndromes due to overuse of the muscles. Relax your hands, arms and body as
much as possible when working on very demanding technical exercise, have good posture and don’t
sit for too long at a time.
3. Harmony/ Theory/ Ear Training
All guitarists, regardless of your style, need to understand and be able to apply numerous theoretical
principles to their instrument. If your preferred style involves a lot of improvisation, especially more
complex genres such as Jazz, understanding harmonic and theoretical concepts are imperative. There
are really no limits to how far you can develop your knowledge of harmony and theory, and there are
so many possible areas of focus when it comes to all subject matters related to theory. Here are some
brief suggestions:

• Scales, including diatonic scales, melodic minor, harmonic minor and their modes

• Chords, Chord voicings and inversions

• CAGED system

• Horizontal fretboard knowledge

• Understanding intervallic relationships within scales and chords

• General music theory/music philosophy/music analysis

Another point I cant stress on more is the ability to hearing everything correctly and correlating it to
your instrument. Having a good set of ears have often circumvented the lack of theoretical knowledge
in many of our guitar heroes and musicians that we look up to. Spend time honing your ears. Ear
Training and Theory always go hand in hand.

4. Music Reading
Being able to read music is one of the most important skillsets for all musicians. Solid music reading
abilities will help you gain instant access to a plethora of music otherwise off limits and good reading
skills will also allow you to perform unknown, unrehearsed music with other musicians. What you
need to focus on when practicing reading depends on where you are in your development, but it is
common for all guitarists to work on reading in all keys, in all areas of the fretboard, sight-reading,
reading charts, etc.
5. Improvisation
Coming up with music on the spot is a skill set most contemporary guitarists work on continuously
throughout their career. Improvisation is often defined as “Composing in the moment”, and
successful improvisation requires you to make decisions and evaluate your playing very quickly.
Successful improvisation also requires you to have a good grasp of stylistic signatures of the genre
you are performing in. Remember improvisation relates to both solo and rhythm playing.

Practicing improvisation is very different from just sitting down and playing random notes. The
things you want to focus on are :

1. Vocabulary : Try out new ideas and licks, and make a deliberate effort to work them into your
vocabulary.

2. Work on playing over new and different chords/ chord progressions/ tempos/ styles.

3. Work on the flow in your solos, and try to connect your ideas (often referred to as story telling)

4. Practice pacing a solo.

5. Work on the different elements of in a solo :

A. Dynamics

B. Range

C. Densities

D. Expression

E. Speeds

6. Improvise rhythm parts.

Improvisation is probably abstract subject area to work on in the field of music, as you are creating
music that has never been heard before, while working mainly within the framework of your current
understanding of music, your musical references, and your own personal musical vocabulary. There
is some literature available regarding improvisation and the process related to “composing music in-
the-now”, but not nearly as much material available as you would find on purely technical subject
matters.

6. Repertoire
Regardless of style, you will always need to have repertoire rehearsed and readily available, especially
if you are playing in bands/ensembles, doing live concerts, etc. In the end, everything you do as a
musician is geared towards performance of music in one way or the other, and building and learning
new repertoire is a career long endeavor.

7. Songwriting
Composing your own material is maybe the ultimate way of expressing yourself as an artist and
creating your own universe of music. It is strongly recommended for all musicians to create their own
music. When you compose, you have a chance to combine all the skill-sets you have mastered as a
musician, and maybe even offer the world something new which has never been heard before!

8. Having Fun
Most guitarists start playing because of a genuine desire to create music on the instrument. While
focused practice and goal oriented work certainly is necessary to become the guitarist you want to
become, always remember to set aside some time every day just to have fun with the instrument and
keep that original, innocent musical spark alive.
Setting Goals
Goal setting is used by achievers in all fields, and is very important because it gives you long
term vision and short term motivation. Goals will help you focus on where you’re heading,
what you need to learn and work on, and will help you organize your time and efforts so you
can become the guitarist you want to be. Clearly defined goals will also enable you to
measure progress and will help you stay on track.

There are two types of goals : long term and short term. Long term goals will lead you
towards ultimately becoming the musician you envision and where you ultimately want to be
in your life. These are the big dreams. Short term goals help you through your day-to-day
business and will boost your energy and confidence as the progress is easier to notice and
measure. There are a lot of resources available that will help you define and set your goals.
Go back to the beginning of this pdf, and write out a list of goals for what kind of guitarist
and musician you want to become, and then customize a practice routine that will help you
reach your goals.
General:

To avoid stagnation, you should vary your practice routine regularly. You can do this by changing
focus in every category within your practice routine, or even having several completely different
practice routines you utilize. For example :

1. 30 minute general practice routine (based on everything covered in this pdf)

2. five-hour general practice routine (based on the areas covered in this pdf)

3. “improve your technique” routine

4. “Improve your reading” routine

5. “improve your improvisational skills” routine

Setting up specific limitations for every area of focus can also help keeping you on track with your
goals. For this, a timing device that allows you to clock yourself will be helpful. Keeping a detailed log
book of your daily activities will help you keep track of what you have worked on, and will also help
you et new goals and allow you to better evaluate your progress.

Also keep in mind your practice routine will be subject to change as you acquire more knowledge,
become mature and develop stronger skills as a player. Also be aware that a practice routine is not
written in stone and if you don’t get through everything everyday, its ok. You may even have a period
where you don’t feel like following a specific practice routine and thats fine as well. Ultimately with
much handwork, you may reach a level of proficiency that can allow you to live life as a professional
musician. This maybe a point in your career where time may not permit you to always follow a strict
practice routine, and most of all your musical energy may be spent solely on writing new songs for
your band, rehearsing, recording etc. If you have established solid practice routines prior to arriving
at this stage in your life, you should be able to continue to grow and develop, as you will know exactly
what you need to practice, regardless of any time constraints. This knowledge is essentially the key to
lifelong prosperity as a musician.