Structured Practice

Practice Plans

One of the most important key factors of being a competent musician on any instrument including the guitar has to be practising. Over the years of teaching I have found the one weak area in a students progression on the guitar is a structured and regular practicing routine.

Some of the most common complaints I get are:

"I spent 2 hours last night practicing one lick and I still can't get it"
"I'm playing the right notes but why do I not sound the same as the song I'm learning"
"I just don't have enough time to practice every day"
"I just don't know why I'm practising this - how does it help my playing?"
"I lack motivation to practise - HELP!"

If these are some of the questions you ask yourself then you will find my own personal solutions that have been tried and test and work to suit you. When devising a practice schedule it's important to focus on the key point you need to cover which are:-

Time

How much time can you put into practising? I recommend a minimum of 30 minutes per day to really see some improvement. Any less than that, you should just concentrate on technical exercises to keep you technique in trim.
Try not to exaggerate how much time you have and give a realistic amount of time you have available per day or per week.

Mental awareness

Ok so you've practiced for 3 hours from 10 pm to 1 am in the morning and you're still struggling!
The most important part of practising is to learn or improve on something so find what part of the day you find you're the most relaxed and focused: this will improve your progression 200%.

Physical Training

Practising the guitar isn't just about playing songs. The physical side of things often gets overlooked so think of your hands like an athlete thinks of his fitness.
By using exercises to build up strength and stamina you will be training your muscle memory so every time you learn a new song or lick the technique will be implemented naturally.
Improving the strength of your hand isn't very musical and can be a bit repetitive but will prime your technique so you'll progress faster with every new song or lick learnt.

Goals

"What am I practising for?" is always a big question you have to ask yourself: be able to identify a realistic goal is essential when practising.
A common mistake is to aim too high in a short space of time so remember little by little will get your there sooner.
So set yourself a goal and a realistic time period to achieve it.

Structure

It's important to have a structure to your practice sessions to make any progress on the guitar. You may have found yourself sitting down for an hour noodling and find you're progressing, but with a little structure you'll be able to progress 200% more than before.
This is where my practice plans come into their own: use them to keep to a strict routine.

Sample from The Guitar Mule