Guitar Practice Tips

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When you first start playing the guitar you do it for your ego. But as you get more into it you discover that the world of a musician is kinda wider than just satisfying your personal dreams, no matter how noble they may be. You may start out wanting to play like Jimmy Page but you find that there are other guitar sounds that have their own merits. There’s a lotta territory between Duane Eddy and Julian Bream. So you become aquainted with the spectre of versatility, hovering over you like a kindly uncle with wings as you carry out your grand plan. Sooner or later you’ll be thinking you SHOULD maybe learn to read music or perhaps you could find time to discover what finger-picking’s all about.

Here’s an essay on guitar practice schedules which favors writing things down and organising your time, and all that kinda stuff. But the author, Craig Basset, introduces the interesting idea that if you explore certain areas, you are automatically going to develop several guitar skills at the same time. I tend to think if you go into areas you’re interested in, you’ll get the strengths you need. See what ya think.

Guitar Players…Get a Balanced Guitar Practice Diet
By Craig Bassett

Do you have a wide variety of things that you practice. Or do you like to binge? (You know…the type of player who practices sweep picking for a kazillion hours a day but only know three chords)!

Having a balanced practice routine is essential if you want to become a versatile guitarist. If you just practice one or two things, sure you’ll get great at those things…but you’ll be weak in other key areas.

In this lesson you’ll learn how to create a practice routine that is well-balanced and will help you work towards your ultimate vision of how you would like to play.

I generally categorise what I practice into one of seven areas:

Technique.
Repertoire (Covers).
Composition.
Improvisation.
Ear Training.
Theory.
Music Reading.

Everything that you practice will fit into one or more of the above areas. For example, if you are learning a very challenging cover tune by transcribing it off the CD you are essentially working on your technique, repertoire and ear training at the same time. If you also write down the song in standard notation, you will also be developing your music reading skills.

Now…do you have to practice things in all seven areas? I believe that you don’t have to if your vision doesn’t require it. For example, if someone wants to become an awesome classical guitarist and has no desire to improvise, then I believe that they don’t need to practice things relating to improvisation. We all have limited time available for practice, so it’s a waste of time working on things that don’t specifically help you reach your goals.

Let’s go through a few exercises…

Exercise One:

Think about the vision that you have for your playing for a few minutes.How would you like to play in ten years time. Make it exact!

Once you’ve done that, brainstorm as many things that you need to practice in order to play like your vision. What specific things do you need to learn, develop and practice? Write them down now.

Exercise Two:

Next to each of the things written down for Exercise One, write down a category next to it. For example, if you wrote “I need to be able to play faster” then write technique next to it. If you feel that something you wrote belongs to more than one category, then write down all the categories it could belong to.

Exercise Three:

Look at your answers for the previous two exercises. Once you’ve done that prioritise the categories shown below. For example, if you feel that technique is the most important thing you need to work on to reach your vision then put a 1 next to it.

Practice Area Priority Level (1-7)
[Note: 1 is the highest priority].

Technique
Repertoire (covers)
Composition
Improvisation
Ear Training
Theory
Music Reading

Now here’s the important point. You should spend the most time practising your number one priority. I know it’s pretty obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t do this! I know a few guitar players who would like to be able to play incredibly fast, yet they don’t do a lot of technical practice. Talk about setting yourself up to fail!

Exercise Four:

Decide how much time every day you will spend on each category. Write it down below.

Practice Area Time Invested Daily

Technique
Repertoire (covers)
Composition
Improvisation
Ear Training
Theory
Music Reading

All done? Great!

So what’s the next step?

The next step is to decide on a specific activity for each practice area.Make sure to write them down.

Here are a couple of examples of what someone might put down…

Technique: I will invest 10 minutes a day on alternate picking exercise one. I will start with the metronome at 80 beats per minute (bpm) and increase it by 4 bpm daily (as long as I can play it perfectly).

Ear Training: I will invest 10 minutes daily a day on A minor pentatonic ear training exercise one.

Got the idea? You would have one specific activity for every practice area. If you have a lot of time to practice you could set more than one activity per practice area.

Give this method a try. I’ll think you’ll be more than happy with the results!

Craig Bassett (The Guitar Solutions Expert) is a professional guitarist, guitar tutor and author who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. To get a free high-quality lesson e-mailed to you once a month, please go to:

http://www.pentatonic-guitar-lessons.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Bassett

Guitar Practice Schedules – Start your guitar practice on the basis that you do about one hour a day. But you really must start by asking yourself about the depth of your commitment to guitar playing. If you decide on three hours a day, then other stuff in your life shouldn’t interfere with that. If you find that you’ve been a bit over ambitious in your estimation of how much time you have available, then make a new plan. Don’t just let your guitar playing sink through a half-hearted effort at the beginning

This is a good place to mention listening to the great guitar players that you enjoy, reading magazines and books, exploring Guitar Video Sites all help to keep your interest alive and your backside on the practice stool.

One thing about practice is a lot of people think it’s boring. If it’s boring you’re not doing it right. There’s going to be things you naturally gravitate to that you tend to practice a little too much. And there’ll be stuff you have to drag yourself to. All of this makes things interesting. The work of keeping a balance between what you want to do and what you need to do keeps your practice alive.

Make sure your guitar is in tune.

Don’t stress about playing using a metronome to begin with. Get the music flowing comfortably before using a metronome on a SLOW speed.

Learn new material in small chunks. If you try to take in too much you’ll find you won’t be able to play well in front of people plus you’ll develop all kinds of grunts and grimaces which are never pretty to watch.