# Need Advice on my Practice Time Use



## squishall (Jul 23, 2020)

Hello.

I am getting heavy into chord strumming and scale picking. How should I practice:

1. each hour session do half scales and half chord strumming
2. do scales one day then chords the next and so on
3. practice all week on scales and the following week on chords

Thanks for your time.


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

squishall said:


> Hello.
> 
> I am getting heavy into chord strumming and scale picking. How should I practice:
> 
> ...


Learn some songs. Play to backing tracks or play along with songs you like. Keep practicing chords and scales but they are not an end in themselves. They are tools to help you play songs.


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## Jim9guitars (Feb 15, 2016)

Kerry Brown said:


> Learn some songs. Play to backing tracks or play along with songs you like. Keep practicing chords and scales but they are not an end in themselves. They are tools to help you play songs.


This. And if you can leave a guitar on a stand or in a corner where it's easy to pick up and run through a few things for a few minutes or so here and there throughout the day. This was more effective for me than missing a day or two and then trying to cram a one or two hour session in.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Kerry gives good advice. Learn some songs. Particularly songs that use the chords and scales that you are currently working on. With respect to alternating between chords and scales, I would not recommend option three. A week off between practicing something will probably impede your progress.


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

Well, I now warm up and stretch practicing (slowly but speeding up) some scales with emphasis on the posture of my hands and fingers as well as the pressure I put on the strings. I would do it for a few minutes depending on how I am clumsy or fluent.

Then I open a songbook and play some songs from fifteen minutes to an hour or so. I will,pay attention to my fretting hand particularly when I meet some unusual chord fingerings.

I always have two guitars on stand (Godin 5th Avenue ans La Patrie Collection) so that I can grab a nylon or a folk to instantly work on some scale or postion should I get by my music room for only a few minutes.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

what do you want to get really good at?
i've played for many years and have never practiced only scales for an hour at a time 
but i'm also not famous
if you want to get shredder fast there may be a place for that sort of intensity
chord strumming to real music is good since it develops your sense of rhythm and how you need to sometimes push it sometimes hang back on it and sometimes play it dead on depending on the song and style
i can easily play for an hour but i can't imagine chord strumming exercises for an hour unless you are working out some impossible polyrhythmic virtuoso piece or maybe learning flamenco fusion
j


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## squishall (Jul 23, 2020)

Thank you for the replies...I did not word the question well. Let me try again.

When practicing anything. Is it better to practice a few things at a time or 1 thing each time in order to improve the fastest.

Example: Given an hour long practice session. Should I do 15min. of chord work, 15min. of scale work, 15min. of song work, and 15 min. of finger picking *OR* should I do a whole hour of chords on Monday, hour of scales on Tuesday, hour of songs on Wed., etc, etc.

Hopefully this clarifies what I am asking. Tha goal being to consistently get better over time.


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