# The Official GuitarsCanada Practice Regimen



## dan_ (Feb 5, 2008)

Following up from this thread, I thought it would be interested to combine the knowledge and experience available on this forum to create a practice regimen. Here's a framework for what I was thinking:

- somewhere between 30mins and 1hr
- break the time up into manageable chunks for different types of activities
- specific examples of things to work on for each section

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for turning us average Joes into "the next big thing"?

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Here's the suggestions/structure so far for a 50 minute practice session (still have another 10 minutes to fill!):

*Section I: Warmup (5 mins)*
- stretching exercises
- play something you're familiar with (from memory, where possible)
*
Section II: Foundations/Theory (15 mins)*
- Scales (try and focus scales relevant to the piece(s) you're working on at the time). Refer to this page if you want to look up a specific scale. 
- Modes (a great learning resource on the different modes is available here)
- Chords (online chord charts can be found here)

*Section III: Expanding Your Repertoire (20 mins)*
- When working on a piece, play through the whole piece (or a whole section in longer pieces) once, then go back and focus on problem areas. Repeat difficult passages slowly with a metronome and gradually build up speed as you get more comfortable. 
- When learning or memorizing a piece, try starting from the end. Work on the last two bars, the last line, the last two lines, and so on. This way, when you perform the piece, you will be increasingly familiar with it as you move through it.
- As necessary, isolate difficult measures and work them over and over until they are smooth, but do this in the context of the tune but alternating this practice with the full piece.
- Work on sight reading (pick a new chart from the Real Book)

*Section IV: Musical Meditation (5 mins)*
- Listen to something new, play blindfolded
- Work on improvisation

*Section V: Cooldown (5 mins)*
- Play through something you nailed during today's session
- Work through a favourite, something you're comfortable with

*Overall Tips*
- Practice with a metronome at every stage!
- Play at a speed that will allow you to focus on accuracy and maintaining a constant tempo
- Incorporate both new pieces and pieces you are comfortable with to balance pushing yourself and enjoying yourself
- Spend some time improvising, freely, or with backing tracks, drum machine or metronome. If you like to write, add time for recording and writing down your musical thoughts and compositions.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

I'd be interested in hearing some opinions as well. When I was "practicing" last night all I could think was "WTF am I doing?" I tend to pick up my axe and run through all of the licks that I know then mess around with some new ones and then time runs out. Anywhere between 30-60 min is what I get per day. 

HELP!!


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

This is the regimen that I prescribe for my students:

It is always a good idea to warm up for about 5 minutes before working on anything new or demanding. Play a few familiar pieces, ideally from memory, to warm up your fingers.

Follow your warm-up with a few scales and/or exercises. Really focus on your technique and listen carefully to what you are playing. Don’t spend any more than 5 minutes on scales and exercises as, done right, they demand a high level of concentration.

Work On Your New Repertoire:

When working on a piece, play through the whole piece (or a whole section in longer pieces) once, then go back and focus on problem areas. Repeat difficult passages slowly with a metronome and gradually build up speed as you get more comfortable.

Once you can play a piece comfortably, work on memorizing it. Often with complex pieces, you will find that you already have it memorized before you can play it comfortably.

When learning or memorizing a piece, try starting from the end. Work on the last two bars, the last line, the last two lines, and so on. This way, when you perform the piece, you will be increasingly familiar with it as you move through it.

Finish up your practice time with something that you enjoy playing and can play well.​
Brian


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2010)

I had posted my old regimen in this thread: http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?p=168811

Wish I had the discipline now. I spent 2 hours today getting nowhere but happy. :smile:


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## DUCK (Jul 4, 2007)

Discipline is my biggest problem, any suggestions would be great!


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## Beach Bob (Sep 12, 2009)

I know that I get amazing cases of "the wanders"; start on something, think of some other song, bounce around some chords on it; recognize a chord progression of something else... repeat as needed/desired.

I am trying to force some discipline into the routine, but wow... serious ADD on the practice schedule


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## cptheman (Oct 15, 2009)

It seems I'm not the only one looking for a more disciplined and structured practice regimen. I think this is a great thread and lets hear some more advice.


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## Samsquantch (Mar 5, 2009)

Transcribe for an hour a day every day. 

Buy a simple looper like a Jam Man or Boss RC-2, so you can create your own vamps and backing tracks to jam arpeggios, scales, and licks over.

Ear training is so important, but it often falls by the wayside to tabs, scale fingering charts etc. Learn the sounds of the scales, chords, and arpeggios and create your own fingerings.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

iaresee said:


> I had posted my old regimen in this thread: http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?p=168811
> 
> Wish I had the discipline now. I spent 2 hours today getting nowhere but happy. :smile:


There are worse ways to spend your time getting happy! Time is not on my side either! Wish I had been more discipline as well when I had the time (BC before child) All my lenghthy practices made me into was a jukebox!


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Ah, discipline...

If you can't find it within yourself, you may need to hire a "personal trainer" -- never a bad idea anyways...


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Over the long term, self discipline in all things will provide the best results. Take the process seriously. Assuming you are looking after good diet and exercise, get a good chair, good light, good stand, and pay attention to good posture. Clean your eye glasses. Start with a few mild finger to shoulder stretches. Have a glass of water at hand. Ignore the phone and other interruptions.

Once you have your instrument on your lap and are ready to play, tune, then start with some drills and exercises. Before you play your etudes and pieces (tunes and songs), run through as many scales as you can fit in your time, especially those relevant to your pieces. Spend the bulk of your time on tunes. Only play as fast as you can play the timing/rhythm correctly, speed up to tempo as you are able, until you can complete the tune from beginning to end as if it's a performance. Don't let your metronome collect dust.

As necessary, isolate difficult measures and work them over and over until they are smooth, but do this in the context of the tune but alternating this practice with the full piece.

Spend some time working on your established pieces, keeping them up to, or improving, your standards.

Alternate between your established pieces and your new pieces, as a sort of self psychology to keep your enthusiasm.

Spend some time improvising, freely, or with backing tracks, drum machine or metronome. If you like to write, add time for recording and writing down your musical thoughts and compositions.

Finish on an upbeat, something you are good at, so that you don't finish on a downer.

Peace, Mooh.


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## dan_ (Feb 5, 2008)

Updated! See the original post.

Keep the ideas/suggestions coming!


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I love the idea of playing blindfolded! 

Another idea that I recently heard, but haven't tried yet is videotaping yourself, especially if you are working towards performing.


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2010)

bw66 said:


> Ah, discipline...
> 
> If you can't find it within yourself, you may need to hire a "personal trainer" -- never a bad idea anyways...


Hiring someone to teach you is a great way to keep yourself motivated. Nothing like knowing you're letting people down and wasting time and money to help you stay on track.


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## Jeff Flowerday (Jan 23, 2006)

iaresee said:


> I had posted my old regimen in this thread: http://www.guitarscanada.com/showthread.php?p=168811
> 
> Wish I had the discipline now. I spent 2 hours today getting nowhere but happy. :smile:


I wish I was getting drunk today instead of working... :smile:


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2010)

I went to the Ken Rosser master class that Wayne Eagles (rwe333) organized at Carlton U and he spent pretty much 2 solid hours talking about sight reading, practicing and how just _be_ a guitar player. Absolutely amazing class. He teaches the advanced sight reading class so he hads to say about that.

I took two really great ideas away.

The first thing I've done all along, but not at all in the extreme way he talked about, and that was to play with a metronome. _Slowly_. Not 80 bpm slow. We're talking as slow as your metronome can go. Take a chart like Autumn Leaves and play along at 40 bpm. It's HARD. Very, very, very hard. Because you have to really concentrate on holding notes for their written duration and at 40 bpms a 1/4 note lasts a looooong time. But it really, really makes you think about the duration of notes and focus actually playing things as they're written. It says 1/4 note but when you're whipping through it at 120 bpm are you really holding that note for a 1/4 of a bar? Probably not. And all kinds of sloppy show up using this approach.

The second had to do with sight reading. He said, as you get better, you stop reading notes and you start to read phrases. Groups of notes. You're always a phrase or two ahead of what you're doing. And as you get better, the phrases you see get longer. You might start out recognizing 2 note phrases, essentially intervals, and then 3 and so on.

And his approach for improving your phrase recognition and reading abilities used 12 random notes. You just throw 12 random notes down on a staff. Write them as whole notes (it doesn't really matter since you're going to play them different ways), no bar markings. And now you read them.

Start with a simple pattern: each note is a whole note. Set your metronome to something slow and start playing them. One note after another. Making sure you're holding each note for a full 4 counts.

And then make it a little harder: change the note pattern to be quarter and dotted half. So now you're reading notes two and a time and playing "one twothreefour".

Keep making more difficult patterns, randomizing the notes, etc. Always reading ahead and making sure you're holding the notes for the appropriate length of time.

(Hopefully I didn't cock up that explanation)

Ken mentioned there's a bass player who, on his website, has a random note generator specifically for this sight reading exercise. I can't recall who it was now. I sent him an email to find out. I'll post it when he gets back to me.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Jeff Flowerday said:


> I wish I was getting drunk today instead of working... :smile:


+1! TONIGHT THOUGH! It's Friday for me today.. Bet the day drags forever!


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2010)

Hmm...the two of you have me thinking about beer now. I've still got two days of vacation left!


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## Bird (Nov 6, 2006)

Some great ideas I'll have to incorporate here. I missed out on the Ken Rosser class as I was working.... damn it. I definitely need help with a practice regime. I have so much instructional stuff I often don't know where to start, which can make for a lot of ineffective practice.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I just bought a book called Guitar Aerobics. It has one exercise per day for 365 days. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## NeilH (Aug 25, 2009)

Just wanted to throw in a thanks to those that have contributed to this thread so far. I'm just starting out on guitar and I find it is soooo easy to get pulled in different directions looking for lessons, turorials, ideas etc all over the internet. 
A plan is always a good idea in order to keep focus.


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