Would you like to build your way up to guitar excellence, and do it faster than ever before? Then you need to stop focusing on only doing "random" guitar practice, because random practice tends to be highly unfocused which leads to a lack of musical growth or even stagnation... 




In this discussion, I’m going to show you how to build a more strategic form of guitar practice. The approach that I have for you is a professional level practice routine that turns your guitar study time into a period of both musical exploration and musical variation.

If you apply the systems that I cover in this video, what you'll discover is that you will begin to turn your guitar exercise periods into a time of constant technical growth, musical expansion and overall playing improvement.

This will cause a positive shift to how you study guitar and this change will start a ripple effect of even more positive steps occurring in your playing as time goes on.
 

WATCH THE VIDEO:





WHY CHANGE YOUR PRACTICE APPROACH?
Making a change like this in your practice approach will create motivating results in you that will quickly start to cause a number of major differences to occur in your level of your skill, as well as, in your attitude toward music and practice.

In this discussion I want to tell you how to use a practice philosophy to get your guitar playing up to an excellent level a lot faster. And, it doesn’t necessarily involve you spending more time, or working for longer periods.

Many of you guys know, that I’m a fan of putting in as much practice time as possible rehearsing material. But, we also know - that’s just one department of effectively practicing guitar.

There are a lot of other parts involved with getting up to a level of excellence in your playing. And, what I’m going to tell you here, is that you’re going to want to organize the hours with; a refined approach.

This will involve creating both a scheduling system and study routine that highly leverages your exposure to new material. And, I’m going to tell you the reason for this change next.





REFINED PRACTICE:
If you’re only spending your time doing guitar practice - working against the clock, just focusing on jamming – then you’re probably not getting enough out of it.

That type of practice means that you’re going to miss out on a lot of the benefits that a more sophisticated practice approach will be able to offer.

What I mean by a "Refined Practice Approach," is instead of just thinking in terms of grabbing your guitar and playing - whatever - you’re practice session should instead get broken into segments.


Segmented Practice Work Pyramid:





These "segments" should follow an order that will move your studies from the most basic of practice, (like guitar technique and other non-musical studies), into more serious academic study, (like music theory and building on your musical skills).

From there, you can head into some fun academic stuff, (like transcribing songs to better develop your ear for music).

And after that, leave yourself open to options of going into either Jamming and Soloing, maybe some Recording /some lead playing.

Also, if you’d prefer, you could set aside to work on some song writing and compositional ideas including home recording.

If you approach your practice time this way, you’ll develop a system for how you use your time and end up helping to spend more time on practicing guitar across a wider scope of topics - without sacrificing important areas of musicianship that are so often neglected by a lot of guitar students.




PRACTICE SCHEDULE:
Whenever you’re practicing, and whatever it is that you’re practicing, you can always benefit more from using a practice schedule.

I’ve talked about the value in using practice schedules in the past, but most students abandon schedules that they make because they try to push themselves through one of these new schedules using too many days of the week.

it’s almost impossible for a guitar player to go form no schedule to a 7 day cycle.

My suggestion is to establish a four day practice routine. And, make at least 3 different schedules that will cover your different academic areas.

Have a schedule for your Academic material, your Jamming and Soloing work. And, for your, Composing and Recording topics.

Start with those, establish time frames you’ll work in, (I’d probably try and stick to 15 min. time frames) and of course plan out breaks so that you can walk away from your studies for a few minutes and clear your mind.


Practice Schedule Example:


With a study approach like this, you’ll get more done and cover tons of variation for what you’re studying through the four day practice cycle.

Over time, you can even extend it to 5 days. But, always take a few days off each week from this intense practice cycle to keep yourself better motivated.




EXPOSURE TO NEW IDEAS:
The last area I want to get into for this discussion involves committing yourself to increased exposure across a more varied selection of musical ideas.

I can’t stress enough how important that it is to stretch yourself as a musician and to learn new musical topics, new styles, learn about new artists, learn about music history, and learn new theory concepts.

Most of all, when you branch out and offer yourself greater exposure, then eventually get all the stuff integrated, (as a regular part of your musical life), you'll find that your awareness and motivation rise as well.


Practice Exposure Chart:



Back when I was at Music School, one of my teachers broke this topic of exposure down into sections where 50% of new exposure should be dedicated to learning about how to perform in new or unfamiliar musical styles.

Especially music styles that you may not have much interest in. So, for example if you hate Reggae, or Country music, don’t let that stop you. Study a couple of Bob Marley or Garth Brooks songs anyway. You will always get something out of it guaranteed.

The study of any unfamiliar music or playing style will always allow you to take away something new from the experience. And, this applies to every type of music.

What you'll discover form your first experience with this, is that it's almost guaranteed that every new exposure experience will introduce something to you that you didn’t know about or understand before. And, that’s the most important part with respect to exposure.

Also, divide around 25% of your time toward studying as much as you can learn about "Famous Artists" and musical history too.

You’ll learn things in doing that type of work which will really motivate you. And, last but not least we can’t forget learning new music theory principles. That work really expands your ability to not only compose music better but also to perform music a lot better due to increased musical and artistic flexibility.