Making The Most Of Guitar Practice Time

I play my guitar nearly every day, whether teaching or performing

. But real practice time is a precious commodity, as I'm sure it is for you too. And when time is at a premium you need to make sure that you use it wisely.

So how do you make the most of it? The simplest answer is to have a goal and a plan. Your goal for a practice session should be attainable. Don't try and learn an entire Frank Zappa song in one sitting. Create a goal that you can nail in the time span you have. Maybe it's just getting two particular measures perfect. Maybe it's just getting comfortable with a new scale pattern. As you play more, you'll get a better feel for what you're able to accomplish in a given time period.

Having a specific goal for each session will give you something to work towards and also let you know when you're done. That frees your brain up to concentrate on the task at hand.

Here's an example. Let's say you've got a 30 minute block to practice in.

Spend your first five minutes doing a technical warm up exercise of some sort. I like to start this way because it's brainless. I can let my fingers do their work while my brain preps itself to get to the real work. Technical warm ups should be like lifting weights. You want to maintain good form and tone, but feel free to let your brain wander a bit. At this point your just toning your muscles in your hands.

In fact, I will often times create distractions while I do warm ups. TV, phone, whatever. Because there's always a distraction when performing, it's good to get used to having those and working around them.

For the next 15 minutes work on whatever your goal is. It could be a particular piece that you're working on. Or improvising over a particular chord progression. The idea is that you want to have something specific in mind to work on before you start. Otherwise you'll waste time trying to figure out what to work on.

Then during your last 10 minutes play whatever you want. Do some sight reading on new songs. Work on something you're writing. Play songs you've played a thousand times. Just play. Those last ten minutes need to be about recapturing the joy of just playing. It will leave your brain in a relaxed and joyful state so you look forward to your next practice session.

If you've blocked out a larger amount of time, then expand each of those section accordingly. You'll see great progress and enjoy your sessions more.

Making The Most Of Guitar Practice Time

By: Phil Johnson

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