Guitar Practice Schedules
30 minute Sample Guitar Practice Schedules
...in order to become the best musician or guitarist that you can become, you must understand how music works. You have to develop a relationship with it. My practice sessions are nothing more than me enhancing my relationship with music. That's how I try to look at it.
If you only have 30 minutes a day to practice guitar I would suggest focusing on just one to two things per day. Otherwise the quality of your practice or guitar lesson is minimal. Here are some examples based on my goals. Remember your's can differ.
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 20 min | elements | intervals / ear training | rt hand technique | scale studies | arpeggio / composition | review / journal |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 20 min | weekly goals and theory | scales and rt hand technique | intervals and elements' relationship | elements and composition | arpeggio andear training | review and journal |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 20 min | free play with recording | elements | free play with recording | elements | free play with recording | review and journal |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
These are three examples of a 30 minute guitar practice schedule. Now when you read my goals and guitar practice schedules, you'll notice that they seem theory intensive as opposed to technique. That may be the case but there are a couple of reasons for that:
- The first reason is that I think that in order to become the best musician or guitarist that you can become, you must understand how music works. You have to develop a relationship with it. My practice sessions are nothing more than me enhancing my relationship with music. That's how I try to look at it.
- The second reason is that based on what I want to accomplish, I need to understand theory. You notice that my goal wasn't to play arpeggios as fast as I can, or to shred like Vai or Satch. It was to do something with the skills that I have, to say something through technique and to me applying theory to emotion is the most efficient way to accomplish the goal.
- Lastly, I NEVER STUDY THEORY WITHOUT MY GUITAR IN HAND. I'm a teacher by trade but I try to keep guitar playing from being purely academic. So I always learn and practice the theory on the instrument.
Hour Long Sample Guitar Practice Schedules
A) the rotation (because you're rotating study topics everyday)
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 20 min | relationship of elements | interval positions / ear training | scales and phrasing | rt hand technique dynamics | arpeggios and composition | review and journal |
| 20 min | interval positions / ear training | scales and phrasing | rt hand technique dynamics | arpeggios and composition | relationship of elements | free play and song ideas |
| 10 min | scales and phrasing | rt hand technique dynamics | arpeggios and composition | relationship of elements | interval positions / ear training | plan out next week |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
B) A creative approach: Topic a day for all you perfectionists
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 30 min | free play and song ideas | composition and song structure / decide message and driving elements | develop elements from ideas from Sunday | rt hand techniques and dynamics | phrasing and fretboard position: fingerings | try and put it all together |
| 20 min | journal to tie in | journal to tie in | journal to tie in | journal to tie in | journal to tie in | review and journal |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
C) A technical approach: Topic a day yet again for you obsessive-compulsives
| Time | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up | warm up |
| 30 min | rt hand arpeggios and dynamics | interval study and fretboard placement | left hand study: scales, phrasing and speed | chord structure and placement on fretboard | improv over vamps | free play and idea generation |
| 20 min | journal to tie in | journal to critique | journal to critique | journal to critique | journal to critique | gauge improvement since Sunday |
| 5 min | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down | cool down |
Suggestions:
- Focus on a specific aspect of playing at a time. Don't try to cover all right hand techniques in one day.
- Focus on one technique or area of study and do it right and learn it thoroughly. I can't stress this enough.
- Don't practice shoddy technique.
- Don't practice halfheartedly. If you want to learn something, learn it inside and out until you're just about sick of it.
- These guitar practice schedules are simply examples you can go by. But you should base them on your goals. Usually I alternate between the different schedules and sometimes I skip here and there, whatever. The point is, as musicians and guitarists we change and so should our goals and practice regimens if need be. I usually take a day off during the week to clear my head, mine just happens to be Saturday.
- In the next session we'll start to focus on the importance of listening. And we'll get into this especially in detail more in the lessons on intervals and the unit on creative composing.