Let's say you have only 30 minutes to practice

[BenoA]

How would you plan your practice routine if you only had 30 minutes a day to build up your technique???

 

BenoA

[thamiam]

I wouldn't keep a set routine, but that's just me. A general outline would look something like this:

 

2 minutes: Stretching. Fingers, wrists, back, legs, everything.

3 minutes: Play freely. Improvise and get your creativity flowing.

2 minutes: Relaxation & Visualization. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and visualize yourself playing effortlessly and brilliantly.

3 minutes: Long Tones. Set a metronome at about 60bpm, and hold notes and/or chords for 3-4 bars each. Concentrate on perfect attack, tone, sustain, and release.

10 minutes: Choose a piece of music to work on, and play the scales and arpeggios for the chords in that piece. Use a metronome! Play ascending and descending, and don't always start on the root.

10 minutes: Play the piece you are working on. Work on melody and rhythm alternately. Play melody a bit, then even if it is not perfect go th rhythm for a while, then back to melody and so forth.

 

Agan, I wouldn't use a stopwatch or anything, just a general guideline. And remember, you can practice without your instrument. Every time you listen intently to music (more than just in the background), count that as practice time.

[WattsUrizen]

Even if you haven't got a guitar, you can still practice.

 

Here's an exercise that you can do anywhere:

 

Find a nice flat surface, and play all the fingertips of one hand on the surface, as if you were playing a piano. Now, lift up the index finger. Now when you put it down again, at the same time, lift up your middle finger, while keeping all the other fingers down on the surface. When you put down your middle finger, lift up your ring finger at the same time, while keeping all the other fingers down on the surface. And so on. This exercise works really well for the ring and little fingers, since they are quite lazy.

[StratKat]

Its not really the time involved in a practice that makes the difference as much as it is the attitude and preparation going into the session that counts.

 

You can noodle away for hours and play the songs and parts you already are pretty much good at and nothing is accomplished EXCEPT for callous conditioning.

 

You can spend a few minutes each day warming up prior to a session and then spend 20 minutes of dedicated work on ONE problem, or one technique, or one passage in a song and sometimes get more done.

 

Ive known and taught and endured alot of players who didnt have a clue how to practice. To them it was just putting time on the guitar and trying half heartedly to learn some song.

 

Usually they never get the chords quite right and cant remember the dang song at the gig the next night. WHY? Because they were not focused on the purpose of the practice from the get go.

 

Learning takes a required effeort to accomplish anything worthwhile. If it was easy to master the instrument everyone would be.......welllllllll, everyone is today but they seldom play it right. And thats the point. There is a huge diff in doing something in a hap hazzard way and doing it in a focused and planned way.

 

The more you put into it the more you get out. But again, that doesnt mean the HARDER you try the better you get. It means using your brain and planning on what you need to improve, how to improve it, and then slowly performing the problem until the desired results can be performed on command repeatedly without mistakes.

 

So dont practice harder - preactice smarter!

[BenoA]

Thanks guys!!! Very nice and informative answers!!!

 

BenoA