Practice Routine, and a few other questions

[BlakeWard]

Lately, I've been following a practice schedule much like one you'd use to lift weights (different areas on different days)
It usually looks something like:
Monday: Alt. Picking, sight reading, scales, general theory, improv/songwriting, eartraining.
Tuesday: Legato, sight reading, chords & sweeping, general theory, improv/songwriting, eartraining.
Wednesday: Scales, chords, sight reading, general theory, improv/songwriting, ear training, transcribing.

Thursday is a repeat of Monday, Friday is a repeat of Tuesday, and Sat&Sun are repeats of Wednesday.

Is this a proper way to set up a practicing plan? I feel like I'm hitting bits and pieces, rather than working on a whole.. like a construction crew working on several buildings at once, rather than one at a time


And a few questions about A Modern Method(berklee).. whats the best way to work through it? I understand it's used for sight reading, but it seems like there is a wealth of chord knowledge here, and I don't know the best way in practicing on memorizing/learning them all. For example in the first position, the first chapter hits on the basic Cmajor chords, but awkward forumulas come up like 4-5-2 (F-G-D) and other rootless chords

[Dolan]

I actually think that is a pretty good practice routine and have been doing something similar.

[jbraun]

I use Berklee's "A Modern Method for Guitar" with my students. It sounds like you're more advanced then most of them.

For my students, I use it to teach them to read music, to associate musical notation with their fretboard, and to provide fairly simple songs that are digestible/simple enough for them to work on tone and basic technique.

There's plenty of chord/scale knowledge in there, but these books seem very similar to piano instruction books IMO. That is, you get to know your fretboard and how to read music, and even how to play various compositions, but if you wish to improv you'll want to learn technique and scales from other sources.

I'm just a hobbyist nowadays, but if I were wanting to practice my sight reading skills, and I started from scratch knowing what I know now, using "A Modern Method..." would be a fine way to get acquainted with standard notation and its relation to the guitar. However, once I knew the basics I'd probably just use various horn/violin exercise books. The key to improving sight reading is, as I understand it, to always be reading new stuff (lest you start to memorize), and those horn books are relatively cheap and plentiful (ergo, you can just hop down to the sheet music shop, buy one, work through it, and then forget it for a few months and play it again).

As for the practice routine, I always feel like it's important (for me) to work on technique every day. I have a standard set of exercises I do, though I switch these up every couple of months.

Others may have better advice. Good luck!

[BlakeWard]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I've been recently cutting the time I practice on alt. picking and legato down apart from the rest of my schedule. I've focused on technique for the past 2-3 years, playing fast etc, but lately I've been more about writing music. Not saying that playing fast isn't musical, but my playing has been so redundant lately, ripping through the same 3nps scales as fast as I can.

But this doesn't mean I don't want to retain the technique I have. Would it be reasonable to cut down my, for example, alt. picking practice to 20-30 minutes a day, then a longer session of 45-60 minutes on one day later in the week (saturday most likely). Or would having just one day of an intense picking workout make me lose any technique?


Great advice on picking up horn/violin books. I'll definitely check that out next time I go in town. I picked up A Modern Method at first to learn the fretboard better, more in intervallic aspects. I'm still in the first position portion of the book.. but already I can name the notes of a given scale and play the notes, not the pattern. It's really given me more melodic freedom

[ChainsawGuitar]

I used to do the same thing a few years ago, back when I was practicing for 9-10 hours a day. I found it great for technique, as long as you dont spend so much time going over the same stuff every time and try to move yourself on.

I only stopped because I didnt have time for much else. Ok, maybe 10 hours a day is a bit much, but as long as you spend enough time on each thing, you shouldnt feel like you're not getting better.

How long do you do it for?

[Darkman]

Does anyone else use the "different areas on different days" method? I'm considering trying it, because often it feels like a break away does some good, and it also does good to concentrate on one area and practice it hard.

[ChrisJ]

More important is how you practice these things. Are you making music or mechanically playing scales using various techniques?

Sometimes you can get much more from playing with other people. When I was studying, I spent two hours everyday playing standards with my guitar friends, letting their positive points rub off on me.

Practicing in a vacuum is not a good thing all the time.

[LaughingSkull]

Does anyone else use the "different areas on different days" method? I'm considering trying it, because often it feels like a break away does some good, and it also does good to concentrate on one area and practice it hard.
"Different areas on different days": I started recently with that approach, and results seem better.
But mostly I consider that as a warm up routine (15-20 minutes), then I work on my music or indulge in improvisation over different backing tracks.