Four Awesome Practice Templates for Guitarists
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FOUR AWESOME PRACTICE TEMPLATES FOR GUITARISTS Chordistry.com | [email protected] FOUR AWESOME PRACTICE TEMPLATES FOR GUITARISTS INTRODUCTION This short PDF is a guide to crafting an effective practice session. If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of different things you could work on or if you are having trouble making steady progress on the guitar, this guide will help. When I was first learning the guitar, this is the kind of guide I wanted, but never had. For the most part, I taught myself how to play. I had to figure out the nuts and bolts of the instrument on my own. I wished some- one would have made it simple to create and plan a practice routine. I learned later that having a quality, daily routine dramatically accelerates your playing proficiency. I imagine some of you are teaching yourself. This guide is for you. If you have a guitar teacher and need some additional help creating a solid practice plan, this guide is for you too. FORMAT Its nearly impossible to create a universal practice routine, one that will work for every guitar player ever. Your goals are different than mine. Someone who is just starting needs to work on things that an experienced play- er will have already mastered. Bluegrass finger-pickers will need to focus on material that a jazz guitarist may not need to know at all. With that in mind, I’ve created four basic practice templates, each one for a guitarist with a different focus. There are pieces that are common in each template because a healthy practice session requires them, but the majority of it is tailored to your unique approach to music and the guitar. I created each template to fit into an hour long practice session. If you are dedicated to your instrument, an hour really isn’t much. If you are pressed for time, you could scale it down. And if you are really inspired, you can expand it. Though know that Parkinson’s Law of Productivity, ”work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” means that you might be better off leaving your practice to one hour. Hopefully you can set aside that much each day for your guitar goals. At the end of this PDF there is also a “Build Your Own” section, just in case you want to try your hand at mak- ing your own practice routines. Though I recommend giving one of the templates a shot for a while before modifying them. PRO TIP: Use these templates in addition to a PRACTICE NOTEBOOK for maximum learning! Thanks for checking out this guide, if you have any questions you can email me at [email protected] Have fun and good luck! -Shawn Chordistry.com | [email protected] FOUR AWESOME PRACTICE TEMPLATES FOR GUITARISTS Practice Routine #1, The Troubadour (A Singer Of Songs) This practice routine is for you if you play guitar mostly because you enjoy playing songs. Maybe you also enjoy writing songs too. Either way, for Troubadours, the art and craft of song is something that they take seriously. A song isn’t just a song, its a piece of artwork. A sliver of life. If catch yourself being moved over and over again by a chorus of a tune, then this template is for you. Warm Up (10 min) Here are examples of warm up exercises for guitarists who focus on songs: 1.) Play some chords slowly, focus on landing on each shape with ease, and make sure all the notes can ring for their full length. 2.) Arpeggiate a chord or a chord progression slowly, aim for accuracy in your picking and an even tempo. 3.) Do a few vocal warm ups too, if you know any. If you don’t, play and sing a simple song that’s well within your vocal range to warm up your vocal chords. Basic Guitar Theory (10 min) This section is for learning some of the fundamental concepts of the guitar. If you are working through a meth- od book, you can do a page or two. If you have a chord book, you can learn and practice a new chord shape. If you are tackling barre chords, use this time to make them sound better. Progress your guitar knowledge a bit further before taking the plunge into your songs. Learn Songs (20 min) This section is where you dedicate time to learning how to play songs, or for taking songs from half-learned into fully learned. Choose just one or two songs to work on at a time and practice them until they are perfor- mance ready. “Performance ready” means that you can confidently play the song to an audience of any size. Optional Substitution for Learn Songs: Write Songs If you are a songwriter, you might want to use this section for writing songs. Explore some ideas, jot down a verse, or create a hook! Rehearse Songs (15 min) This section is for playing and practicing songs that are already performance ready so that you don’t forget how to play them. Pick two or three songs from your repertoire and play them as if you were performing the song in front of an audience. Play them from beginning to end and see how they went. If you need to work on a certain section of a tune so that it becomes performance ready again, use this time to dig in and perfect it. Improvise/Jam (5 min) This section is for creating music for the fun of it! You’ve just played a bunch of songs or spent time writing your own, so let loose and jam out on your guitar as a way to relax and reward yourself for a great practice session. Chordistry.com | [email protected] FOUR AWESOME PRACTICE TEMPLATES FOR GUITARISTS Practice Routine #2, The Engineer (Addicted to Music Theory) This practice routine is for you if you love learning how music works and you get the most enjoyment from exercising your music theory muscles. You’re an Engineer if you are constantly learning about cool things you could do with music and are endlessly fascinated by music that challenges you. If you’ve ever said “did you hear that!?” to your bewildered friends, you probably want to use this template. Warm Up (10 min) Here are examples of warm ups exercises for guitarists who focus on theory: 1.) Simple chromatic exercises, using all of your fretting hand fingers, at a slow tempo. 2.) Play an easy scale shape, slowly, with a metronome. Use different rhythmic ideas too. 3.) Play through a few simple riffs. Get your hands synched up and ready to go! Sight Read (10 min) This section is for improving your sight reading abilities. This will quicken your note recognition time for both the notes on the musical staff and for the notes on your guitar. Knowing what pitches you are playing when you play them puts you way ahead of other guitarists who only know how play shapes. Find some notated music and go to it! Optional Substitution For Sight Reading: Ear Training Load up an ear training app and better your analytical listening skills. Or better yet, transcribe some music you’ve been listening to recently. Fundamentals (10 min) This section is for practicing scales, arpeggios, chord shapes, and rhythms. Pick one and spend some time building the solid foundation of your guitar playing. Reinforce some of the fundamentals you already know well and expand upon them a little each time. Having a few resources to help you out might be a good thing too, so be on the lookout for cool workbooks on the topics you are interested in. Songs & Licks (15 min) This section is for learning how to play some songs or licks that feature the ideas you are currently working on. If you are learning the dorian scale, maybe learn a solo that uses it. If you are getting your blues boxes in order, definitely check out some signature licks from the masters. Or do the reverse, find out what’s going on under the hood of your favorite licks! Improvise/Jam (15 min) This section is for applying some of the ideas and music theory concepts to your own guitar playing. There is no better way of understanding music than creating it yourself, so spend the last part of your practice session getting a feel for how you might naturally incorporate new ideas. Here you might want to jam along to a back- ing track, there are plenty out there on YouTube now, or if you have a looper pedal, you could write your own backing track to play over! Chordistry.com | [email protected] FOUR AWESOME PRACTICE TEMPLATES FOR GUITARISTS Practice Routine #3, The Ninja (So Fast. So Precise.) This practice routine is for you if your desire is to master all the techniques of playing guitar. You’re a Ninja if you dream of playing mindblowingly fast solos and flawlessly executing all manners of guitar acrobatics with- out breaking a sweat. If you are a fan of all the guitar masters of yesterday and today who display an absolute command of their instrument (and listen to their albums on repeat) then you will want to use this template. Warm Up (10 min) Here are examples of warm up exercises for guitarists who focus on technique: 1.) Simple chromatic exercises, using all of your fretting hand fingers, at a slow tempo. 2.) Work on a guitar specific technique: slides, bends, hammer ons, pull offs.