Master Your Practice

Hey, it's Justin and Lee for another Rut Busters! Most people – Lee and I included – can't find enough time to practice the guitar. And even when we have time, knowing what to practice is tricky. Today, we'll create a solid practice routine. That way, we'll take full advantage of our limited time.

Learning Instruments At Different Ages

Lee commented that when he used to learn instruments at school, he'd do his music practice every day from five to six o'clock. He had a book and knew exactly what he had to practice.

But now, his schedule is so full that he only plays when he finds half an hour. And he has no structure or routine. So he finds it tough to be disciplined and know which exercises to do.

When To Practice

If we can find a block of time early in the morning or late at night, that's super helpful. Setting aside time on certain days is a great way to create consistency when you're busy. There are often gaps in our day – periods when we aren't busy. Use them!

How To Practice

I asked Lee what he practices. His usual practice is to repeat chords using a loop pedal and play solo guitar over them. By doing so, he's repeating the same exercise, which is a great start. He also sits down with his colleague Pete. They listen to tracks together, analyzing and playing the guitar parts. But he doesn't have a strict practice routine.

💡 Perfect Practice – Use the My Practice Assistant feature on my site to create amazing practice schedules!

The trick is to do the routine five days a week. And don't try an intense practice routine if you've never done it before. That doesn't usually work! After a week or two, you'll lose motivation.

Your Practice Routine

If you have 30 minutes, you should spend 15 minutes doing free practice. In other words, play whatever you want! This could be exploring an idea, playing a song that's too tricky for you, or playing chords. Seriously, anything goes, as long as it's guitar.

Spend the other 15 minutes doing structured practice, divided into three periods of five minutes. Use a timer! It’s SUPER helpful. That way, you have a clear end to each exercise. This focuses you.

If you only do structured practice, it's hard to see the effects of your work in your playing. That's why free practice is crucial – it's when you actually see the benefits of structured practice. But without structured practice, you don't make progress. You don't give yourself your chance to learn new stuff. You get stuck in a rut!

💡The Reality of Ruts – Several great guitarists have told me they get into a rut sometimes. It happens to us all!

Let's look at the four practice areas.

Practice Area 1: Technique

Technique is vital. This means your physical ability to play the guitar, beyond music and songs. Can you pick accurately? Do you have the strength for string bends? I could suggest at least 40 technique exercises, and you'll likely find a few areas that need work.

💡Tip-Top Technique – Find tonnes of technique exercises in the dedicated section on my website!

Practice Area 2: Knowledge

The next area is knowledge. Now we go into theory world! This is another huge area and includes things like knowing which chords go together well and which scales to use in which context. A little bit of this can go a long, long way. It can revolutionize your guitar playing!

The key to mastering theory is that you must put it into practice. There's no use in learning theory from a book and not knowing when to use the knowledge. This makes a lot of guitarists give up!

💡Theory In Practice – Use theory to ignite your guitar potential with my course Practical Music Theory!

Practice Area 3: Ear Training

I also suggest some sort of Ear Training. You can do interval training, which is a little boring for some. Transcribing is great, and it's probably best to save up 15 minutes for it!

Spend that time trying to figure out a lick, chord, or song you like, and make sure to write it down. That way, you can analyze it and will have it saved for later! Another excellent ear training exercise is to Play What You Hear – imagine a song in your mind and see if you can play it on the guitar.

💡Master Transcribing – I've created a module with a ton of transcribing aids. Check it out here. :)

Practice Area 4: Song

The final area of practice is songs. You must use all your hard work in songs! You can compose your own learn the ones you love most!

Technique Work: Playing The Major Scale

Lee and I tried a technique exercise together: playing Pattern 1 of the Major Scale using alternate picking. Here are some great tricks for making the most of this one!

Make sure to play the notes on the b string using fingers 2 and 4. One reason is that the notes on the two thinnest strings and the two thickest strings follow the same pattern (2 4; 1 2 4). Using these fingers makes that easier to see, so you remember the scale better!

Another common issue with alternate picking is playing a down pick when you move down onto a new string. If you can't play the scale correctly, just use all down picks until it's natural. Then move on to alternate.

And don't play too quickly! If you make a mistake, it means you're going too fast. Slow down and make sure each note is perfect. Program your brain with this! Then speed up. Use a metronome, with down picks on the beats and up picks on the "ands." That way, you'll keep good time, your picking will be perfect, and you'll know your speed.

💡Time Trainer App – Find a metronome and loads more features on my Time Trainer app!

Without realizing, Lee was using palm mute to play the Major scale. This is quite a specific technique, so I recommend using it only in the correct context.

Economy Picking v Alternate Picking

As we discussed, Lee found it tricky to play alternate picking when changing strings. Instead, he used economy picking. Both systems work great in certain circumstances, but I suggest alternate picking here.

Creating a solid practice routine is a sure way to busting out of a rut, so start using one right away. And stick around for more Rut Busters to take your playing to the next level! Cheers. :)

💙 Move into Advanced guitar territory with my Advanced Grade 7 course.

About This Series

This video lives on the JustinGuitar YouTube Channel – this series alternates between that channel and my main one.

Anderton's Music
Anderton's is my local music store in Guildford (UK) and I got in touch with Lee to throw around some ideas for collaboration. It's a cool store and I buy most of my stuff there :) Big thanks also to Danish Pete for his editing expertise and fun hangs!