I’ve talked to so many different guitarists over the years, and one of the most common issues that I hear from them, is that they don’t feel like they’re getting ahead in their playing.

I’ve talked at length about the power of focused practice. There’s time for noodling on guitar - in fact, I think you can run all your boring drills while doing something like watching TV. If you’re trying to build up hand strength, there’s nothing better than working on hammer ons, pull offs and more, which don’t require your full attention.

But if you really want to get ahead, you need to have a plan when you sit down to practice. You need to know what you’re going to work on, what you worked on the previous day, and how much time you have to spend. Here are a few things that can help you create a meaningful practice session.

A Notebook / Staff Paper

Having a notebook and staff paper on hand is essential in capturing some of the most important data. The notebook you’ll use for writing down exactly what you’re practicing, and how long you’re practicing each concept. This’ll give you a place to not only see what you’re working on each day, but also the sections you might have missed.

If you were working on legato, the Ionian mode, songwriting, and alternate picking on Monday, you might want to shake it up a bit for Tuesday, and throw in transcription, learning songs, chord shapes, etc. The notebook also gives you a chance to comment about what’s working, and what isn’t. And if you use something digital, you also have the benefit of being able to search through your prior practice routines to see what you were working on, on any given day.

Staff paper or tab paper is also a must, because remembering riff or songs ideas is fleeting. By writing your ideas down, you’ll be able to compile a lick library of your own. If you challenge yourself to write 5 or so riffs a day, at the end of the month you’re going to have lots of bits and pieces to work with, and can see what ideas work to make a full song.

Bonus points if you break out your phone and record yourself via video. This has the added benefit of being able to see what your fretting and picking hands were doing, and what position you were at on the neck when you were first creating the idea.

A Metronome & Backing Tracks

One of the best things you can do for your playing is to immediately utilize what you’re learning over a backing track. This helps cement the concepts that you’re working on, and really helps you view whatever you’re learning in a musical context.

Playing to a backing track is way more fun than playing to a metronome. But metronomes still hold a very important place in any guitarist’s practice space. I’ve moved away from physical metronomes and now enjoy using apps. Two of my favorite ones are Time Guru and Tempo Advance.

Time Guru allows you to increase/decrease BPMs and choose different meters, but the app’s key feature is its ability to randomly mute beats. You can set the mutes to happen gradually, which will increasingly leave out a beat. What this does is force you to up your rhythm chops and use your internal clock.

I also really enjoy using Tempo Advance, because it’s a very advance metronomes. Not only can it do most of what Time Guru does, it also gives you the ability to play polyrhythms and more. The app was endorsed by Dream Theater’s drummer, Mike Mangini, so you know it’s legit!

A Distraction Free Environment

This might be the most important one on the whole list, because it makes a big difference in how you can focus throughout your practice session. When you sit down to practice, you have to make sure that a couple things are in play. Here’s what works for me:

I have a cup of coffee ready to go
My phone and computer are in Airplane Mode
My guitar is tuned up, and my notebook and phone are on my desk
I have concrete ideas of what I want to practice, and for how long

For the last one, I’m using another app called Forest. It’s basically a timer, but it has a fun way of making sure you focus on whatever task is at hand. Each time you start the timer, you plant a virtual seed. If you keep going with your timer your tree will grow. If you get out of the app and fail to stick with your timer, your tree will die. If you successfully do this enough, you can even plant real trees by staying focused. The concept might sound a little funny at first, but it’s what’s worked for me so far!

What do you do for a productive practice session?

Those are a number of ideas that have really been working for me and my practice sessions over the last couple of years. But, I’d love to know what works for you. Hit me up by reaching out on Twitter or by emailing me at brian@chasingsound.com.