I geek out over guitar practice. After all these years I think I have it down to a science, and that’s because I’ve studied so many guitarists, from beginner to advanced players, and see how they’ve made progress. Here are a few tips that’ll be helpful for you:
Airplane mode all the things - before you sit down, make sure to set your phone to airplane mode/silent. It’s so easy to get caught up scrolling Instagram, X (Twitter), etc.
Warm up your hands - it’s a pain to sit down and not have your hands do what you want them to do. Run a couple of drills for 5 minutes at the beginning of your practice. These might be mindless, but over time, you’re developing strength and endurance for your hands.
Have a plan - make sure you break down your practice sessions into different topics, and shake it up each day. One day you might work on legato, playing songs, transcribing and arpeggios. The next day you could work on something else. Never go more than 2 days without having one of your core categories practiced.
Cementing ideas - Once you learn something new, put it into a musical context as soon as possible - this will help you remember it. Backing tracks are your friend, and they’re plentiful on YouTube. With backing tracks, you don’t even need a metronome. If it’s a lick you’re learning, change it in some way to make it your own.
Reflect on what you learned and plan your next session - This is the most important part of all. What went right or wrong during your session? To get a head start on tomorrow’s practice, write down what you’ll work on ahead of time. Doing this gives you a great set of notes to reflect back on and see how far you’ve come.
If you ever have any questions on what you should practice, reach out to me at brian@chasingsound.com