10 Step Practice Routine For All Guitar Players
In this lesson, we are going to learn one of the most important things for your journey of learning to be a great guitar player. Develop or discover a 10-step practice routine for all guitar players. This will take your guitar playing to new heights.
Look For The Answer
You won’t need to look for the answer to how to do this because it will be presented to you here in this post. It will show exactly what you need to practice, in what order & for how long.
But you must apply yourself. You must apply yourself daily for a practice routine to be beneficial to your learning. So make sure you have a good place to practice, devote some quality undisturbed time, and get to work on developing your practice routine and putting it into action to become a better guitar player.
A system like this will keep you focused, developing the proper skills & moving you forward toward your goal of becoming a great guitar player. But first, you must have a goal. You have that right?
Make sure to have a goal
If not I would take some time to figure this out. You can do this to get you in the right mindset. This gives you a destination. A place that you are going to, or a goal that you are shooting toward. This will help you to stay focused daily on your journey to guitar greatness.
Ask yourself some questions. Like:
Why am I learning the guitar?
What do I want to accomplish with the guitar?
How much time each day do I want to commit to learning the guitar?
Am I willing to do the work necessary?
If the answer is yes to these questions with a final destination & a definite WHY you will be ready for your 10-step practice routine for all guitar players.
10-Step Practice Routine for All Guitar Players
1.) Tuning your guitar 2-5 min
Having your guitar in tune is very important as it will make a huge difference in the way the guitar sounds and your ability to produce notes on the instrument. So make sure you’re in tune.
2.) Finger warm-ups 5-10 min
Finger warm-ups can help your motor skill development. Everything you do on the guitar is based on the agility of your hands and fingers so finger exercises and warm-ups help to keep your hands and fingers in shape.
3.) Notes review 5-10 min
Knowing where the notes are located on the guitar fretboard is very important. This allows you to locate chords, and scale patterns and develop a better understanding of how they work together in creating music. It also helps you to develop your ear.
4.) Chord shapes review 5-10 min
Spend some time reviewing your chord shapes. This is where learning how to read chord charts comes into play. Chord charts or chord diagrams as they’re sometimes called can help you to “visualize” the shape of the chord.
This can help with memory retention because our minds are wired that way and we have been taught to recognize shapes since we were little kids. Square, circle, triangle, etc. This can help you improve your guitar playing.
5.) Scale pattern review 5-10 min
This is the same thing except with scale patterns. All notes on the guitar fretboard can be summarized into patterns. If you can learn to think like this, you will be able to see insights into how the notes work that most people do not.
Scale patterns allow you to see where the scales are located in each key and where to play them so that you sound good every time you play a guitar riff or a guitar solo.
6.) Riffs & songs review 5-10 min
To me, the ultimate goal of learning to play the guitar is to play songs. Knowing all the chord shapes, scale patterns and guitar theory is not going to do you any good if you can’t play songs.
It will be ok for learning purposes and keep the brain stimulated if that is your goal. But playing songs is where the real fun is. So I recommend you work on reviewing riffs and songs. And if you need help learning your favorite songs, I recommend guitartricks.com
7.) Reading the sheet music 5-10 min
Learning to read sheet music can be a huge benefit to your guitar-playing progress. It has many benefits that you just can’t get from playing by ear.
The understanding of how music works, how the notes form chords and scales, and how these notes can be manipulated to create other chords and scales. This and much more can be learned from the ability to read sheet music.
8.) Ear Training. 10-15 min
In addition to reading sheet music, you want to work on your ear training. This is important because even if you know how to read sheet music it might not always be available.
In that case, you will need to depend on your ears to get the job done. This is a great skill to have because your ears will always be with you. No sheet music is required. A massive benefit of playing guitar.
9.) Rhythm techniques 10-15 min
Playing rhythm is the foundation of the guitar. It is the essence of playing any instrument. Your rhythm skills are very important if you ever wish to play with others. Timing is a crucial element in guitar playing and I recommend you work on its development daily.
10.) Lead guitar soloing 10-15 min
And last but not least, lead guitar soloing. These techniques are more advanced and not for everyone as not all players like to play solos. But if you have an interest in learning to play guitar solos, work on those as well.
Work on techniques like hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, scale locations, and so forth. It is the discipline that you develop in these areas that will make you a great lead guitar player.
** Focus on these 10 things when practicing your guitar daily. If there are some things you don’t know yet, warm up with what you do know & then proceed to work on learning the rest. Try to learn something new every day. That way you’ll accelerate your learning & reach your goals much faster.
But this will only happen if you do two things:
1.) Don’t get discouraged by slow growth in certain areas causing you to quit.
2.) Work on these areas to get better at them so that growth & development is faster.
Lesson Conclusion
You only get better at doing something (anything) by continuously doing it over & over again. So get to work, and develop a practice routine & before you know it you’ll start getting good & having fun in the process.
The beginning is the hardest in learning guitar (acoustic or electric) but if you develop good practice habits you’ll get over the hurdles & feel better about yourself because you will be getting closer to your destination.
Method Books
Be sure to check out my guitar method books to help you develop faster and get answers to your questions quicker. I have books for beginners who are getting started, those working to improve their rhythm guitar playing, and those looking to play guitar solos.
These books are all designed with an easy step-by-step process that will teach you all you need to know in these areas. Develop a solid practice routine like taught in this lesson and you will move forward quickly.
Best of luck, and until our next guitar lesson, take care.
Dwayne Jenkins
