In the previous article, I talked about how to practice like the Pros.
In this short (very short) article, I outline what I’ve felt are the 5 principles which helped me the most in getting my playing to be more consistent.
Because most people play the guitar as a hobby and often don’t have the luxury of sitting around for 10 hours a day doing nothing but the guitar, we need to learn to make the most use of our time. I would expect most people to probably have 30-60 minute blocks of time to practice, and this article is addressed to that group.
Of course, if you have longer blocks and apply these principles, you obviously still stand to gain. So here we go.
1. Practice lots of different and hard stuff
Practice tapping. Practice alternate picking. Then move to sweep picking. Then try doing sweep picking patterns using alternate picking. Try exclusively hammer-on/pull-off licks. ETC (try this link for ideas)
Stuff tends to complement, eg: outside picking complements alternate picking 3 note scales. You thus save time by doing this.
2. Drills before Songs
Practicing various licks and drills does two things:
- They serve as a warm up.
- They make the song ‘seem easier’ in comparison, especially the technical parts
Very likely, doing strict drills nails down the technique for a song and leaves room for further improvement. This wouldn’t be the case if you strictly try to practice a song, especially given people’s tendency to make it sound ‘good enough’.
In essence, drills breed perfection that carries over to your other playing.
3. With drills – repeat x 20 and move on
If you are doing a 4 bar scale, repeat it 20x, trying to get faster each time, then move on regardless of how good you’ve done. Don’t come back during this practice session.
Improvements happen over time, usually at the bare minimum over a day or two. This capitalises on the spacing effect and saves you time.
In this case, I urge you to try this method of practice for 1 week and see if after that week you have made great improvements in short time.
4. Have a specific set of drills which you must go through in every session
These should obey the first 3 principles. This is most importantly a reminder of what core skills need to be practiced before moving on.
5. Focus and Repeat Ad-Infinitum
This should be a no-brainer but it’s worth mentioning. Consistency is key, and results are not manifested until Years (yes! YEARS!) later.
This comes from my hypothesis that there are two successful groups of musicians. One group who is born talented and is given the time and resources to excel. And the other group who goes out of their way to stick to a certain practice schedule forever.
You and I would be much better off having a consistent, daily schedule something like this:
Scale up or down depending on needs and don’t forget to experiment.
So try it (if you haven’t already have a good schedule like this), for just 1 WEEK, and you will see this difference. I certainly did.
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