Developing a Practice Routine for Guitar

By Peter Wirges, ENGW-131 Online

Table of Contents

Table of Images

Audience Background Goals Repetition Scales Improvisation Ear Training Composition

Technique Practicing Songs Other’s Routines Chords Conclusion Finalized Routine How it has Fared Thus

Far Works Cited

Table of Images Image 1 – guitarist

montage- wikipedia.org Image 2 – goal-

smallbiztrends.com Image 3 – goal- effective-

time-management-strategies.com

Image 4 – repetition- 3.bp.blogspot.com

Image 5 – scales- sionsoft.com

Image 6 – ear- underthegunreview.net

Image 7 – writing -digilist.com

Image 8 – exercise -ultimateguitar.com

Image 9 – guitar guy -playhotguitar.com

Image 10 – Klaus Tol -guitarhabits.com

Image 11 – thumbs up - Peter Wirges

Audience This presentation is specifically

directed at guitar players who are looking to form a well-rounded practice routine that will take their skills to a higher level.

Since the information contained within the following slides is applicable to anyone who plays guitar or has the desire to play, it is also broadly directed at anyone with the intention of becoming a great guitar player.

Background I have played guitar for about four years now, and

in all that time I never formed a well-rounded practice routine. Me practicing typically consists of learning songs I think are cool, improvising and writing riffs/songs when they come to me. While this has gotten me quite far, I would call myself anything but well-rounded.

So recently, I decided to do some research and develop a practice routine that would (with enough repetition) give me the skills to do everything I have ever wanted to with my guitar.

Goals The first thing I needed

to do was evaluate where I wanted this routine to take me. That is, what do I want to be able to do after following through with it for a large amount of time. After much deliberating, I came upon these rather ambitious goals:

Goals (continued) Play over any piece of

music (and sound good) Listen to any piece of

music and figure out the notes/know what they are playing.

Compose and write the music that is in my head.

With no other music, just my guitar, improvise and sound good.

Have the technical skills to be able to play this:

Repetition Over my years of playing I have always heard the surest way to improve is by repetition.

Before I developed my practice routine I felt it would be prudent to know why.

It turns out “by making the same movements over and over in response to the same image/s such as your music lesson, the nerve to muscle connections gradually start to remember the pattern, that is, the transmission of the signals becomes more efficient and easier, and this is how the thinking part in the seeing-thinking-doing is gradually replaced by seeing and doing or by muscle memory.” So for this practice schedule to work I am going to have to spend a lot of time on it.

Scales When using Google to search

for information, nearly everything I read mentioned scales as vital for improvement.

A post from the blog street musician convinced me that I need them in my routine. Scales are like the language of music. Knowing them helps you to understand what is going on and what works in a given musical situation.

Improvisation

I used youtube to search for some good exercises to improve improvisation (playing on the spot).

After watching this lesson from guitar legend Paul Gilbert I decided this would be an awesome exercise to do because it focuses on playing with the rhythm, something I struggle with currently.

Ear Training As stated, one of my main

goals is to improve my musical ear. I did a lot of searching to find good tips on this one but “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog” by Gary Ewer finally convinced me to work on this by:

Learning more music theory (what scales are based on)

learning to identify intervals, which can be thought of as the distance between two notes.

Composition Another thing I wanted to

improve upon was my writing skills. The book “Cash Tracks” by Jeffrey Fisher gave some good tips for composing that I will give a shot.

The biggest one being to write something everyday, something I do not do currently. I think this will be helpful for the same reason repetitive practice is.

Technique To play a song like “Cliffs of Dover” will require a considerable amount of

technical precision and coordination.

Developing technique is something I have known about since I began playing. It usually entails repeatedly playing an exercise such as below:

I will definitely be including technique exercises in my routine as I know from experience they work.

Technique (continued) Although I already know and use technique exercises, I

really do not know many of them. So I went back to Youtube to find some that the pros use. For my routine I will be practicing the exercises in the following video as Joe Satriani has some of the best technical skills around.

Practicing Songs Although I do already

practice other artists songs all the time, I thought it would be prudent to include this as it has helped me in so many ways.

For my new practice routine, however, I will not be spending as much time on it as I only have a limited amount of time and I want to improve my weak points.

Others’ Routines In developing my practice

routine I felt it would be helpful to look at others’ suggestions. In a post in the blog guitarhabits, The author, Klaus Tol, lists what to practice to stay motivated.

Many of the things in that post I already do/plan on doing so I got some reinforcement from that post.

Chords One of the things Tol listed in

his guitar workout that I did not have in mine was learning new chords/improving vocabulary.

I will be including this in my routine as Tol made a convincing argument for it, “Building an extended vocabulary is important because it allows you to express yourself freely on the guitar. The bigger your vocabulary, the more creative ideas come to mind.”

Conclusion

When putting my guitar workout together I assumed an allotted time of 2 hours a day. On the following slide you can see my finalized routine with the time allotment for each focus.

I chose each of these focuses as they all in some way help me achieve the goals I put forth for my guitar playing

Finalized Routine

Technique Exercises – 10 minutes Music theory and scales – 25

minutes Song practicing – 20 minutes Writing/Composition – 20 minutes Chords/vocabulary – 15 minutes Paul Gilbert’s rhythm exercise – 15

minutes Interval training/ear training – 15

minutes

How it has fared so far I put together the practice

workout about 2 weeks ago and have been following it since.

I have noticed more improvement then I was seeing before and I have learned a lot more about music itself, I really feel like I am progressing much better and it has helped my confidence a lot knowing I am not leaving anything out.

Works Cited "Muscle Memory And Guitar Players." The GuitaroJam News. 26 Feb. 2008. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.

<http://news.guitarojam.com/musicians-health/muscle-memory-and-guitar-players-73/>. Tol, Klaus. "The Ultimate Motivational Guitar Practice Workout." GuitarHabits.com. Web. 8 Nov.

2011. < http://www.guitarhabits.com/the-ultimate-motivational-guitar-practice-workout/>. Gilbert, Paul. "Paul Gilbert Rhythm Lesson." Youtube.com. 17 Mar. 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCojcP_6AkI>. Eric Johnson. "Cliffs of Dover." Ah Via Musicom. 1990. MP3. "Why Learn Scales ? : The Maths Of Music." Street Musician – Guitar Blog. 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 9

Nov. 2011. <http://www.streetmusician.co.uk/whylearnscales/>. Fisher, Jeffrey P. Cash Tracks - Compose, Produce, and Sell Your Original Soundtrack Music and

Jingles. Cengage Learning, 2006. Print. Guitar Chord Guide. Digital image. Magical World of Music. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.

<http://jafrixen.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html>. Ewer, Gary. "4 Ways to Improve Your Musical Ear." The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog.

Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://garyewer.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/4-ways-to-improve-your-musical-ear/>.

 "Groovy Arpeggio Exercises." ULTIMATE GUITAR TABS ARCHIVE. 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/guitar_techniques/groovy_arpeggio_exercises.html>.

Satriani, Joe. "Joe Satriani's Guitar Tips." YouTube. 29 July 2006. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNDyI5b3Fh8>.