Practice
A “regimen” is a behavior that’s organized according to a system. A practice regimen is exactly that, but for us, it’s a way to formalize our guitar practice; it can help get the maximum benefit from the time spent practicing. Your own practice regimen can be whatever you decide it should be but at minimum I would suggest practicing 3 times a week, 20 minutes at a time. If you can do that you’ll see your guitar playing improve measurably.
I’m also a big fan of the 80/20 rule which says that 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results. With regard to practice, I think 80% of the time should be spent having fun- playing the things that make you happy. 20% of the time however you might focus like a laser beam on things that are hard to do or more challenging. Remember this is supposed to be fun! We can work hard just a little bit and see ourselves moving forward as guitarists… and this is very satisfying!!
Of course the more you practice the faster you will get better! Just remember to have fun while you are doing it, and carve out some time to focus on difficult stuff too.
I also recommend getting a notebook to keep in your guitar case. Any kind will do. I call that a guitar journal and you can use it to note your practice times, make a note of any questions or concerns, write down your musical ideas, chord changes and tabs for melodic lines… really, anything music or guitar related. It’s very useful to a guitarist to make note of his progress!
One common problem that beginning (and even some more advanced guitar students) have is that they are most concerned about playing fast. I cannot stress this enough: Practice slowly, be patient and recognize your successes…
…and your mistakes. We all have a natural tendency to “gloss” over mistakes. For example: you can play a scale passably quickly but not perfectly every time. The problem is that your poor brain still hasn’t heard you play the scale perfectly… it’s not exactly sure about what that’s supposed to sound like, coming out of your guitar!
In your mind, you’ve played the complete scale but really you haven’t yet played it correctly. Consequently your brain hasn’t heard it played correctly yet. So please – make it easier on yourself and practice as slowly as you can so that the exercise sounds exactly how you want it to.
Under Your Hand
One very useful idea that my keyboard player Patrick Kersson turned me on to is the idea of having a passage, scale, song or chord changes, strumming pattern- whatever you’re working on “under your hand”. That phrase means you can play the exercise ten times in a row without a mistake. Whether or not you can do that comfortably in front of an audience, that’s a different story! We’ll talk about performing tips and techniques once we get a few things to perform. For now though, if you want to be confident that you know something thoroughly, make sure it’s “under your hand”.
Next” some common musical terms for guitarists