How To Know Which Items To Include Into Your Guitar Practice Schedules
When you first open the Practice Generator, you will see many folders that expand into a long list of various guitar practice items. Observe the picture below:
If you do not yet know what some of these items mean, that is normal. For now, begin practicing the items you are familiar with and ignore the more advanced ones you have never seen before. As you become more advanced as a musician and/or take online guitar lessons with me, you will eventually learn about the other topics and will be ready to practice them at that point.
Although these items are all necessary for you to practice and learn at some point in your guitar learning process, you do NOT have to practice all of these items 'now' or during any single guitar practice schedule.
How to decide which items you need to practice now:
If you are my guitar student, I already give you the exact materials you need to practice to reach your musical goals. You must always focus on your most current lesson at any given time (especially if your practice time is limited).
The lesson items I give you relate to the categories within the "Standard Practice Items" of the Practice Generator. Simply pick from the appropriate categories and the program will create your schedule.
Each individual item in your lesson equals ONE practice item in the Practice Generator. So if I gave you 7 items in one lesson, your practice schedule needs to consist of 7 items. The entire lesson is not "one item" (in this example, it is 7 items).
For example, if I give you a lesson on Aural Skills, you should open the "Aural Skills" category (found inside the "Non Playing Technical Skills" folder of the Practice Generator) and add it to your schedule. If I give you scale sequences to practice (as another example), then add "Scale Sequences/Fragments" item (found inside the "Technical Skills (Lead Guitar)" folder) to your schedule. So the categories for all the items that I give you in your lessons are already inside the Practice Generator and available for you to create your schedules easily and quickly.
If you are not taking guitar lessons of any kind, first visit this musical goals page. Follow the steps on that page to select the goals you want to reach and I will show you the primary steps and the secondary steps you need to go through (and the items you need to practice) to become the guitar player you want to be. This outline makes it clear for you which items you need to include into your guitar practice schedules right now. In addition, check out this article.
If you are studying with another guitar teacher, include the items you are being taught into the Practice Generator (see instructions on this page to learn how to do this) and these materials will be the most important things you should work on.
The number of items you should pick for each of your guitar practice schedules depends largely on your available practice time. Use the following guideline if you are unsure of how many items to add into your guitar practice schedule:
If you have 30 minutes or less per day to practice - pick between 3-5 items (make sure to pick at least 3).
If you have between 30 minutes and 1 hour per day to practice - pick 5-6 items.
If you have more than 1 hour per day to practice - pick at least 6 items (or more if you want).
If you want to learn more about what each practice item in the Practice Generator means, read below for a brief explanation:
Songwriting/Composing: When you practice songwriting, you work on applying various processes and ideas used to create the music you want to hear. Practicing writing music is completely different from simply “playing your guitar” or jamming. Check out these articles about
songwriting to get some ideas about what to do when developing this part of your playing.
Improvisation: The main difference between “composing solos” and “improvisation” is that improvising is a spontaneous activity. A good analogy to musical improvising would be delivering an unrehearsed speech. You only know the basic topic you want to address, but you have to articulate these ideas in words and sentences on the spot, while you are speaking (with nothing prepared in advance). When you practice improvising, you have to work on “putting yourself on the spot” and creating solos spontaneously (even if you are not playing in front of people).
Composing Solos: The process of “composing” a solo gives you more time to think everything through as you are creating the music. You are not under pressure to create a solo on the spot as you would be if you were improvising. However, the processes of “composing” guitar solos are much different than the processes that go into “improvising” solos. This is why it is very important to practice both skills (improvisation and composing solos) separately focusing on the unique skills required for each. Check out the free
guitar solo tips to learn more about how to improve this area of your playing.
Sight Singing: This term refers to practicing singing melodies that are written out on paper (usually in standard notation). Ideally they should be melodies which you have never sung or played before. Singing melodies will help your ears (aural skills) to develop at a much faster pace. The better your ears are, the easier it will be for you to improvise/compose solos and songs as well as recognize the sounds that you like in music and instantly play them on your guitar. See
this article for additional ideas for working on ear training.
Dictation: Common understanding of this term as it relates to language and text is “writing down (transcribing) spoken text WHILE it is being spoken”. In music, “dictation” means exactly the same thing, only you are writing down musical rhythms, and/or, melodies, and/or chords while they are being played. This is a challenging skill to develop, however it will improve your ears to a VERY high level if you practice it consistently (and no, you do NOT need perfect pitch to practice musical dictation exercises). This is best practiced with a partner or someone who can play the melodies, rhythms, and/or chords for you while you are trying to write them down. See
this article for additional ideas for working on ear training.
Transcribing: This term refers to learning music (your favorite songs, solos etc…) by ear. Practicing this particular skill will greatly help you with writing your own songs. This is different from “dictation”, since you are not required to write the music down “on the spot”, and you can use your instrument to check yourself as you are transcribing something. See
this article for additional ideas for working on ear training.
Chord Vocabulary: Just like a vocabulary of words, a "chord vocabulary" refers to how many chords you know how to play. This term refers more to the music theory aspect of learning chords, such as studying chord formulas and knowing what notes go into what chords. This applies to triads, seventh chords, add note chords, extended chords and chromatic function chords.
Chord Voicing: This term refers to learning how to play the chords that you are already familiar with in multiple ways on the guitar. For example, there are dozens of ways to play any chord on the fretboard. If you only know 1 or 2 ways of playing each chord that you have learned on the guitar, then you really need to work on improving this particular skill.
Voice Leading: This is a general term that refers to studying how the individual notes within a chord move as you play a series of chords one after the other. When composers of the past used to write music, they didn't write/think about music based on chords. Instead they thought about playing several melodies at the same time, each one harmonizing the others. This later evolved into chords) as we know them today. Using voice leading is a very different (and more advanced) approach to songwriting than simply playing chord "shapes" on guitar. Working on this musical skill will instantly make your songwriting many times more creative and expressive.
Changing Chords: This refers to the physical ability to change from one chord to the next and doing so smoothly, without any hesitations or landing your fingers on the wrong frets.
Fretboard Note Memorization: This term refers to learning the notes on the neck of the guitar. This skill is critical to all good improvising, soloing and songwriting. Knowing where all the notes are on the guitar and being able to identify them instantly will help you to feel comfortable playing in any key without losing your place on the fretboard or playing wrong notes.
Memorizing Scale Patterns And Fingerings: This refers to learning to play scales positions all over the neck of the guitar. The better you know how scale patterns are laid out on the fretboard, the easier it will be to solo and improvise all over the guitar in every key.
Memorizing Arpeggio Patterns And Fingerings: This refers to learning to play arpeggios all over the neck of the guitar. The better you know how arpeggios are laid out on the fretboard, the easier it will be to solo and improvise all over the guitar in every key.
Warm Up Exercises: Include this category into your practice schedule if you have some exercises that you want to play at the start of a practice session to prepare your hands for more serious playing.
Scale Sequences/Fragments (Practice With A Clean Tone): You create a scale sequence any time you play the notes of a scale in some repeating pattern other than strictly up and down. Playing "fragments" means taking a short section of a scale sequence (such as on 2 strings) and drilling it over and over to work on speed. Both scale sequences and fragments help you to become more comfortable with playing scales all over the guitar and build better guitar speed. For this specific item you should be practicing with distortion off, or with the guitar unplugged.
Arpeggios (Practice With A Clean Tone): The term "arpeggios" refers to playing chords "one note at a time". There are many ways of playing arpeggios on guitar. If you need to work on this part of your playing, add this category to your practice session. For this specific item you should be practicing with distortion off, or with the guitar unplugged. To learn more about practicing arpeggios, check out
this page.
Arpeggios (Practice With Distortion): The term "arpeggios" refers to playing chords "one note at a time". There are many ways of playing arpeggios on guitar. If you need to work on this part of your playing, add this category to your practice session. For this specific item you should be practicing using distortion. To learn more about practicing arpeggios, check out
this page.
Sweep Picking: This technique is one of the most common ways of playing arpeggios on guitar. If you are completely new to sweep picking, read
this page.
Directional Picking: This picking technique combines the benefits of both alternate picking and sweep picking and helps to achieve very high speed in your guitar playing. It is the picking method that I use and teach to my students. To learn more about this technique, read
this article.
Tremolo Picking: This technique involves picking a single note very fast with rapid alternate picking.
Tapping: This technique refers to playing fast hammer ons and pull offs with your fretting hand in combination with hammer ons and pull offs using your picking hand's one or more fingers.
2 Hand Synchronization: This term refers to training both your picking and fretting hands to work together fluently and to fret and pick each note at the same time. Poor synchronization is one of the most common causes of problems with speed. I can train you to master 2-hand synchronization in my
online guitar lessons.
String Skipping: This term refers to playing strings on your guitar that are not right next to each other. For example, when playing strings G and high E, you are "skipping" the B string with your pick.
Legato: The term legato refers to playing almost entirely with hammer ons, pull offs and slides. To play this technique well you also need to be able to minimize unwanted guitar string noise.
Strumming Chords: Practice this skill if you want to train different strumming patterns to use in your songs and rhythm guitar playing.
Odd Meter Practice: If you want to play music that uses time signatures other than 4/4, you need to spend time training to play in odd meters (such as 5/8, 11/4 etc).
Poly Rhythm And Poly Meter: Poly Rhythm refers to playing two simultaneous guitar parts consisting of different rhythmic groupings (for example one part is playing eighth notes and the other part is playing triplets). Poly Meter refers to playing two simultaneous guitar parts in different time signatures. For example, one guitar part can be playing in 4/4 while the second guitar is playing in 3/4.
Palm Muting Technique: This refers to practicing making your palm muting totally tight and consistent. Although this is a simple skill, many guitarists (especially lead players) have a hard time playing with totally consistent and clean palm muting.
Timing Practice: This refers to practicing playing in time either to a metronome or a drum machine. Most guitar players (especially lead guitar players) have a hard time doing this until and unless they spend some time practicing this specific skill.
Study Fundamentals Of Music Theory: This includes studying intervals, key signatures, scales and modes.
Study Harmony (Chords): This includes studying how chords are built, how they function in keys and practicing to apply them in your playing.
Study Advanced Chord Theory: This includes learning about chromatic chords, modulations, borrowed chords and other advanced concepts related to using chords in music.
Finger Picking: This means learning to play with your picking hand's fingers only (do not use a pick during this time).
Repertoire: This term refers to learning specific songs or pieces of music that you want to play or perform.
Vibrato (With Hand): This technique is one of the most important components of good guitar phrasing. Making time for working on this technique will greatly improve all aspects of your lead guitar playing. You can get more tips for practicing vibrato by reading this article about vibrato control.
Vibrato (With Bar): This skill refers to the same vibrato technique described above only this time it is done with the vibrato bar (if your guitar has one) instead of your fingers. Study the tips in the article about vibrato control to get some ideas on what to do while practicing this skill.
Bending Strings: This technique, along with vibrato, is fundamental to all aspects of your lead guitar playing. You need to learn to bend in tune consistently (and without thinking) to the intervals of a half step (one fret), whole step (2 frets) and whole step and a half (3 frets). If you struggle with doing this consistently well, make time for practicing your bending technique.
Vibrato Bar Techniques: This term refers to a variety of sounds/effects that can be done with the vibrato bar (if your guitar has one) in addition to simple vibrato. If you like the sound of guitar players such as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, spend some time developing skills in this area.
Pinch Harmonics: This is a very expressive phrasing technique and sounds particularly cool in heavy guitar riffs and at the ends of some lead guitar phrases when combined with aggressive vibrato. It is done by quickly (and simultaneously) touching the string with the pick and the picking hand's thumb. If you like the sound of this technique but struggle with performing these harmonics consistently well, include this item into your guitar practice schedule.
Integration (Linear Integration And Simultaneous integration): These concepts are part of my geometric approach to teaching guitar - one that is proven to deliver extraordinary results to over a thousand guitar players whom I have taught over the last 20+ years. To learn more about the geometric approach to learning guitar, watch this free video about the most effective way to practice guitar. I have a whole series of lessons on these topics that are NOT available for sale to the general public. They are available as bonus items to the Guitar Playing Accelerator.
Reading Guitar Tablature: Practice learning to read tablature fluently to the point where you can see a piece of music notated in tab and be able to know how to play it (at least slowly) right away.
Reading Music Notation: Practice learning to read standard music notation (sheet music) fluently to the point where you can see a piece of music notated in standard notation and be able to know how to play it (at least slowly) right away.
Reading Chord Charts: Practice learning to read chord charts fluently to the point where you can see a piece of music notated in this way and be able to know how to play it (at least slowly) right away.
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