Practice structure

[peterstephan7]

So I've been playing guitar on and off for 14 years but last fall I decided to up my game and really dig in, practice 2-5 hours a day. This is the way I've structured it.

1. Technique i.e. scales, picking, arpeggios etc.
2. Chords. Checking out Ted Greene, moving around voicings, comping
3. Playing changes, improvising, licks and patterns
4. Rhythm. Working with the Syncopation for the modern drummer right now, odd accents over 4
5. transcription, learning it in different positions.

Even though it's a lot and i usually don't do everything every day and i feel like I'm kinda all over the place. While I have noticed that my technique and ability to solo have improved, I'm wondering what I could improve. Also, what's your practice plan I'd love to see it.

Thanks

[pcjazz]

So I've been playing guitar on and off for 14 years but last fall I decided to up my game and really dig in, practice 2-5 hours a day. This is the way I've structured it.

1. Technique i.e. scales, picking, arpeggios etc.
2. Chords. Checking out Ted Greene, moving around voicings, comping
3. Playing changes, improvising, licks and patterns
4. Rhythm. Working with the Syncopation for the modern drummer right now, odd accents over 4
5. transcription, learning it in different positions.

Even though it's a lot and i usually don't do everything every day and i feel like I'm kinda all over the place. While I have noticed that my technique and ability to solo have improved, I'm wondering what I could improve. Also, what's your practice plan I'd love to see it.

Thanks

Learn some (many) tunes.

[AllanAllen]

I work from home so I do 10-15 minute music breaks. I warm up with scales in the morning, play tunes/noodle to relieve stress during the day, and in the evening I work on reading.

[Tal_175]

1. Technique i.e. scales, picking, arpeggios etc.
2. Chords. Checking out Ted Greene, moving around voicings, comping
3. Playing changes, improvising, licks and patterns
4. Rhythm. Working with the Syncopation for the modern drummer right now, odd accents over 4
5. transcription, learning it in different positions.

I find that instead of compartmentalizing concepts into different practice areas, combining them into one practice as much as possible works better for me.

For example there is no reason to separate rhythm, time, syncopation from everything else in the list. I also find that there is no reason to separate chords, voicings from scales, arpeggios and language. Chords and voicings come from the same scales as lines. It's best to make that connection transparent while practicing them.

Chords and voicings (and everting else) can also be practiced in the context of a tune. So I don't think there is any reason not to integrate repertoire into the same practice.

So I take a tune, turn the metronome on and work on the scales, arpeggios, lines, chord voicings/comping, rhythm, line etc. chorus after chorus all in the context of the tune. It's sometimes necessary to temporarily isolate a concept and focus on it. But my goal is to bring the concept back into the unified practice as quickly as possible.

That's what works the best for me as this approach minimizes the gap between practice and performance IMO.

[Christian Miller]

What’s on the slate atm

Jazz practice schedule
4 tasks (1 cycle of approx 30m)

• Run melodies (all keys)
• Mick Goodrick or Jordan chords stuff (you choose)
• Slow metronome practice (10-15bpm)
• Sight reading tunes

Cool extra stuff

• Monk!
• Nested arpeggios on vamps and static chords
• Comping with 2nds
• Dim dominants in minor keys (V13b9 etc)
• Partimento (Fenaroli Book IV)

[vintagelove]

Learn tunes.

[tlathrop]

I'm 70. I've been playing since age 13. In my 20s I did the eight-hours-a-day routine, focusing on technique, theory, repertoire, rhythm, etc. Surrounding that, I played in bands that ran the gamut of rock, blues, swing, country, jazz (including Brazilian jazz). Nowadays, my practice involves playing tunes, maybe writing tunes, and exploring new melodic structures to extend improvisational variety. I also explore tones, ever searching for the right combination of thickness/density/depth/clarity and punch without fuzz. The search is endless. I love it -- and that's the main point.

[BigDee62]

How much were you practicing before? If you try to jump from 30 mins to 3 hours, you won’t be able to stick with it. You’ll get into photography or something else.

Put maybe three fourths your time (or more) into songs. Pick songs you’ll learn something from. Growing up with classical piano, this stuff was easy to find - etudes, as in Chopin Etudes. But if, for example, you pick a funky R&B tune, it’ll develop your rhythm.

Use a metronome.

Have a plan.

Transcription is awesome- big kudos for having that in your plan.

[deacon Mark]

I have been playing for almost 50 years and outside getting the usual things down when beginning to play the guitar it is all about tunes. If I had it to learn all over again outside of learning to site read, which I do pretty fair, and general scales and arps, all I should have done was learn tunes.

Since retiring from my day gig I just sit and play tunes. I try to memorize them now and even started a thread on it but a metronome and and playing the melody. learn lots of tunes because that is why we play the guitar. Nothing wrong with scales and other stuff but if all you do it play tunes over and over, pretty much everything else falls in place.

The late great Howard Roberts said it best. He said that simply playing over and over tunes will build technique. In order to play the tune nice and at proper tempo the technique follows.

[Jimmy Smith]

Isolate topics that you can integrate into your tune playing rather than trying to level up using a comprehensive technique regimen. The fundamentals are important, but be wise with your use of time and effort. If something won't ever relate to your playing, then don't practice it. The 1 big commitment I have undertaken which has really helped me is 24 key practice. I play in 2 adjacent keys plus their parallel minor every few days then move up 1 key. Has really helped my fluency. I've broken down my practice to 1. Time and rhythm, practicing with a drum track. 2. 24 key practice. 3. Right hand lines which includes making sure I have my fundamentals of scales and arps down. 4. Chords including voicings and chord melody ideas.

[rpjazzguitar]

I could use a practice structure.

What I do is Whack A Mole.

Whatever I'm currently feeling worst about, is what I work on.

That's typically ear training by playing tunes in unfamiliar keys, not-nearly-enough transcription and practicing arps to work on right hand technique. Also, whatever tune I screwed up most recently on a gig or jam.

[emanresu]

I know I should do transcriptions but don't wanna sound like anyone

[maxsmith]

After years (decades) of trying different approaches, including 8-12 hour marathon stretches back in my 20s that laid the technical foundation I’ve relied on ever since, I gradually settled on a set of practice strategies that work for me and that I can consistently apply. More recently, during my doctoral program, I reviewed a lot of recent academic research and literature on music teaching and learning and skill formation and incorporated a few ideas from that. I have settled on roughly this:

I work on only a few areas of focus at a time, usually three. I use a timer during practice sessions. I work on all three areas during a one-hour cycle using this timing:

3 minutes break
12 minutes on Focus 1
3 minutes break
12 minutes on Focus 2
3 minutes break
12 minutes on Focus 3
15 minutes break

That’s an hour. If I end up not being able to practice more than an hour, then at least I worked on every area that day. If I have more time, I keep repeating the hour-long cycle. I do this even if I know I will have several hours to practice because it introduces interleaving into your practice routine.

During the breaks I do NOTHING. I don’t read emails or text or browse social media or make phone calls or listen to music or do small errands or anything - I sit or stand or lie down and I do NOTHING. I’m trying to avoid interference in absorbing, digesting, and remembering what I just practiced. I may reflect on what I played or just let my mind wander, but that’s it.

The first 3 minute “break” is to mentally separate whatever I was doing before from practicing - again I do nothing, letting my mind settle into the practicing frame.

The doing nothing might be the most difficult part of the cycle, but I’ve see the benefit in my own case.

A couple of other little things. Recent research found that people who inserted brief spaces of inactivity between repetitions of a musical passage during practice demonstrated better recall and performance on the following day than subjects who were permitted to just hammer away at a passage as much as they wanted. If you are practicing an awkward melodic passage or are trying to memorize the chords on the bridge of a tune, say, you might get better results if you pause 15-30 seconds between repetitions, instead of repeating something over and over without a gap.

The University of Texas at Austin has a fantastic website on music learning with tons of studies and articles that are freely accessible without an academic journal account; worth reading by musicians at any stage of their development, and especially useful if you teach. Look under the “Menu” button at the upper right.

Welcome | Center for Music Learning

Also, I try to remember something I read long ago from Howard Roberts - slow a thing down to the speed at which you can play it correctly, otherwise you’ll spend more time “practicing” (playing) things wrong than playing them right.

Right now I am working on:

1. Learning to play the pieces I composed for a book I’ll be releasing soon
2. Playing arpeggios, fingerstyle with no nails
3. Re-working through the Leavitt “Modern Method for Guitar” from Vol. 1, page 1 through the last page of Vol. 3, with a pick, following Leavitt’s fingerings and picking indications

I try to be specific about what I’m doing on a particular day:

1. DADGAD Piece #3, measures 13-20, mm = 70bpm
2. Arpeggio studies 36-39, mm = 112bpm
3. Leavitt, Vol II, Chord Etude #12, pg. 106

I would run these few things through the hourly cycle for as much time as I have that day. It’s better if those hours can be spread out (spaced repetition), but that can be difficult if you have other commitments.

You’ll have other priorities of course; you sound like a younger guy committing himself to substantial improvement and that’s great, while I am pretty much retired from public performance and work on what interests me - 20 years ago almost all my practice time would have been focused on specific music that I would have to play at a specific time and place. But consider that banging your head against a wall and driving yourself like a rental car may not get you where you want to go faster than a consistent, focused, well-paced approach. And when you’re deciding between one more hour of practice and one more hour of sleep - the sleep might be better for your health and your guitar playing - research supports that too...

[AllanAllen]

I know I should do transcriptions but don't wanna sound like anyone

I rolled my eyes so hard they fell out.

[sch]

I've found out that having a single practice routine makes practice boring as hell.

I change the routine once a month or so.

Usually it contains some form of:
1. warm up
2. scales/arpeggios
3. connecting game
4. chops
5. composing
6. transcribing

[cmajor9]

@maxsmith - Thanks for the info about the UT-Austin music learning program. I looked at the site using the link you gave, but didn’t see the Menu link you mentioned. I do see an Online Resources link - could that be the one you mean, or am I missing something?

[maxsmith]

@maxsmith - Thanks for the info about the UT-Austin music learning program. I looked at the site using the link you gave, but didn’t see the Menu link you mentioned. I do see an Online Resources link - could that be the one you mean, or am I missing something?

The website may look different on different devices. Once you click the “Menu” button at the upper right, a list drops down. Under “Online Resources” you’ll see “Research”, click the arrow to the right. That brings up another list of research areas. Click on whatever you like and down the page there are lists of articles with a link to read or download as a PDF. See the images below:

[Marinero]

Hi, P,

Beginning students: 15-minute warmup(scales, arpeggios, stretching, block chords)
25 minutes working on a song
Intermediate students: 20-minute warmup
30-minutes working on a song
Advanced students: 25-minute warmup
45 minutes working on a song

These are minimum times needed 2X a day for any real progress.

Marinero

[emanresu]

My plan is ear training about until the brain says "no more. seriously".
Then put a backing track on and try something.
Not recommended.

[C.A.JO.]

I base all my practice around tunes.

In general, I work on Technique as a separate entity as a long term developing goal for 10-20 min. at the beginning of every practice session. Mostly, I work on picking technique and 2 hand syncronization.

Afterwards, I work on "Lines/Language" and "Repertoire", however, my "Language" practice always arise from my repertoire practice.

The process start like this:

1. Pick a tune to work on or to learn (new material) - Repertoire
2. Learn the melody and chords by ear (as much as possible) - Repertoire
3. Work on soloing concepts for the tune - Repertoire
4. Isolate trouble spots - which measures or sections do I struggle with? Develop strategies for improvising or playing over this section, e.g. transcribe a few new lines to develop in 12 keys, build speed on, new comping patterns/voicings, etc., which I then apply to my repertoire. - Language.

The process is not as linear as that, but that's my main concept. I work on tunes and the language necessary to sound good.

A practice session might look like this:

1. Technique - 10 min. Picking exercise
2. Language - 15 min. Take a line through 12 keys. Afterwards apply it to a tune section on a tune I'm working on, where I try to integrate the new line into my existing vocabulary.
3. Repertoire - 20 min. Play the head and comp. a few choruses. Either as maintenance practice or to look for trouble spots, which I want to iron out. E.g. do I need more comping ideas, new voicings etc. Also, I practice my known repertoire as performance practice in this section.

On top of this, I also transcribe lines, comping ideas, solos, etc. whenever I want to learn new stuff, which I then work on in isolation in my Language practice before I apply and integrate into to my Repertoire practice. But the stuff I learn always comes from a tune, where I notice a gap or need ideas.

Jens Larsen talks about something similar (practice to solve specific problems) here: https://jenslarsen.nl/jazz-practice-...-it-practical/

I also recommend this article from jazzadvice: www.jazzadvice.com | 520: Web server is returning an unknown error

[whiskey02]

It is good to have a general "plan" but be careful you don't follow your plan so strictly that you miss out on actually learning from it. Let's say for example that while you are working on arpeggios and you come to a stumbling point but there's only 2 minutes left before you switch to the next item on your list. If you ignore this hole in your knowledge or technique and move on through your list, you have wasted precious time. At the very least make note that next time you come to arpeggios on your list, you need to focus on just that fault/hole rather than blindly following your schedule. The whole purpose of cycling through different topics of practice is to find weaknesses that you need to devote attention to.