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Oh I have watched this exact video hundreds of times. Every time I understand a little more -
Originally Posted by grahambop
I understand about playing simple melodies rather than bebop lines and I want to get better at this as well. I am currently doing his melodic triad course to refresh on triads and get better at improv with them, which is helping a ton.
But one of the sources of my "what to practice" confusion is that Tim can play incredible bebop and blues single note solos as well... wish I could ask him "did you practice both at once or first learn to single note solo, then start solo guitar?". His style is something I really want to get close to, I wish he still offered zoom lessons. Seems from his website he doesnt anymore.
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02-01-2026 05:23 PM
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I suspect that when getting into jazz guitar, most of us start off learning to play single-note solos (I did!) because playing improvised solos is the most exciting aspect. But very soon you also have to start learning about chord progressions and jazz chord voicings, because the one doesn’t make sense without understanding the other. You then realise that you will need to be able to comp as well as solo, so there’s that to work on too.
Maybe a bit later you realise that mixing these elements together is a good way to develop solo guitar, so maybe you do some work on that too (if that appeals to you, some people don’t bother with it).
So I don’t think there’s really a dichotomy between all these things in the way you seem to be suggesting. It’s a lifetime pursuit to work on all these aspects in tandem. (I’ve been doing it for over 50 years and I’m still learning!)
If your interest is more in solo guitar playing, then I would put more emphasis on that part, but without completely neglecting the other aspects. They are all connected.
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Yeah I definitely had a phase when I was playing fairly well but realized I couldn’t do much with jazz when a friend or an uncle or whatever was like “play me something.” Because the solo stuff is tough.
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Yes, solo guitar is important. It's just that most of those "dreaded" solo guys like Greene/Eps/ etc etc can't play a line to save themselves. In jazz, imho, the line has pre-eminence. Originally Posted by pamosmusic
Also re solo guitar, can you imagine the "friend" or "uncle" asking Holdsworth to "play something"? He'd be lost without his refrigerator rack.
There's a lesson in that.
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Lots of great ideas here!
I have several initial reactions to the OP, including, "Don't do it!" (meaning, "8 hrs of practice each day")!
There are several thoughts behind this, but in the spirit of helpfulness, please see the attached files copied from Hal Crook's excellent book (highly recommended!), "Ready, Aim, Improvise!"
[some of you know Hal personally; if he is against me sharing these sections, I will gladly take them down!]
I appreciate Hal's breakdown of who you are (i.e., beginner, intermediate, advanced, or master player), and how/what you could be practicing in a given time frame. The OP has a teacher (yay!), and the teacher should be able to use Hal's guide to fine-tune a practice schedule (i.e., "Yeah, you definitely need more time with ___, and you're pretty good with ___, so focus on ___!" etc). Hal's guide is not "the Truth," but it's a pretty good starting place!
To the OP - make sure you have fun, and play (lots) with other people!!
Peace,
Marc
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I bet you’re an extraordinary talent. Originally Posted by jazzyfan
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I think i can safely say you are the only guy on this forum who would refer to iconic players like Ted Greene or George Van Eps as dreaded solo guys. Originally Posted by jazzyfan
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I saw Hal Crook's book, How To Improvise, on one of the free pdf sites, and also David Baker's book, A Creative Approach to Practicing Jazz. Originally Posted by marcwhy
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Never assume anything, it will just make you sound foolish.... Originally Posted by jazzyfan
Holdsworth published a chord melody book: Melody Chords for Guitar by Allan Holdsworth - Amazon.com
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have a list of 50 all the standards ..select 4-5 a day..rotate them....solos..love tenor sax solo transcriptions...lester,Rollins,Pass,Green,Wes etc etc etc..improvising Nah....i havent got the brain cells for it
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Actually, the OP's got this all wrong. He ought to know what he wants to study and then think about how long it'll take him. But to determine a set number of hours but not know what he's supposed to do with them is, um, well, a bit weird.
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How is it weird? If it were weird, no one would ever come to mentors, teachers, professionals, for advice or teaching. Originally Posted by ragman1
Its easy to say "Repertoire for one hour, fundamentals for one hour, two hours on language and two hours on comping, two on solo guitar"
But what do you actually DO during those hours? There are infinite exercises / subjects to study. Its easy to go deep on one and start to question "have I wasted time or is this really a good way forward", which is why asking others who have been there for advice is important.
As you can see, I know plenty of thins I could /Should practice, but my issue is over how to structure it in a way that makes sense.
For example, when I tried to self teach I learned arpeggios and scales separate from any tunes because I thought "any practice is good".
While I did improve, I could have had more tunes under my belt and better skill with those scales and arpeggios if I had been told "just worry about practicing in every key over a long period like one key a week etc, and make the intense daily practice focused on a tune, so you can use the scales and arpeggios right away", as opposed to my attempt to practice this stuff in all keys every day, which led to little time playing music.
So clearly there are more / less efficient ways of practicing towards a given goal.
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String Addict, on this thread I describe how I practice a tune -
Practising Tunes in a Systematic Way
If you want to spend an hour practising a tune, I'd say divide the hour into four - melody, chords, arpeggios and scales. Fifteen minutes on each. Then you can break down each fifteen-minute segment into three five-minute slots each designated to a different CAGED position or fretboard area in which to practice the chords etc.
No one taught me this. I devised it myself. I suggest you could do something similar...
Originally Posted by James W
Originally Posted by James W
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I recently made a schedule of things to practice on when I have an entire day to myself. I order things by importance when I don't have time to go through everything. Different areas to focus on but all repertoire based. The schedule is not set in stone, there may be times where I'll deviate depending on my mood. I think its also important to be flexible
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This book is immensely helpful, thanks I have been going through the pdf Originally Posted by marcwhy
Lots of great ideas here!
I have several initial reactions to the OP, including, "Don't do it!" (meaning, "8 hrs of practice each day")!
There are several thoughts behind this, but in the spirit of helpfulness, please see the attached files copied from Hal Crook's excellent book (highly recommended!), "Ready, Aim, Improvise!"
[some of you know Hal personally; if he is against me sharing these sections, I will gladly take them down!]
I appreciate Hal's breakdown of who you are (i.e., beginner, intermediate, advanced, or master player), and how/what you could be practicing in a given time frame. The OP has a teacher (yay!), and the teacher should be able to use Hal's guide to fine-tune a practice schedule (i.e., "Yeah, you definitely need more time with ___, and you're pretty good with ___, so focus on ___!" etc). Hal's guide is not "the Truth," but it's a pretty good starting place!
To the OP - make sure you have fun, and play (lots) with other people!!
Peace,
Marc
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That question is answered in the post, isn't it? The content of what I said is its own explanation. Originally Posted by StringAddict
May I ask you some questions?
How old are you?
How do you know you'll have 6-8 hours a day to practice the guitar? Is that every day? Or certain specific days, or just now and then?
If it's every day, when will you find time for other things like fresh air and exercise, social contact, and other essentials? Tell us what you mean by 6-8 hours a day.
If you were 80 years old, retired, living alone, perhaps no longer physically very active, I might see why you'd want something consuming to fill your time. But I don't think you are at all and that's what's concerning me. It ain't a normal life, old chap.
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Lots of folk who've made this music a serious undertaking/career had a period of 'all day' woodshedding.
PK
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Let's see what he says. Maybe he's destined for Carnegie Hall
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Originally Posted by ragman1
Well I don't think that asking for advice on how to manage time is weird or unusual. Seems to be a common anxiety for musicians, especially those trying to learn to improvise. Its not like I twiddle my thumbs for 6 hours and call it practice, I have constructive practice, most of the time. Its that it is easy to read someones opinion on "If you want to play jazz you MUST practice X", realize you arent practicing it, try to cram it in and then in reality, you'd need more than 8 hours a day which just isnt realistic unless this was your full time career, or you have to replace something else you are working on. So one gets overwhelmed, and wonders "Are my practice hours the most efficient, or best they could be? ".
I'm 26.
I know I will have 6-8 hours on any "typical" day because that is how I scheduled my life; I wake up around 5 am and get in 3-4 hours by 1030. Get a couple in throughout mid day. Somedays I am busy and do 3-4 from 4-9pm, others I am already at 6 hours by 3pm and may just play one more from 6-7pm, or none at all if I am busy.
Of course there are days I have Dr appointments, days I drive home to visit parents, days my dog is sick and needs the vet, days my wife and I take a day trip or vacation. Days I have the flu. On those days I may get in 2-4 hours. Very rarely, I can only play for 1 hour or less, usually a handful of times a year. But on those shorter days I prioritize or just focus on music ,no exercises.
I take breaks from practicing to walk my dog outside. I do a very quick bodyweight workout (40 min - an hour) 2-3 days a week. When I was working remote I bought a walking pad and any time I worked, I walked, so I could get in 10k steps a day or more during working hours as opposed to after like I used to, until I decided it is cutting into my music.
Sadly I lost a group of friends during COVID over some disagreements and thus dont have many. My current few friends are also married or working so we get together occasionally, and those days I may get up extra early and aim for 4-5 hours realistically. I had other hobbies to keep me busy but I had no problem cutting them down to make music more important. I'd still fish occasionally for a break if I didnt live in the city.
I make sacrifices to fit this in because I am possessed by the idea of making music on the guitar. Never wanted anything so bad, never had motivation to anything so intensely. It could be because I grew up with a dad who played solo guitar, and exposed me to a lot of complex musical styles from the time I was in a crib, but I feel a need to express myself musically. Unfortunately for me I started later at 19 but that has given me anxiety as well as motivation to practice a lot.
So my usual "8 hour" day is as follows:
- 5am wake up, walk dog, and do an hour of transcribing
- Take a quick break to make coffee
- Hour of Barry Harris theory currently (Guy named Thomas Echol's patreon course if you know him)
- Break to do some exercise, usually just postural since I play so much guitar I have a neck hump and slouch
- Hour of Tim Lerch Melodic Triads course (this year I want a greater command of all triad positions on the neck and improvising melodies on top of them for solo guitar
- Hour of working with the Barry Galbraith comping etudes book. Teacher has me playing blues in F and then using chord phrases and voicing in my own comping practice
- Now it is 930-1030 AM, I used to start work then or now I will quickly get ready for day and make a quick breakfast. Walk the dog again or work on other things I need to do.
- Anywhere from 12-5pm I will play jazz vocab over my repertoire and or learn a new tune. After I have kind of drilled a tune to boredom this way I will just use the language to write etudes over it and play those before improv on these tunes. maybe I will squeak in scale work but I never seem to get to it.
- 5-8 I'll spend time with my wife and eat dinner.
- 8-9 If I havent done it yet, I will try to play one hour of my Chet Atkins repertoire. I currently work on two I had to relearn for a half hour and am learning a brand new one the remaining half hour.
This is a *typical, no deviation day. It rarely goes this perfect as there are always unforeseen issues. Most days it is closer to 6 then 8, some days 6.5, some 7, and it doesnt always follow the same order. For example today I had interviews for some jobs, spent a ton of time on this forum since i am reevaluating my practice, and it happens to be an occasion I am meeting a friend, so I wont get to 8 hours.
Last week I drove over an hour to pickup a tele I bought and I couldn't even hit 6 that day.
Life happens but when I can help it I am hitting my time. I know it isnt normal but thats what it takes to be - forget "great" - but even truly comfortable playing music well, at least for me, I am learning.
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I can only hope! But really, if I was omnipotent and knew that in 30 years, I would be able to play however / whatever I wanted, for absolutely no one but myself in an empty room, with 0 money, I would still do it. I'm doing this for the sake of music and playing music only, with or without money, with or without an audience, although both wouldn't be bad xD Originally Posted by ragman1
Let's see what he says. Maybe he's destined for Carnegie Hall
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Originally Posted by StringAddict
My "two hour" day is
- learning new tunes
- improvising on 'em
Looks like yours also is two hours
of tunes learning and improvising.
Those are what I'd advise working
on only; use some freed time with
people to play with, more practice,
or other activities you might enjoy.
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I saw Van Eps a few times with Howard Alden. Of course, this was late in his life. Sounded good to me and he played lines, but just with more than one note. Originally Posted by jazzyfan
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Yes but I suck at improvising and thus need a lot of extra practice to get there. Originally Posted by pauln
My dad only practices 1-2 hours a day but my whole life all he ever "practiced" was solo arrangements and improv over tunes.
That comes after decades of building the skills to get there. He told me the same you thing you did, but later had to acknowledge that playing music since 11 and guitar since 15, going to Berklee and spending a few years in his 20s playing 8 hours a day, is what allowed hime to just improvise for 2 hours a day and call it. I would love to get there, one day.
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You need to work on your technique mostly. Originally Posted by StringAddict
This is seldom mentioned here because this place is 99% amateurs who don't have any technique and don't have the time in the middle of their lives to develop any decent technique.
You should be practising scales, arps etc etc etc. All the usual.
And then using those things in songs. You should also be working hard on articulations. Slurring to get an idiomatic jazz sound. You should be working very hard to develop as much speed as you can - scales etc etc. This will elevate your technique and allow for playing at a decent level later on.
You mention Atkins, are you a thumbpicker?Last edited by jazzyfan; 02-03-2026 at 01:53 AM.
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gotta pay homage to the greats..Wes,George,Grant,Kenny,Barney just learnt his Transcribed Salute to Charlie Christian etc etc dont know why you guys play scales all day...No fun in that.would i call myself a jazz guitarist...who cares
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