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A little background: I started music later at 19 and took it pretty seriously from the start. I played multiple hours most days and this exploded when in my early 20's to 4,5, now 6-8 hours daily. I grew up around music with a dad who played solo guitar, so when I started I immediately tried learning solo guitar, and fell in love with Chet Atkins style. Once I got "SERIOUS" serious at 22/23, I realized I knew very little theory and could not improvise, only play arrangements. I wanted to and still want to be able to write my own arrangements and improvise solo guitar.
I started learning jazz for the purpose of improvisation and quickly fell into the rabbit hole where I am obsessed with learning bebop improvisation, comping / chord solos ala Joe Pass, etc., and being able to get good enough at bebop to at least jam with others in a group and have good lines and accompaniment
My ultimate goal is to be able to play solo improvised guitar, influenced by the likes of Tim Lerch / Ted Greene, Joe Pass, with the ability to improvise single bebop lines in between rich chord sections. I can currently arrange tunes or the heads of tunes decently well although not too quickly, but I cannot improvise them really at all. I want to be able to arrange heads, and improvise through the tune. I figured my jazz skills need to be good enough to also be good in a group though, since I dont know any solo jazz guitarists who arent also great group jazz players. So since that is my weakest link I focus on that the most.
The issue is even with 6-8 hours a day, I cannot reliably practice what I want every day. For example, I have been heavily focused on bebop line soloing, and will plan to practice the following things over a tune each day(After melody in all positions / changes and internalizing the tune itself of course) :
- Chord Tones to tune in all positions
- Improv with chord tones
- Transcribe and rehearse a solo or two from a favorite player
- Transpose current transcribed phrases into tune where possible
- write a few etudes over tune using this language
- Comp the tune in different voicings with transcribed rhythms
- transcribe comping off a record
However I may start with taking all the language I am working on through the tune and my (limited) standards repertoire, and this alone takes me 3-4 hours. Then I have at least 2 hours dedicated to some solo guitar concepts (Barry Harris harmony / Tim Lerch courses on triads / chordal improv) and an hour for my Chet Repertoire.
Then I'll have maybe an hour or two left and I will prioritize transcribing. Then I panic and think "But I didnt get to comping, chord tones, chord melody, etc etc!" Oh, and not to mention, this is totally not including scale positions or technical arpeggio work, or ear training.
Switching up what I work on each day doesn't seem to work cause nothing really "sticks", so I always scheme up "perfect" practice routines to hit all of these in a 8 hour period and it seems to be more fantasy than reality. Ideally I would work on the following each day for 8 hours total:
- Fundamentals / Technical work like ear training, practicing the maj scale, melodic minor scale, maybe altered in musical permutations a la barry harris, learning more drop voicings
- Play through my 5 song standard repertoire, as if live and isolate a part that is really hurting to improve
- Pick a new tune and internalize the melody and changes
- Map Chord Tones, Guide Tones and solo with them in many permutations
- Plug in prior transcribed language I am working on and shed it
- Write an etude or two with said language
- Work on transcribing a solo from a great player
- Comp the tune to an interesting rhythm with a voicing I am working on
- Transcribe someones comping
- Write a comping etude with interesting rhythms and voice leading
- Finally work out a simple chord melody and then maybe try the tune in different keys to test my ear
- Leave a couple hours for solo guitar work
As I type it the more it sounds like a pipe dream to do all that in one day but I have heard better, serious guys say they work on these things daily in the span of 4-8 hours, however without much detail into what exactly they are doing. Between trying to take all these things through one tune and learn tunes fast enough to play them even badly at jams, I can never seem to make a dent in this list.
Any experienced jazzers, especially those focused on solo guitar, who would graciously share their life experience on how they managed this stuff? I dont know how much longer I will be lucky enough to practice this much and want to really make the most of it.
Thanks in advance
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01-27-2026 01:43 PM
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If you can't do everything you want over the course of one day, then you should devise ways of recycling stuff over the course of multiple days, weeks and months.
Do that, and exercise a bit of patience.
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It's great that you have such a hunger to learn and the dedication to put in so much time. You may be different, but I find it useful to focus on one or two things ( the stuff I need for a gig or a particular tune) rather than trying to cover everything in one long practice session. That way, you can make real progress on the things that interest you and you can master small bits of knowledge that will stick.
In my experience, the only way to be able to freely improvise on solo guitar is to know the tune really, really well and then spend a lot of time just screwing around with it.
You have a lifetime to get good on guitar. Maybe don't try to force it.
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Caveat, I'm a blueser not a jazzer.
You say Joe Pass then talk about being able to do group improv.
You say jazz bebop soloing but mention nothing about blues.
You want group improv. How much time are you setting aside to hit jams with other real musicians there? That's where actual improv happens unless you are just gonna be a solo guitarist playing background music for fatasses at restaurants or just being a tree falling in the woods.
Other than scales/arpeggios/chord studies, work on transcribing a solo from a great and don't move forward until you do that and can nail it live in front of an audience at a jam. Your rehearsal room and a stage are two different places. The stage is the proving gorund. The rest of your practice, play improv chords/leads over the backing tracks of the song(s) you want to master.
Spend 8 hours per day, 9-10 months of the year, with two months of brain processing/rest and relaxation (but still keeping limber) for the next four years and see where you are at. If you aren't hitting a weekly jam or sitting in with a local group you aren't doing it right. Just some thoughts.
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I think your spread out way too far.
It like you want to eat everything on the menu all in one sitting.
you mention Ted Greene..
My ultimate goal is to be able to play solo improvised guitar, influenced by the likes of Tim Lerch / Ted Greene, Joe Pass, with the ability to improvise single bebop lines in between rich chord sections.
Ted has a great web page with lots of chord melody tunes and many chord studies and several very good chord books (Modern Chord Progressions)
And of course there are many other books with all levels of playing and topics-theory/harmony
At some point you may look for a good teacher that can give you a bit more structure in your studies.
This may help you to achieve your goals in less time.
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Fo cus on just one thing for 6 hours, I heard few master sais they did that instead of jumping around.
Actually if you focus on, for instance, chords, learn new chords, sing the notes of each chord, inversions, voicings, apply those on simple progressions, tunes, II Vs...always with metronome, loops, backing tracks...you are not only learning chord vocabulary, you are doing some cool ear training, tempo/groove, working on tunes, comping...but everything around and focus on expanding your chord vocabulary, if you do that for lets say 3 days in a raw you are going to see awesome results then apply the same thing, for instance learning a bach piece, focus on just one standard for the whole week, just on comping for the whole week...as Hal Galper used to say, if you improve one are you are improving all the rest of the areas, thats how the brain and music relation works.
Hope this helps.
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I started going to jams albeit recently. But before that was in an ensemble. I have 2-3 solid jam opportunities a week to go to, and with some being once or twice a month, about 10 a month
Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I have a really good teacher right now helping me with bebop. He is who has me doing transcriptions, analyzing and ingraining language, and doing the comping studies. I guess I psyched myself out reading about others who stress scales, chord tones, playing the bass line through a tune, etc. Because I can easily spend 5 hours hammering away at a transcription and then ingraining actual language Originally Posted by wolflen
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Six to eight hours a day?!?! Sweet jesus, get a life! Guitar, music, jazz, improvisation, all of that shit will be more resonant if you have a vantage point to offer the world besides just the four walls of your practice room.
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I used to practice 12 hours a day...
Last edited by Basshead; 01-29-2026 at 04:56 PM.
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I enjoy spending most of my day learning about music and getting better at it. I wake up very early and have time for this and other things, even though this is priority. Originally Posted by Bob_Ross
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the finished product can often mask how arduous a task it was to get there in the first place. and how previous work doing the same thing expedited how quickly they were able to absorb these things after months/years of struggle. there was a good post with a bob reynolds video talking about how he practices, and one of his big focuses was "drilling" in difficult licks. he rips one off that seems like it was child's play...but he'd likely been working on that over and over for a week or more, which was helped by working on others for weeks for months/years in the past. but he can't focus on his struggle in a 5 minute youtube vid...that'd make for a horrible watch (maybe).As I type it the more it sounds like a pipe dream to do all that in one day but I have heard better, serious guys say they work on these things daily in the span of 4-8 hours, however without much detail into what exactly they are doing. Between trying to take all these things through one tune and learn tunes fast enough to play them even badly at jams, I can never seem to make a dent in this list.
that said, this is a lot of work with expectations heaped on top. it's easy to be discouraged when youve planned out too much...someone said it perfectly above, "you want to eat the whole menu in one sitting."
you make make a ton of progress slimming down your practice to just joe pass stuff...youll touch on most of what you outlined doing that. hows your reading/sight reading? didnt notice anything in your schedule working on that...it's a good way to boost the amount and speed in learning material.
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I thought I could get away with practicing less but I came away from my recent private lesson at a university as a shell of my former self. I even deleted my social media accounts afterwards, either I practice a shit-ton everyday or I quit guitar. There is no room for other things to do unfortunatedly in my current situation (except visiting jazz guitar forum for AI advice I didn't ask for).
My advice? Don't forget to eat
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Respectfully, if you want to have an instrument in your hand for up to 8 hours a day it needs to be managed properly. 3-4 hours of structured practice, is about max and the rest of those hours you need to play music. Play anything that lights you up and gets you emoting. Context may be, arguably, one of the most fundamental skills to integrate in music. It certainly offers a vehicle to understand note choice and feel in any genre.
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This is good advice. I won’t tell someone not to practice a ton if that’s what they want to do. But be on your guard for burnout and stop when you stop feeling engaged Originally Posted by Rodney Gene
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I would take some time off transcribing and play autumn leaves in all keys solo and at all tempos. Play it as a ballad around 50-60 bpm then up to around 140 just you and the metronome.
Try just comping and then adding single lines. If you cant do it fast then do it at the speed you can. Slower and in time is hard.
I found practicing a tune that has most or nearly all of the chord changes you are likely to come across in all 12 keys very useful. Tunes like Stella or all the things you are are, are great.
But start with autumn leaves. It's a great way to start putting what you have spent your time on into practice.
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I wouldn't recommend to anyone practicing 8 hours a day.If you do,you are looking for early onset of tendon problems and arthritis unless you are genetically blessed.Does the OP work?Working 9 to 5 and then coming home and practicing 6 to 8 hours seems like a very limited life.The one thing it took me awhile to learn is that it's not how long you practice but learning what and how to make your practice time count.You say you have good teacher,if so he should be able to advise you how to practice the most efficiently to achieve your musical goals.
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Okay thanks, yes I always struggle with planning out too much. But it is hard as everyone has different opinions, and I am making a lot of progress hammering away language, but then others think "how are you not practicing fundamentals like scales???" Originally Posted by spencer096
I can read but not sightread besides simple melodies. Didnt really think it was needed for jazz improv and If I want to learn a head or even tune by sheet music I can do it albeit slower than a fluent sight reader
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This is how I feel as well...If i practice less I lose my mind. No time for backsliding Originally Posted by jazznylon
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Well, if you do not have to work for a living you can make it your day job, but it needs to be paced, with regular breaks taken for physical exercise, etc., to avoid the problems you mentioned (and others you did not). Originally Posted by nyc chaz
This is a very important point. With proper focus and a relaxed attitude, one person can accomplish in 1 hour what might take a tense, less focused person a few hours to do. And practicing without the instrument can reap great rewards: sounding out lines and chords in your head while visualizing how you would play them on the fingerboard (carry around a pitch pipe or harmonica for pitch reference). Originally Posted by nyc chaz
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I am currently unemployed but my work is commonly remote. This allows me a few hours in the morning, 1 during the day and a few in the evening. 6-8 hours down. Originally Posted by Mick-7
My practice is focused and I dont just sit and noodle. My problem is I will intensely practice chord tones for example and it takes me 4-5 hours, and then the next day I move on to something else because I "havent transcribed in 2 days" or something. To me this feels like I dont progress and would probably do better with doing the same thing every day until mastery, but what to do every day? If I "just copy joe pass only" for a while, I will lose my repertoire for example.
I'm finding it hard to manage all the areas that need to be worked on to play jazz, while making time for things I enjoy, and a practical repertoire so when someone says "play something" or "lets jam" I dont just say "Well I can play a few permutations of Maj scale in all keys, or chord tones to Blue bossa in the second position, and watch me recite this joe pass chord solo transcription!"
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SA, Sounds like your practice routine needs to be better organized, a set amount of time each day spent on each goal, not spending too much time on any one thing - not routinely anyway, there will be times when you may need to focus more on a particular thing to master it.
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UPDATE: I need to walk back my original advice a bit. If you've only been playing for a few years, it's unlikely that you are ready to enroll in a university-level music program. Sure, take some harmony classes at your local community college - that theoretical understanding will definitely help you progress in a myriad of ways. But skip the giant laundry list of things that too much internet guidance has made you think you "should" work on. Spend your time learning two hard skills that will help you with everything else: learn to read at least functionally and learn some tunes.
Work with your teacher on only ONE tune for a month at a time, taking the "university comprehensive musicianship" approach to that tune. In order to get a fresh start, I'd suggest picking a new tune for this, rather than rehashing one that you're already familiar with.
- Learn the head:
- First, learn to read it as written in concert pitch.
- Then find the trumpet and sax charts for the tune and learn to read it in those keys.
- Now that you've read it without cheating by knowing how it goes, find as many recordings of the tune as you can, and listen to them for ideas about musicality, style, arrangement, and improv.
- Memorize the head cold in concert pitch. Make sure you understand the song form of the tune and can play through it without getting lost.
- Once memorized, transpose to some other keys just for a little extra challenge. Just do this by ear, on the fly. It'll help your ear and your understanding of the fretboard. Wanna make it really random? Roll dice to decide how many sharps or flats the new key has and try to transpose to that key immediately.
- Work with your teacher to understand the theory behind why the melody is harmonized the way it is. Extra credit once you have basics down: learn some ways to reharmonize (i.e. chord substitutions).
- Start working with your teacher on a simple chord melody/solo guitar version of the tune. Don't expect to learn this in two weeks. It could take you a year, and that's OK. Chord melody/solo guitar is an advanced skill. Which is why it's a good idea to start soon, and learn a little bit at a time.
- Learn to improvise over each functional progression in the tune. For example, maybe the first bars are I vi ii V I. Work with your teacher to develop some practical approaches to improvising over that progression. One super-easy, practical approach that works on any tune is to take ideas from the melody and add embellishments, rhythmic variations, repetition, etc.
- Practice that improvisational section in other keys. Ideally, find that progression in other tunes and practice those same improvisational techniques on those tunes. Having a play-along app like iRealPro, The Feel Book, Quartet, or some Jamey Aebersold tracks is great for that.
- Once you have that first progression down, move to the next one. Again, understand the progression, learn why the harmony works like it does, and learn how to improvise over that. If you spend three months on that first tune, that's fine. You aren't learning just that tune. You are learning how to play and improvise on ANY tune.
- Look for some like-minded (and similarly skilled) musicians to jam with. Help each other to keep your place in the form of the tune when improvising, trade tips on improvisational techniques that work for you, and - super important - learn to comp for each other while someone solos.
One of the great things my university profs said to us was "I'd rather hear you play the s--- out of a simple tune than struggle through a difficult one." Keep that in mind. Your goal for this next year is to put together a handful of tunes you can play well enough that an audience would want to listen to you. Screw all the stuff other people say you "should" work on. Work on playing music. If you can actually do that, you will have built solid foundational skills, developed a sense of direction, and learned to focus in a way that will serve all of your future musical endeavors.
There's a thread on this board about easy beginner tunes. Pick one of those. Something like Blue Bossa, Little Sunflower, Ipanema, Maiden Voyage, Wave, etc. Another good foundational choice would be a blues tune or two, like Tenor Madness, Straight No Chaser, Au Privave, Mr. PC, etc. Don't choose something unrealistically difficult. Make it easy and fun. West Coast Blues might be a good choice if it is not too difficult - it's an object lesson in how one of the greats of jazz guitar approaches blues.
Original post follows....
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Kudos to you on the focus and dedication.
My $0.02 is that you have no unified model into which to fit everything, one that will help you to see how all of these things fit together, which is why it feels like you are leaving stuff on the floor despite grinding away for hours daily.
What worked for me was to study formally, getting a music degree at a four-year university. You don't necessarily have to go that far, but if you at least learn a couple years' worth of formal harmony studies it will give you that framework into which everything else fits. You won't transcribe solos as each being a separate thing, you'll see the commonalities and differences. You'll learn different ways to harmonize a melody, and why some things work and others don't. You will learn how all musical activities fit into a unifying framework that makes them easier to remember and to understand. Everything you do musically will be done with an understanding of how it cultivates multiple areas of your musicianship. For example, you'll take an ensemble class in which you will learn tunes, learn reading, learn improvising, and learn to play in a way that complements the other musicians and the tune itself .... with all of that changing according to the style of music you are playing. While doing all of this, you'll be mapping it back to your mental model of harmony and training your ears to map sounds into that model and into your fingers. The more ways you learn to think about music, the easier it will become to learn better and faster.
Now, someone will undoubtedly chime in with all the reasons they think jazz education is a waste of time, and that's fine for them. I'm telling you what worked for me. You have to find what works for you. I hear you saying you are a bit overwhelmed and I think that part of it is the lack of a unified model of how music works - you are trying to carry a dozen items instead of putting them into a few shopping bags that will make them easier to manage.
I worked my way up to 8-hour practice days in my final years of study. I cut down to a part-time study schedule in order to have more time to practice. I was studying part time, working part time, and gigging part time. Gigs, jams and school gave me a very rich social life. I didn't feel isolated at all - in fact, the solitude of the practice room was a welcome break from everybody coming at me in all directions in all the other situations. When I practiced eight hours, about six of those were "in the zone", zen-like, focused, meditative. Playing for long periods of time was refreshing and rejuvenating, not debilitating. But there are physical limits to how much one can play a string instrument daily. On days when I had gigs, I might warm up just for a couple hours max, so that I would not physically burn out on the gig. (I learned the hard way that I just couldn't play well for 12 hours... if I did my full practice routine on a gig day, the last hours of the gig saw nothing left of the physical stamina needed to perform well.)
Anyway, that's my short story long. Some formal study will help you to understand that all of these little things you are doing are just different manifestations of a few core skills.Last edited by starjasmine; 01-30-2026 at 05:17 AM.
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Thanks a ton for this - I actually have been heavily contemplating music school, likely a masters. I understand it is more advanced than undergrad but I dont think I can really afford to do four years right now and my music teacher is working with me to help me audition for a masters in case I go for it. If I dont get in, it is what it is. Originally Posted by starjasmine
I have been playing for 7 years (started at 19 and am now 26) but only focused on theory, improvisation, and jazz the last 3. Prior it was some basic theory, and a mix of styles I liked, with a serious focus on chet atkins style.
What you said to do is great and honestly I have done some of that already. For example the first two years of learning, I only focused on Autumn Leaves and then All The Things You Are, both taught me a ton. It wasn't until I joined an ensemble and started with my teacher a year ago that I slowly added tunes, and really only since 6 months ago have I been learning tunes every 1-3 weeks, albeit less deeply, so that I can grow my repertoire for jams. So far I have
- Autumn Leaves
- All of Me (although not as good I should, but I dont really love the tune)
- Blue Bossa
- All the Things You Are (relatively deep for my level)
- Days of Wine and Roses (currently treating as a deep level tune as I love the tune)
- Blues in Bb, F
- YardBird Suite (just really like the melody)
Now some of these range from "I can hold my own" to "well he got through it, but" but I at least know the melody and changes to all, and to most have practiced the melody in multiple keys and all string sets.
For All the Things I studied it as a chord melody the last 6-8 months, but it ended up more as an arrangement I have to "stick to", and then I can do some simple self comping while playing the melody. The problem as you said was when I did that, 50% of my 6 or so hours were dedicated just to that attempt!
So while I could definitely still use the one tune a month or even 6 months focus, for some clarity I have done this, and my music teacher is who suggested at this stage I should focus on transcribing, absorbing language, and using it in real jam settings, so he suggested to learn some standards at jams and especially tunes with common progressions that I can really milk the language I have transcribed with. When I came to him a year ago, In my nearly 2 years of learning jazz I had really only focused on shell chords, chord tones, theory, arpeggios and Major scales with barry harris permutations, so I had good command of those things but couldnt improvise at all. It either made no sense or was clearly just arpeggios / scales.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about music school and am glad you said it. So many people dismiss it because its "hard to make money". I already have a STEM degree, I just want it to help me learn music. An organized curriculum with the best teachers around and access to constant live mentorship and jams would explode my knowledge. That is worth something to me - while yes I cant afford a 100k loan, if I can get a decent scholarship and maybe volunteer as a weekend TA or something for some percent off, I would pay for it if it wouldnt cripple my life
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Thanks for the details. Honestly, it sounds like you are doing everything right, just going through what a lot of us go through when learning to play jazz: feeling like you should be further along, when in fact you are making great progress at something that is really HARD to do WELL and takes a long time to master.
Keep it up and best of luck to you!
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