Welcome back! In this article I wanna share with you one of the best guitar practice routine I
have ever developed.
Staying organized is the key to success. My routine has helped me throughout my entire music
career. If it wasn’t for it, I wouldn’t be the musician I am today. I mean sure, music is art and you
don’t have to always stick to a routine, but I personally think it’s a very useful tool that can help
you achieve something that seems to be out of your zone.
When I was training myself for my Berklee College of Music audition, I had to develop a routine
otherwise I would’ve left out a huge chunk of material that I had to learn in order to get a good
scholarship. Here’s how I organized myself. All in all, I had 5 big areas to cover: guitar
technique, sight reading, chords and scales, ear training and learning jazz harmony. Here’s
what I did:
My Practice Routine
● I would wake up at 8am everyday and the first thing I would do after breakfast was to
warmup
my hands for 30 minutes, by practicing chromatic exercises and maybe
jamming a bit to whatever I felt like.
● After that, I would practice sightreading
for 1 hour up until 11am probably. Now here’s
the thing. I had 5 different books to practice from, and they were all different and equally
important. So I grab a different book each time.
● Once I was done with that I would take a 10 minute break; very necessary.
● When I felt ready I would practice chords and scales for 1 hour. I would spend 30
minutes on each topic, focusing in no more than 3 scales/chords at a time.
● I would then go on to practice one of the songs that I had play in my audition. This song
was very challenging for me and so by playing I would practice a lot of technique. I would
also record myself to improve my tone. Recording yourself is necessary to get a good
tone.
● After lunch I would come back and practice Ear training for 1 hour.
● Once I was done with it, I would practice chords and scales again for 1 hour but this time
I would jam to different tracks.
● At around 5pm I would practice sight reading
again, choosing a different book.
● I would usually continue by practicing technique, either by jamming or by practicing the
song that I had prepared for my audition.
● At around 8pm I would practice ear training again.
● And yeah, after I was finished with it, I would just jam to whatever I felt like; all night long.
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