Practice Plan A
It’s not enough to set the goal of practicing our picking.
What speed are you comfortable with?
How fast do you ultimately want to play?
What scales will you practice?
Is there a song that makes you want to play faster so you can learn it?
These are the questions that we need to answer for ourselves in order to level-up our practice regimen.
A good metronome will help you learn to keep good time in both your rhythm and lead practice. We highly recommend picking one up to help you along your practice journey.
2 HOUR GUITAR PRACTICE SCHEDULE LAYOUT:
5 Minutes – Warm Up/ Stretching
10 Minutes – Practice the chromatic scale ascending and descending (start tempo: 80bpm)
15 Minutes – Chord Study – Practice whatever chords you are having difficulty with currently using arpeggios to seek out muted or bad notes and adjust
20 Minutes – Speed training with metronome over major and minor scales (alternate picking) (start tempo: 80bpm)
30 Minutes – Freestyle! Start learning something new!
20 Minutes – Arpeggio practice
20 Minutes – Song practice – Whichever song you are working on recently (or: Improv over a backing track with scales)
Guitar Practice Schedule II: The 1.5 Hour Drill
A little bit lighter on time, this 1.5 hour drill will do just as much for your hands as the 2 hour drill will.
As we are aiming this guitar practice schedule at guitar players of all skill levels, we have omitted a lot of the more complex exercises that you can incorporate.
The chromatic scale is amazing for every skill level, as it can be played a variety of different ways.
If you’re looking for a challenge, try mixing up the way you play the chromatic scale. Instead of 1-2-3-4, try 1-3-2-4 on the way up and 4-2-3-1 on the way down.
5 Minutes – Warm Up/Stretching
10 Minutes – Practice the chromatic scale ascending and descending (start tempo: 80bpm)
15 Minutes – Chord Study – Practice whatever chords you are having difficulty with currently using arpeggios to seek out muted or bad notes and adjust
10 Minutes – Speed training with metronome over major and minor scales (alternate picking) (start tempo: 80 bpm)
20 Minutes – Freestyle! Start learning something new!
10 Minutes – Arpeggio practice
20 Minutes – Song practice or Improv
Guitar Practice Schedule III: The One Hour Drill
As we begin to narrow down our amount of available time, it’s important not to sacrifice any one part of your schedule too much.
The most important part of an effective guitar practice schedule is that you cover as much ground as effectively as possible.
This means developing focus.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds, either. Focus takes time to build, and a lot of mental strength.
The better we can focus when it comes to guitar practice, the more we can accomplish in less time. Be conscious of what you’re playing and how it sounds, and be critical (but not too critical)!
5 Minutes – Warm Up/Stretching
5 Minutes – Chromatic scale ascending & descending (start tempo: 80bpm)
10 Minutes – Chord Study
10 Minutes – Speed training with metronome over major and minorscales (alternate picking) (start tempo: 80bpm)
10 Minutes – Freestyle! Start learning something new!
10 Minutes – Arpeggio practice (Click here for a guide from Guitar World)
10 Minutes – Song practice or Improv
Improv doesn’t always have to involve playing over a backing track. If you have a guitar riff that you’re set on writing, you can use the last ten minute window of your schedule to practice and write!
Pro Tip: If you want to really step up your practice game, consider getting a looper pedal!
We love the BOSS RC-5 Loop Station – it’s got everything you need to get started with creating new sounds and melodies all on your own. The format of the pedal is simple and easy to operate, meaning you can keep the creativity flowing without having to worry too much about function.
Guitar Practice Schedule IV: The Half Hour Drill
Here is where we need to be really conscious of the time we use, and how we use it.
This thirty minute drill is intended to light your fingers up quickly and inject some energy into your guitar playing.
Pro Tip: It’s important to pace your playing with your metronome now that you’re dealing with less time.
In order to be super effective, you can set your metronome low and work your way up in tempo by intervals of 5bpm until you’re at a tempo that is comfortable yet challenging to nail down. Give it a shot!
5 Minutes – Warm Up/Stretching
5 Minutes – Chromatic scale ascending & descending (start tempo: 80bpm)
10 Minutes – Speed training (alternate picking) (start tempo: 80bpm)
10 Minutes – Learn a new chord & practice it!
10 Minutes – Song practice or Improv
Pro Tip: As we narrow our time window, we will find ourselves more focused on technical ability and movement in our practice routine.
This is important because even if we only have a few minutes, we can cover a lot of ground with a routine that is grounded in movement.
Guitar Practice Schedule V: Fifteen Minute Speedrun
This one is for the early risers who want to get a few good minutes of guitar practice in before their day starts.
If you’re the type of person who is short on time and deterred from creating a guitar practice schedule as a result, this is for you too.
Fifteen minutes is plenty of time to put together a quick routine to keep your fingers excited about playing the guitar.
Pro Tip: Even though we’ll have to shorten our stretching time slightly, we still need to make sure we’re stretching.
If you’re planning on taking a run at your guitar for fifteen minutes a day and you want to make progress, you need to make sure your hands are as up for the challenge as your brain.