by Steve Herberman.

This article is a preface for a curriculum I’ve developed for my private students over a 20-year period. It is meant to help give the guitarist an outline for how to structure his or her practice time while reflecting on some key things before getting to the actual work. Practicing is a personal endeavor and varies from one player to another. I find that focusing on fundamentals, technique and ear training is paramount before getting into the more creative areas that lie ahead. Though creative “right brain” approaches should be included early on in a player’s development, it makes sense to begin getting the instrument and ear under better control through structured “left brain” type of exercises that stress fundamentals, technical issues, etc.

Before you start a practice regimen, decide when the best opportunities are for practice time in your weekly schedule. Write these dates/times on your calendar. Wherever possible, hour sessions spread throughout the day are optimal. Often shorter time frames are beneficial and could be more realistic for your schedule.

Basic Time Management Skills

Prioritizing is the key with time management. With the free time that you have on any given day what are the things that need to be done right away? Consider your various deadlines and prepare in advance as it’s important to avoid waiting until the last minute. It’s better to set priorities and address the high priority items early giving yourself time to work through it little by little. For instance, if you have an important concert two months down the road, it’s smart to decide on what you want to get ready in advance. It may involve composing music that could take time getting it just right.

Notating in Sibelius or Finale also takes time and energy and should be planned in advance. This way you can take your time and get it to the other players early so they have the chance to work with it given busy schedules, etc. If you are a teacher, bring something to practice or work with in case of any student cancellations. Bring recorded music with you on your portable device to get in more listening time throughout your week. You may want to listen to the tunes you are currently practicing getting more familiar with the lyrics, form, changes, etc. Be careful not to overbook yourself to avoid the frustration of having too little practice time. During a practice session decide in advance not to answer the phone or check email. In your date book or practice journal, schedule practice sessions in advance and check the book often to remind yourself that you’ve set that time aside.

Practicing Away From the Instrument

You can do these exercises almost anywhere - driving a car, waiting in a line, relaxing at home…

Chord spelling: Name any chord at random and spell as quickly and accurately as possible. Visualize the chord on the fingerboard if necessary.

Listening exercises: Sing melodies or solos that you know along with the recording. Try to determine the key, especially if there is a guitar on the recording. Go over the changes in your head as the tune progresses. For any reharmonization that you hear, try your best to hear what it is, using theory and deductive reasoning if there is no instant recognition. Pretend you are on the bandstand and you must play this along with the group! Putting this kind of pressure on yourself is helpful in bringing your listening up to a new level. If you imagine you are in the group at that moment you will be listening for clues in deciphering the changes and melody and will likely notice much more than usual. This is great preparation for hearing your way through a tune when you are actually up on the bandstand playing.

Pitch axis exercise: Consider any one note and think of what scale degree it is against any chord. Example: C is the ninth of Bb-, C is the #11 of Gb7 etc. This can really help with reharmonizing on the fly as well as seeing the relationship between chords. Work to increase your speed so you can solve these instantaneously.

Composing: Sing anything that comes to your mind and once you hit on a nice idea try expanding it into the beginnings of a composition. If you think you’ll forget it, make sure you record it on your cell phone record function if possible. Singing it in solfege can also help you retain it along with visualizing the rhythms.

Part 1: Self Evaluation
Define goals: Identify strengths and weaknesses (consult a teacher if possible) and devise short term and long terms goals writing them in a practice journal. Record yourself and listen back taking careful notes.

Part 2: Designing A Routine
Try your best to make a list of the fundamentals that need work or review. If you wish, add in any exercises of your own after brainstorming your personal goals. Look through any books that you own for supplemental material and don’t be afraid to ask your peers and teachers for advice on this.

Part 3: Repertoire
You’ll need to make a list of tunes that you would like to learn or review to incorporate into your daily/weekly practice. Write them in your practice journal. Pick a wide variety of tunes (waltzes, bossas, swing, blues, fusion, etc.) and add or subtract tunes as you get a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Harder tunes may be used to meet long-term goals later on down the road. Important: Before you learn a new tune from a leadsheet listen to several versions of the tune including one or two vocal versions if applicable. After examining the harmonies decide on the scales that are possible and would like to use for soloing, comping.

The Practice Session

Before you sit down to practice be sure of what you are setting out to accomplish during the session. Check your practice journal and decide on the sightreading material, tune, fundamentals/core skills, and have the recording ready to go for the transcription portion (I recommend it being the last 15 minutes). Set a timer to work within time frames for each of the three areas outlined below. Important: If you have more than one hour and are engrossed in any one area, then by all means continue! It is important to take a break at least every hour to 90 minutes. There will be some sessions that will consist solely of learning a new tune or any other single objective. The sample routine below is meant to be a consistent model or staple to return to for necessary structure in meeting goals.

One Hour Session (sample routine)

1. Warm-up (15 minutes): Sightreading, free improv, tone production/awareness. Personal note: I like to warm-up unamplified making sure I’m getting a good tone from the instrument (and my right hand) before plugging into an amp. Next, sightread the melody of the new tune you are learning or play the melody by ear. My strategy is to warm up with single notes before playing chords since chords involve more complex motions placing greater demands on the left hand.

2. Fundamentals (30 minutes): Decide on which fundamentals to practice for this time including tune-based practicing. If you will have another practice session(s) on the same day, then you may want to work on these for 45 minutes to one hour and include the transcription in your next session.

3. Transcription/Ear Training (15 minutes): Play the recorded track of the tune, zero in on one phrase either the melody or the solo and sing the phrase until comfortable with hearing it. Next work out the melody on the guitar in a position. Once that is played to your satisfaction, notate the line on manuscript paper. Lastly, play in other areas of the fingerboard utilizing different fingerings. The solo or melody can be learned phrase by phrase and at the end of the week or month you will have made great headway in adding to your transcription book and learning important vocabulary. I recommend visualizing chord shapes on the fingerboard in the areas you are playing these lines. This will make it much easier to transpose to use over other tunes as well as helping form an association between the melody and the harmony.

I hope you have found this article to be helpful on this often difficult area of knowing when, how and what to practice. I offer the full curriculum I’ve developed consisting of specific fundamentals/core skills and tune-based practicing concepts in my 1/21/09 masterclass at www.mikesmasterclasses.com. Accompanying the materials is a 90 minute video demonstrating many of the concepts. I wish you productive and enjoyable practicing in the months ahead.