Effective practice schedule for the enthusiastic beginner ?

[CSB123]

Effective practice schedule for the enthusiastic beginner ?

As a total beginner, no previous experience.

I have been at this a good 4 months seriously, i am not unhappy with my progress, and i am impatient, but not overly so, my biggest fear is wasted practice time, or ingraining bad habits.

I have read thread after thread, watched numerous YouTube videos on the subject, and gone through lectures on guitar tricks covering practice, and although it mainly makes sense, some things don’t

I have weekly in person 30min sessions with a teacher.

The process so far has been:

1. Started with exercises, similar to the spider crawl but from frets 7-10, up and down the strings, alternate picking, and then repeat from pinky frets 10-7. (I was supposed to use a metronome but have only recently started using it every single day, as it put me off totally and was overwhelming the first few months)
2. Picking technique various songs, we started with one song, one section, and simply use my fingers along one string, making sure my alternate picking was spot on
3. Picking technique advanced to 2 strings and moving fret to fret
4. Now we started finger picking, i am practicing portions of a song, moving from one shape to the next shape in 4 sequences.

We haven’t delved into chords yet, and such.

So every week i have 1-2 things to work on. The next week expands on that.

Now down to my actual questions:

I practice this daily for roughly 45-60 min straight every AM. (Metronome, and whatever material i have to work on, i alternate between exercises and working on material during the hour,as i get bored or frustrated)

During the day , every free 5-20 min i repeat the process. (This i then do on all my guitars, which there is now 4, 2 acoustic of various sizes, 2 electrics les Paul and strat) - this is a mix of metronome, or repeating what my teacher has asked of me) or i try some of guitar tricks fundamentals, or i push buttons, and twist knobs, and try figure out what impact they have.

In general i get 60-120 min a day practice.

I do not noodle, because well i cant, I don’t know what it is, and i cant even noodle spaghetti at this stage.

Lately i have added 2 x 30min music theory lessons a week via Justin guitar course, only just finished module 1.

Is this practice regarded as efficient and actual “practice” ?

Is switching guitars a lot everyday a good idea ?

it does make it increasingly difficult and challenging, especially between the acoustics, the one is a small body 00 Ibanez AEW400 and then onto a traditional Yamaha FGX830, which feels like i am wrestling an ox, by far the hardest to master when switching. (I am a 230lbs 6ft man, so i am hardly petite)

I leave the two acoustics with me in the lounge and one electric in my office upstairs , and one in our dedicated living area we have set aside for music.

I work from home, so increasing my practice time is not a problem either.

I usually take the smaller Ibanez to lessons, but we have now agreed to rotate one week acoustic and one week electric with my teacher.

[JonPR]

"Effective practice schedule for the enthusiastic beginner"?

I won't give details, just two pieces of advice:

1. Practice until either (a) you get bored, or (b) it starts to hurt. Then stop. (Start again as soon as you feel like it.)

2. Don't call it "practice". Call it "playing".

Hopefully your enthusiasm will carry you through (2).
In fact, your enthusiasm is the crucial thing. It doesn't matter what you play/practice, as long as you are enjoying what you are doing. (In terms of (1), that means that point (b) will occur long before point (a) does. )

What you get enjoyment from is a personal thing - I can't advise you on that. Some people love playing scales and doing exercises. Others hate it. The latter kind should be playing pieces of music instead.

In fact, some people love drawing up schedules, others hate it. I never made schedules for myself - I didn't need to, I just played what I wanted when I wanted. For me, learning guitar was diametrically opposed to school or to work; it was recreation, which meant it didn't need schedules or planning. It was driven purely by enthusiasm.
But schedules are fine provided you don't get obsessed with the planning and forget to actually play! (Then again, if you're enjoying the planning process, what's the problem? )

Oh, btw: there is one more reason in (1) to stop playing: (c) when someone comes storming into your room and wrenches the guitar out of your hands, screaming "for chrissake stop playing that thing for once!!!" If they go on to break your fingers, that would reason (d).

[CSB123]

Originally Posted by JonPR

"Effective practice schedule for the enthusiastic beginner"?

I won't give details, just two pieces of advice:

1. Practice until either (a) you get bored, or (b) it starts to hurt. Then stop. (Start again as soon as you feel like it.)

2. Don't call it "practice". Call it "playing".

Hopefully your enthusiasm will carry you through (2).
In fact, your enthusiasm is the crucial thing. It doesn't matter what you play/practice, as long as you are enjoying what you are doing. (In terms of (1), that means that point (b) will occur long before point (a) does. )

What you get enjoyment from is a personal thing - I can't advise you on that. Some people love playing scales and doing exercises. Others hate it. The latter kind should be playing pieces of music instead.

In fact, some people love drawing up schedules, others hate it. I never made schedules for myself - I didn't need to, I just played what I wanted when I wanted. For me, learning guitar was diametrically opposed to school or to work; it was recreation, which meant it didn't need schedules or planning. It was driven purely by enthusiasm.
But schedules are fine provided you don't get obsessed with the planning and forget to actually play! (Then again, if you're enjoying the planning process, what's the problem? )

Oh, btw: there is one more reason in (1) to stop playing: (c) when someone comes storming into your room and wrenches the guitar out of your hands, screaming "for chrissake stop playing that thing for once!!!" If they go on to break your fingers, that would reason (d).

Appreciate the advice, will be avoiding C and D lol

I am most certainly enjoying the process thus far, i am just detail orientated by nature, and you highlight a good point about fun and going with the flow, my careers has been that of a camera engineer, knowing all the technical aspects of making magic but zero input into the composition nor creative aspect, never the creative.

Now as i work in the nutritional sciences, its equally as detail orientated, with very little in the way of creativity.

The very reason i took up guitar was to explore my creative side, a side left totally untouched for 43 years of existence.

Seems i gravitate to that detail orientated, very structured, trying to squeeze every bit of quality I can out of every minute. Maybe i must also remember to not lose sight of why i took up guitar too

[MartinGibsonFan]

Since you work at home, leave your guitars out on stands (if that is a safe thing to do, meaning, no children, no pets)

Keeping guitars always in sight can fuel creativity.

You think about something you want to play and your guitars are at the ready.

That's what I do, keep 'em right by the sofa and the TV.

MGF

[TBman]

Play more tunes and add barre chord practice.

Keep things musical.

[MartinGibsonFan]

Originally Posted by TBman

Play more tunes and add barre chord practice.

Keep things musical.

I agree, keep things musical.

Although practice is fine and essential at the beginning, keeping things musical helps keep playing guitar ENJOYABLE, rather than a chore (IMO)

MGF

[Riverwolf]

I am surprised that you are not learning open chords at 4 months.
I would suggest that you take Justin's beginner course along with your teacher.

https://www.justinguitar.com/categor...course-classic

[MartinGibsonFan]

Originally Posted by Riverwolf

I am surprised that you are not learning open chords at 4 months.
I would suggest that you take Justin's beginner course along with your teacher.

https://www.justinguitar.com/categor...course-classic

I'm surprised as well, that chords have not been introduced.

BUT, if this is a CLASSICAL (or JAZZ for that matter) guitar teacher, then I'm not surprised.

MGF

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by MartinGibsonFan

I'm surprised as well, that chords have not been introduced.

I missed that!

Originally Posted by MartinGibsonFan

BUT, if this is a CLASSICAL (or JAZZ for that matter) guitar teacher, then I'm not surprised.

If classical, yes I'm not surprised, but I would be if it was any non-classical style, including jazz.

The technical work is all useful, of course, but there's a surprising absence of theory. What can those "songs" consist of? Melodies only?

Personally I always start my students with melody (in preference to scales), but we get to chords in week 2!

[CarolD]

Another enthusiastic beginner here! I think today is my 1 month anniversary . I’m very much like you in that I really like a methodology or structure to my learning experience.

I am not taking in person lessons at the moment, but I signed up for a year of the Guitar Tricks course. I practice daily in one session from about an hour to two hours a day. It’s usually closer to the one hour or a little over side of things, but I do get carried away sometimes!

My “practice” consist of tune-up, warm-up (some easy spider exercises, a few scales that I’ve learned so far, and some other finger independence exercises from a Guitar Heads book that I bought). Then I spend another 40 minutes to an hour working on the things I’ve been learning in Guitar Tricks, which for now is chord changes in Amin, Emin, D, C, and G. Some days I watch more lessons and some days I stay with the earlier lessons because I don’t have things “down” yet. When my fretting fingers get too tired and sore, I practice some very easy finger picking things with my right hand that I picked up on YouTube until I can go back to chord changes. For the past few days I’ve just been practicing various chord changes because I find this slow going and I think the better I get it now, the better I’ll be in the long run. There are lessons where you practice the chord changes along with the teacher and a band and perform a song, but I’m still a little slow so I’m just working the chords for now. I’m about 65% through the first beginner module and I know the next few lessons are a whole lot more chords. Then there is a second beginner module before the course splits into 4 intermediate areas: Bluegrass, Jazz, Rock and Acoustic.

If you like structure and want more things to work on, maybe add an online course to your in-person lessons? I absolutely love the Guitar Tricks course and it’s only $99 for a whole year of access. There’s tons of free stuff on YouTube as well, but I find it confusing to just jump into a video sort of haphazardly.

I did pick up a second very inexpensive acoustic in a different body shape that I might plunk around on a second time during the day, but it’s definitely not something I would call a practice session. I just think the more you handle a guitar, the more second nature things will become.

[CSB123]

Appreciate the replies, and wish i could quote everyone.

Having guitars on stands everywhere REALLY does help a lot, and i have them on stands everywhere throughout my house. *this is my excuse for more”

One thing I don’t think i made clear with the lessons, is there is some melody to everything.

So the very first alternate picking was seven nation army, A string only and index and pinky finger only, picking in rhythm.

This progress to “down on the corner” 2 strings but introducing middle index and pinky into the sequenced.

Then to drive by black coffee and David Guetta which took it a step further, in terms of picking, movement, and technicality.

Now onto finger picking the last few weeks.

I am consistently changing frets and finger positions, with a lot of emphasis on the pinky and ring finger.

So the song we doing now, requires a start of index on A (7th) and ring on B (8TH ) pluck those two strings in tandem, and then into a rhythm of thumb on be pluck ring on b and index on G ......then moving rapidly to ring on B on the 5th fret and index on A of the 3rd fret , then index off and same sequence, then up to frets 4 and 2 and same finger picking sequence, then repeat from the start x 4 times with no mistakes.

One thing they pedantic about is making sure my up and down strokes are perfect, knowing when to do each. Ironing out things holding me back, like a habit of trying to look at my right and left hand at the same time, forcing me to only look at my left hand. Then trying to play the same sequence to a backing track, i think this freaks me out more than a metronome lol

The slide from say frets 7 and 8 to 5 and 3, how to get there quicker, and land the ring finger first and index last, as the index comes the most naturally and accurately, so a lot of emphasis is put on the problem fingers that take a bit more time to develop the dexterity and independent use of these digits.

I was however curious when we would be exploring chords and such.

I did ask the last lesson if we will be getting to chords etc, and they said most definitely, my theory is they just hammering home good technique and dexterity, before moving to chords etc and strumming. Possibly the transition is easier once those skills are second nature, I don’t know at this stage.

I am constantly reading from what i assume is chord diagrams, which tells me what to play from them.

Ahh CarolD, two peas in a pod on our journey haha, i also purchased the year special for GuitarTricks , and i am only on chapter two of fundamentals 1, switching the simple C and simple G . I am very happy with the purchase so far.

I am also really enjoying watching videos of Justin guitar and as mentioned i purchased his music theory Course, which is really rounding off my experience nicely, as i get more aha moments.

Was a bit concerned, as every online course seems to jump head first into the basic chords, after going through guitar anatomy and tuning.

I am in no particular rush, no more than the next person, i know there simply is no destination, only enjoying each part of the journey, i have no specific genre , i love them all.

I have no hero guitarist i aspire to, closest representation of who i want to be as a guitarist is you tuber Kfir Ochaion, for no other reason that i love his sound, and the sheer variance in genres, I don’t know where he ranks in your interpretation of skill levels, but i am sure a very advanced player, so even half that skill played in my bedroom (no aspirations of being a YouTube sensation lol)

[Su_H.]

I think everyone already gave you solid advice. I want to give you one more so that you don't make the same mistake as I did. Don't rush the fundamentals. In my opinion, one of the most difficult obstacles in classical guitar - is developing a proper right hand technique. Once that is achieved, the sky is the limit.

Don't rush the learning process and enjoy the journey.

[CSB123]

Originally Posted by Su_H.

I think everyone already gave you solid advice. I want to give you one more so that you don't make the same mistake as I did. Don't rush the fundamentals. In my opinion, one of the most difficult obstacles in classical guitar - is developing a proper right hand technique. Once that is achieved, the sky is the limit.

Don't rush the learning process and enjoy the journey.

Thank you, and most certainly will take it to heart, i really want to take every phase as seriously as i can, no rush, and see what i am capable of with due diligence, and solid repetitive effort over time.

In my profession, principles are everything, much the same way the fundamentals are in music, once you master the principles, the methods of achieving them are endless.

Edit : i follow Brandon Acker on YouTube, he does classical, and has some great videos On warm ups, that helped me isolate left and right hand warm up exercises.

[rllink]

Although structure is not my thing I realize that the lack there of is probably one of the reasons that there are lot holes in my guitar playing and adding a little would not hurt me. As far as practice, I've noticed that I'm good for forty five minutes or so and after that I'm not learning much. I often go longer, but after that first half hour to forty five minutes my attention to detail and ability to concentrate goes out the window. At that time I'm just noodling and dinking around, which is an enjoyable way to end my practice for me. I am starting lessons next week to fill those pot holes. I am probably going to have to go against my usual lackadaisical approach and buckle down a little more. I can do that.

[Su_H.]

Originally Posted by CSB123

Thank you, and most certainly will take it to heart, i really want to take every phase as seriously as i can, no rush, and see what i am capable of with due diligence, and solid repetitive effort over time.

In my profession, principles are everything, much the same way the fundamentals are in music, once you master the principles, the methods of achieving them are endless.

Edit : i follow Brandon Acker on YouTube, he does classical, and has some great videos On warm ups, that helped me isolate left and right hand warm up exercises.

You are most welcomed.