Hello Ethan...
The biggest question of "
What kind of guitar player do you want to be?" will help you carve out how long and what to practice and
HOW to practice. Everyone forgets that these are
three KEY items EVERY guitarist needs to adhere to depending on what kind of guitarist they want to be...
1. What makes me happy?
2. What am I excited to commit to?
3. How will this benefit my growth?
$ynners, take notes. Everyone praises how quickly I advance and this is the breakdown of why I have been able to...
Firstly, you need to ask yourself "
what kind of guitarist do I want to be?" Don't question it. Really sit down, think about it. Think about your goals a musician, what makes you happy, what gives you joy. Go ahead and think about it and let me know and I'll tell you what I think would be best for you to do.
Here's the thing
@Rute Rodrigues , you are not wrong. You have a very "classical guitarist" approach to practicing. And there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone will have varying routines of what works for them, so our job is to help you find something that works for you. As a classically-trained guitarist, I have learned to spend a SMALL amount of time on finger warmups, and then spend some time on technique practice (not a whole lot), and then what we do is we focus on one specific piece. 1.5 hours of practice time is MORE than enough time to get some serious improvement,
but not if you're going to spread yourself so thin. You'll get nothing done focusing on 5 things for 15 minutes each. Classical guitarists will spend about 45 minutes doing warmup and technique practice and then as long as it takes focusing on one spot on their current piece to get it sounding good. Even if it's just on measure.
You see, the problem with doing 15 minute of this, 40 minutes of that, is let's say you want to learn the solo for Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses, and you've never even started learning it. You need to make a goal of a FEW measures, maybe even only ONE, and practice it until it sounds how you want to sound. I don't give a shit if it takes your entire practice time. Do it. Because here's what will happen: You'll get measure one pretty okay in one day of practice. Then day 2 you'll get it a little bit better and MAYBE you feel inclined to try measure two. And then next thing you know, maybe by day 6 you have 6 measures really awesome sounding and you're working on measure 7 now. Or who knows? Maybe you get so good with measure one you can move on to measure two in 5 minutes. Each day you practice something
(consistency being key), you'll improve on it. There's only so much you can improve on in one day. So don't sit there and say "I have to practice THIS specific thing for an hour" because you can only get something so good in one day before it becomes an "over a time span" thing. So what if you told yourself "I'm going to practice the scales in lesson 28 for an hour" but um, you kind of already know them well? Are you going to bore yourself to tears FORCING yourself to play something so religiously when you've already made improvement on it in let's say, 15 minutes? Yes you can create sequences with those scales, yes you can jam over them in different key signatures and genres, but those are kind of classified as "warmups/technique and fun time" respectively, not actual
practice.
That is, unless improvisation and getting faster with those scales is a GOAL of yours, then it's actual practice.
Think of practice like this: Have you ever heard a chef say "I'm practicing measuring flour" or "I'm practicing stirring my sauce"? No. Because measuring flour and stirring is so basic and simple and it will be done millions of times over their lifespan, they don't consume their time everyday improving the basics of cooking because they KNOW with repetitive use, it will get better, more precise and faster over time. However, how many times have you heard a chef say "I really need to practice getting my pastry dough more flaky" or "I really need to practice laying my fondant for this cake I'm suppose to make"? A little bit more often, I'm sure.
Stirring sauce and measuring flour = Warmups and technique
Laying fondant and getting a flaky phylo = Musical goal/achievement
Ask yourself this final question: Would you rather spend 2 hours practicing how to stir sauce or practicing how to get a flaky phylo dough? Which is more important? What needs the most time?
This is what classical guitarists do. When they have a recital, a wedding reception or an ensemble performance coming up, THEN they spend up to four hours practicing. So 1.5 hours is plenty of time. You said you were tapping into gypsy jazz and that's awesome! Is it something that inspires you? If this is a 'yes' (if it isn't a definite
'yes' it's a definite
'no'), then what I would do is research
"essential warmups for gypsy jazz guitarists" because they will differ from "essential warmups for a thrash metal guitarist". Then find out what techniques are being used and find them as lessons on here. Delve yourself into theory as well. Then most importantly, find a piece you can easily achieve so you can have a stable understanding of the foundation of gypsy jazz guitar.
My practice schedule looks like this:
10 minute warm up
20 minute technique practice (etude studies)
30 minutes current lesson
3rd measure of Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane Solo"
Triplet downstroke section of original song
Notice how I don't give a time limit to those last two. Because that is my specific goal and I don't want to bore myself to tears if I nail it in 10 minutes by repeating it for an hour. NOR do I want to limit my time so much that if I don't get it at all, I'm moving on to something else. If I did that, the time I DID spend on it would be null and pointless.
If you are finding yourself needing to practice for 5-6 hours a day as some guitarists do, you may not be practicing efficiently or performing bad technique. I thought I was going to have to play 6 hours a day to see any improvement, but that wasn't the case. I was just simply having limiting techniques (holding the pick improperly) and not a good practice regimen. The guitar players like us are so disciplined by the scholarly ways of "time blocking" our practice but it doesn't have to be that way.
My last and final thought: Noodling is both good and bad. As many students have stated, it's how you can find your creative voice and create new melodies and ideas. Just
DON'T fucking be a mindless noodler where you just wank off for an hour with no care about honing in on a kickass riff or melody you discover and working with it. Because if you don't and you spend a majority of your time noodling, you're just jerking off. Sorry not sorry. You won't achieve anything. You won't discover WHY something you did worked. You won't create or expand. You're just blazing through stuff without thinking. However, if you're finding yourself noodling it may not be because of lack of discipline. Maybe your practice regimen is boring as fuck. Or maybe you're needing to write and create. Whatever the road takes you to, ALLOW it to. If you're practicing the CAGED shit and you get a creative spark, don't pour water on it. But by the same token, don't succumb to noodling because you're simply bored or you feel intimidated you're not getting something. It's the same equivalent as to me going and playing "Silent Hill" instead of me doing my calculus homework (fuck that I never got to calculus but you get the point). Math was too hard for me and uninspiring. But writing...wow... I could do my college composition homework all day.
In conclusion:
Don't bash yourself in the head with warmups and techniques, unless the technique is a goal of yours
Ask yourself what kind of guitarist you want to be and research the warmups and techniques suited for it
Noodle when necessary
Find something that inspires you
Have a decently obtainable goal and stretch goal
Do it daily
Eat chocolate
Cuddle kittens
Fin
