SSP Daily Practice Schedule

[Ryan Vega]

I've seen recently a lot of people talking about how they feel like they aren't making progress and are becoming unmovtivated to play. I've been there and I know it sucks, but personally whenever I see that I am making progress whether during practice or even another day and have those "wow I couldn't do that before!" moments, it makes me really happy and I show all my friends even if they don't know wth i'm talking about it just makes it worth it to me haha. It wasn't always like this for me though I did a lot of research and learned to "practice, with the intent to get better", having that in my mind made all the difference for me so please save yourself years of frustration and think about that next time you get your guitar and start to practice and see how much faster you improve.

It's good to just have fun and improvise but if you're really trying to get better you need to dedicate time to that specifically, ideally every day, and not make the mistake of just noodling around and not pushing your limits, or you will just be noodling at that same level for ever, which is why I decided to make this 1 hour practice schedule and pass this knowledge that helped me on to all of you who read this and hopefully can help you to become a better player and make better use of this amazing resource we have here.

Try to do this or even your own variation of this everyday with the intent to get better

PART 1 - WARM UPS (Ideally warm ups that get you better as well as you're doing them)
5 minutes - Left hand warm up (legato phrases are great for this as they help you get better as well as warm up your left hand)
5 minutes - Right hand warm up (alternate picking phrases/scales/chord shapes for the same reason as above or even just chromatic runs ie. 1-2-3-4 up and down)

PART 2 - VOCABULARY BUILDING (To learn neck and epic shred licks)
15 minutes - Go learn and memorize a lesson/phrase from the course
15 minutes - Practice scales and arpeggios you already know, even if what you just learned is the all you know, start at BPM you're comfortable with, make sure you can play it clean 5 times at least, then increase metronome anywhere from 1-5 BPM and if you can't play it clean within a couple tries it would be smart to lower BPM a few to get it cleaner and start from there

PART 3 - IMPROVISATION/TECHNIQUE
20 minutes - The fun part! Apply what you've learned and jam over the backing tracks to really lock in what you learn. If you select recordings on the lessons there are backing tracks to play over, or you can even use that to figure out the key of what you're looking for and look up backing tracks on youtube, there are so many cool ones in different styles, bpm, etc. This will eventually allow you to shred and bust out these techiques you are learning on the fly.

PART 4 - REWARD YOURSELF, YOU'RE DONE!
Train your brain to WANT to practice more

PART 5 - RINSE AND REPEAT NEXT DAY
Usually after I do this routine I end up jamming/writing for a while or maybe if i'm really into it that day i'll keep practicing for even longer, maybe the same thing again or change it up a bit, and sometimes it's all I do that day, but it's okay because I know that I spent that hour improving mah skills.

Hope this helps someone that needs it, good luck as me anything.
I have some warm ups that helped me a lot i do pretty much every day that personally I think are worth gold that i'll try to get around to uploading for you guys too.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I think peoples biggest issue is their lack of real time to set aside for guitar. I myself get little time. If you cant do it everyday atleast once or twice a week helps. Then noodle the other days.. fill in the blanks. You don't wanna make it a chore hut you also wanna make it work. Especially if you are limited on time.

 

[Arsia Rose]

I've seen recently a lot of people talking about how they feel like they aren't making progress and are becoming unmovtivated to play. I've been there and I know it sucks, but personally whenever I see that I am making progress whether during practice or even another day and have those "wow I couldn't do that before!" moments, it makes me really happy and I show all my friends even if they don't know wth i'm talking about it just makes it worth it to me haha. It wasn't always like this for me though I did a lot of research and learned to "practice, with the intent to get better", having that in my mind made all the difference for me so please save yourself years of frustration and think about that next time you get your guitar and start to practice and see how much faster you improve.

It's good to just have fun and improvise but if you're really trying to get better you need to dedicate time to that specifically, ideally every day, and not make the mistake of just noodling around and not pushing your limits, or you will just be noodling at that same level for ever, which is why I decided to make this 1 hour practice schedule and pass this knowledge that helped me on to all of you who read this and hopefully can help you to become a better player and make better use of this amazing resource we have here.

Try to do this or even your own variation of this everyday with the intent to get better

PART 1 - WARM UPS (Ideally warm ups that get you better as well as you're doing them)
5 minutes - Left hand warm up (legato phrases are great for this as they help you get better as well as warm up your left hand)
5 minutes - Right hand warm up (alternate picking phrases/scales/chord shapes for the same reason as above or even just chromatic runs ie. 1-2-3-4 up and down)

PART 2 - VOCABULARY BUILDING (To learn neck and epic shred licks)
15 minutes - Go learn and memorize a lesson/phrase from the course
15 minutes - Practice scales and arpeggios you already know, even if what you just learned is the all you know, start at BPM you're comfortable with, make sure you can play it clean 5 times at least, then increase metronome anywhere from 1-5 BPM and if you can't play it clean within a couple tries it would be smart to lower BPM a few to get it cleaner and start from there

PART 3 - IMPROVISATION/TECHNIQUE
20 minutes - The fun part! Apply what you've learned and jam over the backing tracks to really lock in what you learn. If you select recordings on the lessons there are backing tracks to play over, or you can even use that to figure out the key of what you're looking for and look up backing tracks on youtube, there are so many cool ones in different styles, bpm, etc. This will eventually allow you to shred and bust out these techiques you are learning on the fly.

PART 4 - REWARD YOURSELF, YOU'RE DONE!
Train your brain to WANT to practice more

PART 5 - RINSE AND REPEAT NEXT DAY
Usually after I do this routine I end up jamming/writing for a while or maybe if i'm really into it that day i'll keep practicing for even longer, maybe the same thing again or change it up a bit, and sometimes it's all I do that day, but it's okay because I know that I spent that hour improving mah skills.

Hope this helps someone that needs it, good luck as me anything.
I have some warm ups that helped me a lot i do pretty much every day that personally I think are worth gold that i'll try to get around to uploading for you guys too.

I think one of the best things about your post is you talk about 15 minute increments. This is incredibly crucial because most people get burnt out very easily. Only roughly 2% of the population can actually focus for hours at a time, and these are professional or studied musicians who make this their absolute job. The only time I actually spend hours and hours practicing is if I'm getting ready for a recital, a gig, recording, or an audition. And that's the same with most musicians I know. Everywhere I look we hear stories about guitarists that practice for 14 hours a day and we feel like we have to do that in order to improve. And it's a lie. It's a romanticized lie. What those glorified stories DON'T tell us is that the legend who played for 14 hours was probably spending 10-12 hours of that figuring out songs, (see: Yngwie Malmsteen), and the rest actually practicing. No one can practice for even 6 hours a day. Not even professionals will do that unless it's a huge gig audition. I also loved hearing you mention legato. Legato is so crucial to build strength. Very VERY great post. I love everything you said and agree with it. Great job on your discovery and thank you for sharing.

 

[Arsia Rose]

I think peoples biggest issue is their lack of real time to set aside for guitar. I myself get little time. If you cant do it everyday atleast once or twice a week helps. Then noodle the other days.. fill in the blanks. You don't wanna make it a chore hut you also wanna make it work. Especially if you are limited on time.

Really liked your clip of "Watch It Burn". Is that an original? I liked the chord changes underneath it. It sounded like something you'd hear at the end of a really graphic horror movie at the credit scene. Great work.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Really liked your clip of "Watch It Burn". Is that an original? I liked the chord changes underneath it. It sounded like something you'd hear at the end of a really graphic horror movie at the credit scene. Great work.

Yeah. It is a 1 flat2 3 5 progression in g minor. It was one of my favourites from those sets i wrote. I liked it so much i revisited the riff at the end of the song but i didnt add anything else to it.

 

[Ryan Vega]

I think peoples biggest issue is their lack of real time to set aside for guitar. I myself get little time. If you cant do it everyday atleast once or twice a week helps. Then noodle the other days.. fill in the blanks. You don't wanna make it a chore hut you also wanna make it work. Especially if you are limited on time.

Exactly man that's why I tried to make it short and sweet, I feel like time and structure are the biggest roadblocks. There's so much out there to learn that if we don't just focus learning/improving one thing for a bit of time whenever we can we just stay at the level we are or progress unnecessarily slowly.

 

[Ryan Vega]

I think one of the best things about your post is you talk about 15 minute increments. This is incredibly crucial because most people get burnt out very easily. Only roughly 2% of the population can actually focus for hours at a time, and these are professional or studied musicians who make this their absolute job. The only time I actually spend hours and hours practicing is if I'm getting ready for a recital, a gig, recording, or an audition. And that's the same with most musicians I know. Everywhere I look we hear stories about guitarists that practice for 14 hours a day and we feel like we have to do that in order to improve. And it's a lie. It's a romanticized lie. What those glorified stories DON'T tell us is that the legend who played for 14 hours was probably spending 10-12 hours of that figuring out songs, (see: Yngwie Malmsteen), and the rest actually practicing. No one can practice for even 6 hours a day. Not even professionals will do that unless it's a huge gig audition. I also loved hearing you mention legato. Legato is so crucial to build strength. Very VERY great post. I love everything you said and agree with it. Great job on your discovery and thank you for sharing.

yes very well said. with a very improvement focused and applied routine (minimum 30 minutes-1hr) you can improve faster than you ever thought was possible (I did) and after something like this you will either be done and happy or hungry for more and keep going learning songs writing riffs with what you learned that sesh or noodling as they say. Thanks for comment btw made me feel like this post was worth it, it took a long time to type up hahah.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Exactly man that's why I tried to make it short and sweet, I feel like time and structure are the biggest roadblocks. There's so much out there to learn that if we don't just focus learning/improving one thing for a bit of time whenever we can we just stay at the level we are or progress unnecessarily slowly.

What im saying is if youre like me and work afternoons.. you usually get home by 11 and you settle down by 12.. maybe touch a guitar before one.. by then its bed.. morning is tight too unless you dont sleep. So i tend to do different things everyday. I still play just do different things.. basically whatever I feel i need to do that day. Lately its been song writing again. But eventually ill get back to messing around with new theory ideas and exercises. Most of what i do in songs is my theory practice anyways so i find for me it works out.

So essentially of you are tight ln time. You can pick specific exercises or whatever. Dont feel like you need to spend countless hours practicing theory ideas. Learn the positions then apply them. Im not saying youre wrong but i just know a lot of people here will tell you they dont have a hour every day to play and im one of those people that has to encourage myself from time to time to play cause my job takes a lot out of me. Its easier to play a video game most nights. I try to break that trend and play more its also easy if youre playing for a reason.

 

[William B.]

I heard/read somewhere that 20 minutes of focused practice everyday was more beneficial than once a week for 4+ hours
Isolating stuff helps me a lot like just doing down strokes for a few minutes with xxxxxx notes trying to get things even and hitting the correct amount of strings or changing between 2 difficult chords. Could be anything, a downside would probably be things could get stale and feel/sound less exciting if your constantly isolating everything.
Trying to add to this thread

 

[Ed Seith]

I heard/read somewhere that 20 minutes of focused practice everyday was more beneficial than once a week for 4+ hours
Isolating stuff helps me a lot like just doing down strokes for a few minutes with xxxxxx notes trying to get things even and hitting the correct amount of strings or changing between 2 difficult chords. Could be anything, a downside would probably be things could get stale and feel/sound less exciting if your constantly isolating everything.
Trying to add to this thread

No matter what you do on the guitar, a smaller amount every day will always be more beneficial than a large block of time once a week. 10 minutes every day (totaling 70 minutes per week) will be more effective - MUCH more effective - than two hours (120 minutes) once a week.