Acoustic Guitar Central: Make the Most Out of Your Practice Session

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Make the Most Out of Your Practice Session
Practice doesn't have to be boring or onerous. Well-organized, efficient practice sessions make a palpable difference in how well you play—and make playing more fun.

By Rik Elswit

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Photo Credit: Ray Larsen

Everyone knows that a certain amount of work is necessary if you’re going to become a better player. But for many of us, this work seems mildly unpleasant and time-consuming. That’s how it felt to me, anyway, until I learned how to organize my practice sessions. Where I used to have open-ended sessions that left me spaced-out and bored, learning a few simple steps made it possible for me to get much more actual work done in much less time.

Learning guitar means repeatedly making unfamiliar, awkward moves until they become graceful. You have to do the repetitions if you want to see improvement, but if you organize your practice by taking the steps outlined below, you will see the improvement.

1 Create a practice space that works for you
Make it comfortable, and have your tools laid out neatly in advance: a chair that’s easy to play in, your instrument, a CD or mp3 player, a metronome, a notebook/journal (more on which later), and something to write with. Put everything else out of reach; out of sight is even better. If you clear distractions out of your practice space, you’ll be a much more efficient practicer.

2 Block off your practice time
Practice works best when you do it at the same time each day. As with having a set space, you want this to become a habit, an essential part of your day. Find a time of day that works for you—and stick to it. And, just as importantly, set an end time for it, too. This will make it easier to concentrate and will keep you moving.

3 Set a goal for the day
Here’s a really useful idea I got from flatpicking master Dan Crary: Set an achievable goal for the day, like cleaning up a line that’s been giving you trouble, learning a new set of chord forms, or doing a certain number of reps of chops-building excercises. Whatever you set as the day’s goal, write it down. Accomplish your goal for the day and you’ll feel energized by the achievement. Do that often enough and you’ll get hooked.

4 Keep a journal
Doing this enables you to keep track of your progress objectively. Write down what you’re working on, how many repetitions you do, the tempos that are most comfortable on this day, and your subjective impressions. Also note how you felt going into the session—and whether that changed over the course of the session. These observations can be very interesting to peruse afterward, for you’ll notice patterns in your behavior and responses that you hadn’t been aware of. This is also where you write that goal for the day.

5 Warm up first
Don’t get down to business immediately; relax your way into it. Play something you know well, slowly and deliberately. Notice how well your touch is working. Play up and down the neck, feeling the difference in string tension. Spend at least five minutes getting to know your instrument again. This can save you a half-hour of fumbling around trying to learn while your body is still catching up.

6 Use a metronome
This is by far the most useful learning tool you can buy. And they’re cheap. Avoid the ones with a wimpy little beep, and make sure yours emits a nice loud click. Once you’ve gotten to where you can play a new phrase at a reasonable tempo, the quickest way to make it a part of your nerves and muscles is to “set” it in time. When we learn a new piece, we tend to fly by the easy parts and slow down for the hard ones. And what’s worse, we don’t even notice it. Set the metronome to the slowest setting necessary to play the material without making a mistake, then play it repeatedly, slowly, and evenly. Eventually the difficult parts will be as easy as the hard ones. And people will call you on the phone asking you to come jam with them.

7 Do the work
Don’t miss more than a day a week. If you only have 15 free minutes, use them. A short session is better than no session at all; remember, you want this to become a habit.

8 Complete your formal practice session
Take a minute to celebrate. At the very least—even if, today, it didn’t feel all that great—you still completed it. But normally, you should be energized by now. Finish the session by filling in your journal entries for the day, and allow yourself the pleasure of a job completed. Give yourself a mental pat on the back. You’ve played though any sluggishness, your hands have shown up, and you’ve accomplished a goal. If you’ve got time, you’ll want to keep playing, and now it is playing.

This article also appears in Acoustic Guitar, Issue #162

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