FOUNDATION LESSONS

 
 

beginner

The 30-Minute Practice Routine

Have you ever asked yourself, “How should I be practicing” or “What should I be practicing”?
Here are some real world tips on what you should be doing in your practice time to get the most
amount of progress in the least amount of time.

There are four important sections to a good practice session: Warm-Up, Technique Practice,
Song Practice, and Creative Free Play.

Here is a suggested 30-minute practice session. Feel free to vary this according to your needs.

5 Minutes: Warm Up—Getting the Muscles Ready to Work

• A time to get the fingers and muscles stretched and moving

• Hand & Finger Stretches
• Finger Exercises from the SkillsHouse Finger Flexibility lesson and power workout

10 Minutes: Technique Practice—Becoming a Better Guitar Player

• Focused time on technical guitar playing issues

• Scale Exercises
• Chord Exercises
• Music Theory

10 Minutes: Song Practice—Applying the Technique to a Song

• Working on a song
• Technique means nothing until you can use it in a song.

5 Minutes: Creative Free Play—Exploring on the Guitar

• Time to put the books away and explore creatively

• Improvisation
• Make up melodies on your own
• Explore variations of a chord or idea in different parts of the guitar

These four sections are vital to a good practice time. If you don't know where to start, use the
above as a simple guideline. Remember, the best practice is regular practice. More is
accomplished in smaller daily practice times than in one large practice time once a week.

Don't look for each practice session to be flashy and exciting—some of them will be dry, but they
are always doing their work. Real learning takes time so enjoy the journey!

For step-by-step quality guitar instruction check out the award-winning Gibson’s Learn & Master
Guitar course at www.LearnAndMaster.com and the lessons section at www.gibson.com for all
the help you need to become the player you want to be!

www.LearnandMaster.com 1 Foundation Lessons: The 30-Minute Practice Routine