Practice Schedule (part 2)

Following on from last week’s post, today I’m going to be finishing off what I was telling you about how you can create a personalised practise routine just for you.

We’ll start where we left off, with the third section of the routine (please read the previous post for the first part of this article).

Creative Learning

This section is based on the idea of play- yes, play! Maybe you hadn’t thought about this, but playtime doesn’t stop when you become an adult! Just think of all the time you might spend daydreaming, or playing computer games, or doodling (yes, we all do things like this, don’t be ashamed of it- it’s natural)…did you realise that when you’re doing these things, your brain is essentially running in the same “mode” as when you were playing games as a child?

In fact, this “play mode” is very important in the learning process. So, the aim of this section is to get this part of your brain working- which will really allow everything you’ve practised to sink in. I’ve split it into two sections, but- again- you can add as many or as little as you want. Literally just spend this time “playing” with what you’ve learnt. Make up solos, chord progressions or riffs- anything you want. The most important things to remember here are: don’t force yourself, and have fun! You can’t force a child to play- it only comes naturally.

If you actually set aside time to just “play around” with your instrument, with no set rules or restrictions, you’re actually encouraging your brain to let everything sink in at your own pace. There’s no deadlines, no targets, and no rules as to what you can do in this part of the routine.

Putting it all Together

Now that you’ve created a chart or list similar to last week’s .pdf sheet, it’s time to organise this into a routine.

Have a look at the next sheet- it’s an example of how to put this all together. You may have noticed that in the previous sheet, there were lists of exercises next to each section? Well, this are the things that you’re actually going to be practising for each section. Feel free to add as many exercises or techniques to these as you want (the more the better really). Notice, also, that it’s colour coded.

The example here uses a five day working week, with the weekends off. Each day has one part from each section of the routine (yellow, orange, and red). The “focused learning” section of the routine (in orange), that was divided into different “days” cycles through once each week (“day 1″ being Monday, “day 2″ is Tuesday etc.). This means you’ll be practising a different thing each day- which will help stop you getting bored, or focusing too much on only one thing (we want you to become a well-balanced musician, not a one-trick-pony!).

For each day there is also a “warm-up” (in yellow), which is the same for each day. The idea of this is that you’re only warming your muscles up to working temperature, and so you should cover all the muscles you’re going to need every day. Of course, feel free to add as many different exercises as possible here- just don’t let it go over about 15 or 20 minutes (OK, maybe on a very cold day…).

The last section, the red section (creative learning) is only written in as a guide. Just be aware that you should spend some time on this. It doesn’t even need to be right after the other two. Just leave your guitar on a stand or something so it’s in easy reach, and pick it up and play whenever you feel like it. Eventually you’ll start to notice that the stuff you’ve been practising in the rest of the routine will creep into this part naturally (which is a good sign that you’ve learnt it).

Next, I’ll be talking about how to measure your own progress, evaluate and set yourself some new goals. Read it here.
Rob.

May 20, 2011 at 8:00 am | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments