Does anyone here have a regimen that they follow or a schedule, log books or anything like that?
I’m curious on what your thoughts are?
Sherp
Nope. I just play when I can, and practice whatever has been bugging me that I can’t do well, or whatever I’m inspired to get better at. It may not be super structured, but it keeps me on my toes.
My life is hectic and nutty so I don’t really get a lot of highly structured, systematic practice time. I have a day planner and I keep notes on what I need to work with little check boxes. These notes could be parts of songs that were shaky at our last rehearsal/gig, improvising over specific chords/riffs, ear training, a transcription project, maybe mapping out the fretboard in a specific key and working out scale shapes to mine new lick ideas for, whatever. This way I can set specific goals for myself, stay focused on important stuff and keep myself accountable by checking stuff off as I work.
I’m thinking of making a log that has 15 to 30 minute “sessions”. I’ve been pretty good with that lately.
Ear Training, some Sight Singing.
I would like to do some improv every day, but things start stacking up.
Does anyone have an idea of what a Bare minimum would be as far as covering stuff?
Lots of related discussions on the forum, you may find some of these of interest! I’ll do my best to collect 'em in a list here 
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its weird because ive always WANTED to form some sort of routine…but NEVER have. The weird thing is, when i was into weightlifting I ALWAYS had every single rep planned out in advance. I used to use these Russian routines where its very planned out etc…but on guitar ive always just played.
It could be that what Ive done is ideal though…who knows. I know that on one of his vids, Rick Graham says something like “I Always recommend having a routine, but ive never actually had one” lol
Maybe an ideal would be to just have one of two KEY, building block type exercises that you are working on. You do them religiously with metronome or whatever. But then you also just free form play and explore etc. That would sort of be the best of both worlds
Peace, JJ
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I was like that with weight lifting too.
I do think you should work on new things at least twice a day, whether it be for 15 or 30 minutes a piece.
Ive tried to set up routines and have to some extent but it can get crazy fast.
Once I start with a list I can go for days. Just the chords category
Alone turns into sub categories.
Add multiple types of picking.
Sequences
Scales
Argeggiis
Ect…
Nowadays I just have a bunch of things Im working on and cycle through them on repeat.
If I start the list it never ends well. Lol
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I was reading up on study/learning tips, multiple sessions a day appear to be more effective for retention/skill learning than single one long one. Which is also much easier to fit into my day haha. emphasized text
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That’s what I’m trying to shoot for, but I want to interleave as much as possible.
I think that might be a good strategy.
It’s hard as hell though, When you mix something new or multiple things that separately you play pretty
well, it doesn’t always go well, sometimes is a disaster and you have to keep it up.
I think this video hits on a key that might help us all
and if u go to his site and search his vids for “practice”, you might get a ton of cool ideas. He rambles a bit but there are some good ideas presented
I watched the first video. It’s interesting, but maybe sort of a strawman? The least of my problems as a guitar player is loading a scale pattern into long term memory- that’s almost instantaneous. I guess it might be valid for beginners, but if you’ve learned some scales, there’s an element of pattern recognition that I think incorporates new information into the existing data. Maybe that’s just me, but I doubt I’m that special!
Applying a new scale on the other hand- that’s harder and may well be benefitted by playing through various positions.
sounds to me like you didnt understand the point of the vid lol
for one thing, new info DOESNT automatically get loaded into long term memory. We all have thousands of forgotten licks to attest to that.
Secondly, his point is that learning a brand new thing and then doing it for one hour straight also might NOT enter it into long term memory
So when we structure our practice time over the course of, say, a week, we can set it up to “relearn” our newer patterns many times over. As opposed to doing 1 pattern for 30 minutes straight, then another for 30 minutes, then another for 30 minutes, maybe its better to do each one for 6 minutes and go through that cycle 5 times. (thats just an example but you get the idea)
We used to talk about this on singing forums too. We would find a cool singing “coordination” and then we’d think “oh yeah, ive got that now!!” Then the next day its gone. Exactly. Thats because learning something once isnt really learning it. But if you learn it, go away from it, come back to it and “relearn” it…after a while u can find it instantly. Sort of like how we learn a locker combination. At first we need a piece of paper but after a while it gets deeper into memory
But in any case, if the concept isnt for you, good, discard it Bruce Lee style. Absorb whats useful, discard the rest
Sure. I understand the concept that new concepts need to be loaded into muscle memory in order to be instantaneously recalled, and that that process takes place over successive practice sessions. I don’t think we need a video for that? Water is wet, gravity functions, and it takes time to reliably recall complex patterns on command. I just think this imaginary scenario where everyone is trying to learn scales by playing them in multiple positions on the neck and then instantly forgetting them doesn’t really exist. Or it never has for me, anyway.
That said, if it’s helpful to analyze it that way for you, I completely support that. Everyone learns differently.
My take on the thousands of forgotten licks is that it’s nature’s way of separating the wheat from the chaff, so to say. The things that really speak to whatever style you’re developing stay around.
if it was that simple we wouldnt be here now would we?
in any case, vid wasnt for you, it was for the OP.
You already have it all mastered (evidently) so why not offer something to the OP instead of shooting down someone else’s contribution?
Can someone here break it down into bare essentials?
I’m curious…
ok. I was under the impression that debating this type of thing was up for grabs - it seems like it should be honestly, if the point is to find better ways of learning. But regardless- sorry for attacking something that you appear to be personally invested in… for some reason…
In terms of the OP, I do have a pretty firm practice routine. I don’t keep a log or anything like that, although it’s probably not a bad idea. My routine is more of a cycle of picking patterns that I play to warm up, that eventually broadens to more musical stuff and then concludes with working on improvisation or writing - or some combination of those things. I usually set aside a separate time if I’m trying to learn something new.
Totally just me though. I wouldn’t say it’s the most rigorous approach, but it seems to allow for a good balance between creative ideas and moving the needle forward on technical facility.
personally invested? whatever dude. Im pretty sure there is some decent medical research done about short term/long term memory and dude was presenting a basic concept. You want to ‘debate’ that? Like I said, whatever dude
Ah ok - “whatever dude” from the guy whose main contribution to the thread (about practice routines) has been admitting that he doesn’t have a practice routine, and posting whatever he turned up by typing “guitar practice” in the search field in YouTube. If only the poor neophyte OP could have done that himself.
By all means- let’s celebrate your exciting discovery that you yourself have never tested. Kudos for managing to watch a video.
I gave the OP a vid related to what he asked about…which YOU said that YOU didnt like. But the thread had nothing to do with your likes or dislkes.
Then you said that scale patterns go into your long term memory “almost instantaneous” (nevermind the whole physiologically impossible thing)
and you wonder why you got pushback on that?