Free Guitar Lessons, Guitar Master Classes, Learn Guitar | Insane Guitar

Q: I was wondering…

I practice through a routine and was wondering if I need to practice the same things everyday? I mean like say I want to do sweeping this day, and legato the next, Etc, am I going to lose the chops I gain or is this a good way to practice?

Thank you

A: As long as you are practicing guitar, you are probably gaining abilities. It is pretty hard to loose chops. You could put down the guitar for a month and in a day or two get your chops back to normal with a bit of practice. However, I would recommend concentrating your efforts on practicing as efficiently as possible. Practicing only one thing a day doesn’t sound very efficient to me. Here are some ideas that you can put into play that will help you get more out of your practice time and progress faster.

I would recommend getting some sort of diversity in your practice each day. If you spend one day practicing only legato for example, you are only growing in one facet of your guitar playing. There is not a lot of transferability to other parts of your guitar playing learning only legato licks. Thus, you would make no gains in your rhythm abilities, song writing, improvising, ear training, and etc. Try to spend time working on a variety of guitar techniques and skills so that you will grow as a player smoothly, not lopsidedly. For example, by working on improvisation, you are practicing using a variety of techniques, phrasing, timing, and expanding your creativity. If you want to empathize a certain technique in your practice, like for example your picking may not be the best, then dedicate more time to it in your practice routine. It is very important to not neglect areas like vibrato, ear training, phrasing, improvisation, timing, and rhythm guitar work in your everyday practice. If you do not balance yourself in practice, you may find yourself one day become one of those guitarists that can pick and sweep like a maniac, but can’t hit a bend or play a riff to save their life. The result is that you will still be a beginner and not taken seriously. All of that practice will be in vain. So, make sure that you do not neglect some of the less fun techniques like vibrato in your practice everyday. It is essential!

Also, when practicing guitar, try to focus on learning things that challenge you. If you can already play something perfectly with solid consistency, there is no need to spend time practicing it, unless you are maintaining it for live performance (like practicing a song you wrote over and over because you play in a gigging band). If you are practicing to maintain, practice not to make mistakes, as opposed to being able to just play it good enough to get through it. I’m going to quote Tom Hess and say that this is the difference between a professional and an amateur guitarist. When practicing to maintain, make sure that you can play it perfect already. If you are practicing something new, again, try to focus on the challenging spots. If there is a particular lick, or part of a lick that you are still not able to play, it is best to spend your time on that. Practicing the exact parts of licks that give you difficultly will make your guitar practice more efficient and effective.

Hopefully you find this useful! Good luck.