How do you divide your practice time for it to be efficient and effective?

[Kaickul]

How do you divide your time when practicing? technique, theory, aural training, learning songs. TIA!

 

[MrPepperoniNipples]

Do what I want when I want to, if you have the drive, the practice routine will work itself out

I think you can try to structure a practice schedule all you want but I found that if you don't have the drive to learn it you probably won't regardless of how much time you spend figuring out how many minutes to spend on what etc

 

[BaDaML]

I used to do finger exercises first, about 15 minutes worth. Then 15 minutes on learning a new chord, and applying it to a simple progression. Then learning the arpeggio for the same chord, 10-15 minutes. Then 15 minutes of just playing scales/modes, in a different key. I would do the same chord/scale/mode for 5 days, then 2 days of whatever lol, then choose another chord/scale mode for the next week.

The big thing is to figure out where your deficiencies are, and target them. It takes discipline, but once you conquer something that is or has been difficult for you, it will inspire you to play and practice more.

 

[The Reverend]

It's different for everyone. We all learn in different ways, at different speeds.

I don't have a set duration for my practice sessions because I always quit when I sense diminishing returns. If my hand is tired, or my brain is blasted, soldiering on won't get me anywhere. I wouldn't advise anyone to waste their time practicing once you're fatigued. Last thing you want is train that sloppiness into your muscle memory. Practice is no different than performance, always remember that. Write that shit down.

Okay, so my routine looks like this: To warm up, I play 5-6 of my songs. If I don't play them, I forget them, so I sort of have to. This gets the blood flowing. I don't necessarily strive for perfection, just solid and consistent playing. It's also a good way to see what bullshit I'll be dealing with today. Fret hand pinky a bit stiff? Alternate picking sloppy? It's like a warm up meets diagnostic.

Then I move on to the nitty gritty. I generally do raw technique and theory/musicality on alternate days. This means one day I'm grinding for speed and accuracy, and then the next day I'm applying that (or the sum total of my techniques) to a scalar run, or playing against difficult chord progressions, or what have you. Normally I do that until I can't. Sometimes I'll forego that routine to focus specifically on a riff or some other aspect of my playing that really needs work. For example, I realized that I can't play triads as cleanly or quickly as I can open chords (not that I've tried to play eighth note chords at 130 often). I've been butchering a riff I wrote involving that progression so that my fingers will 'snap' where they need to go cleanly, as will as flowing into and out of that passage nicely.

So it's really a matter of what works for you. See what your idols do, try a bit of it, and remember what worked and what didn't. Adjust your routine accordingly! Profit.

 

[r134]

I dont particularly need theory or aural training, as they were both covered by my school, as well as history and jazz history

plus I have perfect pitch

As a percussionist, I have a lot of instruments to get to when I practice: snare drum, timpani, 2 mallets, 4 mallets, kit.

However, few people own something like a 5 octave marimba, which are about 15k, or a set of adams dresdon clutch pedal timpani which are about 40k

I can practice things like snare, or kit at home. I can play my vibes at home. But I have to go to school during times like over the summer to practice.

I usually put my time were its needed. If Im preparing for a snare audition, I will lean more towards snare. If its orchestra season, then I will work more on timpani (I havent touched them in a few months incidentally) If Im going to be playing a show thats heavy on kit, then Ill practice that.

Its basically like this:

Snare: 20m
2 Mallet Technique: 15m
2 Mallet Piece: 15m
4 Mallet Technique: 15m
4 Mallet Piece: 45m
Timpani Technique: 15m
Timpani Piece: 30m
Kit Technique: 15m
Kit Piece: 30m


Some days I might leave a few out, or extend others and cut others, but on a good Saturday, that will be my practice routine

 

[Solodini]

I think it's good to have a base "exercise" or two which work a bunch of things, like working out a short extract of a tune, the functions of the notes and try to replicate that application by writing something similar. You can then apply various techniques to it or vary the music to suit those techniques. If you can jam a few techniques in together then that's handy. It may help you to break out of the mindset of techniques being isolated chunks, rather than just ways of working around the difficulties of the music. Shoehorning a technique in may show you ways that the technique is counterproductive and other ways that it is useful but may not have been immediately obvious. Ideally, after applying things variously, you can start to just use techniques automatically to help express yourself musically, much like learning to speak certain sounds of difficult but concise words.

As Reverend mentioned, that can help you to see shortcomings and give you an idea of what needs work for the rest of that session, while maintaining base levels of various things.

 

[TheShreddinHand]

Check this out:

 

[Konfyouzd]

I don't divide it... I just play music... I play things from memory like songs, etudes, etc and I listen for subtlties in my playing. I will sometimes spend 20 - 30 minutes playing the same phrase like a pedantic ass until I hear myself play it the way I'd like for it to be played.

If that gets boring I go to the computer and just start trying to record something. It seems like if I'm really having trouble getting a riff down, attempting to record it helps a ton...

That said... I don't really have a specific practice routine. My ear guides my practice. Whatever sounds like it's lacking in my playing on a given day is what I typically practice hardest, but that's just a general rule...

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

I can tell you that screwing around with gear for about 90% of my personal practice time is not necessarily the best way to improve!

 

[altyguitar]

I always have a set practice routine and vary it according to what my goals are at the time. Usually I break it down to around 30% lead guitar techniques, 15% improvising, 15% ear training and the rest of the time things like music theory, learning songs etc but it varies depending on what I want to achieve at the time.

 

[Fredrish]

Like many others, I don't really have an organized routine. I break out the metronome, and warm my fingers up with some chromatic runs up and down the fretboard in different octaves. This is followed by some stretching, like 3-string arpeggios ending in hammer ons and pull offs, where I successively stretch my pinky and ring finger further and further. Adding some tapping helps with the timing as well.

After that, it's different every day. I usually have a couple of techniques or phrases I'm trying to sort out - at the moment Abasi-style "thumping" and getting 4-, 5- and 6-string arpeggios nice and fluent. I practice for about and hour or so, then I move on to play whatever I feel like; write new riffs, jam to songs, etc. At the end of the session, I add some theory, like f.ex. doing something new with a given mode.

Playing is very emotional for me. While I try to have purpose and consistency, some days everything just sounds and feels like shit, regardless of what I do. Then it's best just to focus on theory, or do something completely different. It's important to give yourself a break once in a while, as a number of people have pointed out. If not, you might find yourself forcing sloppy technique or what not into your muscle memory, and it will just mount up to extra work unlearning it.

The process is different for everyone. Try a lot of different things, and you'll eventually find a way that suits you.

 

[Given To Fly]

In order for me to efficient and effective with my practice I have to start by simply getting my fingers moving. Personally, I find mindless technical exercises perfect for this. John Petrucci has one that goes up all 6 strings (or 7 or 8) playing a 1-3-4 left hand pattern in groups of 5 and coming back down in groups of 6. It hard to explain but theres a Youtube video of it somewhere. He uses it for legato, I use it for right hand technique (classical) and alternate picking (electric). My goal right now is to go up and down the neck. Once I've done that, my practice session seems to sort itself out. This may not be helpful because you sound like you want a specific routine. That's good, but sometimes the only way to get started is to sit down and play anything that gets the wheels turning!