How to Practise Guitar Exercises from a Book

[HellGamer666]

Hey, all! I just went out and bought Chris Letchford's (Scale the Summit) guitar technique book and I was just wondering how some of you guys, who are likely far more experienced guitar players than I, work through technique-building material. Any particularly effective ways to master the exercises presented in books such as the one I just purchased? I understand that the use of a metronome is always encouraged, but I've never owned an actual book of exercises and was just looking for some tips. Cheers!

A link to Chris's book: Scale The Summit — 6-String Guitar Technique Instructional Book by: Chris Letchford

A link to Chris's band:

 

[Solodini]

Take them slowly. Cleanness in your playing is of huge importance. The metronome, as you mentioned, is handy to keep you slow as it's easy to speed up when you think something is easy, lose focus and lose cleanliness.

Try to find contexts to use the exercises or variations of and come up with new variations to work on.

 

[MrYakob]

Another thing you could do (which may be pretty time consuming, but worth it in the end) is input the exercises into Guitar Pro so you can hear it along with your playing as well as being able to slow it down and loop it.

 

[Repner]

The good thing about Chris's books in particular is he gives you a goal tempo for each exercise, but as was mentioned, make sure your accuracy comes first. Only advance as far as you can without losing that consistency. The speed will come with time. Be sure to change it up as well. Don't spend all day on one exercise.

 

[guitarfreak1387]

Dont just practice the exercise as its writen. I always look for a varioation on how to play it and also play it in other keys all over the neck. then make it even more fun and translate it to a different "mode" even if it sounds like garbage.

 

[Repner]

Another thing I found helpful is to record myself playing the exercises. You'll be amazed at how many mistakes you didn't realise you made while you were playing. It really helps you clean everything up. I have a Line 6 Backtrack connected to my setup that automatically records whenever I play something, so all I need to do is hit play when I want to hear it back. Other than that, I just use my phone, or a DAW if I happen to have it set up during practice.