GOALS 2021 beta

[Tony]

These are the goals I use to develop my daily practice plan. Not everything listed is practiced in each session. Some items are handled by a 3 to 5 minute exercise, others have to be kept in mind throughout the practice session. Practice is deliberate action performed to address a problem, as you can see, I have a lot of those. 

General

• Maintain a practice journal.
• Enter what will be practiced in the journal as part of the warm-up.
• Record myself regularly and perform a self-assessment.
• Develop an exercise to address problems found during self-assessment.
• Less noodling, more deliberate practice.
• Learn where the strings are.
• Develop 2-hand synch.
• Remember it is not about speed.
• Tap foot on 2 and 4.

Rhythm

• Primary focus is playing in time.
• Secondary focus is using triads and shell voices, not big chords.
• Practice changing chords.
• Practice common chord progressions.
• Practice common rhythmic patterns/styles.
• Practice ability to develop an appropriate rhythmic pattern based on the drums and bass guitar.
• Practice diatonic chord scales.
• Practice hybrid picking and easy finger picking.
• Practice legato and dynamics.

Melody

• Do NOT drill scales up and down so much that kinetic memory results.
• Practice scales over a drone. Speak the note names, Solfege, or interval.
• Practice octaves all over the neck.
• Practice arpeggio style, triads, 7th chords, pentatonic scales, and diatonic scales against the parent chord.
• Practice around the Circle of 5ths.
• Practice legato and dynamics.

Improvisation

• Learn a lick. Analyze its intervals and rhythm. Play it in 5 positions. Transpose it to another key.
• Practice developing a melody over a one chord vamp (major, minor, dominant, diminished chords) using a variety of scales. Name the intervals. Listen close to what works.
• Comp two bars, then improvise a fill for two bars, using the standard 12 bar blues.

Long Term

• Play songs.
• Play with others.

 

[admin]

Thats a really good practice plan Tony. I am pretty sure it will take you to a next level when you do it regular. One piece of advice - as long as you have difficulties with a specific technical exercise always make it 2 times once you master it you can go back to once and concentrate on playing the full series of the technical exercises.

[Andrea Joy]

I did this several times in my life... to make practice plans...mine were allways to ambitious. SO I learned something musically -but somthing more about myself: That I need shorter plans and to do it more regualary over a longer period. At least, to write things down it's the first step - to focous more on what will come in time. Best wishes to you Tony!

It's funny early in the mornig ...today ...I thought about writing down the dayly exercises and themes, that come up while I'm playin. To rembemer and come back to them later.  I HAVE big packs of paper allready 😂  ... but some things/songs/themes are growing.

I'll never give up playing and to get better focous on the things I want. If "learning" is fun - I'm in.

Greets Andrea

[admin]

Why don't you guys do a practice - group to share the efforts of keeping the disciplin ? I must admit - I never did strict practice plans but I played non-stop for over 10 years. But my teacher also recommended me to do a plan - now since I am more wise I also do more precise plans and exercises. 🙂

[Tony]

Yesterday I picked an exercise that was too ambitious for me, I planned playing 135 arpeggios in the key of C in 3 octaves starting with Em. I spent more time lost than picking notes. So, today I'm going to focus my exercises between frets 1 through 5. For example, play major chords around the circle of 5ths staying between frets 1 through 5 at 60 bpm. Play a bar for each chord as 1/4 notes, then 1/8 notes, then triplets. Then repeat with minor, dominant, and diminished. This can be repeated with arpeggio 135, 1357, and scales. When I get too frustrated and need a break, I'll work on the Catfish Blues lick.

[Andrea Joy]

My practice goal for the next weeks is allredy set:

• Set up the Guitar, Pedal, Amp, in a good way.
• Set up a place with Smartphone & Light (the room is very dark)
• Play a song I like and don`t struggle to much
• Post it in the academy

Future plan:

• Do this with some lessons (less is more for me here)
• Do this with my own Songs

Then I look ahead further ...I don`t want to loose too much time with noodeling. Look more for the whole song & result. I f this works I can trust myself and maybe do something in a group.

Today I'm at home with other work and football with a friend 😀

 

[admin]

43 minutes ago, Andrea Joy said:

My practice goal for the next weeks is allredy set:

• Set up the Guitar, Pedal, Amp, in a good way.
• Set up a place with Smartphone & Light (the room is very dark)
• Play a song I like and don`t struggle to much
• Post it in the academy

Thats great - looking forward to that 🙂

44 minutes ago, Andrea Joy said:

(less is more for me here)

thats true - it's like a general rule in life 🙂

[Tony]

Here is a one month later update. 

I didn't follow the plan, not even a little. In fact, most of my guitar practice time was spent taking naps.

The most practice I did in July was following the changes to Dark Blues Music. 

 

New goal, learn a song. 

[admin]

4 hours ago, Tony said:

most of my guitar practice time was spent taking naps.

same to me - I also wanted to go back to disciplined practice work but other things kept draining my energy which leaded to naps 😄 Thats why I cancelled the guitar nights.