10 Steps to Maximize your Practice Time

Are you feeling that you are not seeing the right results from your practice regimen? Try these ten tips that to make your practice routine more efficient

There have been times when I could honestly say that I was “putting in the time”. I felt as if I was doing everything right; spending a few to several hours a day with guitar in-hand, metronome clicking away, etc… but at the end of the day, I felt my playing was no better than it had been months ago…maybe years ago; I was simply not getting any better. This is not as un-common as you may think. Many musicians go through phases such as this and it is frustrating. Most likely, the reason why you feel no joy from all of your honest efforts may be that you do not have any focused goals so therefore you are not actually achieving much other than having the guitar in your hands. The way around this is to take a more analytical approach that provides you the opportunity to set goals, meet those goals, and then set new ones. By setting and meeting goals you not only have a better mechanism by which to gauge your improvement, but you will start to see  your playing improve in ways that are easier to distinguish.

Step 1: Take Inventory

The best way to begin any worthwhile effort is to take stock of where you are. This is not meant to be merely a self-criticism session, but an opportunity to determine what your strengths and weakness are. Strengths get less attention in practice sessions, weaknesses more. The easiest way to do this is to take a blank sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle of it, and write “Strengths” in the top left and “Weaknesses” in the top right. Then get to work and make a laundry list of the skills you know you have down-cold and the areas that you know you are weak in. Once you feel this list is complete, tear the sheet in half and toss the “Strengths” side in the trash. Take the “Weaknesses” side and place it in the nicest picture frame you can afford, buy it coffee, find it a girlfriend. This list will be your companion for a while; you might as well make it comfortable.

Step 2: Set Goals

Now that you have identified the areas that need work, determine what your goals will be. Remember not to try and conquer Rome in one day. The goal here is not to be able to play “Flight of the Bumble Bee” in 3 days. This step exists only to decide what your goals are. Maybe you feel that playing fast is your problem, or playing slow, or finger-picking, or slide playing. Whatever it may be, identify the key areas that you feel you need improvement and then prioritize them.

Step 3: Commit to a schedule

The typical reaction to this is: “Well, I don’t know how much time I really have to commit to, I’m very busy…” There is no need to make a huge commitment, you can start out with a very small amount of time and then adjust as your schedule permits. The most important thing is to make sure that your practice sessions happen with regularity. Every other day like clockwork is much better than daily, but missing days at a time. Be honest with yourself, how much time can you really promise yourself that you can put into your playing each day? Most of the time I commit to no more than 15 minutes, that much I know I can do. As things change and I can bump that up to 2 hours, I do, but I never promise myself any more than 15 minutes. This way I never let myself down.

Now, you can be sure that there will be a noticeable difference between someone who does a minimum of 3 hours a day and someone who does 15 minutes. This is simple math. But many guitarists make their first mistake by committing to too large a chunk of time, and then finding that they cannot keep up. This can affect your psyche and you can start to feel as if you are “slipping” and start to give up entirely. Do not let this happen; commit to what you know you can do. As I mentioned, I only promise myself 15 minutes per day, but I often do more. I may practice for 4 hours today, but when I wake up tomorrow morning, I expect no more than 15 minutes, the rest is up to me. I once did a three month residency in a foreign country where there was no chance I was going to learn the language. There was not much to do during the day and I found myself bored often. So, I bumped up my committed practice time to 2 hours a day. Some days I did 8 hours, but I never promised myself more than two hours and would accept no less.

When I returned back to New York, my life became crazy and hectic in all the expected ways. So, I immediately altered my minimum practice time back down to 15 minutes. I often did more, but never pressured myself to, nor would I accept a minute less.

Step 4: Make a Practice Plan

Now that you have decided what your minimum time commitment is, you need to decide how you will use that time wisely.  Try to think not in amounts of time, but percentages of total time.  The best approach is to have a plan such as “25% speed drills, 25% finger-picking, and 50% slide playing…” I used to dedicate the first 10% of my practice time to warming up and stretching. However you decide to slice it up, be honest with yourself and try to allow the highest percentage of time for areas that you need the most help with.

Step 5: Fine-Tune your Commitment

Ok, so now that you have made a commitment to minimum amount of time each day, you need to deal with the reality of distractions. There are two kinds of distractions: one you can control and ones you cannot control. Let’s tackle the ones that you have control over first. An example of this would be phone calls. What do you do if the phone rings while you are practicing? Easy: don’t answer it. Better yet, turn your phone off. Don’t worry, if it is Mick Jagger calling to see if you want to join his band, you can track him down and get all the exciting news later. Turn off the phone, the T.V. or whatever other electronic devices are likely to interrupt you. Next tackel the interruptions that you cannot control. For example, what to do if nature calls? Simple; take care of it. What about if a friend stops by to say “Hello”? Easy: Say “Goodbye”. Just let them know that you are practicing and you will be finished soon. If they are a real friend, they will understand and you can fill them in with the details later. The main thing to remember is that everyone has a different set of built in distractions. Only you can honestly asses what they may be and decide how you will handle them, but do handle them.

Step 6: Use a Stop Watch

This is the step that will help keep you honest. Buy a stop watch. It does not matter how cheap it is, it could be a cheapo digital watch that cost you $5 on the street. As long as it has a stop watch function it will serve you just fine. Start the stop watch when you start a session and turn it off any time  you have to stop; bathroom breaks, un-controllable interruptions, etc… just be sure to turn it off any time you have to actually stop playing. You’ll realize that in reality, it might take you 90 minutes to do an honest hour. This is ok; it means that you are able to determine accurately that distractions take up about one third of your time. So, keep at it with the watch, and as you go you can strive to minimize these distractions. When you get to the point where it takes you one hour to do a one hour practice session, you have maximized your sufficiency and are spending your time wisely.

Step 7: Practice the way you plan to play

If your main goal is to improve your performance on stage and you stand up when you play, then you should practice while standing up. I can’t stress enough how important this is.

Step 8: Re-assess your goals

Once you are able to get into a regular pattern with a minimum daily commitment, let things go on in that manner for a while. After a reasonable amount of time, maybe two weeks or a month, ask yourself if you are meeting your goals. If it is obvious that in some areas you have progressed rapidly and not as well in others, adjust your percentages and put more time into the areas that are not improving as well. If there are areas where you feel you are “Nailing It” eliminate the percentage of time allocated to those areas and focus on a new area that requires your attention.

Step 9: Increase your commitment

Now that you have been at it for a while, you have a much better sense of how efficient your practice sessions are. Now is the time to increase that minimum commitment if you can. For example, if it used to take you 90 minutes to do an hour session, and now it takes you an hour, bump up your minimum commitment to 90 minutes. Clearly you had 90 minutes to spare in your day, so increase your minimum practice session to 90 minutes per day, knowing that because you are so much more efficient now, that 90 minute might only require 90-100 minutes of time.

Step 10: Set new Goals

The best way to use this 10-step approach is to realize that there is no “end game”. This is a process that evolves into a life-style. As you reach your goals, set new ones. As you become accustomed to practicing so regularly and efficiently, reach a little higher in your goals. Try to become proficient in other genres of music. Be creative. The higher your self-expectations, the more you will achieve. This will keep the practice sessions from getting stale and keep the process fresh and interesting.

Summary

Time is a precious commodity in today’s world. Start out your 10-setps realistically so that your minimum commitment each day is do-able. As you progress through the weeks, keep check of how you are doing and how efficiently you are spending your time. The more you can master your time and your goals, the sooner you will reach a new level in your playing, experience less boredom and ultimately, reap the benefits of your hard work through a higher satisfaction in your own playing.

Good Luck!