FOUR AWESOME

P R A C T I C E T E M P L AT E S

F O R G U I TA R I S T S

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I N TR O D U C T I O N

This short PDF is a guide to crafting an effective practice session. If you feel overwhelmed by the amount
of different things you could work on or if you are having trouble making steady progress on the guitar, this
guide will help.

When I was first learning the guitar, this is the kind of guide I wanted, but never had. For the most part, I
taught myself how to play. I had to figure out the nuts and bolts of the instrument on my own. I wished some-
one would have made it simple to create and plan a practice routine. I learned later that having a quality, daily
routine dramatically accelerates your playing proficiency.

I imagine some of you are teaching yourself. This guide is for you. If you have a guitar teacher and need some
additional help creating a solid practice plan, this guide is for you too.

F O R M AT

Its nearly impossible to create a universal practice routine, one that will work for every guitar player ever. Your
goals are different than mine. Someone who is just starting needs to work on things that an experienced play-
er will have already mastered. Bluegrass finger-pickers will need to focus on material that a jazz guitarist may
not need to know at all.

With that in mind, I’ve created four basic practice templates, each one for a guitarist with a different focus.
There are pieces that are common in each template because a healthy practice session requires them, but the
majority of it is tailored to your unique approach to music and the guitar.

I created each template to fit into an hour long practice session. If you are dedicated to your instrument, an
hour really isn’t much. If you are pressed for time, you could scale it down. And if you are really inspired, you
can expand it. Though know that Parkinson’s Law of Productivity, ”work expands so as to fill the time available
for its completion” means that you might be better off leaving your practice to one hour. Hopefully you can
set aside that much each day for your guitar goals.

At the end of this PDF there is also a “Build Your Own” section, just in case you want to try your hand at mak-
ing your own practice routines. Though I recommend giving one of the templates a shot for a while before
modifying them.

PR O TIP : Use these templates in addition to a PRACTICE NOTEBOOK for maximum learning!

Thanks for checking out this guide, if you have any questions you can email me at shawnparrotte@gmail.com
Have fun and good luck!

-Shawn

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Practice Routine #1, The Troubadour (A Singer Of Songs)

This practice routine is for you if you play guitar mostly because you enjoy playing songs. Maybe you also
enjoy writing songs too. Either way, for Troubadours, the art and craft of song is something that they take
seriously. A song isn’t just a song, its a piece of artwork. A sliver of life. If catch yourself being moved over
and over again by a chorus of a tune, then this template is for you.

Wa r m U p ( 1 0 m i n )

Here are examples of warm up exercises for guitarists who focus on songs:
1.) Play some chords slowly, focus on landing on each shape with ease, and make sure all the notes can ring
for their full length.
2.) Arpeggiate a chord or a chord progression slowly, aim for accuracy in your picking and an even tempo.
3.) Do a few vocal warm ups too, if you know any. If you don’t, play and sing a simple song that’s well within
your vocal range to warm up your vocal chords.

B a s i c G u i t a r T h e o r y ( 1 0 m i n )

This section is for learning some of the fundamental concepts of the guitar. If you are working through a meth-
od book, you can do a page or two. If you have a chord book, you can learn and practice a new chord shape.
If you are tackling barre chords, use this time to make them sound better. Progress your guitar knowledge a
bit further before taking the plunge into your songs.

L e a r n S o n g s ( 2 0 m i n )

This section is where you dedicate time to learning how to play songs, or for taking songs from half-learned
into fully learned. Choose just one or two songs to work on at a time and practice them until they are perfor-
mance ready. “Performance ready” means that you can confidently play the song to an audience of any size.

Optional Substitution for Learn Songs: Write Songs

If you are a songwriter, you might want to use this section for writing songs. Explore some ideas, jot down a
verse, or create a hook!

R e h e a r s e S o n g s ( 1 5 m i n )

This section is for playing and practicing songs that are already performance ready so that you don’t forget
how to play them. Pick two or three songs from your repertoire and play them as if you were performing the
song in front of an audience. Play them from beginning to end and see how they went. If you need to work on
a certain section of a tune so that it becomes performance ready again, use this time to dig in and perfect it.

I m p ro v i s e / J a m ( 5 m i n )

This section is for creating music for the fun of it! You’ve just played a bunch of songs or spent time writing
your own, so let loose and jam out on your guitar as a way to relax and reward yourself for a great practice
session.

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Practice Routine #2, The Engineer (Addicted to Music Theory)

This practice routine is for you if you love learning how music works and you get the most enjoyment from
exercising your music theory muscles. You’re an Engineer if you are constantly learning about cool things you
could do with music and are endlessly fascinated by music that challenges you. If you’ve ever said “did you
hear that!?” to your bewildered friends, you probably want to use this template.

Wa r m U p ( 1 0 m i n )

Here are examples of warm ups exercises for guitarists who focus on theory:
1.) Simple chromatic exercises, using all of your fretting hand fingers, at a slow tempo.
2.) Play an easy scale shape, slowly, with a metronome. Use different rhythmic ideas too.
3.) Play through a few simple riffs. Get your hands synched up and ready to go!

S i g h t R e a d ( 1 0 m i n )

This section is for improving your sight reading abilities. This will quicken your note recognition time for both
the notes on the musical staff and for the notes on your guitar. Knowing what pitches you are playing when
you play them puts you way ahead of other guitarists who only know how play shapes. Find some notated
music and go to it!

Optional Substitution For Sight Reading: Ear Training

Load up an ear training app and better your analytical listening skills. Or better yet, transcribe some music
you’ve been listening to recently.

F u nd a m e n t a l s ( 1 0 m i n )

This section is for practicing scales, arpeggios, chord shapes, and rhythms. Pick one and spend some time
building the solid foundation of your guitar playing. Reinforce some of the fundamentals you already know
well and expand upon them a little each time. Having a few resources to help you out might be a good thing
too, so be on the lookout for cool workbooks on the topics you are interested in.

S o ng s & L i c k s ( 1 5 m i n )

This section is for learning how to play some songs or licks that feature the ideas you are currently working
on. If you are learning the dorian scale, maybe learn a solo that uses it. If you are getting your blues boxes in
order, definitely check out some signature licks from the masters. Or do the reverse, find out what’s going on
under the hood of your favorite licks!

I m p ro v i s e / J a m ( 1 5 m i n )

This section is for applying some of the ideas and music theory concepts to your own guitar playing. There is
no better way of understanding music than creating it yourself, so spend the last part of your practice session
getting a feel for how you might naturally incorporate new ideas. Here you might want to jam along to a back-
ing track, there are plenty out there on YouTube now, or if you have a looper pedal, you could write your own
backing track to play over!

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Practice Routine #3, The Ninja (So Fast. So Precise.)

This practice routine is for you if your desire is to master all the techniques of playing guitar. You’re a Ninja if
you dream of playing mindblowingly fast solos and flawlessly executing all manners of guitar acrobatics with-
out breaking a sweat. If you are a fan of all the guitar masters of yesterday and today who display an absolute
command of their instrument (and listen to their albums on repeat) then you will want to use this template.

Wa r m U p ( 1 0 m i n )

Here are examples of warm up exercises for guitarists who focus on technique:
1.) Simple chromatic exercises, using all of your fretting hand fingers, at a slow tempo.
2.) Work on a guitar specific technique: slides, bends, hammer ons, pull offs.
3.) Practice alternate picking on an open string, start slow and get faster.

S c a l e s & A r p e g g i o s ( 2 0 m i n )

This section is for mastering the fundaments of scale and arpeggios. If you want to become an adept guitar
ninja, you better know your scales and arpeggios inside and out! Choose a scale shape and work through it
in a few different ways. Make sure to use a metronome, start at a comfortable tempo and increase it over the
course of your practice time. Do the same thing with an arpeggio shape.

Don’t feel the need to practice too many shapes too soon. Spend a week or two with one shape and really
master the unique obstacles that it provides. If you need help finding scale shapes or arpeggio shapes, pick
up a workbook that lays them all out for you and check them off one at a time. After a while, practice how the
shapes connect together so you can get used to reaching different areas of the fretboard.

Te c h n i c a l E x e rc i s e s ( 1 0 m i n )

This section is where you challenge yourself to perform unique or difficult technical problems on the gui-
tar. String skipping, alternate picking patterns, weird scale shapes, so called “spider” exercises, and more.
Choose one to work on for a while, bust out the metronome and, like before, start slow and increase the tem-
po as you get better at the exercise.

R i ff s & S o n g s ( 1 5 m i n )

This section is for practicing some of your favorite riffs and learning songs that feature the technical challeng-
es you are working on. Its easy to forget about songs when you obsess over technique, so choose a tune or
two and learn it - from beginning to end - over a week or two of practicing. Keep track of the songs you learn
so you can come back to them and refresh your memory (and your fingers) about how they go.

I m p ro v i s e / J a m ( 5 m i n )

This section is for jamming out after a mentally and physically challenging practice session. Create some licks
or riffs using what you are learning. Fire up a backing track and wail over it for a little bit. Let loose so you can
relax a bit and refresh yourself for the next day’s practice session.

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Practice Routine #4, The Hoarder (A Collector Of Instruments)

This practice routine is for you if for some reason your room is filled with instruments of all shapes and sizes.
You might own a piano, or ukelele, or saxophone, or flute, or drum set, or all of them! Its difficult to master
one specific instrument, but the breadth of knowledge across each of them allows you the unique ability to
understand how all sorts of music works.

Wa r m U p ( 1 0 m i n )

Here are examples of warm up exercises for musicians who learn multiple instruments:
1.) Practice simple tunes on your MAIN instrument.
2.) Do some simple technical exercises on your MAIN instrument.
3.) Play a page or two of a workbook on your MAIN instrument.

L e a r n S o n g s o n Yo u r M A I N I n s t r u m e n t ( 2 0 m i n )

This section is for learning and rehearsing songs on your main instrument. Spend about half the time learning
a new song, working out the details of the parts, and putting all the pieces together. Spend the other half
performing a song you know well so you can continue to perfect it. Keep track of your repertoire so you don’t
overlook some of the songs you’ve learned in the past.

F u nd a m e n t a l s o n Yo u r O T H E R I n s t r u m e n t ( 1 5 m i n )

This section is for getting a handle on the fundamentals of playing your other instrument. If you are working
through a workbook, do a page or two. If you need to practice some scales or arpeggios, pick a couple and
work through them. Most of the time, the difficulty of learning a second instrument is learning the mechanics
of it, how to make the best sound out of it. So work on that here.

L e a r n S o n g s o n Yo u r O T H E R I n s t r u m e n t ( 1 0 m i n )

This section is for learning how to play some tunes on your other instrument or rehearsing some tunes that
you already know well. Work on a section of a new song and master the things you need to make it sound
awesome! If you have all the parts together, try playing it from beginning to end. If you want to rehearse a
song you know well, imagine playing it in front of an audience. If you make a mistake on your first or second
run-through, step back and practice the part that needs work.

O p t i onal Substitution for Learn/Rehearse Songs: Improvise/Jam

Take this time to jam out on your second instrument. Play around and feel out the approach you might need
that is different than your main instrument. Depending on your playing level with your second instrument,
jam along to a backing track. Or even, record yourself playing your main instrument and jam along with your
second!

M u s i c T h e o r y ( 5 m i n )

This section is for learning the music theory that connects all the instruments together. What you learn here
will carry over to all the instruments you play so take some time to understand how music works. A good mu-
sic theory book will break down the essential concepts that happen across all instruments so you might want
to pick one up and go a page or two at a time. If you are playing more than one instrument, don’t just use a
guitar theory book because those concepts might not apply to your other instruments.

Switch the words main and other every practice session for a balanced approach to learning your instruments.

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Custom Practice Template: Build Your Own!

I recommend that you try out one of the practice templates above for a while (a month or two at the very
minimum) and see what kind of progress you can make. If you feel like something is missing from your
practice sessions, you may want to change one or two sections out for another.

Below is a list of activities and exercises you could potentially do in a practice session. Doing them all will take
you a very long time, so I don’t think its a good idea to put them all in one session. In fact if you do, you may
end up hurting yourself in the process. Repetitive stress injuries are very common for overly ambitious musi-
cians who decide to step up their practice game too much, too soon.

If you noticed, each of the practice templates I created started with a warm up. You should always ease into
your practice session with something simple and slow. Don’t skip this step. You can actually learn a lot from
playing things very slowly and with careful attention to how your body produces the notes.

Choose between three and five main activities. Its here where most of your learning gets done. Whether its
learning songs, learning a new scale shape, or learning music theory, make sure to do something challenging
so you can expand your knowledge in some way. You may also decide to practice performing some of your
songs, ones that you know well. In this case, you would be learning how to play your repertoire confidently
and with passion.

I also believe that spending the last part of your practice session by improvising allows you to unwind and
remember that music is a fun and creative activity! There is no reason to end a practice with the stresses that
difficult technical exercises or long, challenging tunes can put on you. When you are making your own prac-
tice routines, add some jamming to the end!

T H E L I S T

WARM UP (ESSENTIAL) ETUDES TRANSCRIPTION

SIGHT READING STYLISTIC EXERCISES MUSIC THEORY

GUITAR FUNDAMENTALS LEARN SONGS COMPOSITION

GUITAR THEORY REHEARSE SONGS IMPROVISATION (ESSENTIAL)

TECHNICAL EXERCISES EAR TRAINING GROUP PRACTICE

Again, don’t try to do it all. If you’ve heard stories about epic, super long practice sessions done by famous
musicians, know that they may be true but can’t be sustained for very long.

I would recommend you cap your practice time at two hours. You shouldn’t need more time than that. If you
feel like you do, think long term and plan to tackle some things now and some things down the road.

Take mental and physical breaks in between each section. Do some stretches before and after you practice.
Treat your body well, as hopefully you will be playing your instrument for many years into the future.

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