Practice Routine December 2020

20 minutes of Alternate Picking

All tempo zones, usually 70BPM - 210BPM 16th notes
Exercises: #104 or scales in different sequences

15 minutes of Sweep Picking

Switching between 8th note triplets and 16th notes
Exercises: different shapes and patterns for minor/major/dim/aug similar to #135

20 minutes of Legato
Getting more control of hammer-ons and pull-offs
Exercises: arpeggios, scales, actual licks with focus on 'perfect' timing and articulation - I
work with the hybrid picking approach explained in #77 or other episodes

15 minutes of quick Music Theory drills

This block is changing often to keep things interesting
Exercises: I like to go through triads or other concepts or work on #94 to prepare for the
final practice block

20 minutes of Improvisation
I focus on specific goals: switching between note values, adding chromatic lines, working
with motives, playing interesting notes, accenting the chords,...
Exercises: I pick different jamtracks to work with, I love YouTube videos with scrolling
sheet music or chords

Practice Time
I like to start around 04:30 – 05:00 since nobody is calling or disturbing me at that time.
Evening sessions are difficult for me since I work very long each day and that makes it
difficult to set an exact repeating schedule in the evening. I think I also couldn't focus as
much as in can the morning after recording, writing or editing/shooting videos all day! Try
as many options as you can, you will find a system that works for you :)

Practice Motivation
Every day is a new chance to get better – sometimes it all feels very slow and you can't
see your progress after a couple of days. But as soon as you watch older videos, you will
be excited at how much you evolved over the last months/years! Make sure to document
your sessions here and there to have that kind of reference footage. This really helped me
with staying motivated, seeing that it actually pays off to practice!

You can do it, remember to have fun and good luck :)