How to Develop a Successful Guitar Practice Schedule

The only way to get better at something is to practice.

Well, actually, that's a little bit untrue. The real only way to get better at something is to practice properly.

Nowhere is this more true than the realm of the guitar, an instrument that requires near-constant, backbreaking (literally, if you've got one of those heavy Gibson Les Pauls) work to get decent at, and practically compulsive levels of devotion if you ever expect to become the next Joe Satriani, or whoever it is you kids listen to these days. You crazy, method-rocking kids.

Anyways, like I was saying, the cornerstones of any practice regiment should be diligence, structure, and consistency. Diligence helps you push through the practice session without zoning off and just going through the motions, structure helps you focus on key areas and develop your abilities evenly, and consistency lets you practice every night without missing one, even if you're planning on getting drunk (I tend to occasionally have problems with this one).

Speed

An easy exercise for getting better finger dexterity is to simply play a chromatic scale along with a metronome set to a comfortable tempo, then up that tempo by 5bpm and repeat the scale. Keep doing this until you get to the point where you can't play the scale at all, then gradually work your way back down by 5bpm increments. Experiment with other exercises, such as playing one string at a time or playing triplets on each note (this builds your picking strength). 20 minutes a day of these exercises will speed up your playing immensely.

Learning The Scales

To learn the scales, start with the major scale and learn the degrees, notes, and fingering of the 6 patterns that recur up and down the fretboard. The patterns cover four frets on all of the strings each, and can be found at this link. Once you practice each one in sequence until you've got it down, you can start stringing them together and you'll have the entire major scale mapped over the fretboard in every key...from here, learning modes and pentatonic scales is as simple as knowing what note to start on and what notes not to play. Work on scales for an hour or two a day if you can, though you'll notice results in as little as 20 minutes a day.

Practicing Individual Songs

It's also important to have fun...this is music, after all. Pick songs that are around your difficulty level and work to perfect them; my goal is about a song a week. It gives you some campfire material, and you'll learn a lot of techniques that you can use in your own playing. Some good starter songs are "Blackbird" by the Beatles and "The Needle And The Damage Done," by Neil Young. If that's not your style of music, pick something else, but don't start on anything too difficult right off the bat or it'll put you off. Work on these songs for about a half hour a day.