Hi guys!
I'm a beginner at the guitar and I hope you will help me to understand some stuff:
1. How much should I work on a set of exercises in my practice routine before I move on to the next exercise/permutation? At what point can I say to myself 'OK, I've got it, let's move to the next one'?
2. How much should I practice playing music? It's plain common sense that if I play only exercises all day long, I will end up being a good exercise player, but if I play only music and figure things out by ear, I will end up being a good musician with very limited technical abilities. Some guys here say that they play only exercises, but I can't do it, playing them isn't rewarding for me, it doesn't make me feel good about playing guitar. So how can I find balance here?

Hi Ivan,

How much you should work on a exercise thats depending on yourself a bit. Maybe you nail an exercise very fast and someone else needs a lot of work on it. Its also depending on you goals, do you want to play everything at 240 bpm with 16th notes for example.
One thing is for sure you will have to do the exercises on a daily base when you feel they go easy you could go to a another exercise and leave on behind (you can come back to it later if you like).

How much you should practice music? Well this is also depending on yourself but a good technique will help you learn songs fast and good. I havent played a lot songs in the last 7 months and focussed a lot on technique. That is for me rewarding cause now i see i can play certain parts I could not play before. Its depending also on my available time i have to play. When i work a lot i dont have a lot of time to play so the time i have i use to do the exercises. This keeps my fingers in form and i make even progress in playing.

During the time you'll find what works the best for you. On my days off i think it is roughly 80/20, 80% exercises and 20% songs. But thats what fits for me and i feel ok with that.
You mentioned you're a beginner so I would focus a lot on technique it is rewarding Ivan!! I understand it is maybe dofficult to do those exercises for 3 hours without playing a cool song but in the end you will be able to learn 3 songs in a hour :) Keep focused and serious, concentrate and dont give up!

All the best and good luck

Ray

Hi Ivan :)

Very good reply from Ray so not much I can add.
Personally I find that my practice sessions are mostly technique and I run through a list of exercises I want to improve eg ladders with ring finger and pinky, spiders etc. When I get up to make coffee or whatever, I usually run through a couple of songs quickly just to play music then it's back to technique.

You'll notice over time that even playing old songs you know back to front will seem more fluid as the exercises take hold and your basic technique improves.

Make no mistake: PB is the real deal and you WILL see improvement if you follow his instructions :)
All the best with practice!

great name btw

Quote: pebberbrown wrote in post #4

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Daily Practice routine - 7 modules - 7 things to do.
You divide your time as you wish.
Most people completely suck at technique
so they should work on technique first.
Hard work is indeed boring.

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