Practice Guide

Followed daily, this step-by-step practice guide improves music understanding and guitar performance. The times for each exercise are general suggestions and can be lengthened as needed.

Sound Check - 10 minutes

1. Arrive on time
2. Set up gear
3. Tune up
4. Adjust tone

Warm up / Review - 10 minutes

Get to know the fingerboard by reviewing and exploring scales, arpeggios, and chords.

1. One note rhythm - generate a rhythm cycle using only one note
2. Scales - using a metronome, move with fluidity, consistancy
3. Arpeggios - move across the strings covering 2 octaves
4. Chords - finger positions, anchor points

This exercise expands musical vocabulary by reviewing and building scale fingerings and chord voicings. By using a metronome, timing, phrasing, and rhythm improves.

Practicing at slower tempos:

1. Improves overall sound
2. Develops more control
3. Increases technical dexterity and endurance
4. Settles performance experience
5. Improves ability to respond to other musicians during group performance

Ear Training - 10 minutes

1. Intervals - identify intervals between notes
2. Chords - identify chord quality - major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented
3. Dictation - listening exercise - write down what you hear

Listen / Play along with Recordings - 10 minutes

1. Select any recording
2. Listen and play back what you hear
3. Deconstruct the song, start with short phrases
4. Hearing and repeating a new musical figure is the goal of this exercise

Folk Musicians - Romare Bearden

First Things First - Tuning the Guitar

Standard Tuning

String	1	2	3	4	5	6
Note	E	B	G	D	A	E

1. Use a tuner, online tuning pitch, tuning fork, or other instrument, like a piano, to produce a tuning note
2. Start by tuning the 5th string to concert A
3. Use your ear and harmonics to tune the D string from the A string
4. Next, continue thru to the high E string
5. Then, go back and tune the low E string
6. Now, re-check the A string again with the tuning note and repeat the entire process

A well-tuned instrument improves the ability to hear music intervals, the distance between notes, and chord voicings, the sound of two or more notes played together.