A practical daily routine

The 20-minute daily

For days when life is busy. Pick three items from below for 5-7 minutes each:

• Warmup (5 min) — chromatic scales, finger independence drills.
• Theory drill (5 min) — note-finding, chord building, or interval recognition.
• Repertoire (5 min) — work on one song you’re learning.
• Improvisation (5 min) — over a backing track or just a looped chord.

Pick a different three each day. Across a week you cover everything.

The 60-minute daily

For dedicated practice days, split as follows:

1. Warmup (5 min)
2. Technique (10 min) — picking accuracy, alternate picking, chord transitions, barre cleanness.
3. Ear training (5 min) — interval ID, chord-quality ID.
4. Theory (5 min) — one focused topic from this site.
5. Scales / shapes (10 min) — one scale in 3 keys, or one mode across the neck.
6. Repertoire (15 min) — a song or piece you’re learning.
7. Improvisation / writing (10 min) — free playing with intent.

Total: 60 minutes. End on the creative work — it’s the most rewarding and you want to look forward to coming back tomorrow.

What not to do

• Don’t grind 60 minutes of scales daily. It’s not useful past a beginner level. 10 minutes is plenty.
• Don’t practise mistakes. If you’re playing something wrong, slow down to the speed at which you can play it correctly. Then build speed.
• Don’t skip ear training. It’s the lowest-status, highest-leverage practice in music.
• Don’t only play songs you already know. That’s not practice; that’s enjoyment. Both are good — but they’re different things.

Practice journal

Keep a small notebook (or text file). Each session:

• What did I work on?
• What was hard?
• What got better?
• What will I work on tomorrow?

Five lines. Two minutes. Massive long-term gains. After a year, you’ll have a record of exactly where your playing improved.

The 10,000-hour myth

You don’t need 10,000 hours to play well. You need deliberate practice — focused, slightly-uncomfortable work on specific weak spots. 30 minutes of deliberate practice beats 4 hours of noodling.

Signs you’re doing deliberate practice:

• You’re consciously working on one specific weakness at a time.
• You’re using a metronome for most of it.
• You’re playing slowly enough to make zero mistakes.
• You’re slightly uncomfortable.
• You can articulate what you’ll work on next.

A week-long schedule

Sample for someone with 30 min/day:

• Mon: Scales/shapes + repertoire
• Tue: Theory + ear training + writing
• Wed: Technique + repertoire
• Thu: Improvisation + ear training
• Fri: Theory + repertoire
• Sat: Longer session (60-90 min) — deep dive on whatever felt weakest
• Sun: Just play. For fun. No goals.

Days off are not failures. The brain consolidates skills during rest — you’ll find you’re better after a day off than after another grinding session.