Hi Tomo! Recently I am starting to pickup some technical exercise to practice (Chromatic exercise 1234 , 1212 3212.... , R37 Swing Groove), however I realized that almost of all my practice routine recently is taking about 2 hours, which is quite long compared to the 20-30 minutes that you recommended on one of the threads.
I realized that I struggle a lot with R37 swing groove at slower speed as I keep stopping to pick out my mistakes (Eg.Not muting properly with left hand when upstroke, not consistently making a full strumming motion with the right hand).This leads to me constantly stopping and redoing constantly. I try to be slow about doing each exercises (maybe about 3-4 times for each exercise) but I feel like I am taking too long to practice and not have enough for the other videos( Triads, Essential Music Theory).
Is there anything I should be mindful about when practicing?
Thank you for your time!
Good job! Thanks for sharing! So happy to hear that.
That's too long! Even Berklee private lesson is one 1/2 hour!
R 3 7 Swing is super hard to do well. So think about this... many hours will not do anything good.
Instead, do it 5 to 10 minutes. Maybe 15 minutes top. But you don't even do any chord progression first.
Play just Bb7 (R b7 M3) and make sure you use 2 3 4 fingers. Do that only Bb7 for a while.
Then practice Eb7 (R M3 b7) super slowly. Fingerings are 213.
After you feel comfortable on those 2 shapes then you can introduce Bb Blues chord progression.
Like this, whatever you find .... don't do so fast or too long!
It will not work effectively!
Try this way, no tempo!
Super slow but you need to strum every strings!
So you need to work on your left hand muting technique.
Do like this for two weeks.
Record yourself everyday! Even two minutes. Only way to improve is to review your playing.
Please let me know your progress.
Thank you.
Tomo
Oh I see I see, I will start simple first, for the two weeks do you mean by just strumming Bb7, Fb7 & A7 without chord progression, until two weeks if I'm comfortable with it I can introduce Bb blues chord progressions?
Yes! Do it very slow and longer days...
Right! No song, no chord progression.
Just each chord. One chord. So you can focus a lot of details.
6th string root and 5th string root.
Do these for 2 weeks then try any simple blues chord changes.
Good job!
Tomo
Hi Zxuan,
I too have a longer daily practice routine. I do think there is a learning curve to a practice session. Tomo and many other teachers say 5-10 minutes but when I watch their videos of a sample practice routine they do so much since they are already advanced. When you are beginning it takes such a long time to do such small thing such as just fingering for a chord. Maybe like me you want to learn so much that you put in long sessions.
However, there is wisdom in shorter practice sessions with deep focus. If your long sessions start with focus then slip then it's a good idea to take a break or stop. If you noodle around, and nothing wrong with that, then you could be doing it for hours with little to no progress. So, I still do longer sessions but I take pretty frequent breaks and only for a few minutes to reflect, take notes, stretch, get a snack or a drink of water. And in the long sessions I have most 10-15 minutes sections that focus on different things. On holidays and weekends when I have more time I put in even more time but might break up the sessions into two 2-hour practice sessions with mini lesson in between.
On work days as I am progressing I am finding shorter, deep sessions are just as effective as long ones. Just make sure that you have a very small goal for those sessions and really focus on that one or two things.
I hope you find some balance in your practice scheduling. Good luck!
Okay noted! I will take note. Thank you for your time, Happy Holidays!