A Practice Routine

(This is something of a summary of everything thus far, and might be redundant!)

Here’s a way to structure a practice routine. Tweak it until it works for you.

Prep

• Consider your time available, and break it up into 20-minute blocks, writing your plan in your practice journal.

• For each block, either work on one item (for repertoire/licks/exploratory technical work), or several interleaved items (for refining technique, or if you can manage it, for repertoire)

• Check yourself for tension, and do some light stretches.

Go

• Start your 20-minute timer, and do your concentrated practice.

  • If the problem you’re tackling is too big, see if you can reduce it to manageable chunks.

  • Pay attention to your tone and rhythmic evenness. No mindless reps! A short pause between each attempt of a passage can help you process what you’ve done, and prep for the next attempt.

  • Always aim for ease during playing, and be on the lookout for any accumulated tension, which you must try to avoid.

Review

• At the end of the 20 minutes, play whatever you were working on at least once, slowly and perfectly, mimicking the motions you do at high speed if you can (don’t play it slowly with a completely different technique). This will “summarize” what you were working on for your brain and nervous system, and help them sort out the mass of input they’ve received. This is like the “cool down” of a workout, and can be super short.

• In your practice journal, make some quick notes about what you covered, any thoughts/discoveries/ideas for next time.

• Take a short break - get a sip of water, stretch, whatever.

• Repeat.

If you can swing it, see if you can break your practice time up. e.g., if you’re working on something technical, then repeating the 20-minute block of interleaved practice a few times a day is super.