Practice Routine

Hey guys, my name is Dan and i love playing the guitar; considering it as a profession in the future. i really wanna get serious and start practicing intensely, but i am a junior in high school and i rarely have enough time to practice daily after im done with homework. i love playing jazz and fusion and i was wondering if you guys could help me put together a practice schedule that would encompass some technique work, theory work and some actual playing. i'm really having trouble with time management and making effective use of my practice time. THANKS!

Im a sophomore.
What i do, is i stay up all night playing, go to school, sleep in school, get home, play more!

And i still get straight A's. Pisses me off.

Homework in high school? Oh god you are **ed for college :-P

Anyway, practice routines don't need to be long. Just picking up a guitar 30 minutes a day can do wonders for your playing.

I would suggest:

5 minutes warm up, 10 minutes scales, 10 minutes rhythm/tempo, 5 minute cool down.


That 30 minute schedule will get you far.

justjeff i warm up for like 1 hour lol

id say 20m on warmup pratice major scale and all its modes for 5 mins each so 35m for scales(and other scales if you want like pentatonic, harmonic minor, melodic minor, hungarian minor) and 20 mins for arpeggios/chords 30m on theory 30m on technique 20-30m on improve and maybe other stuff idk much about jazz and fusion

you could also cut down on each time if you dont have a lot of it

I agree with Jeff. I have been having a lot of stuff to do for school just to graduate, and a lot of housework too, so I practice whenever I can, even if that is only a warmup for 5 minutes and messing around for 15. If I don't have enough time to go through the motions of a longer routine, I really just do that to keep my technique up, and I like to move around from a lot of the keys(typically A->C->D->E,etc.) and get used to the different positions and sounds at least.

If all you can manage is 30 minutes, use something like JustJeff's 30 minutes routine, you will be amazed at the progress you can make from it.

Jazzy's Pracicing Routine

This might help you out :)

@ JazzMaverick
Interesting practice routine and much to be said for it, though personally I would have put ambition before talent in the order of pre-requisites. I am a relatively UN-talented musician who has struggled over many years to achieve average guitarmanship, but my love of music and ambition to play has carried me through and still does so to this day.
Having said all this I imagine a higher degree of talent coupled with ambition will achieve greater results at a faster pace.

@ Deefa

I agree, and I guess I did put it in a strange order. I'm glad to hear you have so much ambition! I hope it takes you far my friend.

Regardless of what your practice regimen is, the best thing you can do when finished is to get your butt off the edge of your bed, chair, etc...put on your sneakers and go for a 20 minute run. Get your body motoring and your brain sparking. While running you can fantasize about being a guitar god...or play a game in your head trying to make chords on the guitar neck, etc. At the end of your run, your body will feel tired in a good way and your 'guitar brain' will feel sharper.