One of the most important items for any Beginning jazz guitarist to maintain is a focused and balanced practice routine.
In this Chapter, you’ll learn what’s essential at this stage in your
development, as well as common exercises that fit within these sections.
You’ll also learn how to get the most out of your practice routine, no matter how much time you have to spend in the woodshed.
The most important thing is that you maintain consistency in the practice room at this, or any, stage in your development.
15 to 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week, is better than 2 hours on a Saturday and Sunday and no practice during the week.
Make sure to spread your studies out.
Spend a little time every day if you can practicing and don’t get caught up on one or two items at the expense of a balanced routine.
If you can do this, you’ll begin to see meaningful achievements in the woodshed in no time.
Beginner Practice Guide – 60-Minute Sessions
The following is a breakdown of a typical Beginner practice routine, laid out in an hour session that you can use as a template for study.
If you have more than an hour to practice, you can double or triple the amount of time spent practicing each section.
If you only have 30 minutes, you can work five minutes per section.
Or, if you prefer, you can work 10 minutes on three sections today and 10 minutes on the three other sections tomorrow.
The key is to maintain consistency in the woodshed.
Work a little bit each day on these items, and look to make progress over time, not instantly, in your studies.
There are examples of exercises provided in each section that you could use in your studies.
But, feel free to pick your own exercises, as long as they are at the Beginner level and address the weak points in your playing
Technique – 10 Minutes
In this section of your routine, you’ll zoom in on a weaker section of your technique and work to improve that area of your playing.
This could mean working on:
Ø Dexterity Ø Coordination Ø Stretching
Ø Right-hand or left-hand technique
Any technical issue that is posing a problem in your playing can be addressed in this section of your routine.
Make sure not to overdo this section of your studies, which is a common pitfall guitarist’s fall into.
Spending too much time on technique at the expanse of a well-balanced routine can cause an imbalance in your practicing, and performing.
Keep your timer on if you need to so that you stop after 10 minutes in each hour of practice.
Slow and steady wins the race with technique, and any practice item.
Don’t worry about mastering your whole technique today.
It’s the small victories each day, compiled over time, that’ll take you where you want to go as a player.
Repertoire – 10 Minutes
Here’s the time that you will spend learning tunes in your studies.
This means learning the melody, how to comp, and how to solo over any tune you’re studying in your practice routine.
At the beginning level, it could take you two to three months, or more, to properly learn a tune in your studies.
So take your time with one tune and dig deep on it before moving on to the next tune in your studies.
As well, you don’t have to learn every possible way to play the melody, every possible chord, and every possible scale over each tune you study.
Make sure you can play the melody in one position, comp with one set of chords confidently, and solo over the tune confidently first.
Then, as you learn new tunes, you’ll cover new material in your daily practice routine.
Keep in mind that you need to be a functional guitarist over tunes.
This means playing the melody from memory, comping the chords confidently, and soloing over the changes.
Have that as your practice goal when working on repertoire at this stage in your development.
Fundamentals – 10 Minutes
In this section, you will focus on solidifying your jazz guitar fundamentals.
This means working such times as:
Ø Chords Ø Scales Ø Arpeggios
Ø Melodies/Patterns Ø Guide Tones
It would be good to focus on one item for a week at a time in this section.
For example, Drop 3 chords on the 6432 string set in all keys.
This gives yourself enough time to get those items under your fingers and into your ears.
If you need more than a week, that’s totally fine, but give it at least a week to sink in at this point.
Lastly, make sure to alternate devices so that you cover chords, guide tones, arpeggios, and scales over time in your studies.
Don’t fall into the trap of just working on the items you like the most, such as working on scales only in this section of your practice routine.
Vocabulary – 10 Minutes
You can use this 10 minutes of each hour to expand your knowledge and ability to play vocabulary in your soloing and comping.
This could mean:
Ø Working a line in 12 keys.
Ø Applying that line to a tune you’re studying over a backing track.
Ø Working out multiple fingerings to a transcribed line on the neck.
It could also mean working on smaller vocabulary, such as:
Ø Enclosures Ø Passing notes Ø Approach notes
Spending time learning vocabulary is an important first step when moving from playing the correct notes to sounding like jazz.
Therefore, it’s an essential part of any Beginning jazz guitarist’s practice routine, and something you should work on daily.
Transcribing – 10 Minutes
Transcribing may seem like a more advanced item to work on at this stage in your development.
But, even Beginning jazz guitarists can explore learning material by ear in their studies.
You can use this time each hour to work on a solo, learning a small chunk each day until you’ve learned a full chorus or entire solo.
Or, if your interest is in vocabulary, or a longer solo seems too difficult at this stage, you can work on transcribing one line at a time.
Make sure to use this time to explore transcription exercises, as listed in that chapter of this eBook, as well as learning the solo or line itself.
Going beyond memorizing lines is the key component of studying transcriptions.
So, use this time to do both transcribing and expanding on that transcription in your studies.
Free Time – 10 Minutes
In this section of the routine you can do anything you wish for 10 minutes in each hour of practice.
This could mean:
Ø Spending more time on one of the other five elements Ø Exploring a new subject
Ø Jamming on a tune
Ø Following your motivation for that day
You can use this as the last 10 minutes of your hour session, or divide it in half to give yourself a 5-minute break at the end of each half hour.
Either approach is fine; just make sure to not give up on the free time, as it will give your mind a break during a longer practice routine.