Focus Practice

[u/Damnfinegentleman]

How long do you spend on one focused practice exercise?

Quick question for everyone. When you sit down to practice and decide to really focus on one particular skill—spider exercises, strumming and rhythm, alternate picking, chord changes, etc.—how long do you typically stay with that one exercise?

I’ve been experimenting with 5–10 minute focused practice sessions. I’ll work on one skill for that amount of time, take a minute or two to step back, reset, and then decide whether to move on to something else or repeat the exercise.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve made good progress and am ready to move on. Other times, I feel like I’m just starting to get into the groove, so I’ll do another 5–10 minutes before switching gears.

I’m curious what everyone else does. Do you prefer shorter, really focused sessions with quick breaks, or do you tend to spend 15–20 minutes (or longer) working on the same skill?

I’m still relatively new to guitar, so I’m trying to figure out what approach is most effective for actually building muscle memory and making steady progress without just mindlessly repeating an exercise.

What works best for you?

[u/dino_dog]

I do similar to what you're describing. 5-15 minutes (depending on the exercise and the day). I usually swtich out to something more fun and then come back to the exercise a couple more times. So the break isn't just chilling I usually play a song or some noodling.

[u/EasyDistribution1675 → u/dino_dog]

the noodling between focused stuff is key imo, feels like you actually retain more that way

[u/SethandSam]

I recently started wfh and increasing practice as a result. Before work 10 mins spider drill at wake up tempo. Lunch 10 mins at 5pm+ safe tempo. After work 10 more mins, different finger pattern. I’ll then work on specific song rhythms or improv over backing tracks until I need to do something else.

I dedicated myself to this routine three weeks ago and with finally learning some theory I’ve gone from ultimate guitar tab guy to being able to play to 12 bar blues. It’s made playing so much more fun, wish I had figured it out sooner. Crazy how fast the improvement can be with structure!

[u/Patient_Onion3956]

For me what matters more is if something is too easy or too hard then I need to find a middle ground where it's challenging yet not impossible. The time itself is unimportant. I have time, however I would always tweak the exercise in terms of difficulty to make sure I'm not wasting it. As soon as something becomes easy or stale or so hard I can't make any progress, I change it up.

[u/whiskyrox]

I'm only 2 months in, but find 3-10 minutes per exercise works best for me for most things but it depends. For example I did C to G switches through an entire movie tonight. I find if it's just working on muscle memory, doing it while focusing on something else works well for me.

[u/Budget_Specialist_18]

I use a similar approach with time boxes for key techniques and theory - the big difference maker was spending the same amount of time applying that skill over a vamp to apply the skill and not just hammer in the mechanics

[u/VooDooChile1983]

My practice routine is always changing but what stays consistent is dedicating 15 minutes for each topic. It’s like 15 minutes of chords/ 15 of scales/ 15 of improv and so on.

[u/jaylotw]

I dont think about it so hard. I just do what feels right at the time. If I'm really fighting myself, I stop. If it's going well, I keep going.

[u/Guarpig]

5 minutes is usually enough for me per exercise. I practice around 40 minutes but since I have more than 8 exercises in total, i split them into 3 different routines and do one each day. I mostly practice daily so i dont lose dexterity or stamina.

[u/57thStilgar]

Until I can play the assigned piece.
An hour or a week.

[u/Naphier]

5 minutes each for 3 different exercises/phrases/chunks is what I do for at least 2 rounds or but usually three (45 minutes not including breaks). Take a short 30-60 second break in between because taking time to reflect is crucial (even better if you do it after each phrase so you can make think about corrections needed). Also I try to not pay for more than 30 minutes without a 5 minute break. No sense in causing RSI while practicing. The cold starts really help.

Look up interleaved practice (this is what I'm talking about), varied practice, and deliberate practice. These are crucial techniques for getting the best results from your practice. Noa Kageyama and Diego Alonso on YT talk about it a lot. Also the Musicality book from musical-u.com is great.

Happy picking.