🧱 How do you build a practice session?
An hour at the guitar can go a hundred different ways, and how we spend it usually matters more than how long it lasts. Some of us split the time into fixed blocks — technique, new piece, review — some follow whatever the day needs, some just sit down and play until something pulls focus. The shape of a session quietly decides what actually improves.
💬 How do you structure your practice time?
- Do you plan a session in advance, keep a routine, or work by feel each day?
- How do you divide time between technique, learning new material, and maintaining what you already know?
- When time is short, what is the first thing you cut, and what is non-negotiable?
Practice is the one place we all spend our hours, and there is no single right way to carve them up. Let's trade how we build ours.
2 replies
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Hi Martin. First I wanted to say I LOVE the addition of the Tracks lessons. I'm looking forward to using them to work on new and old pieces.
How to build a practice session has been a topic that has always driven me crazy.
In an effort to become more efficient, I recently created a list of my repertoire and try to work through each piece at least once a week. At the bottom of my list I have the pieces that are either new or "need work". Those I try to play every day until I feel they can be played once a week. During the time I am working on the pieces that need work I try to work on my technique as well.
I found Łukasz Kuropaczewski's lesson on slow practice extremely helpful and try to incorporate his method in my study.
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Hi! Nice topic. This is definitely something that bothers me and I need to improve on. I start off by warming up my body and hands by stretching them. Then I polish my nails.
First, I usually start by playing a super easy and short song, just to take the dust off and get something happy/melodic going on.
Second, I do some slow exercises for coordination to warm up my fingers and joints.
Third, I start moving through my repertoire.
All of it is by feel, I don't track how long I spend in each section and how they evolve. It's mostly what comes in my head.
I need to work on structuring my learning/practice sessions better and be more disciplined about it.