🧱 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.
9 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.
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I had been a disaster with planning and structuring my practice, a mess of practice journals and spreadsheets, etc., until I discovered this online app/program that I was introduced to by Dr. Molly Gebrian (author of "Learn Faster, Perform Better") when I attended one of her online Zoom courses. It's free and here is the link:
There are instructions and it's very intuitive. It takes a bit of time to set up, but once you enter the info, you're set. It was created by a retired software engineer who is also a pianist and follows the science-based learning research data.
Now I turn on my PC, grab my guitar and open the software and I'm ready to go. I follow the prompts for new music I'm exploring or consolidating, and it rotates through the repertoire that I already know.
LOVE this - and amazingly easy and efficient and effective way to do my daily practice. Highly recommend!
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Great topic. Never too much info on this. Thank you for the link Michelle! I don’t know that one. We’re all different, but my practice:
3x/week 30’ pure technique training in Teams group: Pluck the day (https://www.fernandocordas.com/pluck-the-day)
other days, short warm up, mainly tone production check, LR coordination and some slurs.
Main music practice: in shifts of 30-40 min, with (sometimes) mini breaks. 2 or 3 pieces, depending on length and difficulty. Run through, partitions, solve fingering issues, phrasing, insist on technical difficulties, create technical exercise around them, play around with tempo.
if there’s time left, I read or listen new scores/ recordings, try some fragments of possible new repertoire.
late night or in between, I find relaxation in playing old repertoire or all time favourites, brush up, or just let go.
in bus, train or waiting rooms: mental practice.
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As a hobby guitarist I can practice four to five times per week, ideally for about 90 minutes, sometimes less, sometimes a lot less… I start with a few warmup exercises (scales, arpeggios) and playing one or two pieces from my repertoire. Then I do one or two technical exercises from the Bible of Classical Guitar by Hubert Käppel. Up to now I spent about 20 to 30 minutes. Afterwards I set the timer. 15 minutes for a repertoire piece, 15 minutes for a special program (improvisation, rasgueado, finger picking, playing ukulele, …) and finally 30 minutes for a new piece.
If I don’t have 90 minutes, I might just play the guitar without practicing, do a technical session, study repertoire or focus on the new piece, depending on my energy level.
Probably, I want to do more than I have time for. This is why I strictly structure the time.