Weekly Warm Up No. 62
Greetings WWUs,
Other than trying to keep warm this week my main objective has been observing patterns in my practice.
- What times are the best for me to work?
- What keeps me from practicing?
- What are the elements that create a successful practice session?
- When does it feel like I’m spinning my wheels?
Have you tracked these things in your own journey on the guitar? What have you noticed?
Here are a couple of themes that come up for me:
- Do the most important things first: I have to do all my heavy work early in the day. By early I mean before 9am. One of my colleagues said to me: “You have weather man hours.” It’s true. That’s what works best for me. It’s when I am most clear and alert.
- What keeps me from practicing: Not prioritizing my day/organizing my schedule. There’s that saying “What gets scheduled gets done.” Every time I miss a day it’s always, always, always, because I didn’t schedule my day effectively. Ouch, it hurts to admit that one.
- What creates a successful practice plan: This one is comprised of two elements a. Scheduling the session. b. Creating incredibly specific goals for each and every practice session. This means creating a detailed plan of what I’m going to do before I take the guitar out of the case. If I “wing it” and just start working, the practice time is often aimless and unproductive. Also important: setting incredibly realistic goals for the session. Sometimes, for me, that means only putting two things on the agenda for that practice session.
Give it a try this week – get a little curious about your patterns and see what you discover.
Tempo:
Quarter note set @ 80 BPM.
Right Hand Arpeggios:
(Based on this A Major Chord Progression )
- Pima
- Pami
- Pimi
- Pmim
- Pmam
- Pama
Left Hand Slurs:
- 0123 | 3210
- 0124 | 4210
- 0134 | 4310
- 0234| 4320
Scales:
Based on the Major Pattern Outlined Below (in the key of C)