My Current Approach to 'Practising' - In ramble form!

Yesterday I shot a video for my Youtube channel demonstrating a warm up routine which I recently came up with, I bring this up as recently I've really been thinking about my 'practise' routine and what advice I can give to other musicians. I put practise in inverted commas for a reason. This will become clear a few paragraphs down. I'd also like to point out that these are my opinions, this is just my thoughts on the subject. Also for future reference any opinionated blog post will be put under the 'Thoughts' tag.

In my mind there are two main schools of thought when it comes to practising an instrument. There is the more regimented way of thinking (for example, creating a practising routine and being very strict when following that routine. i.e. '30 minutes of this technique followed by 25 minutes of that technique). The second way of thinking is to have no routine what so ever and just practise whatever the player feels like practising on that day. I have used both ways of practising and I want to take you through how I am currently using my practise time as it might guide you into finding the most efficient way of practising for your current level.

I usually tend to start with the first method. After some stretching to limber up my arms and hands, I usually begin with some slow synchronisation routines to a metronome. I feel this benefits me as it gives my hands chance to warm up so they are ready for more demanding techniques later on. I also feel that having your hands warmed up makes for a more efficient practise when learning new things as I feel that your hands are more relaxed, making it easier than if you dived straight into what ever you were going to do. After I feel my hands are sufficiently warmed up, I then start to used method two. For example, unless I know I want to practise a certain technique, I'll just start playing and seeing what I feel like developing there on the spot, this sometimes might be nothing at all, I might just want to play guitar for the fun of it. In my opinion, the guitar is supposed to be an exciting thing to play, so if I were to use method one throughout my practice, I wouldn't be as excited and therefor I wouldn't want to keep on playing, which in the last thing I want to happen. I've also found that the lack of a practise routine has led me to practise longer per session.

One big thing which I would most definatley recommend is to not refer to playing guitar as 'practise'. This is what I was talking about earlier when I was putting practise in inverted commas. When I think of the word practise it doesn't bring me any excitement, in fact, it makes me feel the exact opposite. When playing your instrument it shouldn't feel like your 'practising', it should (in my opinion) feel like your playing your instrument for the fun of it. This brings me back to my point about feeling excited. By abandoning the whole idea of 'practising', it makes me want to pick up the guitar and get better at it, purely because I want to, and not because I have to.

Going back to the two schools of thought I mentioned earlier. Whilst both ways of thinking are good in their own right, I feel taking parts from them both is the best way to practise for me. When using the strict way of practising, I felt that although it way the most productive way to practise, I could also feel myself get less and less motivated when playing. It's the exact opposite way round for the other practise method. I used this method from when I first started playing to roughly a year or so ago. Although looking back it was defiantly the more exciting way to play, I do feel that there could be one or two things which I could be better at if I used the more regimented way of practising.

So to finish, in my opinion, striking a balance between practising both methods is my advice to any musician. That being said, every person is different so you may find that you get a substantial amount of enjoyment from the first method. Or on the flip side, practising the second way may be giving you the best possible chances for development. To close, as I said these are my opinions on this topic. I'd be interested to know you practise regimes.

Thanks for reading.

ps. Heres the warm up routine I uploaded:

#Practise #Thoughts