The Power Of Training

This article was originally posted on the S&R Blog.

How many hours a week do you practice guitar? I’ve asked this question many times and the responses range from “I don’t really” to “oh like 20 hours a week, bruh”.  For both of those absurd responses – and any response that falls in between – listen up because this post was written for you – i.e. everyone.

I am a fan of working out. Outside of guitar, I enjoy lifting heavy objects repeatedly. Through my trainings for GoRucks and Spartan Races, I have relied heavily on a strict training regimen. Come race time, I feel one of two things. If I stuck with the training explicitly, the race was great and I completed them without issues. If I goofed around, skipped workouts or didn’t focus, the race was a living hell full of cramps, dehydration and feeling like death. Guitar Training is the same way.

Notice I have called it training instead of practice. The word practice – to me – has always sounded tedious. Like having to play your scales on the piano when you were six because your mom wouldn’t let you play guitar tedious. It was something you HAD to do instead of enjoyed doing. I view training as something you do to prepare for something worthwhile – whether that is a show, practice, or to finally pull off that crazy Alex Lifeson eight minute solo.

Practice – mandated routine that is boring and uninspiring

Training – preparing for glory

Before we go any further, I want you to stop reading and change your mindset from practicing the guitar to training on the guitar. Got it? OK, onward!

So what is the difference between practice and training for guitar? Chances are most people who practice, either run through scales or lessons from a guitar book their teacher recommended. And even more probable, you work on these items for 15 minutes and then the rest of your “practice” is spent mindlessly noodling or playing your favorite songs – which you already knew how to play. This goes on for the next hour and a half and then you go back to playing scales for 15 minutes.

Sound familiar? This used to be me every day to which I would say I “practiced” for two hours. I thought I was crunching 14 hours of meaningful practice each week. Boy was I wrong. Looking back, those sessions probably yielded 15 minutes of real training. Sure I ran through scales for a total of 30 minutes, but with the hour and a half of noodling in between the two sessions, I was probably relearning and practicing all the benefits I gained from the first 15 minutes.

So now my 14 hours of guitar was looking more like an hour and a half of practice a week with a lot of aimless noodling. I realized this after a year of plateauing even though I was playing more than ever. During that same period of time, I put on 15 lbs of muscle and became stronger than I have ever been. How could I use my weight lifting habits and apply them to my guitar learning sessions?

In weight lifting, you are limited up to an hour to an hour and a half training per day with rest days on the weekends. (Side note: there are a large variety of sessions but this is what works for me) The trick is to workout a different muscle group every day so your muscles don’t become exhausted and so you train your entire body to get stronger instead of only one or two areas. (Looking at you bro who is jacked but has chicken legs)

After working out all week, I am given the weekend to off to rest and recovery. Many people believe hours spent in the gym how your muscles become bigger and stronger. That is simply not the case. At the gym, you break down your muscles fibers but literally tearing them. They grow back stronger and bigger through rest and sleep. Rest is just as, if not more important than the actual work out. If you go hard  in the gym and don’t give your body adequate amount of rest, your gains will plateau.

A light bulb went off over my head. What if I created a guitar workout training plan pulling ideas from my weight training regimen?

On every weekday, I have a different area of playing I want to focus on and improve. Here is a snapshot of my guitar training regimen as of writing this post.

I broke down each day into 5 main areas I wanted to improve: theory, ear training, technique, improve and song writing. Yours might look completely different as your journey is guaranteed to be different than mine. I assigned each area to a specific day knowing that somethings will come up and the later in the week, the more likely I was to skip training that day – don’t do this ever, but if you have to, stack your training in your favor.

If you look at my program, the bold and italics are specifics I am working on. For theory I am working through Music Is Win’s Guitar Super System courses to better understand theory to improve my improvisational skills. For my ear training regimen, I am learning Mark Lettieri’s Goon Squad because it is a song that does not have many repeatable parts so I have to learn each section of the song by ear – and it’s a kickass song.

If you want to use my practice schedule starting out, by all means do so. But I want to encourage you to create your own eventually so that you work on and improve the areas you want to improve. And if you want private lessons on guitar training, send me an email through our contact form.

Add the areas you want to improve the most on the days you know you’ll be more likely to train than others. Monday sucks for you and learning how to play slide is something you want to learn, eventually? Mondays are now slide days. Ear Training is the most important thing you want to work on and Fridays are devoted to guitar? Guess what day Friday just became – ear training day. Set yourself up for success, not failure.

Now let’s talk about time structure. It is important to give yourself a set time limit before you set out on your training each day. Ill usually train from anywhere from one to two hours. This way you stay focused on the task at hand knowing there is only a limited amount of time to get your work done.

Removing distractions is also a very important aspect of any training. To make sure I am held to my set time limit without distractions, I’ll turn my phone on either airplane mode or do not disturb and set a timer. This way I’m not distracted by emails, texts or tweets and once the bell rings, I am finished. Sure I can goof off now on the guitar, but my work towards a goal is complete for the day. Pull out the looper pedal and go baby go!

Speaking of goals, it is vital that you set a clear, explicated goal you want to accomplish. This is the most important lesson of this post. A goal that looks like this:

“I want to be a better guitar player”

Will never be as powerful as a goal like this:

“I want to learn how to play Sweet Child O Mine using only my ears by the end of the month”

The firstgoal lacks a deadline, a clear direction of improvement and is open ended. The second one is clear about its intentions, states the method of improving and holds the setter to a deadline of when the goal is to be completed. The more specific your goals are, the more likely you are to succeed.

Now that you practiced for five days, it’s time to give yourself two days off just like weight lifters. You can still play guitar but don’t practice what you normally do. These are the days you are giving to play your favorite songs you already know how to play or to mindlessly noodle. Most weight lifters still remain active on their rest days but don’t exhausted their muscles. Usually going for a walk or throw the baseball around – something that doesn’t require much thought or force. Your guitar training program should have days like these built in. This way your mind, ears and hands have time to process and learn all that you practiced that week.

The key to becoming a better guitar player is to consistently learn new ideas and focus on one area at a time, mix up our training, have clear and explicit goals, hold yourself to a set time for practice and give yourself some rest to allow your mind and body to learn what your practiced. Most players understand this but it’s what and how you practice that really elevates your playing to the next level. Hopefully my training program helps your playing and inspires you to create your own.

Let me know your regimen in the comments below. And until next time, let the music play!