“Oh, so many things I want to practice, so little time to do them.” We all get like this sometimes. Here is my suggestion for getting the most out of your practice time. Whatever amount of time you have to practice, divide it into three parts.

Segment one will be “warm up”. Warm up with a little technical work. This is a good time to make sure your hands and arms are well stretched. Run some familiar scales. Play with a metronome. Metronome timing alone can take many hours if you are thorough and serious about being a stronger musician. Also play some of your favorite rhythm patterns. Use different rhythm patterns while playing scales, chords, arpeggios, triad inversions, and anything else you can think of.

The next segment will be “growth.” Growth generally consists of non-musical work. Things like learning new scales and chords would fit into this category. Brushing up on new theoretical ideas, learning new rhythms, or anything new, these are all things that fit into the growth segment. Now, the more solid you get with your practice routine, I’m sure you can see how using a metronome, you can cross the first two segments. When you cross into the second segment, turn up the challenge level and play unknown scales or patterns. Increase the tempo or try increasing your subdivisions. For example, if you’re playing eighth notes at 80 bpm, work on triplets or sixteenth notes at the same tempo.

The last segment is the “Fun/Jam” segment. That’s when you just have fun and play the songs you like, or put on a Jam-along CD and moan some pentatonic licks over it. You can even change it to a “creative” segment. This is where you would be exploring songwriting ideas, creating melodies, or working on your improv skills. Make music!

Now we are all at different levels and we all have different goals. So feel free to be a little flexible with this plan. Let’s say you have an hour to practice. You can divide that hour into three 20-minute segments or two 15-minute segments and the third 30-minute segment. Maybe you really want to fine-tune your rhythm or pentatonic scales for an upcoming gig, audition, or rehearsal. You can make your “growth” segment a bit longer and condense the other segments.

Also, make sure your goals are clear so you know how to best customize segments to fit your needs. Have fun with it!