The importance of music training routine
Do you have some plan and daily routine to become a great musician? I think it's important to have a clear goal and routine which will get you there. Here I share my daily guitar and singing routine.
I believe that to achieve whatever you want in your life (become a great musician, painter, get in shape, learn a new language or become a great businessman) you should have a plan to get you there. As someone said:
A boat without a destination will just randomly flow in the sea…
Part of the plan should be daily tasks (or we can say a routine) that compound and in the long-term bring great results. One of my biggest goals is to become a great musician and guitarist. To get there I have a daily routine which I will share with you today.
Firstly, I recommend everyone to write a journal. It can work differently for everyone. I just write a date and under it (before I start practicing) what I do that day. Usually, I add exercises or part of songs during the practice for a next day.
For example, yesterday I transcribed My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean when I wrote down only notes. And for the next day I wrote to the journal to do timing. Same with spider exercise, I recommend to write down the tempo and which one you did today. I don’t do it always (therefore I write I recommend to do it) but it’s a great thing to do. So how does my routines look like?
I focus on 3 different areas: guitar, singing and ear training
I’m trying to do it at least 5-6 times a week
Guitar routine
Stretch your hands (be very careful in the long-term it could be very harmful). I use this video. (15 mins in total)
Spider exercise (5 min) - more about spider exercises in this video. It’s great to get dexterity and speed on the fretboard.
Notes and triads
Firstly learn the notes on the fretboard (It was the most important thing I have ever learnt on the guitar).
When you know notes learn triads (firstly on the 3 higher strings then continue to others). Learning triads will change the way you see your fretboard. It will help you to improvise, learn new songs, learn to play with other musicians and way more. To do so I recommend the videos of Tommo Fujita. For example, this one is great. (5 mins a day)
Then I do exercises from my teacher which usually includes scales, arpeggios and chord progressions. That’s why it’s great to have a teacher. He gives you direction and feedback which is so important to progress. (15 mins)
Then I work on a song. I usually have 2-3 songs. I change them every other day (right now for example I’m learning fingerstyle version of Greensleeves and Cancion del Mariachi. Maybe it would be better to have just one until it’s perfect but this is more fun for me. (15 mins)
End with fun. If you prefer soloing put backing track and solo. I usually end by playing and singing my favourite songs. (15 mins)
Singing routine
I start with a breathing exercise (which I recorded right here) 5 mins is enough
Then I do a vocal warm up exercises. I have a few favourite on YouTube
Then I work on a song. The first part is to know the song very well.
So firstly I listen a lot
Secondly, I sing along.
Thirdly, I do a karaoke version
Lastly, I play with a guitar
Always do only one of these parts in time
Then I sing some songs for fun
Ear training
I’m currently working on learning intervals which helped me a lot to learn new songs and melodies especially. If you want to know how I’m learning them, I wrote about it here
My daily routine consists of doing ToneGym workouts where I do
Exercises for ascending and descending intervals and harmonic intervals
Exercises to improve rhythm
And a notationist where you can learn interactively how to read notes and chords. It’s very catchy and a lot of fun.
Don’t forget that you should adapt your routine to your goals and change it over time according to the effectivity, your needs and progress.
What is your daily routine to practice guitar and other aspects of music? What are your favourite exercises? I would love to hear about them in the comment section!