Practice – the biggest factor affecting success or failure. Spend your practice time wisely and you’ll make steady progress in the most enjoyable way. Waste your time on ineffective practice and you’ll begin to resent the instrument and everything about it! What we need is a clear blueprint – a practice model.

Learning to practice effectively and efficiently is one of the cornerstones of every successful musician’s journey. In this article I’m going to introduce a practice model which you can use as a guide to ensure your practice remains effective, relevant and steers you towards the end goal of playing your chosen piece of music with absolute confidence.

Given the sheer diversity of guitarists out there, the various competency levels and unique matrix of innate and acquired skills, it would be impossible to produce a ‘one size fits all’, laser focussed practice plan for each person in this lesson. What you’ll find in this lesson is a general blueprint that should help to nudge you back on track if you find your practice has become a bit too ponderous and lacks any clear direction. I would hope that you’re able to adapt the guidance published here to improve the quality of your practice. Feel free to incorporate any additional steps or activities you believe would be valuable to your practicing of a piece of music.

Read on to discover a tried and tested framework for learning the bare bones of any new piece of music. Please note, you should aim to complete each stage in the sequence set out in this practice model.

Examine the following features and make note of important details:

• Time signature
• Key signature
• Mark in phrases

You’ll need to consider these factors when you work through the notes in the next couple of stages. Depending on your ability level or knowledge of music theory, you may also consider the chords, arpeggios, scales, intervals and make note of any repetitive motifs or ideas.

For this stage, it’s a good idea to work in phrases. If you’re not too sure where the phrases start/end, just work in short sections of around 2-4 bars in length.

• Work out the pitch of the notes
• Work out where you’d like to play the notes on the fretboard
• Ensure you can recite the names of the notes fluently as you read them

Once you feel confident doing the above tasks with the phrase or section you’ve been working on, move onto the next phrase/section and repeat the process.

Again, working in phrases or short sections, complete the following tasks:

• Work out the rhythm (write in the counting if required)
• Ensure you can clap/tap the rhythm while counting fluently
• Set your metronome to a comfortable tempo (not necessarily full performance tempo!) and practice clapping/tapping the rhythm while counting.

It’s a good idea at this stage to begin combining pitch and rhythm. A simple way to do this is to recite the names of the notes using the correct rhythm. You can make this as easy or as complex as you like by including/excluding some of the following in addition. Use your experience to guide you as to what will be of most value:

• Use a metronome
• Tap your foot on the main beat (not the rhythm/notes)
• Sing the note at pitch (instead of reciting)
• Sing the counting at the correct pitch of the note

You’ll find lots of ways to be creative here, so feel free to have some fun and enjoy yourself!

Once you’ve combined the pitch and rhythm, it’s time to work out how to put this onto the guitar. Working in phrases, start playing the notes. This stage is all about becoming familiar with the required movements needed to play the piece of music and making clear decisions. If you encounter a problem area, aim to figure out why it’s difficult. Diagnosing the problem is the first step to solving it.

• Maintain a questioning mindset throughout this process and be willing to try more than one solution (trial different LH/RH fingering, adjusting shape, position or movement of the hands).
• Decide on the best fingering (LH/RH) using the following process. Move on when you’ve arrived at your final decision:
  • Trial
  • Analysis
  • Amend as required
  • Repeat with each phrase
• Check pitch and rhythm are correct as you make the required movements. Pay close attention to note duration for each voice.
• Ensure the passage of music feels easy enough to play at a slow tempo (approximately 50% of the intended performance tempo).
• You should feel confident in your understanding of the pitch, rhythm and required movements before moving on to the next stage.

Now it’s time to practice what you’ve learned until you can perform it perfectly.

• Practice the movements until you can play the bar, section or phrase fluently without excessive tension.
• The goal is to be able to repeat the movements perfectly and have removed any lingering uncertainty about pitch, rhythm or the required movements.
• Tip: Practice slowly at the beginning of this stage before increasing the tempo as your confidence grows. Always aim to remain in a position of control (don’t run before you can walk!)

How do you know when you’ve completed this stage? Try this simple test:

1. Set your metronome to the correct tempo.
2. Play the phrase you’ve been ‘practicing to perfection’, ensure it is correct.
3. Repeat the phrase 10 times in a row perfectly.
4. If you make a mistake, reset and start counting again from 1.
5. Once you can reach 10, you should feel as though you’ve ‘mastered the phrase – well done!

This practice model is sufficient in providing a framework to achieve the mechanics of playing perfectly and in time. Of course, this is only half the battle. We also need to consider expression, phrasing, dynamics and tonal colour. I’ll be covering these topics in part 2 of the Practice Model. Stay tuned for more very soon…

I want to say a big thank you to Mike Almond for his input and feedback on this Practice Model, and for the encouragement to post this publicly for the wider classical guitar community to use as they wish.