Need Help w/ Practice Routine (long)

Okay, here goes. I've been at it for a few months, and through a combination of factors, I think I've hit my first plateau. :mad: I feel like my progress has ground to a halt. I'm in a definite rut.

Some external factors include family obligations, increased work load at the office, and some renovation to my practice area. All this has resulted in decreased practice time and a definite loss of focus and motivation. I've even had to stop going to my son's guitar lessons (which are a great source of inspiration and learning) due to time constraints.

I'm addressing some of these factors currently, but the amount of time I have to devote to practice is not likely to increase for a few months. I've subscribed to a couple of guitar rags to at least keep my motivation up by taking in as much as possible. I'm talking guitar with my son constantly to keep me (and him) engaged. Heck, I've even put my guitar out in the open for a constant reminder that I'm slacking!

My question to the group here is: Given a limited amount of time (10 to 15 minutes at best), what are some suggestions as far a practice routine to get me back on track? I know it's a wide open question without knowing too much about my ability level. So, I'll try to add a bit on that end of it.

I've gone through the beginner lessons here; and looked at few beyond that. To be totally honest in this self-assessment, I'm stuck at chords. I'm having trouble moving between them and really haven't taken the time to move beyond major chords. I've been learning a few songs that I really like - but just in bits and pieces - not as completely as I'd like to. I practice a few scales here and there, but rather randomly and inconsistently. Bottom line, I'm just having a hard time putting it all together, I don't have a feel for where I am in the process, and I don't know how to break out of the slump, so to speak.

I feel like what I need is a good short-term gameplan. If I could just have someone say, "okay, here's what you need to do", then it could jump start me again. Given my limited practice time and the fact that I'm burned out at the end of the day, a quick little routine that I could attack in that short time for a month or so would be ideal. I realize I'm taking the easy way out by not thinking through it myself, but knowing how I am, this is one those cases where it's better just to take direction from someone who has more knowledge and has been there.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

If all you have a day is 10-15 minutes, that's still enough time to make some headway. In fact, I've heard that working on one exercise for more than 15 minutes at a time can get counter-productive (this is, of course, subject to perspective).

My humble recommendation would be to focus on one thing, or one exercise during this time block, and really focus on it. For instance...10-15 minutes on just the C-scale (or some other scale); 10-15 minutes on a couple chord changes, the next day, etc.

I completely sympathize with your predicament, and lack of time/energy.

I am in a similar situation where at the moment due to work and family I only get a short amount of practice in but I make sure I get those precious minutes daily without exception. Sometimes the wife doesn't understand and I help her to understand by explaining that some people may smoke a cig, some people may play a video game,cards etc for a few moments a night I chose to play my guitar and she is usually cool after that.

Now to answer your question specifically, what I do is work on a scale to improve my speed and I do chord switches that are giving me trouble. I am in the near future when I get my new guitar probably going to shelf the chord exercises and work mostly on my speed and accuracy doing licks and riffs. This in your case will depend on what kind of music you want to play. My focus is on heavy shredding with some rock stuff to. So isolate what you wanna do and focus on the exercises that hone the skills needed to play that style of music.

i hear you man, i was at the exact same spot as you a month ago, and i had the time, but lacked motivation. you say your stressed from work and all your life stuff, well try this once when you play, sit down and instead of focusing on making this chord change or playing that song, just sit down an play by ear, no note book no tabs. take what you know and use a different timing, or play part of a song you know with different up and down strokes, for example good riddance is dd uu du, but if you play it d dudu with a some minor changes you get let her cry, so dont try and copy music, just feel your own music, try new things out of your mind and not some one elses. sure note books are great for inspiration but leave it at that, and dont copy them make your own style of music. well that was long and quit un organised o well hope it helps

ps. dont make a routine, routines become tiresome boring and worst of all it feels like work, thus making guitar a chore not fun, just chill when you play

do you know what the circle of fiths is? when you practicing scales and stuff you should go around in 4ths and 5ths.

for being stuck on chords you can short cut here and learn the barre formations for major minor and dom7 on the 6th string and 5th string. that will give you a pretty good jump start for learning new songs. if your stuck on open chords, you need to take 2 or 3 a day and with a metronome you need to start slow and switch between them. then build up speed.

another thing you need to consider is setting a far away goal (you want to play live) and a few short range goals.

is it possible to shave 15 minutes off your day some where? maybe you eat dinner a little faster and only take a quick shower every other day. i guess you just need to figureout whats less important than playing guitar.