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maggior
Registered User
Joined: 01/27/13
Posts: 1,723
maggior
Registered User
Joined: 01/27/13
Posts: 1,723
07/17/2017 4:33 pm

Before you define your daily routine, you need to define your goals. To maintain motivation, you need well defined near and short term goals. Saying "I want to play better" is too vague.

A long term general goal could be "I want to play in a band". I could also be "I want to write songs" or "be able to improvise blues or jazz solos". What exactly is it you want to do with your music? Short term goals could be certain songs you'd like to play. Near term goals would be the skills you need for those songs...perhaps a technique like a trill or legato run, or difficult chord changes.

There are some things that no matter what your goal, you need to do...tempo and timing being the biggies.

To learn the fretboard, one way I've hard of is to work on a single note each week. So, on week one, spend time locating all of the A notes on the fretboard. The goal is to be able to identify them immediately. The following week, B...etc. This knowledge will not only help you with playing melodies, but help you move chord shapes around and know what you are playing.

I suggest you record youself on a regular basis. This will help you hear progress in your playing. It will help you know what is working...and what isn't. It's not always bad news...often you will find things sound better on playback.

Scales are important, but be sure to spend time with jam tracks to put them into action. A scale on it's own isn't music or a song. Better to know one scale and one scale position really well and be able to use it musically than know a bunch of scales and shapes but have no real knowledge of how to use it. When you learn something, know why you are learning it....what will you do with it and how will it help you.

Hope some of that helps.