A Practice Routine That Works
Fifteen focused minutes a day beats a two-hour weekend session, every time. Here is a simple daily structure that keeps every skill from this course moving forward at once.
The 15-minute routine
- Tune (1 minute). Always first. A tuned guitar trains your ears; an untuned one trains them wrong.
- Warm up (3 minutes). Slowly pick each open string, then walk your fretting fingers up the first four frets of each string, one finger per fret. Slow and clean.
- Chords (4 minutes). Run the one-minute change drill from Lesson 6 on two chord pairs. Note your numbers.
- Strumming (3 minutes). Play the Lesson 5 pattern on one chord with a metronome. Steady, relaxed, unhurried.
- Play (4 minutes). Play your song from Lesson 7 all the way through. This is the fun part - never skip it, because it is the point of everything else.
Rules that keep you going
- Daily beats lengthy. Miss a day? Do not double up - just restart tomorrow.
- Slow is fast. If you cannot play it cleanly slowly, you cannot play it fast. Slow down until it is clean.
- End on a win. Finish every session playing something you can already do well. That feeling is what brings you back tomorrow.
Where next? You now have the full beginner foundation. Next steps: learn two more open chords (D and A), try a simple fingerpicking pattern, and start learning real songs you love - songs are the best practice material there is.