Heya!

I have a few more weeks of nothing left before the university year starts again, and would like to make the most of it! I'm trying to make a practice plan, but not sure how much is too much and whatnot.

As it stands, I'm warming up for 5 min with some fretting hand stretches, legato and some picking for the right hand. Then I set my metronome to 80bpm, and start practicing Jose's 16th note exercises for alternate picking, pushing up the bpm when I'm comfortable. (Started yesterday at 80npm, today on 105)

However, am I better off dedicating all my time to practicing one technique? (In this case alt. picking up and down strings) Or should I get one exercise for legato, one for sweeping, one for tapping as well? Just want to raise my chops up efficiently.

Lastly, how much time should I devote to practicing? I'd go for as long as possible, but I have to let my wrists rest after they start hurting a bit.


Cheers man!

Just take it easy and build your system as you do your sessions. Not all of your sessions should be always the same, this can get boring, so always make new ways to keep the sessions fresh and interesting.
When I start practicing something unknown I usually start with quarter notes at 60-80bpm. This leaves me enough time to place the fingers properly and enables me to achive better control over the tone. So starting slower might be a good idea. As always, just take it easy, see how it works for you.
When fingers/hands hurt - take a rest. This is the most important thing. You won't get anywhere with fatigue, so just take a small break, massage the fingers a bit, move them around slowly, and let them rest. Then continue.
Take a notebook and write down everything you practice, and write down bpm next to every practice. After a while analyze what you practiced, and see how you can improve that system.

Thanks Ivan

It depends of your mood and goals I guess,
sometimes you can spend whole day practicing just one technique
while you can have days when you work on several,
it shouldn't be that straight imo,
enjoy your practicing and focus on things that you feel most important atm,
sometimes it's just one, sometimes there are many.
As for timing, practice as much as you can (as you said)
but also take a break when you feel tired or som, no problem.

BTW, thank for input Ivan.

I have been practicing 2 medium level lessons about a solo and pinky exercises for more than 2 months now ? wow thats pretty long. Still struggling at faster riffs.

Yep, I think you are on the right track. Definitely practicing slowly and hitting each note clearly should be the preference. And then once you get that right, just up the tempo (you will notice that speed just comes on its own ). But if it starts hurting, stop practicing otherwise you will ruin your fingers / wrist / hand. After few mins, you can again try it.