Stage 3 Practice Schedule (Guitar Lesson BC-139) Guitar for beginners Stage 3

How ya doing? Justin here. Guess what?
You've finished stage three and now this little video is just to talk about your
stage three practice routine.
So, the first thing that we're going to have on your practice routine is between
three and five minutes of your beginner's finger exercise.
Which is just doing that fingers one, two, three, four working on the agility of your fingers,
trying to get them a little bit more supple, a little bit more flexible.
It'll help you out with your stretchy chords like your G and C.
So that's the first thing that I want you to do, it's a good warm-up as well,
for your guitar playing. So that's thing number one.
The second thing on your practice routine is working on your chords doing the strum, pick out, strum.
Trying to make sure that you've got your chords sounding really nice and that every note in the chords
is really nice and clear, fingers are up next to the frets, none of the open strings are muted.
Very, very important that you get that stuff right now, especially as we're doing our one minute changes,
and we're working on the speed of our chords. We want the speed to increase,
but we also want the quality of the chords to increase.
That's why so far, every time you're practicing, you should be working on that strum, pick out, strum
Which is your chord practice, very important.
Next thing on your list is your one minute chord changes.
You should have five pairs of chords that you're working on for your one minute changes.
I recommend that you stick to the... there's a little list that I've given you there on the website
which mainly incorporates your C chord and your G chord.
As they're both kind of new chords, it's a good opportunity to work on getting from your old friend chords,
the ones that are probably not too difficult now and then really working them in
with the big finger stretchy chords. That would be a great idea.
Okay, you've also got your rhythm guitar.
Introducing that first little up strum, getting used to the count, making sure you tap your foot,
getting used to playing with the metronome, not stopping, just really working on it,
trying to keep that rhythm really good and solid.
Count along if you want, with the one, two, three and four. That would be a great thing.
Now, the big deal with the rhythm guitar is repetition. So even though it's only one exercise,
and it's probably going to get a bit boring for you, what I really recommend is sitting there,
doing it over and over again. Going one, two, three and four.
Over and over again until you're bored.
Really, what you're trying to get here is a motor skill. Just having done it so much that it becomes instinctive.
One of my ten golden rules here for practicing which is, the more you think the more you stink.
And in order not to think you have to practice these things until they become instinctive.
Very, very important, so plenty of rhythm guitar practice.
You will then have five minutes to work on your songs or your chord sequences.
There are plenty of songs now that you can do with this many chords so pick some of the songs
that you like and work on those for five minutes.
Because, of course, it's important to be playing songs.
That's kind of the point of playing guitar. It's not to do exercises, it's to play tunes.
So make sure you spend a bit of your time working on songs.
And last of all, if you're taking that as an option, you want to be working on your J.U.S.T.I.N. exercises
which is your ear training exercises.
Now that collectively works out to be about a half an hour practice routine
which might be quite a lot for some of you to be doing every day.
If it is, break it into two 15 minute sections and do one half one day and one half the next day.
So that's kind of up to you depending on how much time you've got to spend practicing.
But, I'd say at this stage about 30 minutes a day is a great amount to practice.
I don't mean every day. I'm thinking 5-6 days a week, that kind of thing.
You're definitely allowed to have your one day off a week, if you wish.
What is it? One day you're not supposed to work per week? I forget what it is traditionally.
Two days off a week? Really? Some people get two days off a week?
Wow. Wicked. Okay. Nice for some.
Anyway!
Get in, get practicing, really keep working, don't forget to tick off your practice routine
because that's the thing that really helps keep you motivated: is ticking off the boxes
when you've done your practice. Writing in how many changes you got
on your one minute changes. Keep yourself going, keep motivated.
And when you've got through this and you feel comfy with your G and your C and your rhythm
I'll see you for stage four.
Take care of yourselves. Catch you soon.