#1 What is a Daily Guitar (Practice) Ritual?

What It Is Not

The Daily Guitar Ritual is not to be confused with your Main Practice Session. It’s not where you work on new material to be able to perform it. It’s okay to include an occasional new exercise that you’ve just learned, but it shouldn’t include all new exercises.

Unlike your main practice session where you’re learning something new or improving some specific song or technique, this is not something you have to think too hard about.

This is important. If you have to think too hard about it it’s less likely to become a ritual… and also less likely to get done.

Okay, What Is It?

The Daily Guitar Ritual is a short concise series of exercises, and possibly songs, that are designed to improve your technique and keep your skill development moving forward.

This is something you would do every day regardless of whether you do the Main Practice Session or not. Think of it as your daily calisthenics (or whatever daily rituals you do for your health). This is a part of your daily routine. You should feel like you missed something if you don’t do it (like if you skipped brushing your teeth).

Your Main Practice Session

You should also have a Main Practice Session separate from this daily ritual. I won’t go into too much detail about that here because this lesson is about the Daily Guitar Ritual. However your main practice session could include things that will take a little more work, including practicing a new lesson, a new song or some other material that you have to really focus on to make improvement.

The Daily Guitar Ritual can be done at the separate time. It’s also possible to do the two back to back. However I do encourage you to see this ritual as a separate entity so you can complete it every day regardless of whether you do your Main Practice Session.

How Long Should It Be?

This largely depends on your lifestyle and your level of playing guitar. For most students in the first year or so I would suggest having two versions… One shorter and one longer.

This way if you’re pressed for time you would still do the shorter version. When you have enough time you can do the longer more complete version.

For example a regular (long) version could be 20 – 25 minutes long. The short version might be 10 – 15 minutes long.

Should It Really Be Every Day?

Yes. Daily is important. You’re building a habit. Make the short version something you can squeeze in even if you have to just before going to bed. You wouldn’t want to miss a day except under extreme conditions … Like you might very occasionally skip brushing your teeth (at least I hope it “occasional”).