How Do You Get the Most Out of 1 Hour of Guitar Practice?

You have a busy life.

You can only fit 1 hour of guitar practice into each day.

How do you make the most of that time?

This is what a classical guitar hobbyist (let’s call him Joe) recently asked me.

Joe gets home from work and has time and energy left for 1 hour of guitar playing. He wants to use that time well.

I recommend the 10-10-30-10 Approach:

10 Minutes of Warm Up

I used to think warming up had to take a long time, but I’ve come to believe a warmup can be brief.

The goal of a warmup is not to improve your playing. It's simply to play at your current level.

For an efficient way to use the first 10 minutes of your practice session, try my Warmup Routine.

10 Minutes on an Exercise

Joe was playing a lot of exercises every day. If you’re practicing 2 hours a day, this would be fine.

But in a 1-hour practice session, I recommend keeping your time on exercises limited.

Select one exercise for a particular day, and use that exercise to improve a specific aspect of your technique.

Seek to make clear progress on improving your technique in 10 minutes.

30 Minutes on a Focus Piece

Joe had a long list of pieces he’s working on. And that’s great!

But for each day’s practice, I recommend picking one piece to focus on for 30 minutes.

Identify one particular aspect of the piece you want to improve. Maybe your focus is improving accuracy of notes and rhythms. Or a particular technique. Or dynamics and musical expression.

Seek to make clear progress on some aspect of the piece in 30 minutes.

10 Minutes Playing Through Pieces

This is the most fun part of practice. Just play through pieces that you play well.

I suggest saving this to the end of your practice as a reward for making progress on your exercise and focus piece.

You might feel that 10 minutes is not enough for this. I understand. I’ll be honest with you. I hope this entices you to play longer than 1 hour.

But if you cannot play longer than 1 hour, this last 10 minutes will be something to look forward to each day.

You don’t need to be rigid in your practice. If one part of your practice session goes a little longer or shorter, that’s fine.

But I believe the 10-10-30-10 Approach is a great framework for organizing each day’s practice.

Keep making music!