Practice Routine – Week 4

Here we are again, time to organize what I will be focusing on in my dedicated guitar study and practice time for the next week.

But before I get into the details for this weeks practice routine, I just want to let you know that one of last weeks exercises, combined with what I am focusing on this week (Yes I had a sneak peak at chapter of 7 of the Guitar Fretboard Workbook) opened up a virtual treasure trove of major scale possibilities all over the neck, but more about that in another post.

For this week I will still be continuing with the exercises that I have been doing in the previous weeks, but also starting on a couple of new ones, so my workload is starting to increase gradually. Plus… I ordered a couple more of Barrett’s books earlier in the week, so when I get those delivered I will really have my practice sessions cut out for me.

For this week I am continuing with the second exercise on page 19 of Guitar Fretboard Workbook, but now for the C root note, this is basically drawing out the five root note shapes and naming out loud as I play each root note position for C.

Next, I will continue with the exercises on page 22 of the Guitar Fretboard Workbook, which is spelling the major scale on one string and naming out loud each note as I play using the major scale formula, but now for the C major scale. I will also start naming the fret position for each note as I play, starting with the top E string.

The next exercise I will be focusing on can also be found in the Guitar Fretboard Workbook, and is also about Major scales, but this time it’s how to build scales in one position of the fretboard using each one of the five patterns found in the CAGED system, not up and down the neck as in the previous exercise. I will be looking to write out and play each of the five Major scale shapes for C using the major scale formula and the tip’s found on page 23 of Barrett’s book.

…and if that’s not enough to keep me busy, there is also some timing work that I will be focusing on.

This exercise will come from the Rhythmic Lead Guitar workbook. This will be playing the exercise on Track 7 of the accompanying CD, which is basically playing the C major scale but now with specific phrasing. I had planned on continuing with the exercises found in Chapter 3 of the same book which is working on variations of the major scale with different fingering positions and phrasing, but I think I will leave that for next week.

UPDATE: After going through today’s exercises, I decided to practice a different scale pattern each day for the phrasing exercise on Track 7 of the Rhythmic Lead Guitar workbook. Starting with Pattern one of the CAGED fretboard system.

You can see my progress for each day as I log in and mark the exercise completed in the table below.

• Exercise 1. Complete the second exercise on page 19 of Guitar Fretboard Workbook, starting with the C root note.
• Exercise 2. Write out and name out loud as I play the C major scale on one string, starting with the 1st string.
• Exercise 3. Write out and play each one of the five major scale patterns found in the CAGED system for C using the major scale formula and the tip’s found on page 23 of Barrett’s Guitar Fretboard Workbook
• Exercise 4. Play the exercise on Track 7 of the accompanying CD of the Rhythmic Lead Guitar workbook, which is basically playing the C major scale with specific phrasing played into it. Each day playing a different scale pattern.