Lesson Plans?

Do you guys build yourself lesson plans or do you take a naturalistic approach to practice? I'm sort of a structured, nerdy thinker. A computer programmer and video gamer... I wonder if coming up with lesson plans for myself would be more productive than noodling. For example, I'm working on learning "Breaking the Law" and also working through the Blue's Series 1 (I've finished fundamentals 1 and 2 and feel pretty decent at that stuff). So I can burn an hour (like I did last night) of just working on this left hand fingering to get one particular part of the song to sound right. It feels almost too too honed in on a detail that might not matter. Specifically, getting the hand motion down from muting the strings for the crunch-crunch-chord crunch-crunch-chord crunch-chord part right after the intro bit.

Should I have a more structured lesson. 20 minutes of warmup, 30 minutes of X, 30 minutes of Y, etc? Or will I learn by just exploring different pieces? It isn't clear to me whether I should be focusing on learning a song and just really getting it down, or learning various techniques.

Part of me thinks that learning a song would be ideal. If I was going to teach someone to program, I would probably give them some basic knowledge, but try to get them to understand that only by implementing a program will they really solve problems. Learning techniques -- in code -- is pointless unless you are actually using them and realizing why they work the way they do in practice. Is guitar the same or is this a flawed analogy?

So should I sit down and write out some lesson plans, or should I just go where my interests lead me?

White space is your friend.

Ah, there was white space. Sorry I was a little drunk at the time. :rolleyes:

I like your analogy, but of course I might be biased :)

I think spending a lot of time getting the particular left hand fingering of Breaking the Law right is the equivalent of having a real code project to work on that will turn a taking a class about code into some actual coding work experience.

In other words, it is the right thing to do. Find something that interests you enough so that you won't mind burning lots of time on it. Doing exercises is great, but a song that captures your interest will teach you to master a technique instead of just understanding it.

And Razbo, didn't you mean:

White Space

Is

Your Friend

:)

Have fun.

Jon

Yer killin' me! :p

I tend to be a very literal thinker as well, and enjoy the process of organizing and setting up some sort of plan for what I am going to practice. It is important to realize that no time on the instrument is wasted, and honestly as long as you are playing and loving what you are doing; you will progress in some way so don't get too caught up in worrying about what your not doing.

I agree with John, as it is always best to practice what will be applicable in your musical life. Working on songs you enjoy incorporates so many different elements of real world playing, and I often will use a song as a catalyst (better put, an excuse) to practice something.

Perhaps to better combine your need for a more structured routine with your desire to rock; you can take a song at a time and use that as a way to get better at some sort of technique within that song. Use "Breaking the Law" as a way to work on your right hand technique, and than move on to another song that you enjoy to incorporate a new weakness in your playing. I often use this approach and if done wisely you can kill about 733 birds with one stone (forgive the exaggerated metaphor.)

Good luck and happy practicing!
:D