As a session guitarist, my musical workload is varied.<\/p>\n
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Each week there’s students to teach, gigs, recording sessions and I try to fit some time in to write books. Of course, I try to fit in as much practice as possible.<\/p>\n
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Sounds like a lot, it is!<\/p>\n
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One thing I have realised is that my guitar practice routine changes each day depending on what’s in my diary.<\/p>\n
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While all the practice I do help me become a better musician, it’s probably completely different from what you do!<\/p>\n
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Follow me as I give you walk through how session guitarists practice.<\/p>\n
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As we have a look at my routine, I\u2019ll try to give you some actionable tips which will help you improve your guitar playing.<\/p>\n
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Don\u2019t work harder \u2013 work smarter!<\/p>\n
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Firstly, let\u2019s deal with the easiest of them all: My practice time. I spend most of my time working on transcribing<\/a>. Usually, it\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been listening to rather than for a gig.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For example, I might take a chord and try to find a few different voicings. While I’ll forget some of these voicings, I’ll write down the one or two that sound really cool.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also use this time to work on simple fingerstyle tunes<\/a>. It\u2019s fun to do! I don\u2019t have a big repertoire but being able to play a few Stevie Wonder tunes on solo guitar is enjoyable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next up, teaching students<\/a>. I spent most of this time working on songs and worksheets to give to the student. I try and prepare well so that I can spend time teaching and not writing things out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If I’m planning on teaching a song, I\u2019ll work out the song and then play it on repeat while I write it up. This way when I come to teach it I have it in my head and can confidently help the student discover, learn and master the song.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a real joy to see students improve and learn songs they\u2019ve always wanted to be able to play.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While this isn’t something most session guitarists do, I really enjoy writing. For both, I try to write down ideas, as and when they come to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For blog posts, most ideas come from either reading online or teaching. I also try to publish mini guitar lessons. This is like what you would give if we talked for a few minutes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For books, it\u2019s either something I\u2019m working on privately or a gap in the market. For example, the partial chords eBook<\/a> came about after I experimented with chord voicings. After finding a few ideas, I decided to write a book.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Latin Guitar Styles eBook<\/a>, however, was born out a need I spotted. I spent quite a bit of time learning the basics of a few different Latin styles in order to be able to pass that on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As every session guitarists will practice completely differently, this is my take. Plus it’s the most fun!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I will often play along with the radio. The idea is to the key and a guitar part within a bar or two. For example, with a funky song, I’ll find something simple to play.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, for a slower song, I might find an easy finger picking pattern. Most of the time, I\u2019m just trying to find a part that works for that song!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Session work, for the most part, is like this. You have to be able to think fast!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other times, I might experiment with guitar gear and try to create new sounds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGuitar Students!<\/h2>\n
Books and blogs<\/h2>\n
Session Work<\/h2>\n