Practice RX

[Carlos Owens]

Thought I'd share my practice routines with you guys.

My approach is to real goals set according to my priorities.

So here it is!

Monday:

Psych Warm Up: self affirmations and mindset Set the mind unto positive affirmations of oneself towards the guitar Set the mind to focus on your practice PRE WARM UP: Wash hands with warm or hot water Massage hands with moisturizer (I tend to get dyshidrosis eczema in my hands. So this is preemptive) Have a warming pad at hand to keep hands warm Raise your heart beat a little bit: walk around for a while, do some push ups or squats Stretch arms, wrists and fingers and lubricate the joints (this is important AF) WARM UP (5 mins) Heptatonic scale fragment with alternate picking over the following pulses triplets quarter notes fivetuplets sixtuplets septuplets ARPEGGIOS CLEAN TONE (45 min) Maj ECA Alt. Pick (6 min) Min ECA Alt. Pick (6 min) Min 7 ECA Alt. Pick (6 min) Maj 7 ECA Alt. Pick (6 min) Dom 7 ECA Alt. Pick (6 min) Maj and Min TRIAD PAIR STUDY (15 min) SWEEP PICKING: X shape warm-up (5 min) Tremolo Stops E shape (5 min) E shape minor (5 min) A shape (5 min) A shape minor (5 min) Major Triad Pair E shape to C Shape (5 min) C maj E shape (8th position) to D maj C shape (14th position) C maj C shape (12th position) to D maj E shape (10th position) Syn Etude IV (10 min) 2 HAND SYNC: (sweep picking focus) A shape minor (15 min) Left Hand only Right Hand only Sync both hands E shape major (15 min) Left Hand Right Hand Sync

About the Psych warm up and pre-warm up: Recently I've been reading a lot a about this, as well as I've hear from very famous guitarists and local colleges that the mindset truly affects our overall results when practicing, so I decided to put some focus unto that aspect.

On the pre-warm up, I had a bad experience 3 or 4 years ago, I used to forfeit warming up before getting into practice. And also, I would practice excessively, without specific goals, just mindlessly shredding or attempting to shred on solos or exercises. As a result I got tendinitis and it was not nearly worth it because progress was minimal. I learned that without purpose or direction, the mindless repetition of everything will just cause a Repetitive Motion Injury, and that you oughta be all warmed up before doing acrobatics on the guitar.

That last one I learned the hard way! I leave you this so you don't have to learn it the hard way!

Happy quarantine!