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5/3/2015 15 Minute Daily Jazz Guitar Practice Routine | MattWarnockGuitar.

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MATT WARNOCK GUITAR

15 Minute Daily Jazz Guitar Practice Routine

As someone that teaches guitar lessons to players of all levels of experience and from all different
backgrounds, I have realized that no two students are alike in their approach to the instrument and
their method for learning the material in their jazz guitar practice routine.

But, one question that most of my students come to me with at some point in their development is
How to set up my jazz guitar practice routine when I dont have much time to dedicate to the
practice room right now?

If that question sounds familiar, you can take solace in the fact that youre not alone in asking this,
as it is one of the most common questions I get from students across the globe.

So, in order to address this question properly I asked it of myself, and then sat down and wrote out
a five day practice schedule that I would do if I only had 15 minutes a day to dedicate to
practicing the guitar, which I have outlined in the article below.

The first thing I thought about was, What is the goal of practicing?

For me, the answer was to play tunes.

To get out and make music, and so I designed this five-day guitar workout around learning to
play tunes and then each day tackled a different item that I would need to have under my fingers
and in my ears in order to be able to play any particular tune I was working on.

These aspects are:

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1. Technique

2. Single Note Melody

3. Vocabulary

4. Comping

5. Chord Melody

6. Improvisation

Since I am a jazz guitarist, and so are all of my students, I put a strong emphasis on
improvisation in this workout since it is one of those things that students struggle with, and it is a
necessary skill to have when learning to play jazz guitar.

Plus its fun to do and it adds a nice dose of creativity to any practice routine.

In each of the days below, I divided my time into two sections, the first would be 10 minutes in
length and then I would finish each session with a 5 minute improvisation.

I know this doesnt sound like a lot of time, but you would be surprised what you can accomplish
with 15 minutes of focused practice if you do it consistently over the course of a week, then a
month, then a year.

For me, it is better to practice one or two things for 15 minutes regularly throughout the week
than it is to practice for one hour today and then take 3 days off and do another hour 4 days later.

Consistency is a powerful tool when learning to play guitar, so if you only have 15 minutes per
day, 5 days a week to dedicate to the instrument, dont worry, you can still progress and make
noticeable gains over the short and long term.

Since my focus will be to play tunes, I will use Summertime as an example of a tune I wanted to
learn, and will therefore use it as the vehicle for each category in my practice routine.

You can do the same with any tune you want to learn.

As well, you can stick with it for a few weeks or longer until you feel that you really have the tune
nailed, or you can alternate each week and work on a few tunes on a rotating basis if that works
better for you.

With time you will figure out how you learn best and what is the most effective way to approach
material in the practice room for your mode of learning and retention.

Finally, for each day I have given three exercises in point form that I would do under each
category.

I wouldnt do these every day, but I wanted to show you some variety as I might do number 1
from the list one week, then number 2 the next etc. to add variety to my practice routine over the
long term as well.

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Jazz Guitar Practice Routine Day 1


Technique: 10 Minutes

Learn each scale that I would need to improvise with over Summertime in the key of D
minor (D melodic minor, D altered, E locrian, A altered and F major).

Practice using rhythmic durations such as playing each scale with only half or whole notes
as well as rhythmic accents such as accenting every 4th note when running up and down
each scale.

Practice each scale using a specific interval such as 3rds, 4ths and 5ths, both ascending
and descending, and if possible alternating ascending and descending.

Improvisation: 5 Minutes

Improvise for 5 minutes over the chord changes to Summertime, without any time for now.
Simply creating melodies using the scales for each chord and moving to the next when I
feel comfortable. So, I would improvise with the D melodic minor scale over the Dm7 chord
in bars 1-3, then when I felt I was ready to move forward I would switch to D altered to
cover the D7alt chord in bar 4. The goal is to get the scales for the tune under my fingers
and the chord progression into my ears but at my own pace for now.

Jazz Guitar Practice Routine Day 2


Single Note Melody: 10 Minutes

Learn the melody to Summertime within the first four frets adjusting the octave if needed.

Learn the melody to Summertime within frets 5 to 8, adjusting the octave if needed.

Learn the melody to Summertime within frets 9 to 12, adjusting the octave if needed.

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Improvisation: 5 Minutes
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Improvise over Summertime with a playalong but use only the melody as the basis for my
soloing. I would add notes, take notes away, adjust the rhythms here and there, treat the
How tomelody
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as the scaleJazz
of the tune and alter it as I would any scale when improvising over
Guitarchanges.
Practice Routine

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6 Steps to an Organized Jazz



Practice Routine

Jazz Guitar Practice Routine Day 3


How to Learn Modern Jazz Tunes
for Guitar

Vocabulary: 10 Minutes

Learn a minor ii-V-I lick that I could then use to solo over those changes (Em7b5-A7alt-
Dm7) in Summertime.

Learn a major ii-V-I lick that I could then use to solo over the changes (Gm7-C7-Fmaj7) in
Summertime.

Learn a m7 lick that I could use to solo over Dm7 and Gm7 during a chorus of
Summertime.

Improvisation: 5 Minutes

Improvise over Summertime with a playalong and force myself to play whatever lick I
learned to that point in the tune every time it comes around. So, if I learned a major ii-V-I
lick, then each time I played through a chorus, I would apply that lick to bars 12-13 in order
to get that vocabulary into my improv, which will then start to become more natural over
time.

Jazz Guitar Practice Routine Day 4


Comping: 10 Minutes

Practice voice leading minor iim7-V7alt-im7 chords using different voicings such as Drop 2
and drop 3 chords in all different inversions.

Practice voice leading major iim7-V7-Imaj7 chords using different voicings in all inversions.

Work out and practice a walking bass line for the changes to Summertime in both half-
time feel and walking feel.

Improvisation: 5 Minutes

Comp along to the changes of Summertime, with a playalong if possible, and use the
different voice leading patterns that I worked out during the first part of the practice routine.
Add in bass lines when appropriate and work on mixing up the rhythms during the comping

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by using rhythmic transposition, pairing, mirroring and other similar concepts.

Jazz Guitar Practice Routine Day 5


Chord Melody: 10 Minutes

Learn the melody on the top two strings, add in the bass note on the 5th and 6th strings for
each chord in the tune, creating a two-part counterpoint line between the bass and the
melody.

Practice playing the melody in a single-line approach, and add in 3rds and 7ths whenever
there is a rest in the melody line, to imitate the right and left hands of a piano.

Work out a chord melody where I apply a voicing to most, or all, of the notes in the melody
using Drop 2, Drop 3 and 4th voicings.

Improvisation: 5 Minutes

Play the entire tune through as it would sound in a performance, so chord melody-
improvising-comping-chord melody. Putting all of the material learned in the past five days
to use in a real-life, performance situation.

With busy lives and many things going on outside of the practice room, it can be difficult to get
enough time in the woodshed to feel like youre making progress.

But, with just a few minutes a day and a consistent routine, you can still progress and reach your
short and long term goals as a guitarist if you break things up and work on small chunks of
material on a regular basis.

If you are finding that you cant get enough time in on your guitar to really make strides in your
playing, try the above routine for a few weeks or a month and see if you can notice a difference in
your musical growth, the results just might surprise you.

Do you have a short jazz guitar practice routine that you like to do? If so, please share your
thoughts in the Jazz Guitar Practice Routine thread at the MWG Forum.

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9 Comments
1. Paul, March 26, 2012:
Hi Matt

First of all let me say how I appreciate your website. Ive been finding it a great help, and
Ive learned a lot over the six months or so since I discovered it!

Could you answer a query, though Im a bit puzzled by the choice of D melodic minor as a
scale to solo over the Dm7. Doesnt this scale contain a C#, implying a Dm(maj7) sound
rather than Dm7. Wouldnt D Dorian be a more obvious choice? (Perhaps Ive just
answered my own question its intended to be less obvious!)

Id really like your thoughts as to this choice of scale. Hope this isnt too dumb a question.

Thanks

2. Matthew Warnock, March 26, 2012:


Thanks for checking out my site Paul. For me, since Dm7 here is the tonic chord, the root
chord of the key, I use melodic minor to improvise over that chord. Dorian could work, but
melodic minor has more of a tonic minor sound, the C# really creates that leading tone
sound that resolves nicely to the D. Its a cool sound, if you havent dug into it yet check it
out, good technique to have under your fingers and in your ears.

3. Francisco Pinto, March 26, 2012:


Hi Matt!
Ive had contact with your work recently when reading the Just Jazz Guitar Magazine.
After that I went to your site. Immediatelly Ive bought 2 of your e-books. It has been very
important to me to receive your emails with new material and some ideas to work and
study. Today you this nice 15 minute daily practice. Your system is great! We live in a
world of information (excess of information). You are giving ideas for simplifying it and
manage the time. Im seeing results. So, I say thanks and keep this great work! Regards.
Francisco

4. Matthew Warnock, March 26, 2012:


thanks Francisco, really appreciate the kind words, thanks for checking out my site and
books!!

5. LindyDanny, March 31, 2012:


I may be showing my experience here (or lack of), but how do you decide which scales to
learn based on the chart?

6. Matthew Warnock, March 31, 2012:


Hey

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thats a good question but one thats too deep to answer here in the comments. If you want
to start exploring that area of study, check out these two articles. They will help you learn
which modes of the major and melodic minor chords fit over which chords, and that will give
you background to apply to chord progressions in tunes as well.

http://mattwarnockguitar.com/modes-of-the-major-scale-and-their-application

http://mattwarnockguitar.com/modes-of-the-melodic-minor-scale-and-their-application

7. Jeff, November 7, 2012:


Can u use this technique for bass also

8. Matthew Warnock, November 7, 2012:


Hey Jeff, sure you can apply this to any instrument.

9. Frank Pratte, March 24, 2013:


Hi Matt,

This is a good lesson for me as I have a full time job and a desire to improve on the guitar.

I have to add sight reading to the list for me. With the different people I play with, I never
know what tune is going to be called I get by with sight reading. 10 minutes of sight
reading a day seems to be enough to hold on to the skill (but probably not enough for me to
improve).

Cheers

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