How to build a practice routine

A practice routine is a short plan you repeat most days. The one below has four parts, fits in 30 minutes and works on any instrument. Start with it as written, then shape it to your week.

The 30-minute routine

Do these four parts in order. Keep a metronome running for the first three.

  1. 0-5 min. Warm up. Play something easy and slow, around 60 to 70 BPM. Scales, rudiments or a simple groove all work. The point is loose hands and settling into the click.
  2. 5-15 min. Work on one hard thing. Pick one short thing you can't play yet: two bars, one chord change, one fill. Find the tempo where it comes out clean. Play it three times in a row without a slip, then go up 4 BPM. When it falls apart, drop back and stay there.
  3. 15-25 min. Play music. Play a whole song or groove at a comfortable tempo, and keep going through mistakes. This is where the work from the last ten minutes turns into playing.
  4. 25-30 min. Write one line. Note the tempo your hard thing was clean at, and what you'll try tomorrow. Tomorrow starts from that line instead of from scratch.

Why it works

Most practice time goes on things you can already play. That feels good, but it doesn't move you forward. This routine protects ten minutes for something you can't do yet, and puts it early, while you're still fresh.

The hard thing starts slow because your hands learn whatever you repeat. Ten clean takes at 80 BPM teach more than ten messy ones at 120.

Playing music afterwards keeps it fun and shows whether the hard thing holds up inside a song. The line you write at the end is what joins one day to the next, so separate sessions add up to progress you can see.

Little and often beats long and rare. Thirty minutes on five days will usually take you further than one three-hour session at the weekend.

For 15, 30 or 60 minutes

Keep the order and change the lengths. The hard-thing block grows most, because that's where the progress comes from.

  • Warm up: 3, 5 or 10 minutes
  • One hard thing: 7, 10 or 25 minutes
  • Play music: 4, 10 or 20 minutes
  • Write one line: 1, 5 or 5 minutes

On a 60-minute day you can split the hard-thing block between two problems. More than two and none of them gets enough repetitions.

Choosing your one hard thing

A good hard thing is small, specific and has a tempo attached, so you can tell when it's done. For example:

  • Drums: Sixteenth-note single strokes on the snare. Clean at 90 BPM, aiming for 100.
  • Guitar: The change from G to C, landing on beat one, at 80 BPM.
  • Piano: Bars 12 and 13, left hand alone, at 60 BPM.
  • Bass: A root and fifth line that sits exactly with the kick drum at 85 BPM.

If you can't say what tempo you're working at, the goal is too vague. "Get better at fills" becomes "this one fill into the chorus, at 90". Keep the same hard thing until it's clean at your target, then choose the next one.

Knowing it's working

Your one-line notes are the scoreboard. Read back over a week and the clean tempo for your hard thing should creep up, a few BPM at a time.

Once a week, record the music block on your phone and listen back. A recording catches rushing and dropped notes that you can't hear while you're playing.

If the number hasn't moved in a week, make the passage shorter or the starting tempo slower. Being stuck usually means the chunk is too big.

Four habits that waste practice

  • Starting from the top every time. The opening gets polished and the hard bars never get the work. Start at the part that goes wrong.
  • Playing through the mistake. You rehearse the mistake as often as the fix. Stop, loop that spot slowly, then put it back in.
  • Speeding up before it's clean. Your hands learn whatever you repeat, mess included. Earn each step: three clean takes, then 4 BPM more.
  • Practising only what you're good at. It feels productive and changes nothing. Give the hard-thing block to whatever you usually avoid.

Routines you can press play on

If you'd rather not plan it yourself, these guided routines run the metronome for you. Each step sets its own tempo and feel and moves on when its timer ends, so you only have to play.

Start today's 30 minutes

Open the free metronome for your warm-up and hard thing, then play along with a drummer.