August 14, 2025 • 10 mins
Setting up the proper mindset for guitar practice transforms how effectively you use your available time. We explore strategies to optimize practice sessions regardless of whether you have 20 minutes or 2 hours to play.
• Begin with a proper warm-up routine for both physical and mental preparation
• Develop core daily exercises combined with rotating weekly practice concepts
• Practice mentally when your guitar isn't available by studying theory or visualizing the fretboard
• Avoid the "all or nothing" attitude - even 15-20 minutes of focused practice makes progress
• Work on the right things that align with your specific goals rather than random exercises
• Combine a clear game plan, consistent playing, and regular assessment of your progress
If you're struggling to develop an effective practice routine, we can help you create a personalized plan inside the GuitarZoom Academy, where we work with you personally on a daily basis to ensure you're making progress.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey, steve Stine here from Guitar Zoom.
Thank you so much for joiningme again.
Today.
We're gonna be talking aboutsetting up the proper mindset
for your practice.
Okay, understanding what it isthat you're gonna be doing, how
you're gonna do it, making agame plan for yourself so you're
not just running through thesame motions all the time, okay.
So number one what I would dois I would set yourself up with
(00:20):
some sort of a warm-up routine,depending on how much time you
have, depending on the ageyou're doing you know you're
practicing depending on theamount of strenuous practice
that you're gonna be doing.
I always tell people just youwanna get warmed up both
physically and mentally.
Okay, so, physically, doingsome hand stretches.
Again, if you're listening tothis, you're not gonna be able
(00:42):
to see any hand stretches,stretches.
So I'm not going to talk aboutspecific hand stretches, but you
know doing things, doing handstretches that are beneficial
for you to get your hands warmedup.
You know you can run themunderwater.
You can pinch the tips of yourfingers.
You know stretch out yourwrists uh, you know massage your
forearms, anything like that,to kind of get you warmed up.
The second thing is is doingsome sort of an actual warm up
(01:05):
routine, something that youdon't have to think about for
the day.
It's just when you grab theguitar, you know you do the 20
second exercise, or you do thetwo minute picking drills, you
do the spider walk, you know.
You, whatever it might be, youwork on your down picking, you
work on your alternate picking,you know.
For me it's always three parts.
Number one is your frettinghand has legato work to do
(01:28):
strength, speed and stamina.
Your picking hand has downpicking and alternate picking
drills to do, and those could beanything from you know absolute
beginner picking through youknow learning some songs, things
like that, to some real basicskills to develop, uh to, like I
said, the spider walk, some ofthose chromatic kinds of things
that you can do and advance fromthere.
You could also do some scalework in that right.
(01:51):
So maybe part of your practiceroutine is just rolling through
the five positions of pentatonic, or two positions, if that's
all you know, or three positionsof diatonic again.
Whatever it is that you do, butthat's your core thing that you
know every day you can defaultto to get yourself warmed up,
get yourself in the right place,start working up your energy.
You know, getting yourselfsynchronized, that sort of thing
(02:13):
, and then from there you moveinto other opportunities of
practice, depending on how muchtime you have.
So here at the Academy, at theGuitar Zoom Academy, what we try
and do is develop you a dailyand a weekly concept of how to
practice.
So your daily is your core.
Okay, these are the things that, in order for you to be able to
reach your goals, these are thethings that you need to focus
(02:36):
on on a daily basis.
You know, with time allowed,obviously, I mean, if you're
busy that day, it's going to beless practice that day.
If you've got more time thatday, you're going to practice
more that day.
But that daily routine that youdo and then what we do is we
interject weekly concepts.
So maybe one day Mondays,wednesdays and Fridays you're
focusing on songs, learningsongs, or maybe you're focusing
(02:57):
on fretboard study, or maybeyou're focusing on, you know,
improvisation, and maybeTuesdays and Thursdays you're
focusing on theory.
And then Saturdays, you know,you're going to put this all
together and maybe make a videoof yourself playing something.
You know there's a lot ofdifferent ways to approach that,
but having a game plan ofmultiple opportunities, a core
thing that you do every day, andthen these other elements that
(03:19):
you're going to get to on aweekly basis and I don't mean
once a week, I mean, you know, acouple, three times a week.
You're going to shift thesethings in and out.
We help you set that up.
So for me, that's the propermindset is knowing what it is
you're supposed to do, why it isthat you're working on it.
But getting yourself warmed up,okay.
Get your mind warmed up, okay.
(03:39):
Getting ready for what it isthat you're going to be trying
to work on, that's really,really important.
And then you go through theroutine.
Now, once you get done, youmight need to do some sort of a
cool down where you do somestretching again, that sort of
thing.
The other thing I always like toremind people, too, is that,
depending on what your lifelooks like, if you do a lot of
traveling for work or you knowwhatever it might be, whether
(04:02):
it's in a plane, whether it'sjust driving to work every day,
and you're at work five days aweek and you know you're not
sitting around with three hoursor four hours of practice every
day, it's okay.
Another thing that you canlearn how to do is work on the
mental and conceptual stuff whenyour guitar is not around you
or not available to be played.
This is honestly I mean I don'thave a percentage but half of
(04:27):
my practice is done driving in acar, listening to music,
figuring out how things go, oron a plane, studying things,
studying fretboard roadmaps orstudying theory.
Or you know things that mightnot even pertain to guitar,
other things that I want tolearn how to do as well.
You know things that might noteven pertain to guitar, other
things that I want to learn howto do as well.
But having that study time asfar as guitar goes, you know,
(04:49):
maybe you're learning a theorything, maybe you're working on
your fretboard.
When I was in high school,during my study hall, when I got
my homework done, I wouldalways pull out a piece of paper
and I would draw out, or I'dhave one that's drawn and it's
in my folder you know myfretboard and then I would draw
concepts on my fretboard, be ita pentatonic concept or an
arpeggio thing, or you know acage thing, which back at that
(05:13):
time I really wasn't familiarwith cage but you get the idea.
You can.
You can draw these out and then, when you've got time, you just
do study like you sit andmemorize and visualize that
fretboard.
So by the time you get home,you've already thought about
this, you've thought about whatit looks like, you've thought
about how navigation would go,and then you could take that
(05:33):
piece of paper and stick it on amusic stand and then start
practicing what you thoughtabout before, but now with the
guitar physically in your hands.
Start practicing what youthought about before, but now
with the guitar physically inyour hands.
It's a great way to optimizeyour time.
So you're not just waiting, youknow, to get home to your guitar
.
And then there's this ritualthat you've got to go downstairs
and you've got to do all thisstuff and then you've got the
guitar in your hands and you'restudying theory, right.
(05:55):
Or you've got your guitar inyour hands and you're trying to
study the fretboard.
You're kind of wasting time atthat point, like what you could
have done at some other point inthe day or the week or whatever
is done some studying, somemental work, right, conceptual
ideas in your head, and thenwhen you get to your guitar, you
(06:16):
now start applying those ideas.
So you're you're savingyourself time and of course in
the academy we can teach you howto do that, set you up with the
right things that you need.
But it's something to thinkabout in trying to optimize the
way that you practice, becausepeople are always like, well, I
only have 30 minutes a day topractice, or only have 20
minutes a day to practice, or OK, that's fine.
Listen, you've made this choicewhether it's elected or whether
(06:39):
it's mandatory, of how muchtime you have a day, ok,
something is better than nothing.
Whether it's elected or whetherit's mandatory, of how much
time you have a day, okay,something is better than nothing
.
Don't adopt the all or nothingattitude where you have to
practice for three hours oryou're not going to practice at
all.
It's a terrible way of thinkingof things.
Practice on the days that youeat.
Even if it's 10, 15, 20 minutesa day, you can still make
progress as long as you'reworking on the right things.
(07:03):
That's what makes all thedifference in the world is
working on the right things.
If you're just practicing, youmight be getting better at X or
Y or D or L, but the problem is,if they're not cohesive and
they're not getting you to pointA to point F on your ladder of
(07:23):
what it is that you really wantto accomplish.
The problem is, you're wastinga lot of time by working on
things that are not necessarilyrelevant to what your goals are.
So it's very important to havea game plan, know what it is
that you need to be doing, whyit is you're doing it and how to
approach it.
When you've got days where youdon't have a lot of practice
time, you've got days when youdo have a lot of practice time.
(07:44):
Setting all of that up, and ifyou have a problem with that, if
you struggle with that, that'sone of the primary things that
we work on inside the GuitarZoom Academy Among actually
working personally with you,literally on a daily basis, to
make sure everything's going theway it needs to go.
So again, stay positive, keeppracticing.
Get yourself an effectivepractice routine that will get
(08:06):
you where you want to go in amuch shorter amount of time, not
because of magic, not becauseof some magic pill, but because
A you've got a game plan, youknow what it is that you need to
do to get to where you want togo, and you know what you want
to get to.
B you're willing to put in thework, whether it's 20 minutes a
day, whether it's two hours aday, you're willing to grab that
(08:27):
guitar on a daily basis.
Make that guitar your friendagain.
Dust off that you know thatguitar.
Make it a motivational thing soyou want to pick it up every
day.
And then the third thing isbeing able to have help, get
clarity, get assessments of yourplaying on a regular basis so
you know that things are movingthe way that they need to be
moving.
It's really important, allright.
(08:48):
So take care, stay positive, beblessed and thank you for your
time.
Thank you always for your timeand I'll talk to you soon, all
right.
Hey, steve Stine here from Guitar Zoom.
Thank you so much for joiningme again.
Today.
We're gonna be talking aboutsetting up the proper mindset
for your practice.
Okay, understanding what it isthat you're gonna be doing, how
you're gonna do it, making agame plan for yourself so you're
not just running through thesame motions all the time, okay.
So number one what I would dois I would set yourself up with
(00:20):
some sort of a warm-up routine,depending on how much time you
have, depending on the ageyou're doing you know you're
practicing depending on theamount of strenuous practice
that you're gonna be doing.
I always tell people just youwanna get warmed up both
physically and mentally.
Okay, so, physically, doingsome hand stretches.
Again, if you're listening tothis, you're not gonna be able
(00:42):
to see any hand stretches,stretches.
So I'm not going to talk aboutspecific hand stretches, but you
know doing things, doing handstretches that are beneficial
for you to get your hands warmedup.
You know you can run themunderwater.
You can pinch the tips of yourfingers.
You know stretch out yourwrists uh, you know massage your
forearms, anything like that,to kind of get you warmed up.
The second thing is is doingsome sort of an actual warm up
(01:05):
routine, something that youdon't have to think about for
the day.
It's just when you grab theguitar, you know you do the 20
second exercise, or you do thetwo minute picking drills, you
do the spider walk, you know.
You, whatever it might be, youwork on your down picking, you
work on your alternate picking,you know.
For me it's always three parts.
Number one is your frettinghand has legato work to do
(01:28):
strength, speed and stamina.
Your picking hand has downpicking and alternate picking
drills to do, and those could beanything from you know absolute
beginner picking through youknow learning some songs, things
like that, to some real basicskills to develop, uh to, like I
said, the spider walk, some ofthose chromatic kinds of things
that you can do and advance fromthere.
You could also do some scalework in that right.
(01:51):
So maybe part of your practiceroutine is just rolling through
the five positions of pentatonic, or two positions, if that's
all you know, or three positionsof diatonic again.
Whatever it is that you do, butthat's your core thing that you
know every day you can defaultto to get yourself warmed up,
get yourself in the right place,start working up your energy.
You know, getting yourselfsynchronized, that sort of thing
(02:13):
, and then from there you moveinto other opportunities of
practice, depending on how muchtime you have.
So here at the Academy, at theGuitar Zoom Academy, what we try
and do is develop you a dailyand a weekly concept of how to
practice.
So your daily is your core.
Okay, these are the things that, in order for you to be able to
reach your goals, these are thethings that you need to focus
(02:36):
on on a daily basis.
You know, with time allowed,obviously, I mean, if you're
busy that day, it's going to beless practice that day.
If you've got more time thatday, you're going to practice
more that day.
But that daily routine that youdo and then what we do is we
interject weekly concepts.
So maybe one day Mondays,wednesdays and Fridays you're
focusing on songs, learningsongs, or maybe you're focusing
(02:57):
on fretboard study, or maybeyou're focusing on, you know,
improvisation, and maybeTuesdays and Thursdays you're
focusing on theory.
And then Saturdays, you know,you're going to put this all
together and maybe make a videoof yourself playing something.
You know there's a lot ofdifferent ways to approach that,
but having a game plan ofmultiple opportunities, a core
thing that you do every day, andthen these other elements that
(03:19):
you're going to get to on aweekly basis and I don't mean
once a week, I mean, you know, acouple, three times a week.
You're going to shift thesethings in and out.
We help you set that up.
So for me, that's the propermindset is knowing what it is
you're supposed to do, why it isthat you're working on it.
But getting yourself warmed up,okay.
Get your mind warmed up, okay.
(03:39):
Getting ready for what it isthat you're going to be trying
to work on, that's really,really important.
And then you go through theroutine.
Now, once you get done, youmight need to do some sort of a
cool down where you do somestretching again, that sort of
thing.
The other thing I always like toremind people, too, is that,
depending on what your lifelooks like, if you do a lot of
traveling for work or you knowwhatever it might be, whether
(04:02):
it's in a plane, whether it'sjust driving to work every day,
and you're at work five days aweek and you know you're not
sitting around with three hoursor four hours of practice every
day, it's okay.
Another thing that you canlearn how to do is work on the
mental and conceptual stuff whenyour guitar is not around you
or not available to be played.
This is honestly I mean I don'thave a percentage but half of
(04:27):
my practice is done driving in acar, listening to music,
figuring out how things go, oron a plane, studying things,
studying fretboard roadmaps orstudying theory.
Or you know things that mightnot even pertain to guitar,
other things that I want tolearn how to do as well.
You know things that might noteven pertain to guitar, other
things that I want to learn howto do as well.
But having that study time asfar as guitar goes, you know,
(04:49):
maybe you're learning a theorything, maybe you're working on
your fretboard.
When I was in high school,during my study hall, when I got
my homework done, I wouldalways pull out a piece of paper
and I would draw out, or I'dhave one that's drawn and it's
in my folder you know myfretboard and then I would draw
concepts on my fretboard, be ita pentatonic concept or an
arpeggio thing, or you know acage thing, which back at that
(05:13):
time I really wasn't familiarwith cage but you get the idea.
You can.
You can draw these out and then, when you've got time, you just
do study like you sit andmemorize and visualize that
fretboard.
So by the time you get home,you've already thought about
this, you've thought about whatit looks like, you've thought
about how navigation would go,and then you could take that
(05:33):
piece of paper and stick it on amusic stand and then start
practicing what you thoughtabout before, but now with the
guitar physically in your hands.
Start practicing what youthought about before, but now
with the guitar physically inyour hands.
It's a great way to optimizeyour time.
So you're not just waiting, youknow, to get home to your guitar
.
And then there's this ritualthat you've got to go downstairs
and you've got to do all thisstuff and then you've got the
guitar in your hands and you'restudying theory, right.
(05:55):
Or you've got your guitar inyour hands and you're trying to
study the fretboard.
You're kind of wasting time atthat point, like what you could
have done at some other point inthe day or the week or whatever
is done some studying, somemental work, right, conceptual
ideas in your head, and thenwhen you get to your guitar, you
(06:16):
now start applying those ideas.
So you're you're savingyourself time and of course in
the academy we can teach you howto do that, set you up with the
right things that you need.
But it's something to thinkabout in trying to optimize the
way that you practice, becausepeople are always like, well, I
only have 30 minutes a day topractice, or only have 20
minutes a day to practice, or OK, that's fine.
Listen, you've made this choicewhether it's elected or whether
(06:39):
it's mandatory, of how muchtime you have a day, ok,
something is better than nothing.
Whether it's elected or whetherit's mandatory, of how much
time you have a day, okay,something is better than nothing
.
Don't adopt the all or nothingattitude where you have to
practice for three hours oryou're not going to practice at
all.
It's a terrible way of thinkingof things.
Practice on the days that youeat.
Even if it's 10, 15, 20 minutesa day, you can still make
progress as long as you'reworking on the right things.
(07:03):
That's what makes all thedifference in the world is
working on the right things.
If you're just practicing, youmight be getting better at X or
Y or D or L, but the problem is,if they're not cohesive and
they're not getting you to pointA to point F on your ladder of
(07:23):
what it is that you really wantto accomplish.
The problem is, you're wastinga lot of time by working on
things that are not necessarilyrelevant to what your goals are.
So it's very important to havea game plan, know what it is
that you need to be doing, whyit is you're doing it and how to
approach it.
When you've got days where youdon't have a lot of practice
time, you've got days when youdo have a lot of practice time.
(07:44):
Setting all of that up, and ifyou have a problem with that, if
you struggle with that, that'sone of the primary things that
we work on inside the GuitarZoom Academy Among actually
working personally with you,literally on a daily basis, to
make sure everything's going theway it needs to go.
So again, stay positive, keeppracticing.
Get yourself an effectivepractice routine that will get
(08:06):
you where you want to go in amuch shorter amount of time, not
because of magic, not becauseof some magic pill, but because
A you've got a game plan, youknow what it is that you need to
do to get to where you want togo, and you know what you want
to get to.
B you're willing to put in thework, whether it's 20 minutes a
day, whether it's two hours aday, you're willing to grab that
(08:27):
guitar on a daily basis.
Make that guitar your friendagain.
Dust off that you know thatguitar.
Make it a motivational thing soyou want to pick it up every
day.
And then the third thing isbeing able to have help, get
clarity, get assessments of yourplaying on a regular basis so
you know that things are movingthe way that they need to be
moving.
It's really important, allright.
(08:48):
So take care, stay positive, beblessed and thank you for your
time.
Thank you always for your timeand I'll talk to you soon, all
right.
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