#97 - 5 Habits That RADICALLY Improved My Guitar Playing

I've been doing the early morning practice (6 AM-ish) last few months and it works well. Once the fingers warm up and the caffeine kicks in, I find it very productive. I'm still working on better organizing the practice time into blocks...

Marco F

I have just watched a video lesson from 12 months ago, you seem brighter and more energetic now compared to then, so your system is visibly working, good advice again, from you Bernth. Cheers.

Steve Shaw

BERNTH FOR PRESIDENT

Yes thank you for these lessons ... they are very motivating so I do the first thing every morning ... practice guitar .. and I immediately bought a new guitar ... yeahhh

guido bossyns

Thank you so much for this excellent guidance. I used to play first thing in the morning and got away from it. This is just what I needed to be inspired to get up earlier and make playing a top priority. Also I appreciate the talk about alcohol because I have been off of drinking for 3 years and at times I feel like I am missing out. However, many areas of my life have been greatly improved and even transformed. Great talk. \,,/

I really love your ideas they all make great sense. Thank you for all your help. I have made great progress but I’m still not there yet. Maybe I will send you a video so you can see what my problems are. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Michael Iadevaio

Excellent video thank you for this. I myself never got hangovers, that was not a good thing, and I cannot believe that I could actually play well back then. I cannot even imagine how great I would be if I hadn't have drank amongst other things. Well now to relearn the right way hehe.

Ian D Lyon

Bernth, there is no doubt that one can get to your level of expertise and mastery without a highly disciplined approach. Thanks for sharing the insights. Playing when you are fresh and staying away from alcohol are great tips. I'm glad you candidly called out on the alcohol part. As an athlete and a rock climber I was only able to pursue my very best when I implemented a highly disciplined approach that included staying away from alcohol.

Vikram Joshi

Hey Richard, thanks for sharing that! Great input - I always try my best to come up with a diverse schedule that combines technique and theory. Right now, I'm starting with picking exercises in block one, go to legato/sweeping approaches in block two, theory (modal CAGED approaches) in block 3, and improvisation in block four (switching from 16th notes to triplets seamlessly - really hard). Like I mentioned in the video, I rotate or change these blocks frequently to keep it interesting, sometimes I also have to work on specific topics for a recording or job (challenging picking sections or fingerpicking stuff - these topics sometimes end up in my practice routine). So I'd say it's important to decide on what you want to improve most, by searching for that topic with the search bar on here you will find lessons with exercises for your routine (I did my best to name them accordingly - Patreon also allows to have featured tags to sort the content, as you can see above). Hope that helps a bit :)

Bernd Brodträger

I really like the idea of 15 minute blocks. I have made great improvements with picking technique by practicing regularly, but ended up forgetting how to play a flat 5 chord, which I had learned previously! Can you provide some suggestions for practice blocks/or even lesson formats - base don your previously uploaded content? For example, like the '5 best sweep picking excercises'?

Richard Simpson

I agree 100% and it doesn't always end in complete success - but since I do that more often, I can appreciate the benefits for sure :)

Bernd Brodträger

Thank you so much for That!

like it. Out of the comfort zone thing is SCARY!

Chris H Brown

You have a good habit by practicing at 4.00 am in the morning, and no alcohol/party of course!

Martin Jusuf