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Lesson 5 of 7

Twenty-minute daily routine

A routine for a normal day: twenty minutes that touch everything you've learned so far. Do it five days a week and you'll hear the difference within a month.

Minutes Block What to play
0-4 Warm-up The first three drills of the 10-minute warm-up, shortened
4-8 Technique A minor pentatonic run on the tempo ladder
8-12 Chord changes G-C-D-Em, four strums each
12-16 Rhythm The strum pattern on G-C-D-Em
16-20 Something musical A song you like, or the strum pattern with a backing track

The exercises

A minor pentatonic run. The five-note A minor pentatonic scale at the 5th fret, up and back down. Index on fret 5, ring finger on fret 7, pinky on fret 8. Alternate picking throughout. You'll explore this shape properly later; for now it's a picking workout.

G-C-D-Em changes. One bar of each chord, four downstrokes. G to C and D to Em are the tricky moves: find a finger that can stay close to the strings and lead with it.

Strum pattern. Down, down, down-up, then up on the last "and". Count "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &": strums fall on 1, 2, 3, "3 &" and "4 &". Keep your hand moving down and up all the time, missing the strings on the silent eighths.

Keep a short log: date, tempos, one note. The most common mistake is skipping the last block. Playing something musical is what keeps you coming back tomorrow.

Exercises

A minor pentatonic run

60 → 110 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, fret 5
    2. low E string, fret 8
    3. A string, fret 5
    4. A string, fret 7
    5. D string, fret 5
    6. D string, fret 7
    7. G string, fret 5
    8. G string, fret 7
  2. Bar 2
    1. B string, fret 5
    2. B string, fret 8
    3. high E string, fret 5
    4. high E string, fret 8, vibrato
    5. high E string, fret 5
    6. B string, fret 8
    7. B string, fret 5
  3. Bar 3
    1. G string, fret 7
    2. G string, fret 5
    3. D string, fret 7
    4. D string, fret 5
    5. A string, fret 7
    6. A string, fret 5
    7. low E string, fret 8
    8. low E string, fret 5

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

G-C-D-Em, four strums each

60 → 110 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    2. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    3. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    4. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
  2. Bar 2
    1. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    2. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    3. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    4. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
  3. Bar 3
    1. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    2. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    3. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    4. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
  4. Bar 4
    1. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    2. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    3. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    4. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Down, down, down-up, up

60 → 100 bpm
  1. Bar 1
    1. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    2. rest
    3. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    4. rest
    5. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    6. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
    7. rest
    8. low E string, fret 3 + A string, fret 2 + D string, open + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, fret 3
  2. Bar 2
    1. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    2. rest
    3. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    4. rest
    5. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    6. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
    7. rest
    8. A string, fret 3 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, fret 1 + high E string, open
  3. Bar 3
    1. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    2. rest
    3. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    4. rest
    5. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    6. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
    7. rest
    8. D string, open + G string, fret 2 + B string, fret 3 + high E string, fret 2
  4. Bar 4
    1. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    2. rest
    3. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    4. rest
    5. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    6. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open
    7. rest
    8. low E string, open + A string, fret 2 + D string, fret 2 + G string, open + B string, open + high E string, open

Clean 3 times in a row? Raise the tempo by 5 bpm.

Checkpoint

Move on when you can do all of these.

  • Five days in a row of the full 20 minutes
  • G-C-D-Em with the strum pattern at 100 bpm, no stops at the changes
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