New websites and a few thoughts...

First, I wanted to let you all know of my new website. It's the same address, just updated so take a look:

www.nickcutroneo.com

...

This September started my final year of school. I'm currently attending the Hartt School of Music for my Masters in Classical Guitar Performance and Suzuki Guitar Pedagogy. While I've always known that technique practiced needed to be part of my daily practice life, I never felt it until I started my Masters. Throughout the past 2 years how I approach technique has been constantly evolving. This week is no different.

Over the summer I had a lot more time to devote to the development and refinement of my technique. However, now with my responsibilities at school I find that doing a full hour of JUST scale work can't happen anymore. I have too many pieces to learn, performances to prepare for, and work to do for classes. So this led me to a creative solution that I've never tired before.

This is what my scale schedule was like during the summer:

2 Octave Scales (Rest/Free alternating days) - 20 minutes
3 Octave Scales (Free/Rest alternating days) - 20 minutes
Repertoire Scales - 20 minutes

In an hour, one can get a lot done. However, now I've cut my time down in half. So the first job was to figure out a schedule that was balanced. I don't want to give up working on something, but rather find a happy balance to work on everything. This brought me to a 5 day scale schedule:

Day 1)
2 Octave Scales (Rest) - 20 minutes
3 Octave Scales (Free) - 10 minutes

Day 2)
3 Octave Scales (Rest) - 20 minutes
2 Octave Scales (Free) - 10 minutes

Day 3)
3 Octave Scales (Free) - 20 minutes
2 Octave Scales (Rest) - 10 minutes

Day 4)
2 Octave Scales (Free) - 20 minutes
3 Octave Scales (Rest) - 10 minutes

Day 5)
Repertoire Scales - 30 minutes

So far, its working quite well. On the 6th day (as I only practice 6 days a week) I'll focus on some arpeggio work for the 30 minutes. While this is certainly not ideal, I find that this system may be the easiest way to get consistent technique work in a practice schedule that is jam packed as it is.

I don't recommend this kind of schedule to my own students who are learning NEW technique or developing the beginnings of their technique. Rather for those students I recommend/highly encourage them to devote half of their practice time to working on technique. However, we do have to be realistic not every amateur guitarist (or even a professional) can devote half of their practice to just technique work. My suggestion, instead of nixing technique completely find a way that allows you to cover everything you want to. Maybe start with the amount of time you are willing to spend on technique, then go from there and break down into smaller time slots. That's how I came up with my schedule. If you aren't seeing the results you want, don't be afraid to change or try something different. If you are working with a teacher, talk to them about it. They will be able to offer their experience and knowledge to help you find something that will work for you in the end.