Staring at the guitar without knowing where to start is one of the most common — and most solvable — problems in any player’s journey. This list exists to end that frustration instantly and send you back to the instrument with a clear, specific thing to work on.
What you’ll get out of this lesson
Over one hundred concrete practice ideas drawn from technique, theory, ear training, rhythm, creativity, and mindset — enough variety to keep every session focused and interesting for years.
How to Use the List
Click here to generate a random number and practise whatever that number says. Alternatively, read through the list and pick one, though the random approach is more fun and often leads you somewhere unexpectedly useful. This list will continue to grow with ideas from the community — feel free to share videos of anything you create or work on as a result of it.
The Practice Ideas
- Find/create 10 “new to you” Chord Voicings
- Learn a Jazz standard From Sheet Music
- Learn a Jazz Standard by EAR
- Practice arpeggios/triads through a chord progression
- Transcribe some licks from a guitarist/style you’ve never really listened too
- Practice ii-v-i’s
- Practice minor ii-v-i’s
- Practice the blues in a new key
- Practice Rhythm Changes in a new Key
- Chord tone solos on Giant Steps
- Write 10 String Skipping Licks
- Write 10 blues Licks
- Write 10 jazz Licks
- Practice the altered Scale
- Practice the Diminished scale
- Sing Major arpeggios and inversions
- Sing Minor Arpeggios and inversions
- Sing Dominant arpeggios and inversions
- Sing Diminished Arpeggios
- Practice sight singing
- Practice beat boxing
- Sing to a drone
- Practice singing what you play
- Practice soloing playing the opposite of your instincts
- Practice soloing with whole notes
- Practice soloing with continuous 8th notes
- Practice playing behind the beat
- Practice rushing the Beat
- Practice sidestepping
- Practice Strumming (Acoustic/Funk/Pop/Gypsy)
- Practice alternate picking
- Practice Tapping
- Practice playing along to records (Soloing)
- Practice Question and Answer phrasing
- Practice phrasing in groups of odd notes
- Practice soloing over changes in one position
- Practice playing over changes with as many position shifts as possible
- Practice hitting 3rds through a progression
- Practice hitting a specific chord tone through a whole progression
- Practice sight reading
- Practice rhythm reading
- Practice transcribing rhythms
- Practice sketch technique
- Practice musical memory. Play a recording then sing back the licks/lines.
- Practice soloing with double stops
- Practice soloing with chord voicing
- Practice long tones (Google saxophone long tones)
- Practice using effects pedals and EQ
- Practice playing with your eyes closed
- Practice playing on one string
- Practice playing on 2 strings. Or 3 etc
- Practice creating lines that move down the neck (Closer to the nut)
- Practice Leaving as much space as possible
- Practice your shuffle and Blues rhythm guitar
- Practice singing/talking whilst playing
- Do yoga, hip, or wrist stretches
- Practice Tuning your guitar mindfully – Use a tuner to tune one string and then the rest by ear from that string.
- Practice tuning your guitar whilst strumming a chord
- Practice tuning your guitar along to a recording (This is a useful skill for performers)
- Practice your vibrato
- Practice your bending
- Practice unison bends
- Practice bends with double stops
- Practice playing without a pick
- Practice playing/grooving/improvising to just a drum track
- Practice guessing tempos of recordings
- Practice identifying major/minor chords in real-time to recordings
- Play a tempo on the metronome, turn it off, improvise at that tempo for 30 seconds, check your final tempo against the original. Repeat for many tempos
- Practice singing bass lines along to recordings
- Practice singing/transcribing Stevie Wonder horn parts
- Practice singing scales/modes
- Practice copying drum parts on the guitar, using muted strums. Eg copy snare rhythm with muted strums.
- Transcribe/read James Jamerson or Motown baselines
- Listen to music you haven’t listened to before
- Transcribe a solo’s rhythm only and improvise using that rhythm
- Improvise with limited notes eg play a whole solo with just an E, G, and D
- Learn key signatures
- Practice spelling scales with letters. Pick a scale youre working on and move it through all keys.
- Practice spelling scales with numbers eg 12b34567
- Practice spelling chords every root, eg what notes make a min7b5 in every key
- Write licks with intentional awkward string changes, pick directions, fingerings and work on making them smooth.
- Take 5 minutes to be grateful for you progress, then take 5 minutes to list what you would like to achieve short term… be specific and realistic. (Look up SMART goals)
- Think of something you’re bad at, break it down as much as possible and work on it.
- Work on something you’re avoiding.
- Record yourself playing, listen back, critique it and work on how to improve it.
- Spend time on a second instrument/skill eg bass, keyboards, vocal harmonies
- Practice playing with all hammer ons from no where, (No right hand picking)
- Practice improvising over a drone. To internalise modal/harmonic sounds
- Practice playing along to a backing track that cuts in and out. You can chop it up in logic or find one here … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2b0CUANXlI
- Practice playing a one note solo – creating rhythmic, dynamic and timbral interest.
- Practice odd sub divisions
- Practice tapping polyrhythms on your lap
- Learn to sing a jazz/bebop head.
- Write a chord melody arrangement of ANY song… it can be anything from a standard to “smells like teen spirit”, your creativity will determine its value, not the source material.
- Transcribe some Charlie Parker by ear
- Recreate a tone. EG try to recreate David gilmours tone on Comfortably numb, or an Eric Johnson lead sound.
- Write an instrumental song.
- Write a pop song.
- Read a score and follow along whilst listening to a recording of the piece. This can be a classical piece or just following the form on a jazz tune.
- Listen to a recording and identify every time you hear the tonic chord
- Listen to a recording and identify every time you hear the dominant
- Practice the Paul Gilbert Strum to solo exercises – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4c0Bt9KmFQ
- Learn a simple riff or guitar solo that you’ve always looked down on or thought was easy and match the inflections and time feel perfectly.
- Spend 5 minutes creating your own list of creative ways to practice and share it in the group.
Taking it further
The list above is a starting point, not a ceiling. Over time, add your own ideas and those shared by fellow members in the community. The more personalised your practice pool becomes, the more directly it serves where you actually want to go as a player.
Your homework
Use the random number generator to select three items from the list and tackle one each day for the next three days. Keep a note of what each session produced — even a short written observation helps you remember and build on what you discover.