Destroy overly complicated practice routines. You don’t need them. Get rid of them. SIMPLIFY your life. Simplify your guitar routine.

They only make you stressed and cause you to do something else versus practice. Even when you know you want to and should, the mind is so preoccupied with things that it’s not clear in your head what you should do. This happens far too many times and the trick I found is to make it simple.

Make your practice time a time where its easy. But not easy in terms of difficulty of execution. Easy in your head. Meaning clarity. You know what you gotta do.

There are so many things to practice out there that you need to be as clear headed as possible when it comes to your thoughts.

When you think about what you have to practice does it become a negative feeling?

If this is you… keep reading.

KISS. Keep it simple silly.

Use the CSSA method.

I came up with this Acronym on my own. Ive never seen it anywhere nor have I heard about it. Its simply something I came up with in my head to keep my mind from running into a frenzy when I think about what I gotta practice.

Without further delay here it is:

I keep it simple when I’m pressed for time. I use this system that I call… CSSA.

C = Chords

S = Scales

S = Songs

A = Arpeggios

I go even shorter if I have to by picking one or two.

Chords and Scales.

Scales and Arpeggios.

Arpeggios and Songs.

Or …

Any variation of the above.

Even one of them will suffice. It just matters that you get it done.

You can even alternate daily. For example: map out a schedule for the week and print it out or just write it out for seven days.

For example:

Days of the Week: S M T W TH F S

For each day, write in a practice item. Even if its the same thing every day or just for a few days. The object of this is not really to follow the schedule (because goals change and so should schedules)…

The real Objective of this is to develop a Habit, A Ritual, in writing down what you want to improve upon and then getting to work on those things and seeing results. 😉