7 Technique Categories to Practice Every Day on Classical Guitar

7 Technique Categories to Practice Every Day on Classical Guitar and the importance of using hundreds of progressive and organized exercises designed to help you succeed. Here’s the YouTube Link if you want to watch it there.

Although I already have a number of articles on how to practice, I thought it was important to discuss the how to structure and conceptualize technique practice. I also wanted to clarify in this video that progress is made by using progressive materials and hundreds of exercises that can be broadly put into categories. Thinking in terms of categories allows you to address specific issues related to your unique and personal development while also staying focused on a curriculum or guide.

If you’re an intermediate student, these seven categories should be practiced every day but the actual material you choose should be based on your personal skill level. I’ve never taught a student who is perfectly balanced in technique and doesn’t have certain strengths or weaknesses. Therefore, thinking in terms of categories allow students to be dedicating more time to challenging techniques but still using progressive materials which will help them succeed. This is the difference between maintaining technique and using specific materials to improve your technique.

Video Times and Topics

  • 00:00 Intro
  • 0:51 Hundreds of Exercises are Good
  • 2:31 Progressive Exercises
  • 3:08 Categories Intro
  • 4:23 1. Open String Exercises
  • 6:50 2. Scales and Melodic Patterns
  • 9:18 3. Arpeggios and Right Hand Patterns
  • 10:49 4. Slurs (Hammer-ons, Pull-offs)
  • 12:18 5. Finger Independence
  • 13:33 6. Barre Exercises
  • 16:48 7. Stretch Exercises (Horizontal, Vertical)
  • 20:50 The Secret: Building a Good Routine

My Technique Book with Routines and Lots of Exercises

Recommended Lessons

Bradford Werner
Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and music publisher from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, musical ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 94,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for 16 years and freelanced in Greater Victoria for 20 years and now dedicates much of his time curating content online and helping connect the classical guitar community. See more at his personal website.

9 Comments

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  1. Excellent discussion and very helpful toward building a customized routine. I also like the neutral background for the video. You mention time management. I know the answer will vary from student to student, but is there a general guideline at the intermediate level for what percentage of your total daily practice time should be devoted to technique? For example, if you generally practice two hours a day (in segments), how much of that time should be focused on exercises? At the moment, I shoot for about 50%. Sometimes, it’s an hour of exercises; other times it’s a mix of exercises and pieces. Your thoughts?

    • I think 50% is too much for the average person but that really depends on where you are at both from a technique perspective and mentally. There have been times when I dedicate much of my time to technique and other times when I don’t. For someone practicing for 2 hours I’d usually recommend a 30-35 minute technique routine. But again, it depends on the student, how much previous technique they’ve done and how they practice their repertoire (as in, are they methodical with technique in their repertoire?). Students who haven’t practiced much technique likely need more time to get a handle on the variety of exercises. If playing lots of etudes and a balanced programme of material students can go down to 20 minutes if their technique is generally in order and they also address issues well during repertoire. So it’s a sliding scale depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

  2. This is one of the best overall practice session lessons you have given. For me, it is very timely. I have just settled into a 10 minute warm up routine and realize, with your help, that this is a bad idea.
    thank you
    Warren Barnhart

      • Bradford
        I’m afraid I wasn’t very clear. MY warm up routine was the bad idea. It had no variation, no challenge. After watching this video I went to your technique book and mapped out your 7 categories. I will vary what I play in each category every day and see what I need to work on.

  3. Thank you, I have all your books and techniques books and music. You are so correct about how we should keep improving and learning. Bradford Werner you remind me of Andre Segovia, he said ” a person can be playing guitar for 90 years and we never master the guitar but only get better. So we must keep practicing our techniques to play the song correctly “. Bradford Werner thank you for taking time and sharing your talents, experience and knowledge. With your videos and books and music. John Offutt