For the three of you that might care, I have finalized my practice routine for the foreseeable future. There is enough material to last for a long time, so we’ll see how effectively I progress. Seems like a lot to juggle, but I’m up to the challenge.

The goal for my new routine is to cover several areas and have a well-rounded regimen rather than concentrate on a specific area. I will certainly add extra-curricular pieces on an as-needed basis, but for now my routine will consist of the following:

• Finger Gymnastics (Warm-Up)
• Sight Reading
• Ear Training
• Arpeggios
• Scale Exercises
• Chord Studies/Comping
• Learning Jazz Standards
• Improvisation
• Chord Melody/Solo Guitar

Though this ends up looking jazz-focused, the idea is to become a better technician and improve my ear. I feel that jazz is the best vehicle to do so, but by no means the only way to do it.

The Sight Reading and Ear Training portions will not be memorized, hence I will only do them once or twice each day. The idea is to not rely on memorization for these exercises.

I do not have a specific resource in mind for Chord Melody/Solo Guitar. I will be both creating my own and learning from the masters that have come before me. I would like to build up a repertoire of material that I can use to play solo guitar gigs.

Here are some of the resources I’m using:

Guitar Lore (Dennis Sandole) for Gymnastics
Rhythmical Articulation (Bona) for Sight Reading
60 Studies, Op. 45 Complete: Books 1 and 2 for Violin (Franz Wohlfahrt) for Sight Reading
Two-Part Inventions (J.S. Bach) for Sight Reading
The Guitar Arpeggio Compendium (Scott McGill) for Arpeggios
How to Play Bebop (David Baker; Volumes 2 and 3 also available) for Improvisation
Linear Expressions (Pat Martino) for Improvisation
Modus Novus for Sight Singing
Howard Morgen’s Solo Guitar: Insights, Arranging Techniques & Classic Jazz Standards (Jazz Masters Series) for Chord Melody

You can keep track of my progress by following my practice reports here on Fretterverse.com.