There are many approaches towards making efficient use of time when practicing. The main objective is to focus on specific areas. One of the biggest downfalls of musicians not reaching a certain level of personal achievement is lack of focus or noodling. The better your practice habits the more efficient and rewarding your endeavors will become.

The main objective is to focus on certain aspects of music. One area an individual can focus on is technique. There are various techniques involved such as: picking, legato, sweeping, string skipping, tapping etc. It is important to decide which technique you would like to master and apply your time toward that goal in a concentrated fashion. Once you decide upon your technique then utilize your practice time efficiently. The possible different aspects of practice can be technique, site reading, transcribing solos and ear training.

One important technique that many players take for granted is string bending. When a player bends a note, the emotional quality of the guitar comes to life, giving the note a some what animate personality. There are various intervals which can be obtained by bending. A good approach would be to start with small intervals and gradually build finger strength to master bigger leaps,

The smallest distance in Western Music that an interval could be divided into is a half step which is equal to one fret on the guitar. The reason I state Western Music is because other cultures have instruments that could yield quarter step intervals i.e.: Hindu and Indian classical music. (That's another topic for discussion possibly at another time).

When starting with the half step bend I would suggest utilizing the second, 2third or fourth fingers because you can use the first finger for support. The best approach to achieve correct pitch axis would be targeting a certain note; play the note you intend to bend up to then from the previous note bend up to the pitch, usually bending toward the ceiling which will not always be the case if you are on the two lower strings (fifth and sixth strings).

Not only is it important to utilize a visual reference, but also an aural one. After getting comfortable with the half step bend you can then gradually build up to a whole step bend, equaling 2 frets, one and a half step bend, to whole step bends and possibly 5 fret bends if your guitar will allow the tension. Once you master the correct pitch axis, being right on target and not going sharp or flat, you can try utilizing reverse bends. When working with reverse bends accuracy is a bit trickier because you have to pre-bend the note without actually hearing the pitch and release the bend after picking it.

Different inflections can be added to the reverse (whole step) bend i.e. : 1) releasing the bend without pick attack, by just hammering the note 2) Using a pick attack to start a reverse bend 3) or a combination of hammering a pre-bent note then picking the resolve note. The rate of speed also plays a role in the ambience of the note. A slower release will produce greater emotional quality, while a faster release will produce a more aggressive sound. By combing various inflections and speeds one could produce a variety of emotions with just 2 notes and by adding more notes the possibilities only become greater.

Another technique I would like to talk about is picking. This is another somewhat tricky subject because there are many approaches as far as thickness of pick, pick angle or even holding a pick. Normally when beginners learn how to use a plectrum they hold the pick between the thumb and first finger gripping the pick comfortably without using excessive energy; so that the pick is not held to loose or to tight. There are also players such as Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix that hold their pick between their thumb and middle finger instead of thumb and first finger. There really is no right or wrong way to hold a pick. The important aspect is that a player is comfortable with their approach.

After getting comfortable with the grip of the pick, the motion of alternate picking i.e.: Down up or up down consistently usually comes from the wrist. There are however different aspects and combinations that vary from player to player. Some players such as Kiko, Yngwie and Rusty Cooley use the flicking of the thumb first finger combination along with subtle wrist motion rather than predominantly wrist driven motion. Other players utilize a small turning motion such as turning a key in a very subtle fashion. Again other players such as Vinnie Moore and John Petrucci use more of their forearms in an up and down fashion rather than their wrists. Whatever approach a player takes is irrelevant; what's important is the ergonomics involved in executing the technique. A player's focus should be on very small movement both in the right and the left hand. In order to achieve greater speed, the player should keep the motion confined to the smallest possible movements, because time equals distance, period.

Great focus and concentration should be applied to right and left hand synchronization. Not only is it important to achieve a certain level of speed, but it is vitally important to be clean also. One could achieve this confidently by working with the metronome. It is important to start out slow and build up to various speeds. The main focus should be to always play clean so that there is controlled picking and not uncontrolled doubled picking.

When working with the metronome it is best to keep a log of your progress and set goals. You should set your bpms (beats per minute) at a slower speed and work up towards greater speeds gradually. You should also work with various note values such as whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth and sixteenth notes etc. Along with different note values you should also work with various meters i.e.: 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's etc. Once you've reached a comfortable speed it is good to push the envelope once in a while, but if your breaking point for certain "bpm's" gets sloppy, you should revert back to slowing things down until you reach the next level of "bpm's" keeping it clean at all times. It is good to set long term and short term goals, by keeping a log and monitoring your progress.

When considering pick sizes and various gauges a player must first of all feel comfortable with a particular pick. For instance some jazz players utilize smaller picks with a sharper edge but that is not necessarily the norm for all jazz guitar players. One should check out a few different sizes and brands to see what is most suitable for his particular style. If you want to get into shred guitar, most players but not all utilize a standard size pick that is usually gauged between 1 and 2 mm. in thickness; this in turn yields a good attack that is needed because of the articulate and aggressive nature of the style. Rapid - fire picking and sweep picking require great detail to be clean. If a pick is to flimsy, it will give way to the strings and the attack of the strings just won't have the same effect as a thicker pick would.

Another consideration for the rapid-fire picking technique would be to angle the pick @ a 45% angle. This in turn produces less resistance between the pick and strings. If a player wants more bite or a more pronounced attack, it would be better to hold the pick perpendicular to the strings producing more of an aggressive, percussive sound. Either way is fine, it just all depends how a certain player wants to articulate this technique. To add an even more percussive articulation one could palm mute the strings near the bridge, With all the various techniques considered the most important aspect is to try to mute as a many open strings as possible with both the right and left hands so that unwanted string noise will not hinder your technique or cleanliness, in recording or performance. There is one more picking technique that I will talk about at a later time and that is economy picking. The main point of technique is to keep things clean when trying to build speed, but take into consideration that speed is not everything and that melody is important as well.

Everyone has different time schedules, say you have 4 hours a day to practice, break it down into segments. Try to spend an hour on each technique specifically. Or if you have less time adjust the time accordingly, For instance you can spend two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. During this time you could spend 1 hour on technique, 1 hour on sight reading, 1 hour on transcribing solos and 1 hour on ear training. Another option might be to practice different techniques or different aspects of music on different days of the week. The important thing is to be consistent.

When working with scales, arpeggios or any method to harmony it is important to learn to approach each from as many different angles as possible such as: Sequences, diatonic, non-diatonic, cycle of fourths, fifths, major thirds, minor thirds, chromatics or any obvious intervals.

A lot of players out there ignore important aspects that will provide an avenue of immense value to a musician, who wishes to seriously extend their overall musical knowledge. Therefore it is important to concentrate not only on technique but also on sight reading, ear training and transcribing music in general. Keep your mind open to potential possibilities of information no matter how small.