Since everyone is likely to have a few days off this week for Thanksgiving, I thought I would pass out a few tips on getting some practice in between meals and football!

Make Thursday your Technique day. After your Thanksgiving dinner, while you are watching football, grab your guitar and work on single string picking exercises and difficult chord changes. You don't need to plug in, just run your patterns and switch chords while cheering on your favorite team. The intent is to develop your muscle memory for finger placement for your chords and patterns. Go at a medium tempo (not too slow or fast) and just repeat, repeat, repeat.

Friday - after you've exercised (to work off all that food), jump in to an hour practice session. To keep things moving, give 15 minutes each to - Scales (new or review), Chords (new or review), Ear Training (CD, software or transcription) and Improvisation (jam with a cd, band in a box, etc). By all means, if you want to practice more, go for it. However, my guess is that most will likely not practice, so this routine will get an hour in without seeming like an hour.

Saturday/Sunday - Yes, more football. Probably some shopping. Maybe a movie. But - commit to giving yourself at least one more hour sometime during the weekend to work on your Repertoire, Composition, Theory and Reading. It can be 30 minutes Saturday and Sunday or 1 hour on either day. Just break each item up into 15 minute segments like you did on Friday.

By the start of next week, you've practiced a few hours, your fingers aren't too rusty as they would normally be after the holiday, and you've progressed as a player. What better way to start the Christmas countdown!