“Practice, practice, practice.” Anyone learning to play an instrument has heard that advice countless times. But guitarists often discover that simply putting in more hours doesn’t always lead to better results. You can practice longer, work harder, and repeat the same material over and over—and still feel like your playing isn’t really moving forward.
The problem may not be how much you practice, or even what you practice. Very often, the real difference comes down to how you practice. That idea is at the heart of what TrueFire Director of Education Jeff Scheetz calls Smart Practice: a systematic approach to organizing practice time, working more effectively with musical material, and making steady progress toward your playing goals.
As Jeff explains, “I’m excited to share the Smart Practice for Guitar system, along with many of the practice techniques I’ve developed and tested over the years. I’ve used these ideas to improve my own playing, and I’ve also seen them help thousands of students get better results and continue moving their playing forward.”
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Smart Practice
For Jeff, the idea grew out of a problem familiar to almost every serious guitarist: putting in the work without seeing enough improvement. “Do you ever feel like your guitar playing is stuck in a rut—like you’re just spinning your wheels? No matter how hard or how long you practice, it can sometimes feel like you’re just not getting any better. You’re not alone. I’ve heard the same thing from hundreds of students over the years, and I used to get frustrated myself from practicing hard without seeing the results I wanted.
“That made me wonder what we were doing wrong. I realized it had to do with how we were practicing, not necessarily what we were practicing or how long we were practicing. So I dug into a wide variety of learning techniques, retention and memory methods, motor learning, and even cognitive neuroscience to find more effective and efficient ways to practice. Over time, those ideas developed into what I call Smart Practice for Guitar.
The Smart Practice System
“The system brings together the key elements of effective practice in a simple, step-by-step approach. It helps you set goals for your playing, organize what you’re learning, decide what to work on next, and make better use of your practice time. It also helps you break down the material you’re working on and offers different techniques to keep your practice productive and engaging.
“The important thing is that Smart Practice isn’t about telling you what to practice. There aren’t any specific licks, scales, or patterns you have to learn. Most guitarists already have plenty of material. It’s about learning how to work with that material more effectively so you can actually see progress in your playing.”
Whether you’re a beginner just starting out or an experienced player who has been playing for years, having an effective practice system can make a huge difference in how efficiently you learn and improve.
Continue Learning
Explore the rest of this series:
- How To Practice Smart: What Is Practice
- How To Practice Smart: The Three Ps
- How To Practice Smart: Smart Zone Practice
- How To Practice Smart: Five Smart Steps
- How To Practice Smart: The Four Rs
About the Education Team
Four music-industry veterans with decades of combined experience in music education, curation, and production at TrueFire and ArtistWorks. The TrueFire Studios Education Team plans and edits this content and works with our master-musician faculty to keep it accurate and genuinely useful.
Featured Contributor
Jeff Scheetz is TrueFire’s Director of Education and a veteran touring guitarist who has shared stages with the Scorpions, .38 Special, ELO, Eric Johnson, and Steve Vai. With eight albums of original music, numerous TrueFire courses, and 300-plus clinics worldwide, he blends blues, rock, and instructional clarity built over decades of teaching.