We're up to 40 minute routine now! As usual, break it into two 20-minute sessions if you can't find time to do 40 minutes a day. That is quite a lot of work for a beginner, but you will see results pretty quickly once you start putting that much time in!

Sometimes it can help to muck around for 5–10 minutes first to get your hands warmed up a bit. When I practise I usually spend 10 minutes just playing whatever comes to mind. It's not a proper warm up like I see some people doing, but gets my fingers ready for the coming aerobics...

Stage 7 Practice Schedule

Description	Time
Remembering notes in open position and naming notes in chords	2 mins
Memorising notes on the thickest (6th) string	3 mins
Minor Pentatonic Scale, practice and memorise.	5 mins
Chord Practice (Strum / Pick / Strum)	5 mins
1 minute Changes
--- D or Dmin and using the Dsus4 and Dsus2	1 min
--- A or Amin and using the Asus4 and Asus2	1 min
--- F to ?	1 min
--- F to ?	1 min
--- F to ?	1 min
Power Chords (work on stretch and good notes)	5 mins
Rhythm Guitar Practice (All patterns so far including #16)	5 mins
Songs / Chord Sequences	5 mins
JUSTIN Training	5 mins

Things To Remember

Notes In Open Position
Work out the notes in your open chords, or randomly pick notes in the first five frets and then try and work out what the note is. Only two minutes' worth, but if you do it every practice session you will soon have it!

Memorising Notes on 6th String
This one is VERY IMPORTANT. You will use this information in lots of different ways. You need it for your power chords now, and you will use it for all your scales and eventually barre chords, so don't skip this!

Minor Pentatonic Practice
You need to get this into your memory and it is also great practice for individual note picking and also works your finger stretch and independence. Do it slow and get it right!

Power Chords
Work on the stretch and getting the thin strings muted. We'll be developing these chords in the next stage, so make sure you are comfortable with these before you move on.

Chord Practice
Remember that the point of this exercise is to get your chords sounding clear and train your fingers to go to exactly the right spot to get the chord sounding great. Start with a strum and then pick each note individually, except any strings that have the X next to them that you don't play. Try to play the notes with the tips of your fingers. Remember that dead sounding notes need to be fixed and the usual causes are either:
a) The finger is too far from the fret.
b) One of your fingers is touching a string that it shouldn't.

Move your fingers around as you pick out the strings until they all sound good and then strum them again, and as you give them the last strums, tell your fingers that this is how you want them to go to next time. It will look a little strange to anyone that is watching you, but it really helps! ;)

One Minute Changes
The object of the exercise is to get your fingers moving quickly. Although you should be trying to get the fingers in the perfect positions that you have been working on in your chord practice, if they are a little sloppy it is ok, we are working the speed here!

The important thing here is to practice the chord changes that you struggle the most with. In your practice schedule you should write in the amount of changes that you made in that practice session. Make sure you use your timer, and push yourself to go as fast as possible.

Rhythm Guitar Practice
Just spend your time playing the pattern over and over again, don't try and add the strumming patterns to songs yet, that will be coming soon, and you will do it LOADS better if you follow my advice here and work on the patterns first before you try to apply them.

Songs / Chord Sequences
Just have fun and have a go at playing any songs you like, from my suggested list, or just something else that you fancy playing (preferably ones that just use the chords covered so far). Try to keep strumming basic "4's", one down strum on each beat, and try and keep strumming along and get your changes fast enough to not have to pause between chord changes!

JUSTIN Training
This is important, getting your ears working. Just go through the exercises and give your ears the workout they deserve!