What should I practice?

Every student should practice. That much is obvious. But what is not obvious is what the student should practice. While there are some basic guidelines I think I can give - you should probably be practicing at least one scale, and at least one or two songs - the specific details of your practice regimen will (or perhaps should) differ from someone else's.

Allow me to use my own practice as an example. Right now I rotate practice on about thirty or forty songs, some of which are on piano, some on guitar, some are on ukelele, and some (at least currently) only have a home on bass guitar. With that many songs it is impossible for me to practice all of them everyday. In fact, some songs I don't practice for weeks at a time!

From the theory side of things, I rarely practice my scales (except on piano) because I know them very well, but I will review them from time to time. I believe scales should be practiced by just about every musician, but I limit my practice on them simply because I have to manage my practice time carefully, and most of what I do does not require greater knowledge of scales.

Now, would I recommend most students practice this way? Absolutely not! Most students would never see progress this way. For most students I would recommend practicing somewhere between one and five songs, and to continue developing knowledge of the fretboard (keyboard, etc.), which usually means working on scales for at least five or ten minutes per practice.

Students who are more advanced could consider adding songs and developing a larger repertoire, depending on genre and whether or not the student is going to be performing. When I used to play the pub and restaurant circuit, I played thirty to forty songs every night, and so I had about one to two hundred songs that I would rotate.

In general, don't practice so many songs that you can't make good progress. I know some students who want more and more (and more!) songs, and this is bad if you can't keep up. Finish the material you're working on and then review it from time to time, if you'd like, while adding new songs.

I've talked about practice time in the past, but I'll restate it here: most students should aim for a minimum of an hour practice a week, and dedicate at least five minutes a day to working on scales. I used to spend about 30 minutes to an hour every day working on my scales on guitar and bass (which is why I know them so well).

Practice schedules can change as you get better (and probably should), and I can't possibly give a "one size fits all" approach to practice. But hopefully this gives you an idea of where to start.