Splitting Up My Practice Routine

Hello, I started playing the Ukulele about a year and a half ago. I’ve had a pretty steady practice routine where Ive made an effort to practice pretty much everyday, usually around 45 minutes or so.

My routine has always been to run though everything I’ve previously learned, then work on whatever new thing I’m learning at the moment. This has worked pretty well, but now I’ve finally learned enough that I no longer have enough time to run through it all each day.

I’m thinking I might split up my routine, maybe something like every other day work on strumming, and every other day work on fingerpicking.
I’m just worried that if I only run through the old stuff every other day, I’ll start to fall out of practice with it.

Does splitting up my practice routine like this sound like a good idea? What would you advise to make the most the practice time I have available?

Some basic things will have become routine. Chord progressions such as C G Am F or similar are second nature. You can do them in the dark. THere is no need to practise them every day. Pick something new, learn new chord progressions with a fingerpicking pattern. You willl hear which strings are muted etc. By tackling new things you also keep your practice interesting. So, try some things out to figure out which elements come easiest and which are more challenging. Once you know that, you can sort out a schedule or routine so that you alternate between easier and more difficult things.
I recently made a list of around 15 learning goals for myself. I haven't added a desired time scale or so. I want it to be for fun. But it will keep my focus when I'm stuck at something.
I find that even after neglecting a song for a month whilst learning other repertoire, I might still have made progress. In some other places tricky passages definitely need more practice, and I do find myself stuck once more.

There comes a point I think where you have accumulated enough knowledge and skills that it just isn't practical to review it all every time you sit down. How does one learn new things if they spend all their time doing old things? My question to the OP, how are you applying your learning? Are you playing songs, or are you spending your time practicing random chords, notes, strum patterns, etc? To me the most important thing when it comes to practice is purpose. Where do you want to go in your ukulele journey? Purpose often times guided you in the right direction.

Rllink said:

There comes a point I think where you have accumulated enough knowledge and skills that it just isn't practical to review it all every time you sit down. How does one learn new things if they spend all their time doing old things? My question to the OP, how are you applying your learning? Are you playing songs, or are you spending your time practicing random chords, notes, strum patterns, etc? To me the most important thing when it comes to practice is purpose. Where do you want to go in your ukulele journey? Purpose often times guided you in the right direction.

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Most of the time is practicing strumming techniques, switching chords, fingerpicking patterns, and recently I’ve started working on fingerpicking scales. I have a few chord progressions I usually play through, but I don’t really play actual songs very much yet. I’m pretty happy just learning techniques for now, I’ll eventually get around to learning more songs.

I’m not really sure where I want to go with it, so far I’m really just doing it for myself because I enjoy playing and I’m having a lot of fun. I guess eventually I’d like to feel confident enough to play in front of a group of family/friends, but that’s probably a ways off.