Extreme Guitar Practice: Pick a String and Do Exercises on It Until It Breaks

First, let me warn you that you may not be able to play a string until it breaks in a single session, or even a single day. Don’t cheat! Cheating is using methods that are intentionally designed to make the string break faster. I can hardly think of any circumstance where it is desirable to break strings while playing a gig. If you try use your strings normally at a gig, it makes sense that you don’t intentionally try to break strings during practice. I shouldn’t even have to write that! But, strings break. It comes with the territory, so you might as well try to take of advantage of that and incorporate it into your practice regimen.

Let’s get down to it: Extreme practice.

I suggest picking any one of your six strings, if you have a 6 string guitar, or however many strings you play, and play it repeatedly until it breaks. Focus on breaking that string through your hard work, not through cheating. After plucking it a seemingly endless amount of times, that string will eventually break. Mission accomplished! If you didn’t try to break it, eventually it would have broken anyway. So, it is not like you have spent any extra money on practice.

Don’t stop at 1 string! I suggest replacing that string and picking another string to do exercises on until it breaks. If you have a 6 string guitar, a unit of practice consists of breaking each of the 6 strings one at a time, in the order that you choose. One thing I should mention though, is that I don’t recommend doing this repeatedly, as though it is extreme, it is not holistic.