Az Samad Lessons

The assistant chair of the Berklee Guitar Department, Sheryl Bailey conducted a masterclass for Chase’s Guitar Academy back in February 2025.

She divides a perfect practice routine into four blocks:

• Warm-up
• Technique
• Application of technique to music
• Music

In the first part of the masterclass, Sheryl begins with the importance of being honest with your playing, your challenges (enemies to getting a perfect practice routine) and also to keep track of how you currently use your practice time. Sheryl explains how we are in fact the boss of our own time and once we realize that, we can begin to practice more effectively.

Most of what Sheryl discusses deals with mindset and tracking data – which is something that we can often forget as we think about the “content” – meaning what we are practicing, rather than the “context” – meaning how we practice and the circumstances and surrounding that we put ourselves in during practice time.

This is something I can relate to, as I deal with the same distractions when I practice and I often struggle with getting the most out of my own practice time.

Sheryl talks about the requirements of making sure your practice space is as effective as possible. She also talks about the importance of practice away from your instrument and the importance of visualization.

By the time we get into Sheryl sharing tps on learning repertoire, we already got so much. I personally found it already very inspiring to see how Sheryl looks at the process of learning jazz.

In the final part of the masterclass, Sheryl also talks about “to hanon” which is her take on practicing material from the classic Hanon text and also similar material. She relates this to how you would really internalize a lick inside out. Then, Sheryl answers another question on chord melody playing where she relates how she would approach learning chord melody in different situations. Addressing another question, she also shares her thoughts on digesting the classic Leavitt Berklee books as a way to really learn the fretboard and also to help understand rhythm in a deeper way.

All in all, this is a really info-packed and insightful masterclass that can help a guitarist at any level get a better idea of how to practice. I certainly walked away with a lot of food for thought, and plan to rewatch this again sometime soon to take more notes.

Pros: Great masterclass from an experienced musician and educator.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you’re wondering how a world class jazz musician approaches practice, look no further and watch this masterclass now. It’s very likely you will get some new ideas from this hour-long session.

This video is part of the materials at Chase’s Guitar Academy. You can sign up for a 7-day free trial to watch this video and much more at Chase’s Guitar Academy here (affiliate link).

Thanks to Chase Maddox for inviting me to experience Chase’s Guitar Academy. Although I received complimentary access to the community, my reviews reflects my personal honest experience of the material.

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