My teacher publishes a short blog post every day instead of assigning a method book. It's quietly changing how I practice.
Adult returner here, with the usual baggage: right-hand tension, chaotic practice sessions, random repertoire choices.
My current teacher (trained at the Milan Conservatory in the school of Ruggero Chiesa) did something unusual at our first meeting: no method book. He listened to me play and gave me a proper "check-up" — posture, tone production, how I actually spend my practice time. Then built a plan around that instead of the one-size-fits-all path.
But the thing that's really stuck with me is his blog. He posts something short every single day — five-minute reads on technique, interpretation, repertoire, practice psychology. Not recycled content-farm stuff: it reads like the notes a good teacher scribbles for you at the end of a lesson. Reading one post before picking up the guitar has become part of my routine, like tuning. Some days it fixes exactly the thing I was about to practice wrong.
He also put the tools he uses in lessons online for free: a practice diary with progress tracking, Giuliani's 120 right-hand studies in progression, Segovia scales, a metronome that ramps BPM gradually, and a recording comparator to hear the same piece weeks apart. That last one was the coldest, most useful shower of my musical life.
Question for you all: do any of you read something guitar-related daily as part of your routine? And how do you structure practice — apps, paper journal, or pure instinct? Curious whether a "diagnostic first lesson" is common elsewhere too.