It's been my experience that there are different approaches to practice. Some people are more visualy, some aural, some methodical, some through immersion many hours per day.

There are two kinds of practice.

1. Mass practice whereby you sit with your instrument for hours at a time.

2. Distributed practice which involves a small amount each day or increments throughout the day.

Contiguous distributive practice is generally best for this reason. Your ability to absorb new information breaks down after a certain time period. Your learning is inversely proportional to the amount of practice time to which you subject youself.

The best way to do it is small increments at a time either throughout the day or a little every day. The former is better.

Physical mmory is the most potent memory device we have. This is why a mass practice session and then skipping days between is not the best approach to retain muscle memory.

Frank Hamilton