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Guitar Lesson How To Practice Guitar
If desire is the most important part of learning guitar(without it you wouldnt have even started), then concentration is the most important part of practicing guitar.
I often say to people that 20 minutes of focused practice can beat, hands down, 2 hours of normal practice, or just goofing about.
Many people are discouraged when they are told how much time they must put into practice. The truth is, you dont have to practice all the time to be a good guitarist.
(Im not saying you shouldnt have time to goof off and play around. But if you want to improve quickly, you must keep playing guitar and practicing guitar separate.)
Let me tell you now
It isnt how much time you put into practice, its the quality of the practice that matters.
When I play guitar, I play to have fun, I play to perform for people, and I play for the fun of playing! Thats why I started learning guitar in the first place.
But when I practice guitar, I focus and concentrate on what Im trying to achieve, and I work on the goals that I want to complete.
You see, if you completely focus on one thing you are more likely to do it well.
This may sound simple too to some. Some of you may be thinking this is great, I only need to practice 20 minutes a day and ill improve more than I would if I practicing 2 hours a day.
Well thats not exactly true.
Its how focused your practice is that counts, not how long you practice. Can you really focus for 2 hours?
Let me give you this small example to illustrate my point.
Picture a red triangle inside a black box.
Close your eyes, and keep that image in your mind for 5 seconds without letting a single thing distract you no other thought must enter your mind for that 5 seconds
How well did you do? Be honest with yourself.
This isnt an easy thing to do. Most people find this difficult at first. Its difficult to keep a focused mind like this.
I hope this example has shown you that its not that easy to keep focused attention & concentration for look periods of time.
But still, you must always remember that its quality and not quantity of practice that makes the difference between a great player and an average player.
This is a perfect time to tell you that you shouldnt be spending hours and hours practicing, because you simply cant focus for that amount of time.
If you are practicing for a solid 2 hours or more you are probably not helping your development as a guitarist that much.
A much better way of using this time is to practice in bursts.
A good idea would be to practice in bursts of 20 minutes or so. You can vary it depending on what you feel like doing, but try not to practice for long periods of time in one go. Its not helping as much as you think it might be.
Also, its important to take breaks from what youre practicing. You can do something else for awhile, go for a walk, watch TV, or maybe just play around and have fun with your guitar and loosen up a bit before you start focusing on practice again.
It is important for you to have a definition in your own mind of practicing guitar and playing guitar.
This will keep you more focused and allow you to reach your goals as a guitarist much easier.
An exercise for you to try to help you further develop concentration is to sit silently and count slowly from one to ten in your mind.
If anything should interrupt your counting, whether it is a noise, a stray thought, or the awareness of your own breathing, you must start over from one.
Again, its unlikely you will be able to achieve this straight-away. Its a hard thing to do. However how out and 'Zen' this exercise may seem, it will re-focus your mind on the task in hand, and itll help you learn faster if you can stay focused on what youre practicing.
You should try this exercise whenever you start to feel like youre loosing your focus.
BONUS : Guitar Lesson - How To Practice In 20 Minutes
Many guitarists dont have enough time to practice for long periods of time. But if you want to progress fast, you need the guitar in your hands as regularly as possible.
Its better to practice for 10-20 minutes every day, than 4 hours on just one day of the week.Getting into a rhythm of regularly picking up your guitar for a quick practice session is a great habit to get into.
So if you dont have enough time for a full practice session, and you have 10-15 minutes to spare, heres some ideas for what you should practice:
Practice a chord change.
Perhaps switching from an F barre chord to a D open is causing you difficulty?
If you spend just ten minutes going over and over the change, you will increase your ability to do it at the level you require.
The key is to focus, and hone in on one skill that you can improve in a short period of time.
Work on a song you want to memorize.
This will give you a chance to actually play some music! You need to have fun in your practice to keep you fresh and focused.
Listen to a song on a CD and jam along.
This is a great way to improve your playing, and its particularly suitable for short practice sessions.
An important part of learning guitar is to train your ear, and jamming along to a CD is the perfect way to do it.
Work on a lick you want to learn.
You'd be surprised how many times you can work through a lick in just a few short minutes. You can also combine this practice technique with practicing chord changes.
This will improve your skills in a short period of time.
Work on picking skills - do drills up and down the neck.
You can use your metronome to work on speed picking skills, or you can slow everything right down and work on keeping your body in a relaxed so that you develop an ease to your playing.
Work up and down a scale.
In ten minutes you can play through a scale around 50-100 times. This will improve your stamina and also help you build speed.
Remember to use a metronome when youre trying to build speed though. Because you want a smooth rhythmic sound to your speed picking, not a struggling, hurried sound.
So build up gradually.
Be Creative!
Play some chords in combinations that sound good to you, or play some single note melodies. Again, this improves your ear and you could maybe work out some parts to a song of your own.
Okay, thats all the ideas Im going to give you for now. Use your imagination to come up with more things you could try, and mix it up so it doesnt get boring.
Also, keep your guitar ready and set-up. Sure, its protected all hidden away in your case, but if its ready for you to have a short practice session, then youre more likely to pick it up and practice, even if it is just for a short time.
So keep that guitar out and ready to practice!
You may not think these short practice sessions help much, but doing this builds up your skills fast and youll surprise yourself by how much you improve just be having the guitar in your hands regularly.
However, you dont want to solely rely on these quick practice sessions. Like most things, you need to strike a balance. A good way of finding that balance is to set a routine.
When you have a routine, you will find it gets easier to find the time for practice. Once youre in a habit of practicing regularly, youll find it harder to break out of, and thats a good habit to have!
Many guitarists dont have enough time to practice for long periods of time. But if you want to progress fast, you need the guitar in your hands as regularly as possible.
Its better to practice for 10-20 minutes every day, than 4 hours on just one day of the week.Getting into a rhythm of regularly picking up your guitar for a quick practice session is a great habit to get into.
So if you dont have enough time for a full practice session, and you have 10-15 minutes to spare, heres some ideas for what you should practice:
Practice a chord change.
Perhaps switching from an F barre chord to a D open is causing you difficulty?
If you spend just ten minutes going over and over the change, you will increase your ability to do it at the level you require.
The key is to focus, and hone in on one skill that you can improve in a short period of time.
Work on a song you want to memorize.
This will give you a chance to actually play some music! You need to have fun in your practice to keep you fresh and focused.
Listen to a song on a CD and jam along.
This is a great way to improve your playing, and its particularly suitable for short practice sessions.
An important part of learning guitar is to train your ear, and jamming along to a CD is the perfect way to do it.
Work on a lick you want to learn.
You'd be surprised how many times you can work through a lick in just a few short minutes. You can also combine this practice technique with practicing chord changes.
This will improve your skills in a short period of time.
Work on picking skills - do drills up and down the neck.
You can use your metronome to work on speed picking skills, or you can slow everything right down and work on keeping your body in a relaxed so that you develop an ease to your playing.
Work up and down a scale.
In ten minutes you can play through a scale around 50-100 times. This will improve your stamina and also help you build speed.
Remember to use a metronome when youre trying to build speed though. Because you want a smooth rhythmic sound to your speed picking, not a struggling, hurried sound.
So build up gradually.
Be Creative!
Play some chords in combinations that sound good to you, or play some single note melodies. Again, this improves your ear and you could maybe work out some parts to a song of your own.
Okay, thats all the ideas Im going to give you for now. Use your imagination to come up with more things you could try, and mix it up so it doesnt get boring.
Also, keep your guitar ready and set-up. Sure, its protected all hidden away in your case, but if its ready for you to have a short practice session, then youre more likely to pick it up and practice, even if it is just for a short time.
So keep that guitar out and ready to practice!
You may not think these short practice sessions help much, but doing this builds up your skills fast and youll surprise yourself by how much you improve just be having the guitar in your hands regularly.
However, you dont want to solely rely on these quick practice sessions. Like most things, you need to strike a balance. A good way of finding that balance is to set a routine.
When you have a routine, you will find it gets easier to find the time for practice. Once youre in a habit of practicing regularly, youll find it harder to break out of, and thats a good habit to have!
