Tips for Guitar Practice
Practice Efficiently: Make the most of your practice time
To have guitar practice success and aside from the total number of minutes you spend practicing, the methods that you use to organize and energize your practice will have the greatest impact on your results. Here are some tips to help make the most of your practice time.
Practice daily
Whether you feel you are doing well or not, you need to practice every day. Nobody is inspired all the time but even the truly great people on this planet got that way through the habit of carrying out their work regardless of their mood.
Make a goal
Successful guitar learners have a practice goal, and they follow it. Everyone can learn and instrument. If you are busy with work or school, revise your goal but don’t ever quit.
Create a practice space
Set up a place where you can practice daily. Them more time you must spend thinking about practicing or getting ready to practice, the less time you’ll practice. Your space just needs a chair, whatever accessories you use, and some relative privacy. And it should be ready whenever you are.
Avoid distractions
Structure your practice to avoid distractions. This includes family or roommates, cell phones, and computers. Merely holding a guitar in your hand is not enough. You must also concentrate. It’s a good idea to minimize anything that could distract you from learning the guitar.
Set a time
Make an appointment with yourself. Just as you set a place to practice, you must also set a time. If you rely only on the possibility of having spare time to practice, life will make other plans for you. The best time of day is different for everybody, the most successful learners will practice at the same time every day when they can.
Get organized
Write down what you are practicing or what you practiced. Resist the temptation to think that the time spent organizing is wasted. These few moments save you from thousands of minutes lost to unproductive work. Nothing could be more important than being organized when learning the guitar.
Be deliberate
The best way to be deliberate is to have a single area of focus for your guitar playing during any given period. You might decide that you want to focus on your rhythm for two months. Or maybe you want to focus on your improvisation skills for a month. Students who have the best results are the ones that are the most focused.
Remember, if you are taking guitar lessons, you will be given practice assignments by your guitar teacher. They aren’t meant to punish you but rather to encourage you. A good guitar teacher will give you practice homework that is meant to work on both your strengths and weaknesses. But what you do with that practice time is up to you. Take their homework and maximize it by working on it each practice session. You will see results and that is what matters.