Break Away II

Successful guitarists all have one thing in common. Every one of them has an effective and efficient practice guitar practice routine.

The most common mistake that beginners make when they first start playing the guitar is to quit because they feel that they are not achieving results. Becoming a good guitarist will not happen overnight. As a matter of fact, mastering the guitar can take a lifetime, because there is always something new to learn and to improve on.

The first thing that you should do, before you even touch your guitar, is decide what you want to achieve. Many people dream of being on a stage and performing for thousands of people, while other as simply want to learn a few songs for fun. Another thing to consider is what types of songs and genres of music you want to play. Once you identify these goals, you can decide how to achieve them.

Making a guitar practice schedule is crucial to assist you in learning as quickly as possible. Once you have your schedule set, you must edit here to that schedule, and review your plan periodically. The first step to an effective schedule is to decide how much time you will spend when you practice the guitar. This must be a realistic plan, since spending hours a day is unlikely to be sustainable for a long period of time. If you are a full-time student, or if you are a working adult, 45 minutes to an hour a day will probably be a reasonable routine.

There are many beginning guitarists that do not have the discipline to stick with their practice schedule, and then, they attempt to make up for it with longer sessions on a later day. Learning to play the guitar is just like anything else that you do in life. If you were a world-class athlete, training for 18 hours one day, then taking six days off, would not be an acceptable schedule. The reason that we practice consistently is because our minds and bodies take time to absorb new information. With this in mind, we begin to understand why a schedule of 20 minutes every day is much more effective than practicing eight hours, one day a week.

Sometimes, missing a day of practice is unavoidable. This happens to all of us, because our busy schedules, occasionally, do not allow for personal time. In a situation like this, the best thing to do is to find five or 10 minutes throughout the day for a quick warm up session.

Remember that your practice plan is not cast in stone. You should design your own plan based on your learning capacity and availability. Also, you must remember that your plan can be altered if you are availability changes, or depending on your progress. Remember that there is a difference between playing the guitar and practicing the guitar. When you practice guitar, the point is to work on your weaknesses into you can overcome them.

The best way to keep your practice more fun and effective is to make it a point to include a small amount of new material, mixed with a majority of older material to keep things fresh. As you start to learn new and advanced techniques, it is very easy to get frustrated because you do not see results. If this happens, the best thing to do is to walk away, and come back when you’re ready. If you force yourself to continue on when you are frustrated, it will not only slow your progress, but it will destroy your motivation.

Copyright Liam Gibson (Pro Guitarist)

Tags: best guitar practice, guitar practice routine, guitar practice techniques, guitar practice tips