How To Make More Progress Every Time You Practice Guitar
by Mike Philippov
Do you want to know what to do to make your musical skills improve each time you practice guitar? Many guitarists experience "hit or miss" results in their guitar playing because they don't know how to maximize the effectiveness of their guitar practice time. As a result, they never feel satisfied with the rate of their musical progress and fail to develop in the guitarists that they have the potential to become. If you want to know how to get more from your guitar practicing, here are the things you need to do every time you pick up your instrument that will make you a better guitarist by the end of each practice session:
Approach Practicing Guitar With A "Problem Solving" Mindset
What you think about while you practice guitar is key to your progress. To get the most out of every guitar practice session, you must learn to think of that time as a process of solving the problems that are holding you back from improving your guitar playing. As obvious as this advice sounds, many guitarists instead think about practicing guitar as an unpleasant chore that only "distracts" them from the enjoyment of playing music. This thinking causes them to mindlessly "go through the motions" of practicing guitar in order to "get it over with" as quickly as possible. The consequences of having such an ineffective mindset are slow guitar playing progress and inevitable frustration. Even if you don't yet know "how" to practice guitar to solve a particular problem, approaching your guitar practice sessions with a problem solving mindset will make it easier for you to discover the answers that will improve your guitar playing. To see an example of what it means to practice guitar with intention to solve a specific problem, watch this free video lesson on how to change chords on guitar.
Have Specific Objectives For Each Guitar Practice Session
In addition to having general long term guitar playing goals, it is very important to be clear on what it is you intend to accomplish every time you pick up your instrument. Having such clarity for each guitar practice session will make it easier for you to measure your progress and keep yourself accountable for the results that you achieve (or fail to achieve). Regardless of whether or not you manage to complete everything you set out to do on a specific day of practicing, taking the time to establish clear objectives before you begin will help you to improve your guitar playing MUCH faster than practicing guitar at random and merely "hoping" that some progress is being made.
Be Clear About Why Each Guitar Practice Item Exists In Your Practice Schedule
Many guitar players make the mistake of practicing some things that may seem "cool" or exciting to play but do nothing to improve their guitar playing in the long term. Here is a hint that will help you to know whether or not you are practicing something irrelevant to your guitar playing goals. If someone were to come up to you while you were practicing guitar and ask you: "Why are you practicing this?", you should be able to explain in detail how a particular practice item is helping you become a better guitarist. If you can't answer this question for every item in your guitar practice schedule, it is a sign that you are likely to be practicing at least some things that are distracting you from your true guitar playing goals. To learn more about how to identify the most effective guitar practice materials to include into your practice schedule, watch this video about improving your guitar playing skills.
Break Up Your Guitar Practice Routines Into Shorter Bursts Of Effort, Separated By Rest
Practicing guitar, when done correctly, is a very intense mental activity. To help you get the most from your guitar practice time, take short but regular breaks in between working on different practice items. An hour of practicing guitar done with short (2-3) minute breaks between each practice item can be more productive than cramming in a 3 hour nonstop guitar practice marathon. You will get greater results per minute of guitar practice time if you think of your practice sessions as "sprints" instead of "long distance running sessions".
In addition to helping you maintain concentration, breaking up your guitar practice time into smaller chunks during the day will help you to find the time to practice guitar that you never knew you had. You may or may not have a 1-2 hour block of time reserved every day to practice guitar, but you can always squeeze in short bursts of 5-10 minutes of practicing at random times during the day. Before too long, these shorter sessions will add up and you will have practiced your instrument for a considerable amount of time.
Don't Practice The Same Guitar Exercises For Too Long
If you practice the same materials for too long, it is easy to start feeling burned out and bored. You will improve your guitar playing faster when you vary and rotate the focus of your guitar practicing among the different skills you need to develop. Doing this will not only make learning to play guitar more fun, but will also prevent you from losing focus as a result of spending too much time practicing a single item.
Regardless of what you are trying to achieve in your guitar playing, you will improve your musical skills much faster by learning how to get the most from your guitar practicing. As you apply the concepts from this article into your guitar practice sessions, you will build powerful forward moving momentum that will help you to improve your guitar playing much faster than you ever though possible.
The following resources will help you to understand how to best apply the ideas from this article into your guitar practicing:
How to Change Chords On Guitar - video lesson
How To Learn To Play Guitar - video lesson
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