Any professional guitarist will tell you: Discipline is very
important when it comes to practicing the guitar. Learning to play
the guitar is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in
my life but it was also one of the hardest. The reason that I
became good with my instrument is simple. I practiced! Not only did
I practice, I practiced a lot; every day in my bedroom.
I spent most of my time practicing the fundamentals. Things like
running up and down scales, changing between chords and trying to improve my repertoire of songs. Sometimes it was easy to make time to practice because I was in a good mood and I really wanted to play.
At those times I could spend hours just listening to how cool it sounded when I changed from the chord D to the chord G. But on other days, when my mood wasn’t so good, it was my discipline and desire to play and improve that made me practice and develop as a player.
There are two main factors when it comes to discipline in practice.
They are practicing regularly, and practicing well. Both of these
are important points.
Practicing regularly is the most obvious and easy thing to do.
Basically, you should play the guitar every day. These don’t need
to be mammoth, three hour long sessions, 30 minutes will generally be fine if you are focused during that time. Doing regular, small amounts of practice throughout the week is far better than doing one or two long sessions.
I know that in a busy life it can be hard to make the time to
practice but to be honest, 30 minutes a day is achievable for
anyone. There is no set time that is best for practice but I prefer
to do it in the evening simply because I find that playing the
guitar is a relaxing way to wind down after a stressful day.
Practicing well is a much harder thing to do and there are many
reasons for why this is the case. Before I go on, I just want to
say that bad practice affects even the most experienced player but
it can be overcome with some help. Here are some of the problems that you may have when practicing and some useable solutions:
1) Problem: Getting stuck in a rut. This is a very common problem that affects nearly all guitarists at some point in time. You end up playing the same thing over and over every time you play and you can’t seem to move on to anything new.
Solution: I am a firm believer that you should aspire to play
everything perfectly. But, if you are stuck on this one thing and
you feel like practice is getting a little stale, you should really
move on to something else that inspires you. It is so important to
be inspired in your practice and you can always come back to
something later when you are in the right mood.
2) Problem: Moving on to new skills too quickly. Also a very
common problem, moving on too quickly will ultimately turn you into a “jack of all trades and a master of none”.
Solution: This problem is the opposite of the last problem we
looked at. You can now see that there is a balance between too much and not enough emphasis on perfecting a song. My suggestion is that you should master each thing before you go on to the next, but if you are finding a particular skill impossible to master and you are dying of boredom trying, maybe that skill is a little out of your reach. In this case, it is best to go back and learn something less difficult.
3) Problem: Becoming narrow minded in relation to the different
areas of learning within musicianship. Some people get into the
situation where they are practicing only one style and neglecting
everything else.
Solution: Try splitting your playing into parts. For example, I
might spend 5 minutes practicing new scales or chords, 10 minutes working on writing new music for myself and maybe 15 minutes learning a new song or part of a song. This way, your practice never gets boring and you can achieve a lot more.
4) Problem: Playing things too fast when learning them. This can
cause you to become disillusioned with your playing when you are
trying to learn a new song.
Solution: A fairly obvious solution here – Slow down. Most
guitarists, including myself try playing a song or new skill at a
slow speed before trying it at a fast pace.
Practicing properly and regularly is the best way to become good at anything including playing the guitar. This requires discipline;
not only discipline to practice regularly, but also discipline to
stay focused and on track when you are practicing. If you stay
disciplined with your playing you will develop in to an excellent
player.
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