Extremely limited practice time

[extendedsolo]

There is always waking up an hour earlier, so you can get some practice time in, I did that pretty much throughout not just my school days, but also high school as well as college, in fact I did that pretty much throughout my education.

If it is important enough to you and you value it enough, you will find, make the time available and put aside time for it. At the end of the day it's all down to prioritizing and deciding how much you value practicing and it measures up to the other things you have in your life

After thinking about this more, this is the best answer. Cut out tv/internet time. Take your guitar to work and practice on lunch in your car. Get up an hour earlier. I mean there are only 24 hours in a day so when you spend more time with your instrument, you have to cut time elsewhere.

I would say spend your time transcribing and trying to get very musical with your playing. Improvising over changes, learning chord progressions etc. To be completely blunt, no one cares about sweep picking. It's a cool parlor trick but one of the least musical techniques. It's a waste of time if you only have 30 minutes a day. I cannot believe so many guitarists think it's a necessary skill to have. It would be like worrying about rims on your car if it was always having engine problems. *steps off soapbox*

If you are a singer, spend your time singing intervals and scalar runs and then play them on your instrument. Yes sweep picking is your downfall, but if you are a singer/songwriter no one is ever going to need you to play a sweep.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

you could do a lot with 30 minutes a day, depending on what your priorities and your goals are in your guitar playing. Im married, have two kids, and we both have full-time jobs, are both guitar teachers with students, and my wife (5th grade teacher) even has to work at home, where Id be watching the kids. then there's stuff like my son's karate class, dance lessons, keeping the house clean, we're also homeowners so we have to deal with maintenance as well. I've always found time to practice. I'm not too concerned these days with improving my speed or my skills, I'm pretty much happy with where I am with all that, and I'm just in a cover band so all I'm really practicing is songs. I take my guitar to work and practice parts to songs on my downtime.

I'm sure our situations and aspirations are completely different from each other. I'm lucky enough to only be learning other people's songs and I have a really good ear for that kind of thing so maybe I really don't need a whole lot of practice but I like playing guitar, I've been doing it all my life and it's like a security blanket for me. If I go a day or two without playing, my wife can really tell how agitated I get over things, so she'll tell me to go play guitar

I go to sleep early so I can wake up extra early and practice, because I find it easier in the morning with a refreshed mind and body. I also sing backup, so I have music in my car so I can practice my Harmony parts on my way to and from work. over the past few months I've really cut down how much I eat at one time, therefore reducing myself to just grazing when I feel a little hungry and I get full pretty quick, which leaves me more time for other things. Also, who really needs a whole bunch of sleep? I'm very lucky in that my one-year-old daughter sleeps through the night and has since she was born. I only generally sleep about 5 to 6 hours a night.

 

[redstone]

Yeah, it is. I'm curious if you're in a point in your life where you have to balance conflicting priorities. Your answer makes me think maybe you haven't.

After 19 years of playing and 34 of hearing so many whinings, you can be sure that I know when people have a difficult life or just want to complain and feel better about themselves. Not that it's blameworthy in itself, but expecting a non-serious request to be taken seriously is very disrespectful.

 

[Fiction]

If it is important enough to you and you value it enough, you will find, make the time available and put aside time for it. At the end of the day it's all down to prioritizing and deciding how much you value practicing and it measures up to the other things you have in your life

And he has said, unfortunately he can only prioritize 30 minutes, not ask for you to tell him to wake up earlier or quit playing video games, which you do not know whether he does or not.

Cut out tv/internet time. Take your guitar to work and practice on lunch in your car. Get up an hour earlier. I mean there are only 24 hours in a day so when you spend more time with your instrument, you have to cut time elsewhere.

He may not even watch TV/Play games, He has 87 posts in 6 years on this website, may not be the case he's sitting on his lounge watching tv wishing he had more time to practice.

Sorry for actually commenting on these and slightly derailing, I just don't think anyone really needs to tell him to change his time restraints, when hes asking on advice for efficiently using his 30 minutes. My old house mate who does not have a job, he practices probably an hour a day but has a band, and spends 6+ hours a day playing nintendo wii, used to always complain about how I don't take music seriously enough because I only practice 30 minutes - 60 minutes a day and don't play in a band, but music is actually massive to me and my happiness and those 30-60 minutes are extremely enjoyable, I work 60-70 hours a week, go to the gym 4-5 times a week & have house work, shopping, travelling, cooking and you better believe sometimes I actually want to sit down and watch some tv, just try and find enjoyment in what you're doing.

But second half of your statement I agree with! I definitely prefer just playing music over grinding scales and sweeps, which is still a good form of practice.. Metronome babyyy!

 

[tender_insanity]

When I was still in my band, where I wrote all the songs and did 99% of the guitars I had to wake up a few hours earlier and do the recordings for our second album. At that time I had a 1,5 year old at home so recording while my daughter was awake was quite impossible. At that time her mom was at home too, so I could easily do it.

After 2,5 months time that it took to record I thought that it ain't worth it anymore. I had done all the tracks so it was all ready By me but gosh was I tired. And I started having little problems with my wrist for I just woke up, had a coffee and pressed REC.

Later I decided to leave the band. Nowadays I play maybe 30minutes a day when my daughter has fallen asleep. It's enough to keep up some skills. And it doesn't matter that much if I don't even touch the guitar for a week.

 

[Drew]

After 19 years of playing and 34 of hearing so many whinings, you can be sure that I know when people have a difficult life or just want to complain and feel better about themselves. Not that it's blameworthy in itself, but expecting a non-serious request to be taken seriously is very disrespectful.

Hey, so you're almost my age, and we've been playing about the same length of time. Cool.

Listen, though, here's my thing - sometimes life DOES throw you for a loop. I don't know this guy's full story and I don't know how much of what he's dealing with is self-imposed or really and truly out of his hands. I do know, however, that there are absolutely times where in MY life I've been in that situation, where my time to practice becomes extremely limited. I've handled it with mixed results over the years - some times I found I just wasn't playing at all, other times I have been able to manage to stick to a rigid practice schedule (generally, it had a lot to do with how I was doing psychologically - when my time was limited because I was under crushing amounts of work stress, I mostly didn't play, and when my stress levels were ok but I just was obscenely busy, I'd manage to sneak in a couple 15-minute metronome drills a day to keep working on musical objectives).

Now, I've got pretty good balance going, where my job is challenging but rewarding (and, almost as importantly, comes with a pretty good gear budget to buy cool guitars to play), but I also have enough time outside of the office for music as well as a few other hobbies and pursuits that are important to me. But, that hasn't always been the case, and while I don't know what this guy's exact situation is, I do know that if he's in a position where he really CAN'T just "make more time to practice," then there are still things he can do to maximize the utility of what little time he has. He just needs to be disciplined.

 

[meteor685]

I just say .... it, and practice with all the minutes to spare...

I don't sleep much at all though so im tired a lot