How to get yourself to practice more?

[TravisWright]

Loxodrome!

Not practicing the right way is DIFFERENT than what you described... you practice but it's like going through the motions. If anything is meaningless, it doesn't last for long.

So if you are having trouble even practicing, is it because you are overwhelmed? Uninspired? Don't know what to practice?

Maybe the most important question to ask yourself is, what would you need to be able to do musically to make you happy? It's not always getting better that makes us happy... sometimes it's as simple as being able to play for others or to truly write your own song or whatever the reason may be. You just sound uninspired.

I believe.. if you find your inspiration, what makes you wanna play, the practice will follow. You won't feel you HAVE to practice... you'll be finding you don't have enough time in the day to practice! The others are spot on. Focus. Work smarter. But none of that means anything if you simply don't feel it. Hope this helps...

 

[Vaelthunder]

But how should one divide its training/playing sessions?
I mean... Let's say I have 1 hour a day and I still have A LOT to learn.

How much time should we dedicate to theory, mechanical exercises, listening to others, covering others, practicing your songs, composing, recording, etc?

My most common issue is that whenever I grab my guitar, I immediately start playing my songs/already learned songs and tend to forget the rest.

How should I discipline that? Get a schedule or something? How much time for each thing? How do you do it?

 

[jarnozz]

I practiced 1.5/2 hours a day when I started playing electric guitar. Went from nothing to shred in 6 months. The fact I played classic guitar helped a bit I must admit. I made sure I practiced every scale imaginable, up to speed and memorizing it. Not only playing but a lot of theory as well. That really pays of on the long run

 

[Rosal76]

You guys have to remember that not only that everyone has a different schedule on what they practice and how much time they spend on it but also, the amount of talent they already have. Dream Theater guitarist, John Petrucci, claims that he only practices 2 hours a day. Steve Vai claims that he sometimes practices for 9. I don't believe there should be a "concrete, set in stone format" of how much time you should spend on whatever technique. I would just tell you to focus on your weaknesses and spend whatever free time you have in the day to develop it.

 

[ElRay]

1. Always minimize the setup time, or you'll get bored! Keep your rig always as "ready to go" as possible.

Make yourself a practice regime written down on paper and hold yourself accountable if you don't do it.

+1 to both of these. That's what I've got set-up for my daughter.

Another thing is to find your "commodity". For my daughter, it's stickers and fancy pencils. She gets a sticker each time she completes an item on her practice sheet, and if she gets over 50 stickers in a period, she gets to pick one of the shiny/sparkly pencils from "The Stash".

Now I just have to practice what I'm preaching for my own playing.

Ray

 

[thesnowdog]

Now I just have to practice what I'm preaching for my own playing.

The thought of earning sparkly pencils isn't getting you up in the morning?

 

[Zedism]

I practice at least an hour a day, broken up by "playing" whenever else I can get the chance, often for 4 or 5 hours if I can find that sort of time. If you're not finding the motivation to pick up the instrument, whatever it may be, I'd say you need to re-evaluate the way you're approaching it. Personally I don't need to push myself to pick up my guitar, I crave it because I find it so necessary for my mental well-being. I think of it like smoking cigarettes, only in a good way. It's a therapeutic release, it makes me feel good, gives me confidence and drive, and I see myself improve constantly.

Get yourself excited to pick up anything that makes sound, condition yourself to crave musical expression, then practice and play will become second nature, it'll just be another regular part of your day, or more if you want it to be. The more you try to force yourself to practice, the more you'll naturally repulse from it. It's the reason I get an off-putting, strange sensation when I play the piano, because I was forced to practice when I was younger and it's left a bad stigma in my mind.

 

[ElRay]

The thought of earning sparkly pencils isn't getting you up in the morning?

Well my first choice requires buy-in from my wife. "Hey honey, I've got a full sheet of stickers ..."

Ray

 

[Zedism]

Well my first choice requires buy-in from my wife. "Hey honey, I've got a full sheet of stickers ..."

Ray

"Hey honey, I've got a surprise for you in the bedroom... It's not sparkly, but it is sticky, so we're half-way there "

 

[Kaickul]

following a lesson plan has helped discipline me on my playing and the things that i want to accomplish for the session. before i was just constantly learning songs and not focusing on technique which slowed my pace on learning harder songs.

 

[ghost_of_karelia]

A lot of great suggestions here.

What works for me is if I hide the guitar and tell myself I'm actually not allowed to play it for at least 7 days. Then I watch a shit ton of music videos/studio diaries of bands and guitarists that I'm really into, until I physically cannot sit in my chair anymore and NEED to go and get that guitar in my hands. So I do, and good god do I get a lot done.

 

[Enselmis]

-Enjoy practice more than the other stuff in life
-Respect the natural limits of the human hand and brain
-Sit down and do it, even if it doesn't feel right at the time. Expect it to get better after 20-30 minutes because it usually will


My natural limit right now is between four and eight hours per day. That's with about an hour of theory, 1-3 hours of listening and 1-4 hours of technical or improvisational practice. I prefer to get about 3 hours in, but the problem with that is my fingers are usually pretty raw by then, and that carries over to the next day. ~2 is the sweet spot where I can do 2 hours a day for 4-5 days in a row before I need a day off of them, but I almost always need a day off after 4 solid hours in one day. I'm currently experimenting with burning my fingertips with a hot pan on the stove to get my calluses to be more resilient, and it seems to be working. I do not recommend this, and I admittedly feel a little dumb doing it, but hey - if it works


The other thing that nobody mentioned here is that you need -enough- stuff to practice for a long period of time. I personally develop my own exercises and have more than enough to last me for the next 2-3 years if I were to stop developing them (they come to me naturally), but everyone has a different approach that they prefer. You might just want to learn songs if that's the fastest way for you to learn, you might want to learn theory if you have a heavy inclination towards a composer's mentality or you might just enjoy practice for the sake of practice.


I'm an open book if you have any more questions. I also have a free book that I'm releasing in the spring which is dedicated to maximizing growth via healthy practice.

Straight up, if 3 hours kills your fingers then you're doing something wrong. Spend some time trying to use as little pressure as humanly possible to fret every note. It'll make a huuuuuge difference, I swear.

 

[Detested]

Shuffle in and out new gear,pedals,speakers,ect.Explore different tones,always keeps my interest up,when I can afford it,also videos of my fave guitarists makes my mouth water.
Best wishes

 

[PyramidSmasher]

I could see how playing a third instrument could be hard to make time for... but honestly to me it's all about finding that one right excersize that challenges you without being too hard. One that you actually like the results from too, and might use in your playing. For me that's a few different sweep tapping things I play recently.

 

[FruitCakeRonin]

I have my guitar standing next to my computer desk so its always within my reach. And so while im browsing the web or watching a movie I suddenly feel like playing the guitar, and then I just grab it and start playing around. I probably play at least one or two hours each day, but in small segments of 15-20 min. a time. And then every once in a while I play a good 1½-2 hours session.

 

[bcolville]

The funny thing for me was that when I took lessons I never practiced but when I stopped, that's when I really got into playing music

 

[Solodini]

That can often happen. It's easy to feel obligated to practise when you're taking lessons, which makes it undesirable. I always seem to feel inspired after the odd seminar with someone, though.

 

[vansinn]

By wanting it more. Not because others are better, but because I can't play what's inside my twisted head