How do you get yourself to practice guitar?
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,116
piggybacking off my topic on All Encompassing, how do you get yourself to practice guitar everyday, for even half an hour?
It seems like many people have excuses, as I do, as to why they didnt or couldnt practice last night or during the day or whatever.
How do you get beyond the excuses and just do it?
It seems like many people have excuses, as I do, as to why they didnt or couldnt practice last night or during the day or whatever.
How do you get beyond the excuses and just do it?
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I was pretty young when i started, I needed no motivation, I would just play because i loved it, and there was so much to learn so it was easy to push myself and get better and better. I was like that for years. Life was pretty simple back then as a kid/teenager. Once i got to a reasonably accomplished player, it was harder to stay motivated. Now it seems like my guitar and I are closer together in some aspects, and farther away in some aspects. I've stopped thinking i need to be this awesome technique master, and i've learned to have fun again, and tried to start writing my own songs and becoming my own guitar player. I lost something while I was out trying to save the world, trying to be everything to everyone, and never finding real time for me, and that was a love for my instrument. I think it's just something we all go through and we have to be more disciplined, and recognise that we have to do things differently to get the same out of it. If you truly love it, you will find a way and you'll always come back to it. At least that's the way it is for me anyway.
Paul McCartney said something along the lines of. Practice for 15 minutes a day and in 5 years you'll be an excellent musician It went something like that. Always remember that when I don't feel like picking it up.
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JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
I'm a big fan of one item up above -- get yourself a REALLY nice guitar. I would then add "and instantly put a ding or scratch in it" to get over that aspect! Toward this end, the "dollar in a jar" method is effective. Put a dollar (or, realistically, a lot more) in a jar each day you practice, or each day whatever -- pay yourself for practicing. That's your "new-guitar fund...." (I'm a big proponent of the advanced financial system: "Don't Buy Shit You Can't Afford" but that's another topic.)
And as mentioned above, join a band, a jam group, set up weekly or monthly sessions, take lessons -- any of these things add pressure for you to "do your work" before showing up.
However, Justinguitar.com is the greatest guitar teaching tool ever. Justin explains everything from basics/beginner onward in the form of text and video. It is much, much better than any video or beginner book I have seen.
Most importantly Justin structures your practice schedule and gives you exercises to do.
For example, right in the beginning (after tuning, basic theory, changing strings, getting pick out of an acoustic, etc...) He teaches the A, E, and D chords 1 at a time. He shows you how to switch and how mentally to switch. He tells you in your practice time you should practice switching each one A-D, or A-E, or D-E one full minute and see how many times you can do it and write it down. You do them the next time you practice and keep working at beating you record. At the end of the lesson group there are a few simple songs implementing what you have learned and it is rewarding.
I wasnt enjoying practicing before. But with this structure I am enjoying practicing so much I think about it throughout the day.
All that said, kicking back and zoning out has its place too, and sometimes and play guitar in front of the TV, sometimes even come up with a good riff, or practice some boring exercise.
Another recommendation. If you find practicing boring, then change how you practice. Learning scales and and running patterns got you crawling out of your skin? Give it up for a while and focus on learning some of your favorite songs and solos by ear. This can be frustrating too, but a lot more satisfying, and really, much more valuable than learning scales. If you want to play like Steve Vai, well, bad news, you gotta practice scales, learn all the little details of music theory and marry your metronome. But on the other hand, you want to play like Jimmy Page? Well, he spent most of his time playing along with his favorite records and only learned to read music later when he had to (when he was doing session work)
THIS.......
Seriously, just cutting out bullshit activity can really have an effect.
If you're gonna watch tv, watch somethin that you're gonna get somethin out of or put on some tunes when you're watching the game.
Read a book, a magazine, or anything you think will inspire you or can learn something from.
Enrich yourself however you can.
HAVE A GUITAR SOUND YOU LOVE TO LISTEN TO, or several of them
LISTEN TO TONS OF MUSIC>>>>>>I've logged my time learning tunes and developing my influences, but never had alot of patience for practice. Listening to music has had as much or more of an influence on my playing as learning the 80 songs I learned while in a cover band for 5 years.
Not to toot my own horn or say that my advice will work for everybody, in fact it won't, I've received more compliments about my playin in the last 6 months than any other time I've been learning.
Back when I started playing... I'm glad I had a friend to jam with, because that was my motivation to keep at it.
Seriously, getting people to play with is the best way to learn! Jam, write songs (even if they suck)... I learned so much more from all that than from sitting by myself studying scales (although I spent time on that too).
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
I went 3 weeks without a guitar (I was in Europe)... I plugged in for the 1st time yesterday, and It reminded me of how much fun playing was!
Agreed. 'Burnt out' is a great way of putting it. I think there's more ways to practice you musicianship than just playing. Discovering new music for example, or just picking up a totally different instrument. There's times where I'll just play piano or bass for weeks and when I get back to the guitar, I'll have all these cool new ideas!
Yielded: That's such a great idea. I never saw it from that way, before. I just picked up my trumpet, from marching band, the other day and though nothing of it (except that I suck since I haven't played in years) but it was really cool. I think that gave me the idea to "get back to basics" with all the instruments.
Keeponrockin: Yeah, I was away and it was tough, or, on the way home, outta nowhere, I'll here a song that just makes me want to play. It's a pretty cool feeling
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
No, that's harsh. :geek:
Generally, I think it's the love of your instrument that draws you to it.
Or, some concert you need to prepare for. Or, just the joy of playing music you want to hear.
Maybe you should keep a guitar out somewhere that you can easily pick it up several times a day?
See, I thinks that is a pretty narrow view of the guitar overall. There's so many different ways to play guitar and practicing, as crazy as it sounds, can hinder some people. Sure you gotta play enough to keep progressing and your chops, but imagine if somebody like Hendrix or really most "great" guitarists from the history of rock practiced all the time to nail their parts. You just gotta know when you have somethin down the way you wanna play it.
I just meant that a person needs to have some internal drive and desire to do it.
Oh definitely. I wasn't tryin to call you out or anything, there are alotta freakin posers these days.