How to not practice guitar to make great progress. You did read it right. How not to practice.
There are many wrong ideas on what and how to practice guitar. We read about guitar players that play 8-10 hrs a day and in 2 years they are world class. In reality that’s one out of millions and millions.
In the beginning you won’t have a lot to practice but 15 to 20 minutes is more than enough with the right method and you will see good to great progress. I always tell my students if they walk away what they just practiced and it doesn’t feel like even minimal improvement, they practiced wrong.
I see so many people today that try to learn guitar from the internet or from books or video courses. Even some stars are selling guitars and lessons as package deals. Let me address the internet first. The biggest problem to me is you don’t really know what it is you need to know.
So you can work on something and not really get it and then get frustrated and quit. Also, there is no interaction. I have many students who tried on their own and gave up. Many times it’s just information, they are not teaching you how to practice to get better at it. I can show someone a G and C chord but I also need to teach them how to be able to go from their hand off the guitar to all the fingers all at once onto the chord. Not a finger at time. Let me say a bit about the package deals.I had 2 students recently come in who purchased one of the star type package deals and we had to get their string height adjusted on both guitars so it wouldn’t be a struggle trying to play.
Also, I looked at the teaching videos which were well produced but the information was not going to make you a guitar player and you would probably walk away thinking why can’t I play like he plays on the video. What you need is a guitar instructor with a proven track record of getting results with his students.
One thing I see that hurts a students initial progress is trying to play a song start to finish over and over. There are many elements for beginners, forming a chord, changing chords in a chord progression, playing a rhythm or finger picking the chords and good timing to name a few of the essentials.
I’ve seen great results from students who take the practice methods I give them for each one of these component parts and then add a part at a time until the song is being played smoothly and slowly. Then you can work on getting to the tempo of recording.
Don’t let this next idea fool you into thinking, it’s easy and automatic. We see people all the time in You Tube videos, and Talent contest and singing shows playing guitar without really thinking about it. But what you see is a lot of the way I’m talking about practicing to make continual strides in your guitar playing. You are seeing the final result of hours and hours of practicing to get that comfortable.
Organize your practice to 2 or 3 skills. As a beginner you could 5 minutes on chord, making them then changing them and making them ring clearer. 5 minutes on a strum pattern and 5 minutes on playing in time. If you increase each one by 2 minutes that’s a total of 21 minutes and with the right practice methods you will sound better each day. 5 to 6 days a week for 15 to 20 minutes of practicing effectively can give you massive results!