Posts Tagged ‘guitar practice’

To Learn Guitar, You Must Love to Practice

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Sadly, not many of us can gain an ability instantaneously and become a master without taking the time to train and/or practice. We generally consider these exceptional individuals to be geniuses. For the rest of us, acquiring a new-found skill takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. It also takes a great deal of commitment since sometimes the time required between starting and becoming competent can seem to be entirely too long. 

Unfortunately, it is no different for those who want to learn how to play a musical instrument – practice is essential. There is very little (if any) possibility that the first time you hoist up a violin or sit atan organ that you will be able to put together a sound that is anything more than simply noise!  On the other hand, with time, effort and some instruction, you soon find that your practicing was worth while. This remains true whether you engage in playing a classical instrument or want to learn to play the guitar

There is an old adage among the music community that you play the way that you practice. In essence, this platitude means that if you are lazy and sloppy when you practice then you will look lazy and sloppy when you perform. No matter what instrument you are trying to learn, you need to practice with purpose and actively. That is why practicing is vital to becoming a good guitar player. 

Obviously, there is much more to successful practicing thanjust picking up your guitar and playing. In order to practice effectively you must sit down with a specific plan and have organization to your session. Practicing should be goal oriented and lesson specific. Without a planned practice structure you will not make very good progress. In truth, the benefits of practicing have very little to do with the amount of time spent and everything to do with the quality of preparation. 

Another key component to fruitful practicing is having the aspiration to play. If you do not look forward to your practice time, it might be a good idea to re-evaluate your overall strategy. More than likely,Perhaps, it is simply that program that you are using for your lesson plans is not capturing and keeping your attention, or that your practice strategy is lacking the freshness you need. Instead of allowing your practice sessions to suffer, you should re-examine and try to learn to play the guitar through a different and more dynamic guitar program. There are many choices to be found on the Net from free guitar lessons to complete guitar courses.