how many hours a day do I need to practice?


Jay Pham
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Jay Pham
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01/19/2021 11:44 am

Hello, I'm new to guitar and just subscribed for full access for one year. Tried a few first lessons from the fundamentals section, totally love it. I have a few questions here:

- How long do I need to practice per day, like 1 lesson or 2 per day, or for a specific amount of time, like 30 minutes a day?

- I know it sounds kinda rushed and silly but after the course, will I be able the write a song all by myself? Let just say a new song being released, will I have the ability to find the right chords and notes, and know how to play it by myself?

Thank you for reading my questions and sorry in advance if my words are unclear.


# 1
William MG
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William MG
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01/19/2021 2:08 pm

Hi

I love the ambition. I don't have much time but in short:

I practice an hour each morning. I forget exactly what Lisa teaches, but her courses are well worth the effort.

Songs are chords that sound good together, and luckily we have convenient tools such as "Chords in the key of"... If not here on the web.

Writing a song isn't hard, writing a hit is hard. At some point you will want to learn some theory, but I would finish Fundamentals first.

In terms of playing a song you hear, unless you have someone who has broken down the chords and strum patterns, that's tough to do by yourself. But it can be learned, the instructors here do it everyday.

In the meantime there are tools available. You might find your song here, or Ultimate Guitar or even on YouTube. Marty Schwartz (YouTube) is breaking down the latest AC DC album as we speak.

Very best of luck with your studies.


This year the diet is definitely gonna stick!

# 2
snojones
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snojones
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01/20/2021 3:56 pm

In answer to your question I would say, you should practice as many hours, or minutes as you enjoy practicing. It isn't a sprint, it is an avocation....Patient, persistant, practice... again and again, and.....

I would suggest that you read the recient forum thread titled "Playing for the fun of it". It has very good advice on how to appraoch the long term learning of any skill like musicianship.

I would also suggest you start writting songs as soon as you can manage to put a few chords together. Dont worry if your early work sucks. Bob Segar once answered Glen Fry's question about learning song writting... "What if I write a song and it sucks?" Segar answered...."Oh yeah... they are going to suck, but don't give up. If you continue to work on it, you will eventually write a good one. That is how you become a song writter"

In answer to your question I would say, you should practice as many hours, or minutes as you enjoy practicing. It isn't a sprint, it is an avocation....Patient, persistant, practice... again and again, and..... To paraphrase Lisa' sage words, "You will be able to do all you want to just as soon as your body is ready".


Captcha is a total pain in the........

# 3
Carl King
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Carl King
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01/22/2021 7:46 am

I find a reasonable amount of time to practice is a 45-minute set broken up with 15 minutes of rest (or less structured playing) if you plan to go longer. (Our brains tend to lose focus and we don't make as much progress without breaks.)

That said, if you don't have time to do more than one 45-minute set, just aim for 45 minutes. And if you can't do 45 minutes, at least practice a few minutes each day.

For the first 3 years I played it wasn't unusual for me to practice 8-12 hours a day, because I was a teenager and had nothing else to do. I was either doing scales, finger exercises, or learning songs out of magazines.

As an adult, I try to practice a couple hours at night (2 x 45 minutes sets with rest / loose playing in between). My focus lately is entirely on sight-reading, so I'm logging all my practice time and progress.

Whether you will be able to write a song by yourself after working through Guitar Fundamentals is totally variable depending on the individual. Some people can write songs knowing even less. But songwriting is a totally different process than just playing guitar.

Also, being able to hear a song and play it, that's yet another process (ear training / playing by ear). Some people can do this very quickly and some require lots of work.

The courses on GuitarTricks are more focused on playing the instrument rather than songwriting and ear-training.

-Carl.


Carl King[br]GuitarTricks Video Director / Producer

# 4
JOMJ
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JOMJ
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01/22/2021 9:25 am
Originally Posted by: Carl King

For the first 3 years I played it wasn't unusual for me to practice 8-12 hours a day, because I was a teenager and had nothing else to do. I was either doing scales, finger exercises, or learning songs out of magazines.

This is exactly why I believe (and might be a false believe) that starting young is actually very beneficial for becoming great. Because of this 8-12 hours a day as a teenager you lay down such a strong foundation. Starting out late(r) in life simply does not give you that possibility to practice that often. So it ends up being 1-2 hours a day after work (and thats a stretch!).

An counter-argument is of course that nowadays because of sites like this somebody can train way more focused and does not lose time having to unlearn stuff or having to learn stuff later in life because somebody never came to it at the younger age.

I aim to play once the kids get to bed. So that's 45 minutes. And when the wife gets back downstairs, I go to the kitchen and play some more. During the day, I pick up the guitar as often as I can justify it (since I am working from home I can't just play all day long and feel good about it lol).

So, I guess I practice around 1-2 hours a day.


"You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end, and I'd keep myself amused."

# 5
moosehockey18
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moosehockey18
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01/22/2021 7:00 pm

I usually practice about 1-2 hours per day with a short break ot two thrown in. If it`s a nasty day outside and I`m stuck indoors, I may pull a 3-4 hour stint but that`s the exception rather than the rule.


# 6
Carl King
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Carl King
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01/25/2021 9:17 am
Originally Posted by: JustOnMyJourney

An counter-argument is of course that nowadays because of sites like this somebody can train way more focused and does not lose time having to unlearn stuff or having to learn stuff later in life because somebody never came to it at the younger age.

Great point! But most of what I was doing in those days was purely physical practice, up and down the scales repeatedly. It was pretty non-musical and probably not even efficient, but it did get my strength and dexterity together. I could have learned much faster (and more useful stuff) if I had the internet or GuitarTricks way back then. :)

As a kid, you can practice forever and not get as sore or injure yourself as easily. I was only pointing it out as an extreme example, and that these days I practice nowhere near that much. At age 45 a couple of hours is a very substantial amount!

-Carl.


Carl King[br]GuitarTricks Video Director / Producer

# 7
martintaylor2002
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martintaylor2002
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01/25/2021 5:22 pm

Having gone through this with my two sons in the past 12 months, I can tell you how my boys, 17 and 15 years old, did it. They both started out a few days before Thanksgiving 2019:

- they both took private lesson twice a week, each lesson was an hour;

- they practice an hour in the morning before school starts and 2 hours after school, on weekdays,

- they practice 5 hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

Why did they want to do this? For them, dating pretty girls is the primary factor, and it is already paying handsome dividend for them. As a father, I am very happy that they pick up a new instrument, in addition to the piano. Something they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.

My advice to you is to have a goal to motivate you to practice harder everyday. That will speed up your improvement very quickly, and have the discipline to stick with it.

Best of luck to you.

P.S. they are only taking guitar lessons once a week and practice 90 minutes everyday for the past two months.

Here are some of their recordings after eight months playing guitar: https://soundcloud.com/john-mayer-138996963


# 8
yotehunter9
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yotehunter9
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02/11/2021 4:32 am

This all makes me feel as though im getting no where. Im lucky to get 20 to 30 minutes a day.


# 9
JOMJ
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JOMJ
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02/11/2021 10:33 am

- How long do I need to practice per day, like 1 lesson or 2 per day, or for a specific amount of time, like 30 minutes a day?

You don't need to do anything. I think for most people who ended up being a music professional it started as a hobby they could not let go off. And they got better and better, with time. Just see where the day takes you. Personally, my absolute minimum a day is 30 minutes. Yesterday evening I have been playing from 7 at night until 9 at night. The day before from 7 until 10.

- I know it sounds kinda rushed and silly but after the course, will I be able the write a song all by myself? Let just say a new song being released, will I have the ability to find the right chords and notes, and know how to play it by myself?

I have been writing lyrics for over 15 years now. Don't do it as often anymore. But, the hard part of it is to let the inspiration flow, let it come to you. I am not far enough in my guitar journey to have a real say in how this translate to guitar but knowing to transition for C, D to G and E minor for example, would give you the capability to make a song. Will it be your master piece? For now. Then, you look back in 10 years to your first song and you smile.


"You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end, and I'd keep myself amused."

# 10
JeffS65
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JeffS65
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02/11/2021 3:44 pm
Originally Posted by: yotehunter9

This all makes me feel as though im getting no where. Im lucky to get 20 to 30 minutes a day.

You shouldn't feel bad. Rule number one to playing guitar; enjoy what you play and how often you can play. If it's eight billion hours or twenty minutes, if you are enjoying playing or the process of learning, win!

That's the point of playing; enjoyment.

Guitar players have (a bad) history of competitiveness and comparison. It's a natural part of the human condition really. But when it comes to something you want to do just to enjoy it, it's not useful.

Like the saying goes; you do you.

If its due to time restrictions, it is what it is and you may want to maximize that time by 'micro-focusing'. That is to say, just get one little thing down in that session and work on that. I say to my wife often that small improvement is one of the most important tools in anything you do. We always feel like we're supposed to move Mount Everest when we try to learn or do something. A small victory, well done, is better than moving a mountain but not doing it very well.

Don't sweat what's said in this thread. We all have different paths.


# 11
Erik Nettekoven
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Erik Nettekoven
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02/11/2021 4:41 pm

As I had a similar question, which also got me an answer on this forum, I also searched the internet to see different views on this particular topic. In this search I found these articles to have a very interesting take on guitar practice.

- How Long to Practice Guitar: Science-Based Effective Practice

- Can You Practice Guitar Too Much?

[br]The articles explain in a very detailed and scientific way why more/longer practice isn't necessarily better.

[br]TL;DR:

according the articles

- practice sessions of 20 minutes max tend to have the best results

- and/or practice an hour a day, split up in 20 minute sessions

[br]Just like body building, resting is a very important factor of getting there. Your brain and muscle also need to get time to process everything and "memorize" it and recover. Working out for 8 hours straight, or in this case practice guitar for 8 hours straight, doesn't necessarily result in better result, or rather it doesn't as the body/mind doesn;t get the time it needs to adapt/anchor the new learned skills.

[br]And HOW you practice is also very important:

- some fiddling on your guitar for an hour while watching Netflix, you could say "I practiced for an hour today", but did you really? As you weren't really focused on the guitar practice it doesn't do as much

- 20 minutes of pure focused guitar practice, no distraction at all, works way better than the hour "practice" while watching Netflix.

[br]Just some POV's to consider.

I am currently practice twice a day, 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening and for me feels like I'm making nice progress. And as someone else mentioned: FUN is a leading factor. As I find it very FUN to play and practice I have to force myself to not practice longer, if I want to follow the things outlayed in the above articles.


# 12

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