Best approaches for a beginner to practicing.

One piece of advice I give to all my students, whether they ask me or not, is how best to approach to practicing at home in between weekly lessons. I’ve learnt that from years and years of practise myself and also feedback from hundreds of students, that when you’re starting out don’t treat guitar practise like you would treat going to the gym, that is in one hour chunks that you have to take out of your day that are a kind of inconvenience to you, but rather in brief 5 -20 minute spurts across your day, much like reading a book or browsing the internet. To look at it another way, you don’t want guitar practise to be a chore that requires motivation and willpower. You really want it to be enjoyable experience that actually becomes a healthy low-level addiction where you always kind of look forward to picking up the instrument and noodling around on it.

Here’s an approach that I suggest you do to avoid general practice malaise! When arriving home from your lesson don’t place your guitar in a cupboard or under your bed, but rather keep the guitar sitting out in a room that you spend most of your time in, let’s say the lounge room. That way there will be more of a tendency to pick it up and noodle around on it while you’re watching TV, or reading a book or doing whatever. Even if you only pick it up for 5-10 minutes at a time, when done a few times per day/night that can add up to 15 – 30 minutes practice per day, multiply that by 5-7 times a week and it adds up to a very sufficient week of practice indeed.

Let me know how you go with that approach guys! More blogs in the works!…chat soon.

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