How Much Time Do You Put Into Practice? (guitar)

[Guest XplsvBam]

I just started playing guitar yesturday. My fingers are hurting like crazy but for some reason I can't stop practicing, I enjoy it so much. I've tried learning guitar before but met some rode blocks (e.g. I didn't have a guitar). I have alot of skill when it comes to video games so I decided to take all my video game time into something that I would enjoy more. Looks like guitar is it baby.

 

 

 

The reason why I decided to start practicing again is because I've been having dreams about learning the guitar for the past week every night.

 

 

 

But lets get down to business... How much time do you put in to practicing your guitar or instrument?

 

 

 

(please no discourging remarks regarding that I've only been doing it for a day how do I know I like it. I just do.)

[thexanator_2]

Ummm well during the summer I usually played guitar 3-4 hours a day, or around there depending on what I was doing that day.

 

 

 

But now during the school year, I usually get an hour or two in there between homework and hanging out with friends and family and stuff.

[Guest XplsvBam]

Ummm well during the summer I usually played guitar 3-4 hours a day, or around there depending on what I was doing that day.

 

 

 

But now during the school year, I usually get an hour or two in there between homework and hanging out with friends and family and stuff.

does the pracitce seem to be paying off a bit? are you really good at guitar? how long have you been playing?

[Evadek]

don't force yourself to practice, practice because you want enjoyment from it. I never set hours, I just play, many times i've played till the early hours of the morning

[Guest XplsvBam]

don't force yourself to practice, practice because you want enjoyment from it. I never set hours, I just play, many times i've played till the early hours of the morning

I dont force my self. I just start practicing when I feel like it. Although since I'm starting out I do try to force my self to get some lessons done each day.

[zach312]

I don't really call what I do "practicing", I just go look at a tab for a song I want to play and try it out. Then I just keep playing that song many times until I can do it without reading the tablature. Afterwards I just revisit other songs I know. Technique practice FTL (except artificial harmonics :twisted: ).

 

 

 

Been playing for about a year now and I must say I'm not all that bad.

[insane]

I don't really call what I do "practicing", I just go look at a tab for a song I want to play and try it out. Then I just keep playing that song many times until I can do it without reading the tablature.

 

 

 

That's how I did for the first four years.

 

 

 

Now I just improvise blues licks - it's something I can do for five minutes, for over an hour at a time.

 

 

 

I wouldn't exactly call it practising, but I am definitely seeing (positive) results from all the playing.

 

 

 

I generally play around half an hour a day only. But that's every day (almost without fail), for the last five years. My longest dry spell couldn't be longer than a week.

[Iantiger]

I've started to play more frequently. I usually get in a little bit of practice every day, although it's not really practice, I just find some Guitar Pro tabs on the internet and try to play along to the easier bits!

 

 

 

I also sometimes just randomly pick up my guitar whilst I'm yew cutting or something in game, and try out some chord progressions, or right now I'm trying to learn Barre chords but they hurt my first finger like hell so every day I'll keep trying and one day I'll get the hang of it - that's how I learned to do normal chords anyway!

 

 

 

~Ian

[Poopingman]

Keep at it! I play keyboard, but practice is practice, doesn't matter what instrument. When I first started I just looked up extremely difficult stuff, and practiced for days until I could do it. After that, everything else seemed easy.

[Ragen]

I usually 'practice' between half an hour and three hours every day. I've got a set of songs that I play through and I'm aways learning more. Get a band your interested in and learn all their music. :D Don't jump in at the deep end though and try something crazy difficult.

[Guest XplsvBam]

is playing with blisters a bad idea when just starting out playing guitar to toughen up your fingers? because my fingers hurt alot but the enjoyment I'm getting from playing out weighs the pain. should I give my fingers a break?

[Iantiger]

You should DEFINITELY stop playing when you start to notice blisters. If you play excessively you're only putting your own fingers at risk. When your fingers start hurting stop playing immediately and give them at least an hour to cool down. If they still hurt, then it's best to wait until the next day. Also, if you play excessively you're at risk of RSI (repetitive strain injury) - even some professional guitar players have had their entire careers destroyed because they played so much without paying attention to the pain and developed severe pains in their wrist (RSI) - and in some cases this is irreversible damage.

 

 

 

~Ian

[Azvareth]

It varies from day to day. Some days I can play 3-4 hours (usually not uninterruptedly; I usually play maybe one hour, then put the guitar away only to pick it up a few hours later and play another two hours etc.), and some days only half an hour to one hour. Depends how "good" I'm playing that day (some days are good guitar days, while other days my playing is simply terrible).

 

I try to pick it up at least once a day though.

[dread_rasta]

Depends how "good" I'm playing that day (some days are good guitar days, while other days my playing is simply terrible).

 

Same here. In certain days guitar playing can seem like the last thing I want to do and some days i can play for up to six hours without pauses and still lust for more. It also varies on what i'm playing. if it's a tough lick I will spend more time to master it but with easy stuff i just glance at the notes and play it out. the more challenging it is, the more rewarding.

[Verminox]

Make sure you do alternate picking, and dont get into the habit of picking down-down, pick down-up-down etc.

[woopidoo2]

In the early years, I didnt practice much, those simple songs were boring, and easy.

 

But now I usually practice every day, I like playing guitar more then ever.

 

 

 

a tip, start doing chords when you can read and play (notes?) accurate. :wink:

[Guest XplsvBam]

In the early years, I didnt practice much, those simple songs were boring, and easy.

 

But now I usually practice every day, I like playing guitar more then ever.

 

 

 

a tip, start doing chords when you can read and play (notes?) accurate. :wink:

the lessons I'm using now started out with chords.

 

 

 

the lessons are pretty good. just started lesson 2 (suppose to practice each lesson a week before moving on) and they already have me doing some good strumming patterns. 6 chords in the memory bank thus for, pretty good for only playing for 5 days. My fingers are toughening up pretty fast. Give them another day or 2 and they will be invincible.

 

 

 

guitar ftw.

[assassin_696]

Depends.

 

 

 

When I used to have lessons on the classical and did the whole grade thing I was "supposed" to practice at least 30 mins a day, but because the music wasn't that inspiring and i felt pressured to practice I rarely did.

 

 

 

Now that i've stopped lessons on the classical and mainly play the electric I play a lot more. If i'm learning something new, or trying to find something new it might be a few hours a day, if i'm just going through my base repetoire to keep my skills going maybe only half an hour a day. Somedays I don't play at all if i'm busy, but i'll normally pick it up once a day at least.

[Iantiger]

I've mastered the basic 9 chords, changing between them reasonably fast - although that F Major is a tough cookie. Yesterday I spent a long time learning the bassline to Muse - Hysteria and now I can play it at almost 2/3 the speed.

 

 

 

I've recently started to learn Barre and Power chords, can anyone give me tips for changing quickly between those? Because I'm finding it very hard to get my fingers into position (particularly stretching my third and fourth fingers across a fret during a power chord).

 

 

 

~Ian

[Guest XplsvBam]

I've mastered the basic 9 chords, changing between them reasonably fast - although that F Major is a tough cookie. Yesterday I spent a long time learning the bassline to Muse - Hysteria and now I can play it at almost 2/3 the speed.

 

 

 

I've recently started to learn Barre and Power chords, can anyone give me tips for changing quickly between those? Because I'm finding it very hard to get my fingers into position (particularly stretching my third and fourth fingers across a fret during a power chord).

 

 

 

~Ian

How long did it take you to master the basic 9 chords? I think its going to take me a month to 'master' them. Is that reasonable?

[Iantiger]

Well I've owned my guitar for a couple of years now, but only really picked it up very rarely, playing for several days nonstop, and then forgetting all about it for half a year or more - talk about inconsistent! So I suppose in all it took about a month of practice (30 days of actually using the guitar), playing chords over and over again - and I've reached a decent level. Although I'd like to learn to move between chords even faster given time.

 

 

 

I used the lessons on http://guitar.about.com - they're written by a guy called Dan Brown, and paced out very nicely, introducing new chords, strumming patterns, scales and songs each lesson. It's recommended you spend about a week on each lesson, but really that depends on how much you practice.

 

 

 

Unfortunately a lot of the songs that the site uses are stored on OLGA (online guitar archive) which is down at the moment resolving legal issues.

 

 

 

~Ian

[Guest XplsvBam]

Well I've owned my guitar for a couple of years now, but only really picked it up very rarely, playing for several days nonstop, and then forgetting all about it for half a year or more - talk about inconsistent! So I suppose in all it took about a month of practice (30 days of actually using the guitar), playing chords over and over again - and I've reached a decent level. Although I'd like to learn to move between chords even faster given time.

 

 

 

I used the lessons on http://guitar.about.com - they're written by a guy called Dan Brown, and paced out very nicely, introducing new chords, strumming patterns, scales and songs each lesson. It's recommended you spend about a week on each lesson, but really that depends on how much you practice.

 

 

 

Unfortunately a lot of the songs that the site uses are stored on OLGA (online guitar archive) which is down at the moment resolving legal issues.

 

 

 

~Ian

Haha, wow this is the same site I've been using for the past week. Google is a lovely thing.

[Make7upu101]

I've mastered the basic 9 chords, changing between them reasonably fast - although that F Major is a tough cookie. Yesterday I spent a long time learning the bassline to Muse - Hysteria and now I can play it at almost 2/3 the speed.

 

 

 

I've recently started to learn Barre and Power chords, can anyone give me tips for changing quickly between those? Because I'm finding it very hard to get my fingers into position (particularly stretching my third and fourth fingers across a fret during a power chord).

 

 

 

~Ian

 

 

 

I'm not sure what your problem is with changing from a barre chord to a power chord is. I'm not huge on music theory but from what I know (and do) from just playing with kids is do a (lets say A) barre chord covering at least the whole fith fret. Lift up your middle finger and just play the e, a, and d strings to make an A power chord.

 

 

 

I hope that made sense. Looking over it it sort of even confused me. Ask for more detail if you need.

 

 

 

edit- just realized for that type of chord you don't even need to lift up your middle finger. The top 3 strings make up the power chord.

[LordChocobot]

Not as much as I should. I've only been playing 4-5 hours a week, if that. Like Azvy said, some days are good playing days, while others are just :wall: . I'm in the mediocre range of playing at the moment; I can play some simple Children Of Bodom riffs, but not the solos and sweeping sections yet :(.

[Iantiger]

I just got a guitar book from Amazon titled "Speed Mechanics for the Lead Guitar" - I've had a quick flick through, and when I'm done with my current book ("Guitar For Dummies"), I'm going to move onto it. It's gotten some rave reviews at Amazon, and from the look through that I had, it looks very impressive. Might be worth checking out. It's under ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã10 too.

 

 

 

~Ian