|
By: David Taylor
Many guitarists don't have enough time to practice for long
periods of time. But if you want to progress fast, you need the
guitar in your hands as regularly as possible. It's better to practice for 10-20 minutes every day, than 4
hours on just one day of the week.Getting into a rhythm of
regularly picking up your guitar for a quick practice session is
a great habit to get into. So if you don't have enough time for a full practice session,
and you have 10-15 minutes to spare, here's some ideas for what
you should practice: Practice a chord change. Perhaps switching from an F barre chord
to a D open is causing you difficulty? If you spend just ten
minutes going over and over the change, you will increase your
ability to do it at the level you require. The key is to focus, and hone in on one skill that you can
improve in a short period of time. Work on a song you want to memorize. This will give you a chance
to actually play some music! You need to have fun in your
practice to keep you fresh and focused. Listen to a song on a CD and jam along. This is a great way to
improve your playing, and it's particularly suitable for short
practice sessions. An important part of learning guitar is to train your ear, and
jamming along to a CD is the perfect way to do it. Work on a lick you want to learn. You'd be surprised how many
times you can work through a lick in just a few short minutes.
You can also combine this practice technique with practicing
chord changes. This will improve your skills in a short period of time. Work on picking skills - do drills up and down the neck. You can
use your metronome to work on speed picking skills, or you can
slow everything right down and work on keeping your body in a
relaxed so that you develop an ease to your playing. Work up and down a scale. In ten minutes you can play through a
scale around 50-100 times. This will improve your stamina and
also help you build speed. Remember to use a metronome when you're trying to build speed
though. Because you want a smooth rhythmic sound to your speed
picking, not a struggling, hurried sound. So build up gradually. Be Creative! Play some chords in combinations that sound good to
you, or play some single note melodies. Again, this improves
your ear and you could maybe work out some parts to a song of
your own. Okay, that's all the ideas I'm going to give you for now. Use
your imagination to come up with more things you could try, and
mix it up so it doesn't get boring. Also, keep your guitar ready and set-up. Sure, it's protected
all hidden away in your case, but if it's ready for you to have
a short practice session, then you're more likely to pick it up
and practice, even if it is just for a short time. So keep that guitar out and ready to practice! You may not think these short practice sessions help much, but
doing this builds up your skills fast - and you'll surprise
yourself by how much you improve just be having the guitar in
your hands regularly. However, you don't want to solely rely on these quick practice
sessions. Like most things, you need to strike a balance. A good
way of finding that balance is to set a routine. When you have a routine, you will find it gets easier to find
the time for practice. Once you're in a habit of practicing
regularly, you'll find it harder to break out of, and that's a
good habit to have! About the author:
Find more free guitar lessons at: guitar lesson
People searching for the term "Learn To Play Guitar" found this page helpful.
| 
