How To Stay Motivated To Practice Guitar Everyday
One of the hardest things to do when it comes to learning guitar is, how to stay motivated to practice guitar every day. Practicing here is fine, but daily is the objective.
One of the reasons is that today we have so many things to grab our attention. Google, YouTube, cable television, friends, family, etc. So we need to focus & use all we can to stay motivated to practice daily consistently.
Here are 10 Tips For Staying Motivated To Practice Daily.
1.) Get a new piece of gear. This can spark some inspiration in your playing.
A new piece of guitar gear (a new guitar, amp, or pedal) can always spark inspiration and help you to get motivated to play more. So look around and see what kind of new gear might help you to take your playing to the next level.
2.) Listen to new songs you like & try to learn them. Make them a bit harder than the last few songs you learned.
Learning songs is a great way to get better. And if you want to get better, learn to play them with the recording. This helps in many different ways. It helps to improve your timing and helps your ear training to hear the other instruments.
This also helps you to understand how songs are constructed, by studying your favorite songs’ blueprint. Then you take these ideas and put them into your songs.
3.) Play with others. This can help create new ideas & ways of approaching the instrument.
Playing guitar with other people can spark new ideas and ways of looking at the instrument. This is because everyone approaches the instrument differently. It also can be a lot of fun to play with like-minded people. This can help you to get better as well.
4.) Work on flexibility in your practice routine. This can help you get out of a rut if you are too scheduled.
A good solid practice routine can make a world of difference in your playing and desire to get better. Most times this is where people fail to progress. They work on a little of this and a little of that without any direction.
This type of approach creates slow results and half-hazard performance habits. By staying focused on things you are good at as well as what needs improving, you can stay motivated to play more.
5.) Learn a new style of guitar playing. If you are into rock, learn some jazz or country.
Sometimes we get bored with what we know and this keeps us from progressing forward. One way to cure this is to try to learn a different style of music that you’re not used to playing. The reason why this can make you better is that different music genres use different types of chords and scales.
This might be things that you are not familiar with and if so, it will get you thinking about the guitar from a different perspective. This will give you new ways of doing things.
6.) Create a positive practice environment. A place that welcomes you home.
Having the proper place to study and practice can help your playing. The reason for this is that it helps keep your mind focused and your body motivated to pick up the guitar and play it.
It keeps you inspired to study new concepts and get better at certain techniques you are already familiar with. This can be a huge benefit to your playing.
7.) Create a purpose. Why is it you’re doing what you are doing with the guitar?
This can speed up the learning process. The reason is that you are a laser beam focused on what you wish to accomplish. You have a guitar goal in mind and you are intent on doing what it takes to achieve it.
Believe it or not, most people don’t have this. They just learn a little this and a little that and wonder why they don’t get anywhere. It is because they don’t know why they are learning the guitar and what they hope to accomplish. When you have that, you get there faster.
8.) Find like-minded people. To bounce ideas off of and network.
This kind of goes with what I said in number three. The more you get around others like yourself, the more you immerse yourself in guitar playing. The more you’re inspired to pick up your guitar and play it.
Go check out bands at the local club, or join a guitar club. No matter how you do it, get involved with others like you and you’ll see how this can help you stay motivated to practice daily.
9.) Divide up your practice time. To get more done with more focus.
When you practice, you want to divide it into sections. Concepts and techniques that you know and concepts and techniques you still need to learn. Like Jim Morrison said, “There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the doors”.
It is these doors that you want to go through to get better. A common mistake that many players make is to just work on what they know and not work on what they don’t know. You must go through the “doors” to get better.
10.) Hold yourself accountable. You’ve got to be a self-starter to get it done. Only you can make your dreams come true. So get after it & never look back.
Remember, the only one that can make your dream of becoming a successful guitar player is you. You have to do the work, You have to show up, get started, and take action! They are your dreams.
No matter where you are today on your guitar journey, giving up is not an option! So don’t even think of it. Just keep pushing forward. There are many ways to get better, you just need to find what is best.
If you practice even half of these things on your journey to getting better at playing guitar, you’ll come out way ahead of most.
Lesson Conclusion
Do all that is taught in this lesson and I guarantee you that you will see some great results. But you must be consistent in your efforts. Work at mastering your craft every day.
If you feel you could use some more help, be sure to check out the guitar books that I have authored and published on Amazon.
to help you stay inspired and improve your playing. And if you have any questions, just reach out.
Best of luck,
Dwayne Jenkins
