As a you boy I had a lot of interests at the same time. Reading, sporting, playing piano, playing chess, a lot of more things and, of course, playing guitar.
I developed a habit to always have my guitar laying on my bed. Always as I walked into my room my guitar was laying there waiting for me. It was very easy to sit down on my bed starting to play because of two facts:
1. I could see the guitar as I walked into my room which immediately reminded me of how fun it is to play.
2. The guitar was easily accessible. The only thing I had to do in order to play the guitar was to grab it and start playing.
This made it possible for me to play a lot on my guitar in spite of all other activities. All other things I did was interwoven with my guitar playing and my musical experiences connected with it.
This way of working with my guitar was not a conscious plan to maintain energy and motivation to practice. It just happened to be that way. These moments with my guitar became a part of my personal development.
When I sat there playing guitar I also had time to digest life as it proceeded. It way a form of meditation because as I played on my guitar I allowed my mind at times to wander and I remember that some important decisions in life were made as I sat there playing.
Enough talk about myself! What can you learn from my experiences?
Let's apply my experiences to the art of learning to play guitar and see if we can find principles that are applicable to all guitar players.
Here are some thoughts and suggestions:
1. See to it that you have your guitar as accessible as you dare to. It will be a reminder for you that playing guitar is fun. I have sometimes reminded my guitar students to pull out the guitar from the hard case or gigbag as soon as they come home from the lesson and start to play something connected with their homework. Otherwise there is an imminent risk that they will not open the case until the next lesson is at hand.
This is how humans often react. If it is a little effort involved in starting to do something we want to do there is a risk that we will procrastinate the activity until it is too late.
2. If you have set goals or have homework to do on your guitar I recommend that you also have these sheets or written down goals handy. No use to have goals if you are not reminded of them on a daily basis.
To facilitate all things that can be facilitated is one way to accomplish more of the important things in life including playing guitar.
When I started to play guitar I usually had my guitar laying on my bed so I saw it as soon as I entered my room. This made it impossible to forget playing guitar. Actually I liked it so I often took time to play short moments between other activities or when I got really inspired maybe playing for hours.
Maybe this can not be defined as actual practice time. I just played around but anyway I developed as a guitarist. Later on my guitar playing endeavors became more serious and I practiced with more concentration and purposefulness.
Let us talk about the more dreaded organized guitar practicing time!
I guess most people have experienced that they get better if they practice. You shape the physical facilities helping you to play the music you like. You can also develop your mental, emotional and spiritual capabilities depending on the way you practice.
But if you lack self-discipline?
Self-discipline is defined as the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you want it or not. It is something you can develop but there is one requisite. You must want to develop it.
Before you actually can develop self-discipline you have to set some goals. This is not so complicated actually. It is for example the act of thinking about why you are playing guitar, what you want to become as a guitarist and writing this done. When the wishes of your heart has become goals by being written down you can exercise self-discipline enough to accomplish the tasks that leads to your goal.
This long-term goal is a great help for you to find out what you should practice on right now. The things to practice on a weekly or daily basis are often referred to as you short-term goals. If you base you short-term goals on your long-term goals you will always have the confidence that you practice the things you have decided are most important to you.
Actually there are many guitar pupils who practice while they are doing other things like watching TV, eating, talking to people, etc. Maybe this type of practice is more like playing things you have learned already.
Your actual practice time will help you learn completely new things in the most favorable setting. This means for example:
1. A place without distractions. No sounds, TV or other things that can tempt your self-discipline.
2. A place with enough light to help you read sheet music, tablature or other things you are to practice.
3. A place with the necessary equipment. Of course your guitar and music books, music stand, paper and pencil, manuscript paper and most important, your written out long-term goals and short-term goals.
There are many things you probably wish and need to practice on a daily basis like improvising, scales, arpeggios, sight reading, composing and more. If you create a routine for the things you want to practice every day you will not have to worry over what to practice.
When your routine has become a habit you will find it much easier and enjoyable to practice. As you keep working on the same exercises over an extended period of time you will also be able to see progress and become more motivated.
I would like to testify that working with concentration on things you need to practice is a very enjoyable experience. It consists of the satisfaction of knowing that you are working at the best of your ability on things you like the most and seeing that you are actually on the way towards your goal.
Peter Edvinsson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Programming and Guide Guitar. Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your , guitar tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his. Peter Edvinsson's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.