Practice makes Perfect!!!

[andrew3in1]

OK, here is a really tough question. How often and how long do you practice? Come on you pros let these beginners in on your practice schedule.

I practice at least an hour a day every day, and on Wednesdays the guys I play with and I practice 3 hours.

Lets be honest here.

[jeffhx]

as long as im home im always playing my guitar...maybe 5 minutes off for a smoke but yeah...

[ren]

Just practice? approx. 2 hours a day in the woodshed each week day, and about 3 hours each day on the weekends. I play everyday without fail, and have done for years.

All in, with teaching / gigs / sessions it's probably more like 26 hours a week of some kind of guitar playing plus another 4 hours of theory or other side issue which is related, but not actually guitar in hand... I'm trying to improve my sight reading... :D

I'm not perfect though!

[Akira]

Well, my practice time has reduced with the onset of tendon problems.

Pre-tendon problems I was doing about 25 - 30 hours a week.

Now I'm doing about 20 at most.

It's not how much you practice, it's what and how you practice, i'm learning that now.

[magicninja]

I don't practice as much as I used to. I play about a half hour to an hour a day. Then, if I'm up to recording something I can stay on it for about 4 hours. After that I won't play for a few days lest I end up like Akira. :( Take his advice and work on quality practice instead of logging hours.

[alucard0941]

True, there is only a certain amount of physical playing you can learn in one day. 5 or 6 hours of learning to sweep is not going to benefit more than 2 hours.

I usually play about 2 or 3 hours a day, and practice, jam, or fool around in that timespan.

[lilifield]

I've had my guitar about a month. I practice every day about 30 min to an hour because that's all I have time for during the summer. In winter I'll have much more time because we're snowed in most of the season. I finally got calluses and my practice has improved soooo much!! What a difference it makes when you can play without pain!

Just wanted to share something that my instructor told me that might help other beginner players, like me.

He said when you practice slow everything down into slow motion. Like, if your instincts tell you to strum and reach at whatever speed, slow it down more than you think you should. Because you are programming your brain to remember these little details like not hitting other strings when your reaching for a chord etc. Then, when your brain is completely programmed and you have really learned the basic chords speed will come naturally to you and you will automatically play faster *without making common mistakes*. He also said *not* to practice more than an hour a day because you can overwork your brain (I know this must be sounding hysterical by now... but), but if you have this huge need to practice more than that take a lot of breaks in between to refocus when you get back to it.

It's really helped me a lot to know little things like that, so I pass it onto you. :)

[jimmy_kwtx]

I come from the school of Quality vs. Quantity.

When I first started playing I would practice/play/noodle day in day out whenevfer I had a free moment.

Now I try to get 30 minutes of focused practice and then I noodle/woodshed the rest of the time when I can.

When things are busy etc I tend to not play at all.

[Mark Pav]

I have days where I don't practice at all. I suppose on average I play about 1/2 an hour per day, but ideally I'd put in 3 hours per day.