Originally Posted by: fletchkov1970

Hi there, I'm Pete Fletcher from the south coast of England . So, at the tender age of 50 , I've decided to have a crack at learning the guitar! I've had a guitar ( Washburn electric acoustic) for a while but it's just gathering dust, so , what with this crappy virus and being temporarily laid off work ( we are are in super lockdown here!) I'm determined to win this thing over. [br]I know it won't be easy, but I'm reasonably adaptable.

so far I've started the beginners course and I was wondering on how long I should practice for every day. I was thinking maybe two hours a day ? I've still not perfected the fret board ( as far as bumping into other strings are concerned!) The sore tops of my fingers are maybe ( initially) telling me otherwise. What would you guys recommend? [br]any encouragement will be gladly accepted. ![br][br]

Pete

The question boils down to how you progress. Many new players want to progress quickly. What you really want to do is progress naturally.

What does that mean?

When I read that players want to practice hours a day, while I understand the excitment of wanting to get better and that this is the natural outgrowth of a new guitar player in the new player 'honeymoon period', it can also create frustration once that honeymoon shine wears off. If you push too hard, the shine will wear off. Trust me. I've seen it so many times.

How do you avoid the shine wearing off, you ask?

That's where the 'naturally' thing comes in to play.

Don't measure your progress by the time you spend practicing. It's a false measurement and maton is right on the money that the more you practice, the better you get but is also correct in saying that eventually you get diminishing returns. That's right on the money.

Still, what is 'naturally'?

Don't measure by time. It will fail you and make you frustrated. Measure yourself by what you can accomplish not by how long you try. As you go through the lessons, set those small goals. Focus and acheive that small goal. It might be a single chord change from a D to an A. That's it. You're actually accomplishing something other than how many minutes are ticking off an arbitrary practice time.

This also allows you to stop when your fingers are a bit tender. All those song lyric references and guitar players that say they played until their fingers bled? Garbage. Pure garbage. If you play until you get fingertip blisters, you won't be playing tomorrow or for several days.

It's better to practice is small incremental chunks even if it's a couple of smaller sessions a day than to push your fingers and your ability to acheive in an unnatural way.

This isn't revolutionary but I've seen so many players over the years fall in to the trap that they have to practice all day and it drives many to quit. You don't have to block time per se. You do have to dedicate chunks of time to practicing, that's true. It's a matter of how you decide to structure that to maximize that time and iimprovement.

Also, if your practice is based on getting a specific discipline down, you are really adding building blocks to your overall skill.

This is also very important; thinking in terms of smaller building blocks is a skill you will use for as long as you play guitar. If I want to learn a new song or technique, I break it in to small chunks. I've been playing for 38-odd years and it's always how I've done it. For me, it works.

What you do now will help you in the future and likely you won't always be able to dedicate hours to practice and by structuring by progress and not time, will better serve you when your employment situation changes. You'll still be able to grow using the same tools you start with now.

My thoughts.