I get a lot of questions on this site about “how long do I need to practice to get good at the guitar” or “how long before I can master the guitar”.
Everyone wants to know how much time they need to invest.
I get it.
So, here’s my perspective as a “professional”.
First, here’s how I define a professional guitar player:
- Some aspect of my job involves playing the guitar
- I get paid some amount of money to play the guitar
Good? Ok.
Here’s how much I practice….
Everyday. Between 2 minutes and 200 minutes.
That’s your short answer.
Here’s the long answer…
What I actually do:
- Practice at Home
- Prepare for Music Lessons
- Teach Music Lessons
- Practice with my Band
- Perform with my Band
- Play other instruments
- Songwriting
The time it takes to do all of this varies from day to day and week to week.
A note about Playing vs Practicing: Playing the guitar can mean anything that has to do with getting your hands on a guitar and playing music. It can be mindless or focused and there needn’t be a real goal. Practicing the guitar can also be mindless or focused, but there MUST be a goal. When you’re practicing you are working on a specific task/technique/song with the aim of improving.
For the purpose of this discussion, I’m going to use the terms playing and practicing interchangeably. Usually I like to differentiate between the two, but here I’m really just talking about how often I get my hands on the guitar.
Practice at Home
This is what most people think of when they think of practice:
Sitting at home. Maybe at the dining room table, maybe in the office or on the bed.
Got the computer or songbook in front of them.
Trying to switch chords, learn a scale.
Diligently they sit there for 30 minutes.
They practice hard.
They do it every day.
And at some point… *SNAP* they become a guitar player!
Maybe that’s how it works for some of you, but for me, it’s more like….
Sitting at home.
Watching TV.
I think: Hey I should practice guitar!
Continue watching TV.
Or to be truly accurate… here’s what home-based guitar practicing looks like for me:
I think: Hey I need to do the dishes, fold the laundry, do homework, email my clients, make dinner, exercise, get my life together!
But instead, I pick up guitar and ignore all of those other things.
It’s true.
Playing the guitar is slightly more involved than watching TV and slightly less involved than all the other chores I need to do.
Most of my guitar practice comes sporadically and spontaneously.
I’ll randomly think of a song that I’d like to learn, then I’ll look it up online (usually ulitmate-guitar.com), I’ll spend 5 -10 minutes learning it (depending on the difficulty).
Sometimes I’ll fall down the song-learning rabbit-hole.
I’ll go online to learn one song and end up playing for 90 minutes and learning a ton of new songs.
My self-motivated in-home guitar practice is NEVER scheduled, and NOT CONSISTENT.
While this method of practice is fun and easy – it is not recommended if you’re interested in becoming a better guitar player any time soon. It will take a long time to improve.
Prepare for Music Lessons
Here’s my confession: When I first started teaching guitar, I wasn’t very good. My theory knowledge was weak, I couldn’t solo (outside of a pentatonic scale), I could do most A or E shaped bar chords. I knew a few licks and solos, but nothing outrageous.
I was pretty good at fingerpicking.
I could sing and play pretty well.
But that’s about it.
I was still miles better than a complete novice… and I was (and am) a pretty good teacher. I can empathize, be patient, articulate new concepts, and most of all…. make the lessons fun. That’s how I was able to stay in business… not because of my super-shredding guitar skills.
That was 10 years ago. Since then, I’ve become a MUCH better guitar player.
I feel comfortable with theory, improvisation, scales, chords, solos. I still have weak spots (jazz and classical), but I’ve improved more in the past few years because I had to.
As my students improved, I needed to get better. This meant that I needed to spend time learning new songs, skills, and techniques so I could impart the knowledge to my students.
My students made me a better player.
This forced me to take the time to sit down and practice. I still never really scheduled a practice session. But I would sit for focused periods of time (an hour or so) and really worked on learning new things.
I also worked on learning new STYLES and GENRES. This really helped expand my skill set. I was learning songs that I never would have done on my own. Breaking out of your comfort zone will do wonders.
It wasn’t until I started teaching music that I became way better, more disciplined, and actually (really) practiced.
You don’t have to become a guitar teacher in order to get better… but you do have to have a specific focus and a little discipline.
Teach Music Lessons
I spend a decent amount of time each week teaching lessons (maybe 5-10 hours depending on the week).
This is student time. Time to focus on the student’s learning.
That doesn’t mean I’m not sitting there with them playing along.
Even for beginner students, I’m still getting playing time in.
For example: I’ll have a total beginner strum a G chord to a steady bean (80 BPMs). Meanwhile I’ll jam along with them. It’s fun and productive for both of us.
For more advanced students the process is similar, just using more advanced techniques.
Just another example of time spent with my fingers on the guitar.
Practice with my Band
Every two weeks I meet with my band and we practice.
We’re mostly just learning new songs and working them out together.
Usually we all know the songs ahead of time.
Usually (if we’re good about it) we have practiced the songs on our own (ahead of time). We are busy grown ups so this isn’t always the case.
Band practice usually runs for about 3 hours every other week. That is 3 hours of focused work. We’re trying new things, we’re having fun, and we’re playing music.
So yes – I definitely count band practice as practice time.
Perform with my Band
The band i’m in right now plays gigs once every few weeks. It’s about all we can handle as far as schedules go – most of the band (aside from me) has normal boring grown-up jobs.
Our gigs run anywhere between 2-4 hours. And at this point the gigs are kind of like a more structured practice session.
We’re still having fun. But we’re honing, tweaking, and repeating patterns, chords, melodies, riffs, and so forth.
It doesn’t feel like practice, but we improve with each gig… so I’m counting it as practice time.
Play other instruments
In addition to guitar I’ve started to pick up the mandolin (hence the Yoda photo at the top of this page… I told you it would make sense).
I can also play bass, ukulele, and muddle through some chords on the piano.
I’m bad at drums and even worse at violin but I can make music out of them.
I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the saxophone.
All of this is to say that even just a little practice with other instruments can make me a better musician – and in turn – a better guitarist.
I learn to see and hear things from a different perspective. It lets me appreciate the guitar skills I’ve developed over the years.
I don’t play this other instruments that much, but any little bit helps.
Songwriting
This might be my favorite kind of practice.
For me songwriting is this incredible combination of creation, therapy, and physical work.
The creative and therapeutic aspects of coming up with a melody, lyric, rhythm or rhyme to match my mood or intention is so difficult to describe.
I’ll just say that it is satisfying – both the process and the result.
The physical aspect of playing a song of my own creation is satisfaction on another level. I mean, imagine having your hands and voice produce something that didn’t previously exist. I feel power in that.
Maybe that’s why I keep writing songs.
Side note: If you want to hear some of the songs I’ve written you can check me out on Spotify, iTunes, or Soundcloud.
So What Should You Do?
Now you know my crazy and inconsistent playing schedule.
Hopefully this sheds just a tiny little bit of light on the life of someone who makes their living with guitar.
It’s sketchy and unplanned mostly.
It’s VERY disorganized (despite my best attempts to get my life together).
What can you take away from this?
Well… first of all I hope you will be easier on yourself when you find yourself NOT practicing.
But really….
If you want to get really good, really fast: You need to get on a schedule or routine, practice every day for at least an hour, and you probably should take lessons with a good teacher, follow a focused program, and pick a specific goal.
If you want to actually have fun and get good on your own time: Just do what works for you. Don’t schedule practice time unless you need to. Try to find 3 or 4 songs you’d like to learn and get to work on them. See if there are any friends who play music who would like to play with you. Or do what I did (and sill do), use guitar as a distraction from all the things in life you should be doing.
Most of us think we want to be in that first group (get good really fast). But we usually fall in the second group (have fun, play music).
Or more accurately: You are probably some combination of the groups above. And that’s ok too.
Let me know what you think! Feel free to leave a comment below – tell me if you agree/disagree or have any practice tips – thanks!