Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Community.
Practicing
How much hours needed per day in practicing session in order to be a pro guitarist. Practice make perfect but how much? That's the question. Good luck!
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Kathy Moore on -
I think it’s more important to practice efficiently than to practice for a long period of time. Every activity that we do puts wear and tear on the body. Any bad habits we build add to the stress on our joints -the sloping of our back- the strain in our eyes. Rather than building sloppy habits and carpel tunnel, we should think of what our goal is for a given practice. Is it to execute a passage perfectly? Is it to expand our ear training? One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately when I practice, would I put this on a recording? I try to work on an idea until it is recording quality. Steve Vai might practice 8 hours a day, but he may be one of those unique individuals who has strong muscular support around the joints of his fingers, wrists and hands. Who knows? I teach yoga as well as music and I see the danger of people over doing poses because they are naturally gifted at back bends or forward extensions. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
-
Permalink Reply by Jamie Marie Andreas on -
Hi Ghislain,
I specialize in teaching people how to practice. If you do not know how to practice correctly, which means you practice incorrectly, then, your incorrect practice does make you better--at playing badly!
1/2 an hour of correct practice is better than 100 hours of bad practice (which means practice where only tension and unbalanced muscle exertions are being produced and built into the body and mind).
Anyone who wants to be professional must, first of all, know how to practice correctly, or there is no growth.
Generally speaking, to be an all around competent guitarist, you must put in at least 4 hours a day in your early development. In practical terms, though, it depends on your chosen style. If you want to be a rocker, it is more important to get in a band and gig, and develop your chops around band requirements.
-
Permalink Reply by Old Man Arthur on
-
I read somewhere that Eddie Van Halen practices 5 hours a day. (Or was that Yngwie Malsteem?)
I 'play' alot... Unfortunately this is probably not necessarily productive practice. I live in One Room. I am sitting in front of a computer and a TV... I currently have a 12-string to my right, an Adamas 6-string to my left, and an electric Viper alittle further away.
But when I play during commercials, I usually play songs that I know well and are easy to play. So this is Not Productive Practice. Just going through my Neil Young repertoire. I really need to find some finger-picking patterns and practice them.
-
Permalink Reply by Bob DeVellis on -
Actually, the question has an answer. Converging lines of evidence indicate that about 10,000 hours is necessary to be a world-class musician or, for that matter, to have world-class skill at any endeavor. Studies of both professional and amateur musicians support this contention. Daniel Levitin in his wonderful book, This is your brain on music and Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers both discuss this. Gladwell argues that "talent" amounts to the motivation to practice. So, take 10,000, divide it by the number of days you figure you have left, and you've got a rough answer.
The flip side is that becoming world class involves a pretty substantial opportunity cost. You can do a lot -- and accomplish a lot -- if you devote 10,000 hours to it. 10,000 hours is equivalent to about 10 hours a week for 20 years or 20 hours a week for 10 years. You can get an advanced education or do a lot of other worthwhile things in that amount of committed time. So, those of us who choose music and decide to pursue it to a level of real excellence are potentially giving up a lot. Most of us feel that it's a worthwhile trade, I suspect.
-
Permalink Reply by Will Katz on -
Wow...I love this thread. I've been thinking about this a lot.
After a divorce last year, I started playing quite a bit more than I had in years. I'd guess that I spend an hour or two most days playing. Seems like I spend most of my time:
1) brushing up my repertoire, either playing songs I play a lot or trying to dust off my song archive.
2) learning something new, which typically means experimenting with new (cover) songs to see how well they will "fit" me.
3) writing music
This has suited me reasonably well, but I would LOVE to develop some kind of practice regimen that will focus on progressing. When athletes train, they focus on progressive overload. They can measure their progress by whether they are faster or stronger or more precise. I'm having a hard time putting this together, though, because there is SO much I want to do that I can't possibly encapsulate it all.
-
Permalink Reply by ZHMMY HARPER on -
IMHO, 3 hours per day, 7 days per week.
-Zhmmy
-
Permalink Reply by asfdsf on -
I've just bought myself a flat steel string acoustic. I've never learnt how to play the guitar but I'm self teaching myself, I'm regularly on youtube and other guitar websites to educate myself further about how to play. Right now, I know chords, but I can't keep up in speed, I'm poor at strumming and my finger placement is causing the sound to come out way wrong ! People are telling me it'll get better in time and patience and perserverence is what I need but to be honest, I feel like Im going no where. IS THERE ANY ADVICE FOR ME? or must I go learn, because I know people who are self taught guitarist. Please let me know ! thankss
Destiny
-
Permalink Reply by John Gundrum on -
When playing you want to minimize movement. What I see sometimes when students are changing chords is they are lifting their fingers so far off the fingerboard that it like they are starting completely from scratch. You have to think about connecting each chord.
There are many times when you do not have to lift a finger or fingers off the fretboard because the next chord is sharing the same finger. What you want to do is minimize the movement of fingers between chords to avoid what I call, "the reset". The "reset" is where you take all your fingers off the fingerboard to reposition to the next chord. There are many instances where you do not have to take all your fingers off the fingerboard to get to the next chord. This requires looking ahead, which is a good thing to practice, and gives you an idea where you are going next. Here are some examples:
Example 1: Changing from a C chord to Am requires only the 3rd finger to move from the 5th string/3rd fret to the 3rd string/2nd fret. The 1st and 2nd fingers remain in place.
Example 2: Changing from a C chord to an Em. Both chords share the 4th string/2nd fret note. In this case all you are going to do is leave the 2nd finger/2nd fret in place, move the 1st finger to the 5th string/2nd fret and lift the 3rd finger up to form the Em chord.
Example 3: This is an example of sliding your finger on the string it's already on to the required note of the next chord. The first chord is a D7 and you'll be moving to a G chord. The shared note is the 1st string/2nd fret which uses the 3rd finger. In this case you will slide the 3rd finger on the 1st string/2nd fret up to the 3rd fret, move the 2nd finger to the 6th string/3rd fret and 1st finger to the 5th string/2nd fret. You'll also notice that the 1st and 2nd fingers are using the same form for the G as they are for the D7 chord. Keeping this form when moving to or from helps as well.
You can reverse the above examples to go back to the first chord. Eg. Am to C, Em to C or G to D7.
Exercise 1: Try figuring out changing from a C chord to a D7
Exercise 2: Change from an A chord to a Dm. Hint: The A chord uses 3 fingers and when changing one finger stays and another slides
Have fun!
-
Permalink Reply by Jonathan McCourt on
-
Here's a short piece I wrote about practicing for a magazine in my local college where I teach evening classes. I've borrowed a few sentiments from some great guitar tutors and authors, particularly in the last paragraph taken from the Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick...
Always remember, everyone finds practicing dull or boring or a chore at some point. But it really is about just battling through it. I find that if there is something really challenging that I want to learn, that it always drives me on. But again, people are motivated in different ways. Some people don't like or are afraid of challenges and therefore don't push themselves, others see challenge as a bull sees a red flag and it spurs them on.
THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY
Record yourself playing a piece - nothing is more enlightening than recording yourself playing a piece. It will be a huge eye-opener (or ear-opener) to what you want to achieve. There should should be all sorts of questions to ask yourself when you hear your recording...
Is that hammer-on clear enough?
How's my timing?
Does the melody come through?
How's my tone?
What should I practice to improve on this the next time I play it?
But don't forget to list your good points too....
I liked that phrasing!
I should try doing the same in that other song I play!
My chord playing is coming on!
The transition from the F to the Ab sounded smooth!
I nailed that fast bit!
etc.
Record yourself practicing the monotonous things too.
If you practice scales a lot or even sight-reading and rhythm exercises, then record it. Listen back to it whilst you have a cup of tea! The legendary tenor sax player, John Coltrane, used to record everything he practiced on a small reel-to-reel tape recorder. He would practice for hours and then sit whilst eating his lunch, drinking some coffee, reading a paper and listen to his practice session. Your own ear is the most discerning critic and constant appraisal of what you are doing will be the best way to improve on your own playing.
"How does this motivate me? Surely, if I hear something bad in there I'll feel even less motivated?!"
Well, this depends on you. Some students say to me, 'Should I do A, or should I do B'
I often reply, 'Why not do both?'
As a guitar tutor, I constantly remind myself (for fear of getting stale or bored with teaching) that everything a student plays will be new to their ears. The first time they play a piece, a melody, a phrase or a single note will be magical to them as it is the first time they have ever played it. The students ear is innocent and oblivious to all the rigour and discipline and only knows sound. I was there once. From now on, I'll treat every note like it's the first time I've played it. Every piece will be exciting, every melody a triumph every phrase and note will be magical.
-
Permalink Reply by Josiah Roman -
Well, In a lot of guitar courses, it say at least 10 mins. I practice about 1-3 hours a day, and I have to say that I am very impressed with my accomplishments. People don't believe it when they hear that I only played for 1 year now.
It all depends how fast you want to become a more sophisticated guitar player.
Practice as oftan as you can and you`ll be ok.
About
Featured Title
Free e-newsletter!
Sign up for Acoustic Guitar Notes—the weekly e-mail newsletter that delivers coverage of players and gear, lessons and technique tips, and advice about performing and recording. Get it now!
Become our fan on Facebook
Become our fan on Facebook
Giveaways
Badge
© 2010 Created by Acoustic Guitar
