how hard is hard?

[liangerism]

hi all,

i've been learning guitar for 2 yrs plus. i have a day job and some commitments. the only time i could practise my guitar is during the evening, maybe for ard 2 hrs, a few times a week.

my skills still suck big time. i've been thinking is it the problem tat i'm too old to learn guitar, or i've not been practising hard enough, or i simply not meant for it.

anyway, back to the question, how hard is ur practising tat actually make u play it good.
i know this is subjective, but i juz wanna find out generally how hard does a good player practise.

thanks in advance.

 

[sepultura]

Lower your expectations, try to pick out and learn a simpler song(s) that you like, build up from there. I am in the same situation and it's amazing you get 2 hrs every evening. With family commitments I'm lucky to get 1/2 hr at night. Don't compare yourself with others. You don't need to try and beat Satriani or Yngwie.

 

[boyl]

Hey,

playing guitar is first and for most not about your skill, but how you enjoy yourself holding your guitar and making music come out from the instrument.

of course over time you will improve (it is a given, although the pace at which people improve varies indeed).

perhaps you can devote your 2 hours into two sections, one of which is where you do not concentrate on practicing but just playing for fun and to your heart's content while the other one u use to build your skill.

you can look at it this way, while you want to play for fun, or you want to play certain songs, sometimes you encounter difficulties playing certain part of the songs (may it be fast passages of the solo, or quick chord changes). then in the next section of your playing time, you look into this difficult part. this way you improve and have a good time, since once you can get past the challenge, you'll be able to play your favourite songs better and have more fun!

hope it helps : ]

 

[Hydrofly]

ask yourself, do you ENJOY your practice? Ask yourself, is your goal to shred like a lunatic?

For your practice to be fruitful, the key is to ENJOY it, you need to find something you like to do, for me, I just derive pleasure from something as simple as practicing scales and messing around with them, that way, I have MOTIVATION and the enjoying bit makes it easier to remember what you've practiced.

If your goal is to shred like a lunatic, I used to dedicate 1 hour a day to what I call 'pain practice', it's fact that your muscles tend to remember stuff better when they start to strain and feel pain. It's a damaging way to play, but it works. I honestly don't recommend it as this MIGHT be what's causing me some problems in my ring finger, might be trigger finger, no idea yet.

 

[Avria]

I honestly don't recommend it as this MIGHT be what's causing me some problems in my ring finger, might be trigger finger, no idea yet.

yo bro haven't had time to see a GP yet? take care of yourself dude.

anyway to TS. let me share with you my experience, although we are of different age. but i can show you how you can make yourself improve in playing guitar. i started picking up guitar last year and since i was still young, i wanted to play games and not guitars. alas, my brother FORCED me to play it. yes, he forced me, every night i had to go through boring lessons. and i have to admit, it doesn't help at all as i'm learning nothing at all. as you can see, learning without a passion is really not going to help. so in this year, the passion of guitar in me had shined and i'm now shredding to every single song i can get my hands on hehe :mrgreen:.


and ps, i don't practice hard. i just play what my mood is feeling.
so in your case. although you may have 2 hours per day, its more than enough to make yourself a guitar god. just keep playing with a passion and you'll get what you're looking for. and its good that you at least touch your guitar everyday. as you know when you sleep you're basically re-learning everything that you just learn. they call it muscle memory. so yea. you may not be a guitar god yet. but you're one in the making, keep shredding, keep that passion alive.

 

[Gates]

Quality > Quantity.

Do practice techniques, music theory,sclaes and such also instead of always looking at tabs etc;.

Just enjoy your time with the guitar. When i pick mine up, i start with some warm up exercises then just play my favourite bands' songs. Improvement can't be seen overtime but remember to preservere on.

But, if you really want to be some pro guitarist, slash,zakk whylde(?) and many other popluar guitarist used to play guitar almost 10hours a day in their teenage days. @_@

 

[liangerism]

do i enjoy my practise? haha..
well, when i play it good, i do. when i don't, it's a bad day for me.

maybe it's the approach in my technique. i seriously don't know.
or maybe i shdn't stress myself out tat much, and juz keep playing.
or maybe i shd give up. hahaha.. ignore me pls..
anyone here picked up guitar ard the age of 24? haha...

but seriously, i agree with keeping tat passion alive!

anyway, thanks for all the contribution. i appreciate it.

 

[Hydrofly]

age is irrelevant, I picked up guitar in december of '06. I picked up piano a month ago, it's always hard, but I believe theres a threshold you must cross, no matter what you do, find yourself, touch your music, and it will touch you. If you cannot find that one thing that really really connects you with what you're playing, just give up, you'll never get anywhere. That being said, anybody who tells me they can't find something is talking shit, by taking up the guitar, you pretty show you WANT to do SOMETHING with it. Just PUSH YOURSELF, and make sure you ENJOY IT no MATTER HOW BAD it sounds. i'm telling you this, I SOUND LIKE SHIT on piano AND I KNOW IT, i KNOW it's bad, but either way, I enjoy it, I love it, and it is the love of what you do that will tell you the way to go. It is possible to become a machine and play ultra clean and ultra neat. Once you find the primal connection (i call it that), you will be able to interact with your instrument, and it is THIS connection that will take your technique up to mark.

 

[MaCcA]

i also started for about slightly less than 1.5 years...i'm 24 =)

well i just try not to get get emotional when i can't play certain stuff....i just keep believing that i will be able to do it some day....so i just keep practicing those stuff i can't play at a slower pace....

i learn mostly songs....so my practice revolves mostly around parts of songs

until now my left and right hand are still not very well in sync when i speed up hah

but just have faith i guess....i enjoy playing!

 

[xpresso]

true. you just gotta enjoy playing it & you cant expect someone to shred/solo/riff perfectly the moment they hear the song or read the tabs, You gotta practice at a slow pace, once u nail it down nicely, increase ur speed. u'll soon get there... soon...
pro players will always tell u to play at a slower tempo. then increase tempo bit by bit once u get the hang of it.

today..ill play at 60bpm...next week ill play at 80bpm...
few months later ill shred at 200bpm..

 

[liangerism]

hahaha.. this thread is really working as a form of motivation to me.

and i seriously and sincerely wanna thank everyone of u here. sepultura, boyl, hydrofly, avria, gates, macca, expresso. thank you. haha..

i guess sometimes i juz forgot why did i pick up the guitar in the first place.
u guys are damn right, i shdn't be bother by my lousy skills and stuff, i shd juz enjoy wat i'm doing, keep playing and practising as long as my passion could last me.

hell yeah, i'll keep tat in mind.

 

[Bearily]

No one is too old for music. A women now late 60s (Singaporean) heard Carlos Santana playing in her early 60s. she was so inspired that she picked up the axe.

What can she do now? Play full santana's songs. She was even featured in Chnl 5 live the dream if im not wrong.

Practice makes perfect. If u dun have time, do simple scaling over the pentatonic minor and majors. if u only have 30mins, do it for 30mins.

No one is too old for anything.(Dun do bungee jumping when 80 though. But a old men in his 80s in england really did it.)

 

[hellomadnis]

Wow... This thread was like an answer sent from Heaven for me. I've been playing for the last 5months. And, I've been frustrated at my skills, techniques. Simply the way my guitar sounded.

Really needed this pick-me-up.

Thanks Guys.

 

[robb]

Hello

I dont play electric guitar, I play classical guitar but I think the same rules apply. If you feel you arnt improving even if u practice a lot, its time to evaluate ur practice session. Are you practicing correctly, are you practicing your weak points etc etc. I feel the most improvements gain are often when you train up your weakest point, its also the most satisfying. I would also try to practice with a goal instead of just doodling around aimlessly. Work on small sections.

Also I dont think there is such thing as 'too old', 'no talent' or 'not meant for it'. You invest the time, your bound to reap the benefits.

 

[teleplayer]

For guitar, nothing is hard man. I learnt guitar since last yr june and I play everyday, my skills improved. Although one with skills can turn a shitty yamaha into a good guitar, but sometimes the guitar do have some link. Some guitars are so muddy and unclear until u cant hear what you are playing..

 

[fenderrules]

Lower your expectations

oh yes very true.

i used to think that adding some shred guitar in my arsenal was an impossible goal for me. but lately i found out that was possible when i took all the time i wanted decreasing my speed and slowly focusing on getting every note hit and sounding out. now as i go faster, i managed to sound like i was playing some fast stuff. of course it ain't that perfect now, but hey, im getting there!

you also need to work out a plan on how you wanna fruitfully spend your time practicing guitar. remember, it is not about laboriously working your way to achieve greater heights overnight. i remember seeing from a marty friedman video on how to do that. basically, you will need to set aside what you are gonna do when you practice. and the key is to focus on what music you like to play. like you will take the first ten minutes to do warm ups and those finger exercises, then you'll spend like 20 minutes on a technique, then 30 minutes on a new one and the rest of the time remaining to learn a new song and stuff.

mine would be something like this:

5-10 mins: Left and Right finger warmups, petrucci's rock discipline alt picking exercise in different keys and different picking strokes.

20-30 mins: Technique practice and revision. This will be on techniques im already familiar with (gallops, alt picking, string skipping etc..)

30mins-1hr: Technique practice (new). This will be on techniques, preferably one, which you are new to or need more revision on. mine is currently sweep picking.

1hr - 1hr 40mins: Song Practice (new). This will be on a song you wanna play which have never played before or which you need more practice in. It need not be the whole song but it can be in the particular area you wanna refine or practice.

1hr 40mins to 2hrs: Song Practice: This will be on a song you already know but still wanna practice to maintain it.

yeah, thats 2 hours of practice for ya. you can alter timings or put in whatever you wanna practice, scales, harmonization, theory etc. although it is inevitable to deviate from the above mentioned example of how to devote yourself to practice (including me), you will progress much more in the long run if you stick to it.

and finally, DON'T KILL YOURSELF. the last thing you need are broken or strained limbs and a big blow to your muscle memory and bad habits embedded as a result. you do not want that. and that can be avoided by simply not any pain practice or going over your limit.

my 2 cents.

cheers ive hoped ive helped

 

[bigblackbear]

i think its important to start from a level that you're comfortable with. it's no point trying to play something you can't. start slow, then slowly make your way up to the top

 

[2picks]

I'm 37 and I've just decided to pick up the axe. Just blew $3k on gear when I still know nuts abt scales and chords. What made me decide to do it now? Well, let's just say I saw my calling when I started playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band on my PS3. Hahaha. I do know I have the passion to learn things fast. Plus with a lot of determination and hard work, just like everyone says, I'm sure I can be a decent shredder. So TS, you have about 13 years to find out how good you can be before you remember someone else started way later than you. Anyway, just have fun and don't be too hard on yourself...unless you are doing this for a living!