How Often Should A Beginner practice guitar?
Guitar is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments to play music and have fun with. But learning to play guitar is not an easy task that you can just do in one or two sittings. It takes time, patience, self-discipline, and most importantly regular practice.
As a beginner, how often you should practice guitar, completely depends on your goal, passion, and dedication.For instance, one individual could merely want to learn the fundamental chords, while another person might want to concentrate on creating their own music and mastering difficult pieces. Each of them should devote a varied amount of time to practice. However, both of these objectives are attainable given enough time, effort, and practice.
In this article, we have discussed how often a beginner should practice guitar along with some beginner guitar practicing tips. As you are a beginner, we are going to start with what we mean by guitar practice.
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What is guitar practice?
Actually playing guitar and practicing guitar are not the same thing. There is a thin margin between them which you should know.
Guitar practice is the part where you:
- learn new techniques and improve your skill
- study new songs and pieces
- work on your mistakes
- Improve your guitar knowledge and theory
On the other hand, playing guitar is something that you just do for fun and play the stuffs that you already know. For example, when you learn a new song, you just keep playing it on and on because you like it. That doesn’t mean you are practicing guitar.
Just ask the questions yourself, did I learn anything new, or have I improved playing the song or applying the technique? You will get the answer.
How much time a beginner should practice guitar?
Practicing guitar requires a great deal of focus and patience. If you are someone who is going to pick up the guitar for the first time, it’s okay for you to get tired in just two minutes of practice.
Every newbie suffers because playing guitar requires a great deal of finger strength and flexibility to grab the strings on certain fret positions. So, it’s natural to feel pain and tired in just a few minutes of practice.
This is one of the first things that you have to overcome with practice. If you practice for fifteen minutes every day, you will definitely notice an improvement in your finger strength and flexibility.
When we practice a certain difficult move (like grabbing the string in a specific chord shape) many times our brain stores the information as muscle memory. Eventually you will find it easier than before.
But, practicing for fifteen minutes straight is a lot to ask from a newbie. So, it’s better if you divide the fifteen minutes into multiple sessions. Take a break whenever you feel pain and come back again when you feel better.
Drive your passion and dedication to practice more
It can take approximately three weeks of regular practice to overcome the pain and tiredness that you feel while practicing guitar. After that period, you can have enough stamina to take a longer tour like 30-45 minutes.
But how much time you would like to spend is completely up to your goal and passion for the instrument. It’s better if you set a short goal like where you want to see yourself after another two weeks.
The goal could be that you want to learn a set of specific songs that you like to play on the guitar. Spend time practicing guitar according to your goal.
Whether you believe it or not, I am quite certain that you are bound to fall in love with the guitar and spend more time practicing and playing. It really feels great when you learn to play your favorite song or piece.
Importance of regular practice
Whatever level of skill you hope to reach, there is one thing you must always keep in mind: practice frequently. While it is always a good idea to practice as much as you can, playing frequently is more crucial. This implies that rather than playing for a few hours one day and then doing nothing the rest of the week, beginner guitarists should play for a fifteen minutes or half an hour each day.
This is because consistent practice can aid in the development of muscle memory. Your fingertips will therefore remember the piece or anything else before your brain does. Consistency is another crucial issue. You will get much better if you keep training every day. Furthermore, with the right training and practice, the effects will become apparent much sooner.
Keep your guitar in such a place where you can see it whenever you want. That will keep you interested to pick up the guitar at some point.
Everyone is unique, thus they will all require a different amount of time. In addition, our objectives may differ as well. A person will need a lot less time than someone who wants to become a virtuoso if their goal is to learn only the fundamental chords so they may play rhythm or just for enjoyment.
Both instances have one thing in common: they both call for daily practice sessions. Naturally, the first individual may just need to spend a few minutes or an hour a day practicing, whereas the second person will spend hours honing their talents.
Practice without any pressure
As a beginner. this is one of the most important pieces of advice that you can take on board and work with it. Do not be hurried. Learn at your own pace and focus on only one technique at a time during your initial practice session.
Don’t overburden yourself with too many ambitions at once, or you’ll become discouraged.
Maintain your concentration on a single aim at a time. For example, you could devote a week or two to learning 5 chords. Then, over the next week or two, practice switching between those chords with various combinations.
There will be times when you feel like you’re doing well, and then there will be days when you feel like you’ve forgotten everything. This is natural,don’t let it bother you.
Instead of being frustrated, make the most of that day by actually listening to music. Sometimes all you need is to hear something and have your brain remind you of how to execute the job.
Practice with precision and importance of slow practice
When you are learning a new technique it’s important to practice it precisely rather than following the wrong moves. Practicing with precision will always keep you in the right track.
It’s completely fine to play some wrong notes or make any mistakes while you are practicing guitar. But if your mistakes happen repititively that might mean you are not focusing well enough. You are just feeding yourself to the poor practicing habit.
Slow practicing habit is actually the most effective way of practicing guitar. Slow practice gives you time to think to place your fingers on the right strings and frets. Start practicing slowly and gradually speed it up to the original version.
Another important thing is to practice with the right rhythm and timing while you are playing anything on the guitar.
Keep exploring different styles
For any beginner, I believe it is beneficial to listen to a wide range of music, even if you are not especially fond of specific genres. When it comes to guitar, each genre has its own characteristics. So spend some time just listening to different music.
Pay attention to how rhythms, chords, and solos are used. You won’t know how they’re doing it just by listening, but you might like the sound of something and be encouraged to look into it on your own.
That’s how many guitarists learnt a lot about guitar via inspiration, investigation, and accomplishment. The advantage of this is that you will learn considerably more than what first inspired you.
Keep enjoying
Above all, have fun playing guitar and in this journey of yours as a guitar player. Look forward to three, four, or five years from now, when you’ll have accomplished so much if you’ve been consistent with your practice time and playing without any restrictions at times .
It’s all about gradually freeing up your imagination so you can express yourself on guitar as naturally as you do with words. Throughout your journey, many doors will open. Each new door that opens represents a new creative outlet for you.
Final Words
Guitar is one of the toughest instruments to master. But the good news is, there is a certain level of playing guitar that anybody can reach very easily. We are talking about the level where you can play some basic rhythms and sing some of your favorite songs or play your favorite melody and have fun with this lovely musical instrument.
In other words, beginning levels of learning guitar are quite easy. You just need to focus on it with the spirit of learning something new. And no wonder, within three to four weeks of regular practice you can take the challenge down for sure.
