When: The Tyranny of Now
Part of the conundrum I hear a lot with students (even good ones) is that they ‘want’ to practice guitar playing, but ‘couldn’t’ because they ‘didn’t have a lot of time of practice. May I be so bold to say that, if we change “can’t practice” to “won’t practice”…. We’re getting much closer to the truth. There’s an expression that caught my ear lately, which is “the tyranny of now”. Things inevitably come up everyday that demand our attention…. constantly. But here’s the thing……
If practicing the guitar is always last on your priority list,
no progress will happen.
Take a good hard look at your phone usage week to week. Look at all the apps and functions you use:
- YouTube
- Netflix
- Video Games
- Social Media
What if some of that was turned into guitar practice time? Imagine. The desire to practice and the actual act of practicing are two completely different things. One fuels the other.
When you practice the guitar more,
you want to practice the guitar more.
Even closer to the truth, is that you have built a habit of not practicing your guitar playing. When you consistently don’t practice week after week, you ingrain this habit more and more. Changing a habit doesn’t have to be difficult, but it will take some planning and some time. Here are some tips
1. Schedule your time
The desire to want to sit down and practice your guitar playing doesn’t always happen. Set some time aside. Simple concept, but highly effective because it keeps it on your mental radar and you can plan for it. Waiting for the mood to strike never works because the mood never strikes. It has to be cultivated. It’s cultivated by being disciplined and intentional.
Be realistic… but plan it as you would anything else. Particularly when you’re reasonably fresh mentally. Many people now are into intermittent fasting and skipping 1 – 2 meals a day. Perhaps on a lunch break… or when you would normally eat breakfast.
Here are some quick thoughts on when you can find time to play:
- first thing when you wake up
- coffee break
- lunch break
- getting home from work or school
- before dinner
- after dinner
- before bed
- suns rise or sunset – playing music!
- Watching the rain or snow fall during a storm
- during a tv show or sports game
I know those are stating the obvious, but really think through each of those scenarios and visualize exactly how that looks and what it would take to make that happen. In my last post on where to practice the guitar, I talked about different venues. This is also highly relevant to when you practice as there are logistics involved.
2. Passive Practicing
Depending on the nature of what you’re working on, sometimes you can do passive practicing. That is to say, you’re moving your hands and fingers on the guitar, but you’re doing it with your attention on something else. This works well if you’re working on:
- exercises
- a difficult lick or passage
- chord shapes
- stretches
- Refreshing song parts
I’ll get more into the substance of practicing the guitar when we get to the how and what, but back to the when, you might try this when:
- Watching a game, movie, or show
- You’re on hold during a phone call
- listening to music
- walking around your home (guitar is on a strap)
Anything technical and repetitive. When you can do it while distracted, it’s a great way to test how well you know something or how consistent you are. Ideally, technical aspects of playing should become automatic, so working on these types of things while your mind is also on something else can be beneficial.
3. Emotional loops
Let me take this opportunity to present something a little different. Many times our emotional state impacts what we do… or not do. One of the central themes I’m aiming to get across is that
Doing things is the way to change your emotional state,
Not the other way around.
Doing things gets you out of your head and focused on something else. So with that, think about practicing when you’re:
- anxious
- depressed
- stressed
- angry
- sad
- irritated
- bored
- unfocused
- bitter
- tempted to do something you’ll regret
- nervous
- In despair
I’m not suggesting that practicing guitar is the cure all for difficult emotions. Nor am I suggesting that all of those emotional states aren’t necessary to experience. They are part of life. You have to go through them to experience joy on the other side. But the mind can get into feedback loops which can intensify and prolong those emotions to the point where it starts to impact your outer life in negative ways. We then look to quell those emotions with quick fixes that in the moment seem comforting, in excess they become harmful. This could include:
- over eating (junk food in particular)
- drinking
- smoking
- drugs
- gambling
- doom scrolling
Further, when those negative emotions continue, you can easily start taking them out on other people around you… family, friends, at school, at work. Putting an instrument in your hand redirects your focus, and can be a channel for nervous energy and to gain a sense of peace and accomplishment.
4. No guitar, no problem
Visualization is a tremendous utility. Picturing and hearing yourself playing something feeds your belief system that you can do it. If you can’t visualize it, you probably won’t want to chase after it… or not as fast as you might. This can be done anywhere anytime when you’re not distracted. Walking, being outside, at the gym, cooking, shopping. These are all times where your mind can be focused on more than one thing at a time.
5. Habit Stacking
Building new habits at any stage of life takes time and focus. One hack is to stack a habit on to another habit.. or things that you do on a regular basis. Here are some examples.
- Before or after a workout. Even between sets of a workout
- after cleaning up in the kitchen or wherever
- after you make tea or coffee
- after or before reading or listening to news or podcast
- after or before playing video games
- taking a mental break from something else
6. Rehearsals
These can also be a good time to work things out, but a word of caution here. If you’re rehearsing with other players, and they’re prepared, and you’re not, that can really drain the emotional tank of the group. As long as everyone is working on something themselves, this can work. One has to assess the situation to know how much leeway they have to experiment. We should also parse practicing learning the song and practicing performing the song. Those are not the same thing. Band rehearsals suck when people show up unprepared. Rehearsal is the time to work on the presentation, the arrangement, choreography, consistency, and other details.
7. Unconscious Guitar Practicing: A Pot Of Insight.
Perhaps you’ve had an experience where you have been struggling with a problem of some kind… any kind. Then you go away from the problem for a time, and when you come back to it, the solution is there. Musically, if you’ve been working on something challenging for a while, it can be as simple as waking up one morning and you can suddenly do it.
When you’ve been working on something for a while, your mind will often be thinking about it in the background even when you’re doing something completely unrelated. Like a homemade pot of stew or soup that you let simmer and walk away from. An incubation period. This is where insight comes from. The insight will often hit very suddenly in a random moment. When it does, document it right away.
This type of practice doesn’t just happen on its own. It happens after you’ve put good time into something consciously and committed to it for a while. Trying to learn to play a particular way or learn a difficult song requires concentration repeatedly. This is fuel for the unconscious mind to use, and it can reveal insight to you at the most random times. Be ready for it, and document it if you can.
Should I Practice Guitar For A Long Time or a Short Time?
Should I practice for a long stretch of time or in little bursts? How often should I practice? These are all common questions. I’ll hit them one at a time. I will say from experience,
You have to practice to know how to practice.
In other words, you may have to try different approaches to see what works for you and also to keep things interesting.
Long Stretch Practicing:
To me, this is beyond an hour. I should say there is a need to delineate practicing and playing. Practicing is working on things that you currently can’t do… or deliberately working on something to improve upon. Playing is free without objectives or constraints. It’s playing what you know.
Longer stretches are good (and necessary) when I have a lot of things I have to or want to get through. These could be specific songs I need to learn or review, or concepts that I’m trying to get into my playing. I do recommend breaking up the time into smaller chunks. Real practicing is about going to the hard areas. There’s also a physical aspect to it. I suggest starting with smaller chunks of hyper focused time. Maybe 15-20 minutes, then move to something else. You can always come back. Sure, you can go longer, but recognize when you’re just spinning your wheels and have lost focus.
Short Stretch Guitar Practicing.
These types of practice sessions are useful to review things you’ve already worked on but are still challenging. Alternatively, if you are going to start something new, reduce it to a small task or two. At least enough to get a glimpse of the idea you want to work on when you have more time. It helps to plan it out in advance, so when you do sit down, you can get right into it. Some things I will do when I don’t have much time…. And this could also be before a gig and I’ve had no time to warmup:
- left hand stretching exercises
- picking exercises
- left hand legato exercises
- playing a short tune or etude at max speed
- scales or arpeggios at high speeds
- reading a short piece of music for the first time
- seeing how well I remember what I last worked on
- a quick jam with a play along track
This is ideal when done with higher frequency. Five minutes 3 times a day = 1 hr 45 minutes a week. Some time is definitely better than no time. Because playing the guitar (or any instrument) is physical, it’s not possible to go long stretches without physical decline. Hence, the saying…
Plants need to be watered.
My brain requires many reps of something for it to stick. Hitting something cold all the time really indicates how well I know or can do something or not. Delivering only when all circumstances are optimal, is not a good recipe for success. I take my work seriously, so if I’m going to perform something, I want to execute consistently. If I’m tired, distracted, or not feeling well, I want to know I still have more than enough in the tank to do what I need to.
The Roger Federer 2am strategy
I once heard Roger remark that if you woke him up at 2am out of a cold sleep, he could still serve. That’s stuck with me. It’s more a philosophy of practicing until I don’t get it wrong anymore despite the circumstances.
I think short bursts are good for keeping up technique and reviewing something concrete. It’s also great if I’m a little fidgety and just need a distraction from something else. It can really be calming. I may even stumble on something inspirational or unexpected, just that, I can’t stay with it too long. That’s probably the biggest drawback. I’ll still make a note of something to come back to, but it may or may not be as vivid if too much time elapses by the time I come back to it.
If the urge to practice hits you, I recommend doing it immediately. Getting distracted for even a few minutes can cost you more time to get back to your original headspace.
How Often Should I Practice?
If you’re just starting the instrument, 3 times a week for 20 minutes can be a good start. Make sure you’re focused for those 20 minutes.
For intermediates players that gig occasionally, 4 times a week maybe 30-40 minutes at least.
For advanced and pro players, it really should be everyday or close to it. There’s no player I can think of that is a great and doesn’t spend at least 2 hours a day 4-5 times a week at least. There has to be time to stay in shape, learn new material, and review old material.
Listen To Your Body.
When you start to add more time on the instrument, it’s important to be conscious of wear and tear. Pain is not a good sign. It’s not a time to push through, it’s a time to take a break. Your hands and fingers are fragile and don’t respond well to excessive stress. Tendinitis, carpel tunnel, back pain, finger tip irritation can become issues if they aren’t managed. Get up, walk around, stretch, drink some water. If you come back and pain is persisting, leave it for the next day
If you have to play a gig that’s 45 minutes to an hour (or more) in length, you have to be ready for that. Endurance needs to be developed slowly so you don’t run out of gas when you need to be at your best. It’s going to be a tall order to perform 60 minutes and you’ve only ever played for 20 minutes straight at a time.
In Closing.
Every day, you have 1440 minutes deposited into your account. You can’t make additional deposits to this account… only withdrawals. You get to choose how you allocate those minutes. You might not get the chance to pick up the guitar each day. Just don’t make the practicing at the bottom of the priority list everyday…:)
Further Reading:
Tales Of A Practicing Guitarist