How do you motivate yourself to practice the guitar?
Learning the guitar takes patience, perseverance, and dedication to achieve results. Guitar practice motivation is an elusive quality. It must come from within, and it must be sustained. What steps must you take to motivate yourself to practice the guitar on a regular basis?
If there is one thing that will get you to practice regularly and consistently, it would be this....a vision and desire to practice the guitar.
If you can envision it, taste it, feel it, drive for it, you will pick up that guitar all the time and play. The hard part is coming up with the vision that burns hot enough inside to get you to play everyday. Become attached to that vision, and believe that you can attain it.
Guitar Practice Challenges
A very common phrase associated with guitars is that they "sit in the corner and collect dust." But why?
Yes they can be difficult to learn in the beginning, but you can not go from zero to guitar hero in a day anyway. It takes months of dedicated practice, years of patience, a lifetime of dedication.....right?
Can you perform a lifetime of dedication in a day? NO! A lifetime of dedication or years of practice, only exists in small increments. That is where having a vision comes into play. That is where having a desire to practice guitar is critical.
Your Guitar Vision
Let's say your vision is to learn a couple of your favorite songs to perform for some friends and family. Every time you pick up the guitar, that should be right there with you. You are acting out your vision and getting closer to it. Set small practice goals that are orientated towards what your vision is. This helps with guitar practice motivation.
What made me want to keep going?
When I was young, I wanted to learn how to solo like Kirk Hammett from Metallica. I heard the guitar solo for the song "One" when I was 7 years old, and that very moment was a turning point for me. At 12 years old, it worked out that my hands were only big enough and strong enough to do single note passages so after mastering every little riff and guitar part my Dad and cousin had shown me, and that includes the pentatonic scale, I would play them every single day again and again, seeing myself getting faster. I would focus on the goal, knowing that each day I moved forward another step, but never getting frustrated that I had not gotten there yet. I focused on each practice session as if I already had attained the goal, knowing that one day I would hit the jackpot.
For example, if I made mistakes, I would try to figure out the problem and then fix it. Practicing is about playing correctly, not playing fast. That is why I would hammer out my problems again and again. All the while, I would have this vision in my head of me wailing these guitar solos.
And I did that EVERYDAY, I kept that guitar vision with me every day as it became closer to reality. And I did it!
What makes you excited to practice guitar?
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