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We all know you need to "make time" for guitar. Time isn't going to magically "appear" and say, "Hey, use me for practising and playing guitar." That kind of time only existed when we were in school. And, even then, some of us had so much going on that there wasn't time to practise.

This is thread is not about broad strokes principles like, "You have to make time for it." Or, "You have to want it."

Nope.

This thread is about specific tactics you've used that have actually helped you play more, practise more or both.

And this is specific to guitar. A lot of advice can also apply to singing, recording, programming, etc but this is "Guitar Talk", so we'll keep it specific so that someone visiting this thread can feel like, "Lekker! This was written for ME!"

I'll get the ball rolling. Here's what has worked for me, in the past:

  1. A guitar duel. When Myron and I did that "point vs paddle" headstock challenge, I had no choice but to force myself to practise.

    I set aside a 30-60 minutes at the start and the end of every day to practise those songs. If I didn't? I would've sucked (even more than I did ?) and I just didn't want to face that embarrassment.

    So even though I was busy, the combination of a deadline and fear of embarrassment forced me to make time for guitar.

  2. Jamming with friends regularly. Nothing makes you realise how slow you're progressing like meeting up with the same people every month (or every second month or whatever) and seeing how much they've improved. It really highlights how little progress you're making and, again, the combination of a deadline plus fear of embarrassment will force you to practise. Even if it's a tiny bit.

    That's what happened to me with the Garage Days jams. I learned (most of) the bass for Crazy Lil Thing Called Love and then, for months, I didn't practise any of the other songs. And that really felt crap when I showed up without being able to play (almost) anything.

    So for the most recent jam, I forced myself to practise a little. It was a tiny, tiny amount of practise but it was more than I otherwise would have played.

  3. New gear. When I got my recent Cort, my looper and some of my other toys, I ended up practising quite a bit more.

    This one has nothing to do with fear of embarrassment or deadlines. It's got more to do with that initial dopamine fix you get from playing with new toys. It's very short-lived in most cases. My Cort hasn't seen much love from me in weeks and the same rings true for my looper.

    I have to say, though, certain gear definitely helps more than other gear. In general, I play more now that I have a looper than I ever did before.

Over to you!

Did any of these work for you? Got other tactics to add to this list?

My biggest and baddest helper in playing more..
Rocksmith. but more specifically the Rocksmith missions. something which I've recently started doing..
which plays right into my competitiveness nature..
this tactic worked quiet well at the end of last year, where I managed to play 20 straight days (before the holidays struck)... something that was previously unattainable for me. and the quality of my playing improved ten fold.

I Also have a music teacher,Its my version of the Garage days meet up, We meet up once a week, that helps push me, to do more,

Then lastly the thing that helps me to play more is, Is my Project guitars. lets just say I like to fiddle, and there is nothing like taking an Old guitar and trying to improve how the guitar feels in the hand.. or getting a kit and making a super duper awesome machine..

Now this list can be summed up easier
1. Competiveness
2.playing with Friends
3.NGD

Tuckstir My biggest and baddest helper in playing more..
Rocksmith. but more specifically the Rocksmith missions.

I've never actually tried using the missions. Thanks Terence! Something new for me to try ?

Sometimes learning the songs feels like an overwhelming undertaking. Especially seeing as a) they don't have all the songs I want and b) there's no real "tab" to refer to. So it doesn't translate well to real-world jamming.

Tuckstir I Also have a music teacher,Its my version of the Garage days meet up, We meet up once a week, that helps push me, to do more,

Funnily enough, that never really worked for me. My teacher was great but I still allowed myself to go an entire week (week after week) without practising. And I felt pretty crappy about it at each lesson. Maybe my teacher was just too forgiving :-P

      I'll echo the teacher point. 1) if you don't practice you're wasting money. 2) if you don't practice you're letting someone down... but yeah, can see how that wouldn't work for everyone.

      Another way of using gear is to use it as a reward for putting in the time. Be specific, when I can play X, Y and Z I will use this money to buy that thing.

      Other thing I can suggest is to select a specific song and commit to recording and publishing a cover of it. The GT Challenges are a good for this but they tend to focus on writing new material rather than learning repertoire so their focus is slightly different.

      Yeti Other thing I can suggest is to select a specific song and commit to recording and publishing a cover of it. The GT Challenges are a good for this but they tend to focus on writing new material rather than learning repertoire so their focus is slightly different.

      Very much agree and I feel like this is an area where I could use some help. I'd love to pick a song from my repertoire and make it a "group challenge" of some kind, where we can all post our progress, help each other with links and videos to learn the song, etc.

          7 days later

          End of last year I set myself a goal of learning a new solo each week, recording a video of me playing it live and uploading it to Instagram. Not for the social media validation, but more to hold myself accountable. Haven't done one yet this year, so this thread has reminded me to get up off my ass and get this ball rolling again 😉

          18 days later

          i'm a writer. which means i have whacks and whacks of lyrics, almost (almost) none of which have songs attached to them. so i think, p'raps, my challenge to myself is to take one, say every second month, and turn it into most of a song.

          at the very least it'll get these fingers on a fingerboard
          dh|

          Clint-Green here’s a push keeping you accountable. Have you done one yet? If not, you’d better do it soon 😉

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