Genius Guitar Practice Hacks That Make Other Guitarists Envy Your Guitar Playing
By Tom Hess
Could you practice guitar three times longer every day?
Didn’t think so… and me either.
Here’s something you can do though…
You can massively increase the efficiency of your guitar practice…
Doing this massively accelerates your progress without using more time.
It’s not at all difficult to do this either.
Use the following guitar practice hacks to make faster progress than ever before during your practice sessions:
Guitar Practice Hack #1: Create Micro Goals
You know how some guitar players create long, medium and short-term goals for themselves?
It is also possible to set micro goals.
These are tiny objectives you set to reach every time you practice.
You can create micro goals for any area of your guitar playing whether it’s technique, speed, music theory, songwriting or anything else...
For example - watch this video about playing lead guitar solos:
A cool micro goal (taken from the video) could be to:
Practice delaying vibrato for 10 minutes and make the vibrato speed 100% consistent for every note.
Effective micro goals are always:
*Very-specific (the more – the better).
*Possible to achieve in only one practice session.
Want to learn more about setting micro goals and getting great results from your practice? Utilize this free guitar practice improvement test to learn how to squeeze more progress from each minute of your practice.
Guitar Practice Hack #2: Set Yourself Up For Massive Success
How do you make your guitar practice routine as effective as it can be?
Just do this:
Think about and plan what you are going to work on before you every grab your guitar.
…and plan your practicing schedules several days in advance.
This is why it works:
Different guitar practice items need to be practiced in unique ways.
For example:
*Guitar technique is best practiced daily, in moderate amounts of time.
*Skills like ear training and fretboard visualization are better to be practiced several times a day, in short bursts.
*Creative skills like songwriting or improvising are best practiced less frequently, but for longer practice sessions.
There is no effective way to practice all of these skills in just one practice session.
When you plan your guitar practice several days ahead of time, you are able to include all the skills you need to work on and make sure nothing is overlooked.
This is how you get the most results from your practicing efforts.
Learn more about creating incredibly effective practice schedules by downloading this free guitar practice cheat sheet.
Embed action item: https://tomhess.net/files/images/PracticeGuitar/Guitar-Practice-Schedule-Cheat-Sheet.pdf
Guitar Practice Hack #3: Help Your Brain Focus
What is the main energy source of your guitar practice?
(Hint: it’s not your fingers.)
It’s your brain.
You read right.
What your brain focuses on determines the amount of progress you make in your playing.
Your main goal is to:
*Get rid of the distractions that bog down your brain and hurt your progress.
*Focus closely on the specific things that help you improve your guitar playing.
A great way to free up your brain is to use a timer while practicing.
Set your timer to count down the number of minutes you practice a specific item… then begin practicing.
Here is how this makes your practice more effective:
1. You become more able to focus on practicing (instead of worrying about how much time you have left).
2. It’s easier to follow through and practice the whole time the timer is going.
3. You stop over (or under) practicing items in your schedule.
Here’s another way to free up your brain for more effective practice:
Completely master the movements of each hand.
This means: don’t rely on the movement of one hand to dictate what the other hand does.
You’d be AMAZED at how common this problem is and how bad it is for your playing.
Check out this video to see what I mean:
Embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iacQvKMSx6A
Guitar Practice Hack #4: Focus On The Process Over The Outcome
The more you enjoy practicing, the more likely you are to practice daily.
The more consistently you practice, the less time it takes to reach your goals.
The more quickly you reach your goals, the more you enjoy practicing.
It’s that easy.
Use these powerful tips to make guitar practice a lot more fun:
Tip #1: Focus On Improving, Not Being Perfect.
It’s not always about playing perfect every time you grab your guitar. Just try to make your playing better each time you practice.
You eventually play perfectly because your practice efforts add up over time (so don't worry about perfection now, just let it come).
This mental approach removes pressure from your practice and makes practicing more productive (and enjoyable).
Tip #2: Develop Your Creativity.
It’s true, creativity can be developed, just like any other area of your guitar playing. Schedule time for it and work on it.
You start to feel like a real musician when you become more and more creative over time.
Don’t be the guitar player who only works on technique and exercises, but never learns to create real music with them.
Want to learn a cool way to improve your musical creativity? Check out this video:
Embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBWNQZptHXg
Tip #3: Track & Measure Your Musical Progress
Tracking your progress makes guitar practice like a fun game where you keep score.
It tells you what is and isn’t working in your guitar practice… so you can improve it for next week.
Guitar Practice Hack #5: Focus On All Three Layers Of Guitar Practice
Mastering something on guitar focuses on three layers:
Isolation practice – practicing something on its own (not in a musical scenario).
Application practice – using something together with music to apply what you know.
Integration practice – combining different skills together.
What does this information mean for you?
Focus your guitar practice on all three layers at the same time.
Do not get stuck trying to master something in isolation while avoiding the other two layers.
Apply what you are practicing even before you have mastered it by itself.
Yes, it will feel a bit challenging, you will make more mistakes (at the start).
Here is what else happens though:
Your mistakes help you learn what to focus on during isolation practice.
This massively accelerates your progress and speeds up the process of achieving complete mastery.
You now understand how to make your guitar practice super-effective. The next action to take is to make guitar practice schedules that remove all the guesswork & frustration from practice. Utilize this free guitar practice improvement test to learn how to squeeze more progress from each minute of your practice.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, recording artist and composer. He teaches guitar players from all over the world in his online guitar lessons. Learn more on the Tom Hess Wikipedia page.