I Hate to Practice!

What's causing you to dislike practice?

Practice makes perfect, you need to practice every day, not until you practice, we've all heard it before. So, what does make you not want to practice? A lot of my adult students tell me they don't have time or  they didn't realize how hard it would be to find time. If this describes you, maybe you should question why you've decided to learn guitar in the first place. Sit down in a nice, quiet spot and examine what motivated you to start. Write down a list of your favorite songs, artists, or type of music that you really want to play. Now, realistically decide if you're that serious. It sounds harsh, but like the old saying goes, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

With younger students, it's more about nagging or lack of it, feeling it's too much like school or feeling like it's cutting into play time. A younger guitar student needs to be encouraged and handled with care. The worst case is when a parent is living through his or her child and expects an 8 year old to dedicate unreasonable amounts of practice time. Yes, you and I know what it takes, but if you kill the fun, you kill the interest. My goal as a teacher is to make the experience as enjoyable and upbeat as  possible. Do you honestly think a young student is going to dedicate 30 minutes a day? Getting them to get the guitar out at all is a big accomplishment!

The songs don't sound good slow.

There's one we hear all the time. I'm well aware of that, but guess what? If you can't play it slow you can't play it fast. Muscle memory is what it's all about and if you learn wrong it's much harder to re-learn a song.

I hate that song, that song's boring.

Usually that can be translated as meaning the song's too hard. I'm the first to admit that the songs in most guitar method books leave a lot to be desired. The problem is that the songs in almost every book 1 are the same thing. It's like the authors spy on each other and think "if Amazing Grace is in their book then it better be in mine too." The solution is to ask your guitar teacher if there is another song that's more fun that teaches the same thing.

I want to play real songs by people I like.

We want to have you play those songs too, but you need some basic skills. A couple years ago I had a 10 year old boy, no prior experience, who after a month declared he wanted to learn Crazy Train. When I told him he wasn't ready, he told me how hard he'd practice every day and that he was sure he could play it. While I would love to have had that work out I think we all know how the story ends. No, he wasn't able to play it since he had no skills.

What's the answer then?

Decide to commit yourself to guitar. Make the time to practice even if you're not in the mood. Don't be afraid of new songs, just be realistic. Ask your guitar teacher if you're ready for a particular song or artist, then let him or her decide. Learning to play the guitar or any other instrument is a time art. You just can't speed the process up a whole lot, believe me, I tried.