Developing a Guitar Practice Schedule
By Ryan Gloman

If you want to improve at guitar the fastest way to do it is consistent and focused practice. This is easier than it sounds. Often times guitar players will sit down and noodle around on the guitar for an hour, play some of their favorite songs and call it practice. You may see some minor improvement this way, but I guarantee you are not living up to your potential. The real way to get the most bang for your buck is to develop a guitar practice schedule so that you can direct your focus and achieve results.

Now if you are looking for someone to tell you exactly what to play for how long, you are not looking in the right place. Everyone's needs are different because everyone's goals are different. You need to tailor your practice schedule based on your unique goals. What is important to you? Do you want to be able to play lightning fast? Do you want to be able to play any song by ear? Do you want to be able to play any possible chord in the chord dictionary? Your goals can be anything. It doesn't matter as long as you have goals.

The next thing to do is lay out your goals and then decide what the best way to achieve them is. If my goal was to be able to play lightning fast, I would have to spend a considerable amount of time on my technique. So if I am laying out a practice schedule I would split it up into small manageable chunks. For example, I could practice my left hand technique for ten minutes and my right hand technique for ten minutes and then coordinate them together for ten minutes. That adds up to a thirty minute practice time. If I stuck with this consistently, I would improve much faster than if I just played randomly each day.

One final thing that I notice is that most guitarists only play what they already know. This is great for polishing off your favorite songs and getting emotional enjoyment out of the guitar, but it does not force you to grow. I would recommend spending most of your time playing things that you cannot play well. If you would like, you can schedule time into the end of your practice session to play the things that you know and love.

To sum up, you should develop a focused guitar practice schedule and stick to it on a consistent basis. This is the way for you to improve the most in the shortest amount of time. Focus on things you cannot play well and save some time at the end to play the things you do play well.
My name is Ryan Gloman and I have a passion for guitar and a passion for sharing information. I hope that this article helps you on your way to becoming a great guitarist. I understand that learning to play the guitar can be a daunting task at times. Luckily, you can find tons of helpful info on the net. Check out this site for some great tools.

Source: Ultimate guitar blog.