5 tips for developing a guitar practice habit, and sticking to it!

Learning to play the guitar is a journey. We preach this all the time here at YGA, and that's because it's a big mindset shift for most people. When we first touch base with beginner students, one of the most regular questions is "how long will it take to learn?". Well, in my mind the answer to that is that learning the guitar is a joyful journey that can entertain you for the whole of your life. It will take on many paths, from the beginner stages, to the intermediate world of discovery and then into a more professional arena. No matter where you are in this path, there is something to learn, something to discover and something to work on. Your goal posts will continue to shift and move as you progress, and your initial aims will morph into new aims the further along you are.

So, "how long will it take" is in fact not the best question. A better question would be "how can I bring more joy and fun to my life by developing an amazing guitar practice?". This is the mindset shift I would like you guys to try and have, and in this blog post I will offer you 5 tips for developing an incredible habit of learning the guitar and inviting that new journey of music into your life.

The Video

This blog post is supported by our YouTube lesson on the same subject, and I'd highly recommend watching the whole video as well as reading the blog post. Check it out here:

Tip #1 - Find your space in your home

I would recommend taking some time to set up a space in your home that excites you! A space that makes you want to come and sit down, pick up the guitar and play. Now it's fair to say we all have different spaces that we live in, some bigger than others, some more chaotic than others! 😂 The home you live in will of course play a part in determining the kind of space you want to create, but that's ok. For example, I have a guitar hanging on the wall in my living room, a little amp underneath and my guitar headphones on a little stand with my iPad ready to learn. It's a small space, very simple, and is in the same room as my family watch TV and chill out. But it works. I love my little space, and it entices me to come and sit and practice there.

Now, if you have the means to, and fancy getting something a bit more built up and complex, why not create an incredible guitar space, kinda like the cool picture below. Fill it with amps, guitars, interfaces, artwork and anything that inspires you to practice more. This isn't available to many, but if you feel to, go for it. The point is that you create a space that you love to go to, as this will help on those days where your motivation is low for playing. In fact, it's those days where the real magic happens!

By the way guys, all the images in this blog post are generated by AI, so enjoy the bizarre hands and guitar strings! These images certainly help illustrate my points, but they are funny too! 😂

Tip #2 - Find a time that suits you daily

The next point that I think it important is to spend some time thinking about the time that works best for you on a daily basis. The reason we want to do this is because when developing a habit, we need to be very consistent with it for at least 30 to 40 days, ideally 2 full months. This means going to sit down and practice even when you don't really feel like it, or the motivation is very low on that particular day. Having a time that you do that thing is therefore crucial.

Think of it in the same way as physical exercise. You tend to have a time in the day when you do the gym, or go for a run, or play some sport… Whatever it is I bet that you don't feel like doing it every time (maybe even a lot of the time) but you do it anyway because "this is the time I go to the gym"! We want the same thing for guitar practice. Try to find a time where you're undisturbed and can really focus on you playing, and make it a time that you know is available most days. Remember, we want to be as consistent as possible here, so spend some time find a good time for you to give yourself as much chance as possible to succeed!

Tip #3 - Little and often!

When it comes to practicing, and important point to acknowledge is that practicing regularly for short periods is far more effective than very irregular long periods. This is especially true when you are beginner, as you can't practice for long anyway before you get too fatigued by pushing the fingers onto the guitar! With guitar playing, the regularity of practice helps develop muscle memory, which is what we need to remember chords, scales, songs, licks… Basically everything we do on the guitar! You will find that after a certain amount of time, your playing seems to get worse, as fatigue of learning sets in, and to push past that will not wield any massive results. Instead, working at it for more like 20 minutes a day will yield far better results in the long run.

The length of time you practice for is very subjective and specific to you. As a beginner, I would recommend 10-20 minutes a day, daily. As you get more experienced and have more to practice then it may be you want to dedicate a whole hour or more! This is great, but make sure it's not a Sunday afternoon and then not touch it for the week. Keep it consistent and ideally daily.

Tip #4 - Travelling set up

If you're anything like me then you may well do a fair bit of travelling. Wether it's for business or for pleasure, travel is a massive part of our modern lives, and doesn't need to derail our guitar progress! In fact, building an awesome travel rig is one of the most fun things you can do as a guitar player! For example, here is my travel set up (I bet you were wondering why I was holding this guitar for the whole video). I use this cool Donner HUSH-X Electric Guitar and my BOSS WAZA AIRS. That's all I need! The guitar fits on a plane and the headphones… Well, they're headphones. Simple as that! The guitar plays beautifully and the headphones built in amps and FX are amazing, so I have a great sound anywhere I am in the world!

Remember that our focus is to build a daily habit, and if you have a job that requires you to travel a lot we can use these tips to make sure that this won't set you back on your quest to become a great guitar player.

Tip 5 - Use gear to make it fun!

My final tip is about helping the fun along… And what better way than with gear! At the end of the day, building a habit can be hard, and there will be many days where you simply won't feel motivated to practice at all. What can massively help things along there is to get a little excited about gear! Guitar playing and gear go hand in hand, and as much as my advice is to focus on the playing, as the sound is generally in the fingers, I also can't deny that gear is fun! A new pedal, or an amp, perhaps if you're really lucky a new guitar… All of these things can make a massive difference to your motivation.

Of course, the gear isn't necessary to make you an amazing guitar player, but it definitely helps with the joy and excitement of the whole thing. So remember that if you're feeling like you want a little injection of excitement, getting the gear is great, but keep the habit of practice going anyway!

Conclusion

As I said above, remember that in this blog we're setting you up to build a great habit of learning the guitar, but if you want to know what to practice in that time, that's where our Guitar Club membership comes into play. Get your pathway of learning and work through it, using the community and our mentors to guid you further if you have any questions. Sign up for free here.