Learning Guitar: 7 Tips to Optimize Your Practice Time

Learning guitar is no different to learning how to play a sport, practice is a very important and essential part of the process. Whether you are learning guitar online or with a private instructor, the predominant factor and common denominator here that will determine your progress is practice. Regular daily practice of the material you learn from your lessons is the only sure and proven way to your ongoing progress and improvement.

How long you spend practicing.How long you practice each day is totally up to you, and this totally depends on how serious and committed you are... 1 hour? 30 minutes? 45 minutes? 2 hours? How busy is your daily schedule? How much time are you willing to make available for your practice? If you can fit 20 to 30 minutes of practice into your busy day, you will improve steadily and become the very proficient player you've always dreamed of being.

Make a commitment. You simply just have to make a commitment and stick to it. Even if it's only 15 minutes a day, you'll be amazed at the results you can achieve within only a few months of regular practice.

Choose the best time. Remember this is the time you're spending to reach your goal so it has to be your own private time. It has to be uninterrupted and focused. Pick the most suitable time of day for you, away from any distractions. Turn your mobile phone off, let people know what you're doing and ask to not be disturbed. It's the time for you to focus on learning guitar.

Plan your practice. For your practice to be effective it has to be well planned and structured. That means if you practice for 30 minutes every day, those 30 minutes have to be fully optimized with effective exercises to ensure a steady progress. An example would be to break your 30 minute practice into two 15 minute parts. Spend the first half doing scale exercises and the second half working on chords and learning a new song.

Stay focused. Don't cut corners and move to something new if you haven't completed something you've been working on. That's only going to slow down your progress and make your playing sloppy. You need to be patient and take it one step at a time. Just follow the lessons presented to you in the order they are structured and move on as you feel comfortable and ready for new ground. Move at your own pace, that's the convenience that comes with online guitar lessons.

Have fun. Enjoy your practice at all times. It will never feel like work if you have fun while you're practicing. Remember that you're learning how to express yourself on the guitar with music. How could you not enjoy that? It's all a joy and a blessing.

Take a look at the big picture. Every time you stumble into a road block and feel like you're not going anywhere, just look at the big picture. Visualize yourself being able to play that chord progression you've been struggling with or that scale run you're not getting. We all get these moments and the best way to move through them is by not focusing on the negative side of things. Relax, take a deep breath, visualize, break it down step by step and you'll play it right.

If you apply these tips and focus on your daily practice, you'll have big rewards coming your way. It will be hard for you to find the words to describe the feeling you get when you start to hear a song come together and when you see your fingers move into those shapes on the fretboard and play those beautiful sounds that can only be played on a guitar. This is only just a start of the shapes of things to come and the many rewards you're about to get on your journey to learning guitar. You'll change the world you live in by discovering a new way to express yourself.

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How to Practice the Violin - Essential Steps for Adult Beginners

Every time you lovingly unpack your violin from its case - tighten up the bow, tune the strings - you are taking one more step towards your goal. Whether you are aiming to be the next Paganini, or just wanting to take it as far as you can, learning to play the violin is a journey filled with joy and despair, pain and pleasure.

Your mental attitude is most important. As an adult you are more aware of your inadequacies and limitations than a child, but try to see the long view, and know that each day you are progressing one tiny little step more.

The first important decision is to find a good teacher - one who is sympathetic to your goals. Ideally your teacher should also be a good musician, who can demonstrate instead of just explaining what you need to do.

Your teacher should be able to give you guidelines on how to practice. I should like to add a few thoughts to help you on your way.

First, you need to practice every day. Even if you only have a few minutes to spare, just do it! My teacher, Dr. Suzuki, said "You only need practice on the days that you eat," (I like the 'only'). Find a regular time in your day and schedule it in. Make it as much a routine as cleaning your teeth in the morning.

Second, you need to repeat. Repetition is the name of the game. If you repeat an exercise, a scale, a phrase, a piece a couple of times, you are not going to learn very much. However, if you repeat 10, 20, 100 times, you are really going to know how to do it. But be careful. Make sure you know exactly how you are supposed to do it. If you repeat a mistake 100 times, you are going to know very well how to do it - wrong!

Third, you need to copy. Copy your teacher, how she stands, holds her bow, her violin position, left hand position, where is her head?... Go to concerts, and carefully watch professional violinists, their positions, postures, etc. There are hundreds of videos of violinists on YouTube. Pick your favourite musician, and piece.

Fourth, you need to listen. Listen to your teacher, how she plays, her phrasing, tone quality, vibrato etc... Listen to CDs. Try to decide whether the phrase starts with an up bow or a down bow. Are they playing at the tip or the point, or in the middle of the bow? Can you guess what string they are playing on? Immerse yourself in the world of violin music.

My last recommendation is to have fun. To play a musical instrument is to be able to communicate in a universal language. There are no language barriers. Music is its own language. Try to find a friend who is at the same level as you, or better still, slightly more advanced, and play duets together.

To sum up: practice every day, repeat, copy, listen, enjoy.

The old adage is right. "Practice Makes Perfect"

Elizabeth Arnott is English, and has lived in Mexico for the past ten years. In London she was a Suzuki Violin Teacher for 25 years, and taught a range of students from age 3 to adult. She now lives in Merida, Yucatan, plays violin in the Orquesta Sinfonica de Yucatan, and has a few private students.

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Piano Lesson: Practice Tips

How do you practice the piano? Even if you are taking a break from piano lessons over the summer, you should still continue to practice. This way you will keep moving forward with your progress. Here are some tips to help you get started with piano practice early in the day, before any other activities.

1. Practice Right After Your Lesson

When my students work on something new during their lesson, I encourage them to play through it again at home the very same day. Keep in mind that you don't have to practice for a long time. If you wait for more than a day or two, sometimes your mind forgets what you have learned.

2. Don't Watch The Clock

Practicing every day for at least 10 minutes makes you a better pianist but for many students it's just not fun. I remember staring at the clock waiting for my class in school to be over. Doing this during your practice time will just make your practice time seem longer and you'll be losing your focus on the music.

3. Make Practice Time A Game or Challenge

It's always a good thing to set goals and try to achieve them. Start by making a practice chart or purchase a practice record book. Make a list of your songs, warm ups and scales. Then check off as you complete the task. Seeing for yourself, as well as your parents and music teacher, will encourage you to keep investing in your recorded practice time.

4. Practice Your Mistakes

Have you heard the expression, "Practice makes perfect?" Perhaps it's better to rephrase this with "Practice makes permanent." Whatever information you input into your brain, is what you are learning. So, if you practice something well, you will learn it well.

If you practice your mistakes, and repeat that particular passage several times, let's say several notes or a few measures overall, you will learn it well. Practicing your mistakes with much repetition, then that is what you will remember. You'll be fixing your mistakes by repeating the notes slowly and accurately.

5. Practice One Line At a Time

Take each staff at a time. What I mean by this, is to start with the right hand melody notes, then go back and work on the left hand separately in the first line of music. Now, combine both hands, playing together. Patience and consistent piano practice is the key.

By setting a realistic goal and applying these daily piano tips, you will be prepared for a great start with your songs in September.

Diana Rogers is a kindergarten music teacher and also offers piano lessons in her studio. She is the author of free newsletters available at her website. http://ladydpiano.com/

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5 Perfect Practice Points to Picking Perfection or "What to Should I Be Practicing on the Guitar?"

So you've finally decided to take learning the guitar seriously? Good for you! You love the music, you're enthusiastic and you're raring to go... Or maybe you find yourself longing to play well but daunted amount of information about how to play....we are living after all in the information age!

Fortunately for the daunted, we can easily reduce this mass of information down in to manageable chunks and make sure we concentrate on each of them in turn. Obviously the specific requirements of an acoustic steel string folk-y and hardcore metal-er are going to be somewhat different... but beneath their superficial differences all guitarists have more in common than they think... So here's what I recommend to become a well rounded guitarist:

1. Develop Fretboard Knowledge

Finding your way around the guitar is like trying to navigate a maze...blindfolded! Unlike our blithely tinkling brethren on the piano or the hard blowing sax players, our instrument is not a linear arrangement notes... it is a complex six string matrix (and that is as confusing as it sounds). Here's what you can do about it:

learn the notes of on the fretboardpractice scales and arpeggios and patterns (it's very very good for you!)learning the CAGED system of fretboard navigation (a god-send)

2. Practice Sight-reading

Unless you can play purely by ear you're going to want to learn some music from one of the following formats:

Chord chartsTabsAnd even... (sinister organ noises)... standard notation!

Don't worry though - with a bit of time it's a skill that you can definitely acquire. Half the battle is obtaining the most accurate and clearest written music you can.

3. Playing by Ear

Okay... okay... I know I just told you should be working on reading music instead of "just" playing by ear... in reality though, a good ear makes a musician, so....

figure simple tunes (silly melodies like nursery rhymes can be really helpful)figure out licks, riffs and chord sequences by ear - cherry pick your favoritespractice playing along with recordings and backing tracks

4. Learning Songs

This is a classic weakness for guitarist! As a breed we tend to be excellent at playing small parts of songs but never knowing the whole thing! Never mind though... with so many excellent tabs and play-along recordings we've got no excuse not to sit down and tackle our favorite pieces from start to finish. PS Do your best to memorize the tunes! A strong memory is essential for any kind of performing where you don't have the luxury of reading from a sheet...

5. Inventing new ideas

Here's a fun one for you. After all that time an effort learning and analyzing other peoples' material, it time for you to start screwing around with it and trying to reshape it in your own image... so give yourself permission to just mess around with ideas you find interesting and see what you come up with It's up to you how frequently you practice each area; you could try and do a little of everything all on one day, or maybe a couple of areas each session. Experiment and see what suits you best.

And just for fun, a few things you can do between practice sessions...

Perform music in front of peopleListen to a wide variety of musicStudy music theoryLearn about music history

Always wanted to play the guitar or piano? Keynote Sounds is dedicated to providing you with cutting edge online instructional material and 1 to 1 private lessons. Every aspect of playing is broken down into easily understandable bite sized pieces and arranged for you in a format that will guarantee swift progress, even without hours of daily practice.

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5 Tips to Take Your Guitar Playing To The Next Level - The Best Way To Practice Guitar

I have seen a lot of people grab a guitar, but very few take it seriously, meaning that just some of them actually achieve success with it. What I mean is that many stop learning after learning a thing or two because they don?t find the best way to practice guitar, and do not see the endless possibilities of continue learning. The thing is that to improve like a professional it is important to think outside the box, to have an outsider's perspective to realize what you are doing well and in what areas you could make an improvement.

I have had moments in which I have felt frustrated and blocked, moments in when I really just don't see the light, and experience has taught me that there is always a way around, maybe it's not exactly what we were expecting, but the fact is that there is always something that can be done when we get to a point where we see that there is a big rock blocking the road.

Ok, so you already know how to play guitar, and you have been doing it for a couple of months, a year, or even maybe for a couple of years, and you feel that you have gotten into that point that I was mentioning in the previous paragraph, what can you do? The first thing is to know that it is normal to feel like that, and as I stated before, there are things that you can do and I want to give you a few tips you can use to get a fresh start.

1. Stop playing guitar for a while. Take a breath, just relax and think about it, if you stop playing guitar for let's say a week or so, when you pick it up again you will have this need to start playing again and that's good, it will be as if you a recharging batteries.

2. Listen to a different type of music. Let's say that you are into rock music, then listen to some country, blues or some jazz guitar players and when you find a song that you like, try to learn it using tabs or if you know how to read music, look for the music sheet for that particular song.

3. Look for new scales to learn on your guitar. Now that you are listening to a different type of music, try to learn a couple of scales of blues and jazz, and this will help you a lot to get your fingers set loose, and you are going to get a better idea to start creating awesome solos on your guitar.

4. Set up your Metronome. Now that you are learning new scales on the guitar, use the metronome to play them and start putting some speed on your fingers.

5. Look for inspiration. Start searching around for videos of your favorite guitar players, the feeling you get from watching them on stage is the gasoline you need to start improving your guitar skills right away.

These are just a few ideas that you can start applying to take your guitar playing to a new level. Take a cup of coffee, think about it and make your choice, do you want to be like everybody out there that only know how to play a couple of songs or do you want to explode your full potential. Think about it, good luck my friend.

George Balibrera is an experienced guitarist with over 12 years playing guitar.To Learn to Play Guitar can be fun and exciting when you have the proper method to learn. Discover the Best Way To Practice Guitar and start learning or improve your skills as a musician right away. Remember, practice is the key. Have a great day.

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Music Practice Tips - Creating the Ideal Practice Environment

We all know that practice is the single most important element in making progress on your musical instrument. The space in which we practice does not have to be a dedicated room or studio. The corner of a bedroom is all that is required. However, efficient practice can be achieved by the creation of a work-friendly and organised practice space with some essential tools that will make whatever practice space you use conducive to progress towards the mastery of your chosen instrument.

We can never truly achieve the perfect practice space but there are a few easy solutions to making a space as workable as possible to practice an instrument.

Some things that come to mind include a sturdy and reliable music stand and adequate seating. The instrument you play will often determine your seating arrangements. A piano bench is useful for most instrument practice however some people like to use an armless chair or to simply stand. A space and support for your instrument, such as an instrument stand, is very helpful too. Most musicians find that when their instrument is constantly in full view they are likely to do more frequent practice.

A good supply of paper and manuscript for setting goals and jotting down musical ideas is important. A journal for recording progress can be as simple as a spiral bound note pad or as cutting edge as a digital recording device. A good quality and compact digital recorder can be invaluable in providing the practicing musician with instant and absolutely honest feedback on their progress and is a great practice tool for ensemble work. With a recording of your practice you will hear wrong notes, shaky rhythms, problems with phrasing and dynamics. You will instantly be able to improve your playing by rectifying what you can so obviously hear in your recording.

An analogue or digital metronome is vital but often overlooked. It is very important for a novice musician to get into the habit of keeping good time. Many metronomes now have built in tuners. A well tuned instrument is important for developing a good ear and essential for ensemble performance.

Whenever you are thinking about adding an object to your practice space a key consideration must be: will this item add to my comfort, encourage me to practice, facilitate progress and help eliminate distractions?

What distractions can you eliminate? Practice is a good time to turn off mobile phones, computers and television. Make sure the people who live with you understand how important your practice is to you and let them know how much you appreciate them not interrupting.

Once you have set up your practice space it should ideally be left set up. However if your circumstances do not allow for a permanent practice space you can keep all your necessary items in a case or container. This can then become a portable practice kit which can be taken anywhere.

However you set up your practice space your primary motivation should be to more effectively learn music and to create a space that will inspire you to spend more time learning your instrument. It's a simple equation: more practice = better musician!

Glenn Davey is a director of Creative Music for Schools Creative Music for Schools - Australian based music educators and retailers of musical instruments and print music. Creative Music has been a major Music Program Service Provider in schools since 1989 and has been responsible for giving the gift of music to thousands of Australian children.

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