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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → Practice?
I recently decided to take guitar up again and after 4 months, I feel like I'm hitting a wall. I think that may be caused by how I practice. How do you guys practice? I just run through a few songs in my songbook for about an hour. Any thoughts?
hi miller and welcome to the forum of guitar knowlege,
I have been playing for about 15 years and I still practice.
Normally I will play at least 2 songs a day to about 25. Maybehave a day or two of ot touching it.
I practice more wit hchords when i have to learn a new chord, I will practice this quite a lot in a week, giveit a rest if it is frustrating me, then go back to it.
Dont let anything stress you out, if it does , take a step back then try again when yu are ready.
I have not subscribed to that playjam thing that there i alink to in chordie, for beginners to advanced, but ireckon for anyone needing help this would be a good site to go to as the person or a moderator or someone connected to that site actually replies and you can get proffesional help if really needed. I see someone from there has replied to someone in here, which I think is very good service.
Ken
Hello there Miller192,
I also practice mainly by playing and learning songs. However I also like to do a few exercises too. Finger exercises and maybe a scale or two. This helps build up the strength in your fretting hand and also helps with left and right hand co-ordination.
Check out www.justinguitar.com. There is a section on practicing with some video as a guide. This is free so don't worry. If you click the "General Concepts" tab on menu and then look down the page you will see the "practice" section with links to video. Have a look. Up until recently I'd never dreamed of doing scales or finger exercises but it has helped me a good deal.
All the best.
Time to get on Chordie Miller and print out lots of songs, some may be too tricky but they should get you out the rut of just one songbook. Getting a good fat folder of songs together gives you leeway, somedays I don't want to do uptempo upbeat songs and out come the country heartbreakers. 'Here Comes The Sun' don't work when it's raining, much better to try 'Stormy Weather'. Songs for practise need varying and need to suit your mood.
I used to just jam, but I found myself gravitating to songs that I could do easily and that sounded good--I wasn't challenging myself to improve. So I printed out some songs with a lot of D to Bm--that transition always killed me for some reason, and I made myself play those songs every day. I also made myself start playing the chords in different positons on the neck so even if I was playing an easy song, I'd play my Am and D at 5--that opened up a new world for me. And I don't know how long you've been playing, but when I started barre chords terrified me---make yourself play them! Use the whole neck--heck, then you start playing a chord on a couple different neck positions, doing a little muting and a whole new world will open up! Have Fun!
Thanks guys. I've finally overcome my fear of barre chords but I am where Frankster was talking about. I would find a new song, play it a little and then move on because I thought I could do. I think I need to start challenging myself more.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → Practice?
