Been playing over 30 years and a tip a picked up was to split up your practice sessions. Guitar playing involves a large amount of muscle memory, so for instance 1 session in the morning, one in afternoon and one before bed prevents the 23 hour lag between your hands having to recall what you did last. Also it is often easier to find time for frequent shorter sessions than the excuse of 'I cant practice because I cant get an hour out of my schedule' ; 3× 20 might be more plausible
Yeah I do a similar thing, I play bass tho, I find that it's easier to practice more if I do 20 minute chunks and record down what I did. If I do 20 minute chunks I can even practice at work, so I can do morning practice, lunch practice, after work practice, and then usually before bed practice.
That is a really good idea. I have wanted to take my guitar to work for a while and just have a quick practice (so I could get 3 practice sessions in) but wanted to avoid the 'show us what you can play' situation 😂
Best advice. Usually I only practice my fingers with metronome for 40 mins up to 1 hour And after dinner, i play songs, solos or improvise for two more hours. I have been playing since 7 months and i am quite happy about my progression The only thing I wonder how can I play faster legatos.. At the moment i play triplets at 90 - 95 bpm
This approach seems to work for me. I play about 20 mins (fairly focused practice) mid day then in the evening another 15-20 minutes of the same material. I find the second practice session goes much better. I don't feel it gives quite the same progress as I would feel the next day's session (benefit of sleep, neural pathways forming and all that stuff) but it seems to work better for me than 40 mins all at once.
I dont want my guitar to become dirty also i keep my guitar beside me in the cover..... I really careful with my guitar because it is a only thing i have
Mary Spender mentioned in a video here about a psychological process we do that lets us think that thinking about, talking about, watching, and pretty much anything but doing the actual thing, as somehow equal to doing that actual thing. For me it meant having to pare down the subscriptions I have and what videos I watch, and set some guidelines, like a kind of formula about the length of the video and relevance. But all work and no play sucks so I do have some that are just pure fun, like Fluff's outrageous Reverb listings, or as I call it, "Dude, you're f@#imng high!" LOL
Ain't that the truth. I am searching youtube for "how to improve at guitar" and then I look over at the stand and think "just play the damn thing!" If my time spend watching videos was equal to my practice I'd be quite advanced by now!
I am 62 years old and a total beginner. Played now for 2 months and my fingerpain has stopped being a problem. I practice 40-60 min a day devided in 2-4 sessions. I only practice changing between chords and a few strumming patterns. Only three chords A D E. 80 % of the time on chord changies. So far I am not playing songs. I think this focused practice will pay off. I now can change chord 45 times a minute and it sounds ok. When I ger to 60 / m I will start playing songs.
That is decent goal, some of the hardest parts of learning a song is the chord transitions even if they are a familiar with you. What is the first song that you want to learn?
@@raggmunken1958 are you on the juston guitar course? I’m 19 and I’m in my second month. My approach is fairly similar but I like to practice songs after a a few minutes of doing chord changes
As an older beginner who started playing guitar back in February 2016, I practice every (except for last year, I missed a few days because of bad health), for about 1 to 1.5 hours every day. If I’m learning a new song, and depending on the difficulty, I’ll practice two to three hours a day. Whilst learning the guitar can be difficult (especially for not very talented people like me), If you persist and put in the hard work, it will pay off. When I first started back in February 2016, I thought I was going to fail, but when I found some great teachers on RUclips, and copied their lessons, as I was able to play some of my favourite songs, that I thought I’d never learn. I can now play over 100 (mostly AC/DC songs, just the rhythm part, lead is too hard for me), I’m not very good, but what I played is recognisable. Being able to play a song from start to finish, I find gives you a great sense of satisfaction.
Some people pick it up quicker than others but there is always stumbling blocks along the way. I totally agree with you, hard work and effort will bring the results. I love learning songs and have had difficulty in recent times trying to learn a song the whole way through due to the difficulty of the song I chose. So I have mixed in some easier songs now and varied it a bit so I feel like I'm moving forward. You are putting a decent amount of practice time there. Do you concentrate just on songs?
@@MidlifeGuitar Yes, most of the practice is dedicated to learning new songs, and practicing old songs so that I don’t forget them. In the last two days, I learned another AC/DC song from their latest album, it’s called “Witch’s Spell”, I learned how to play the song by watching another guitar player on RUclips. I copied his lesson and slowed it down.
I play at least 30 minutes a day Monday through Thursday. Get home friday night and barely put it down all weekend. I practice as much as possible on the weekends, sometimes 6, even 7 hours a day.
I'm at a similar level to you - 1year & around 365hrs total. Now trying to practice 2 hours per day split into 2-3 sessions. My goal is 750hrs for 2021. Not easy with a family & full time job!
1.5 hr per day. 1. Warm up/exercises (20 min). 2. Pentatonic scales (maj/min) (20 min). 3. Blues Guitar Unleashed Lesson (20 min). 4. Strummimg and Rhythm (20 min). 5. Chord changes (20 min). 6. Improve over backing tracks (15 min). 7. Major and minor scales (15 min). 8. Licks and riffs (learn and practice) (15 min). 9. Sing while playing (15 min). 1 + odds: sun, tues, thurs. 1 + evens: sat, mon, wed Free Play Friday. Been at it almost year. Developed above schedule in December. Keeps me focused and efficient.
Apologies for the length of this - I thought I’d just share something I’m doing: Having watched this video I took the decision to take a step back and (try to!) focus on just one main source of learning (@justinguitar) and thus reduce valuable practice time trawling RUclips. This week I have concentrated on two areas, Songs (with the app) and one minute changes ... please believe me when I say I now finally get why the the one minute changes are so important and are actually quite testing! Much easier in some cases with Barre Chords once you have the finger strength . Beginners, try it, just go back to stuff you think you’ve done, you may be surprised that your understanding and application now makes more sense. Also try mixing it up, I am noodling one min changes with three chords (but remember form and sound are still key so keep it slow enough to be musical until you’re ready). Feel free to ignore btw! 😊
I am a beginner and when I strum the Amaj and Dmaj chord it sounds really bad and I learned the emaj too how do I make it sound better I use a pick and a electric guitar
This is a just a suggestion, the way I learned to play lots of songs, was to look on RUclips for other players who have played a cover of the song you want to learn to play. I copy the video, slow it down and watch the position of the guitarists fingers, because once you have been playing for while you build up a large vocabulary of chords and notes.
You haven’t posted for a while. I wish you well and hope you are ok. I have lots of experience with depression in my family. It is nothing to dismiss. Get some help. In addition keep up the progress. We miss your regular postings. We are all here for you. If it is any consolation, I have been hacking at it for years and am not that great at it. Regular focused practice is hard. We all want to copy that great riff or great cover on youtube and end up bombing and getting frustrated. We must stay in our lane and accept where we are at. In the end few of us will ever play in a band. This really is a case of enjoying the journey. Have fun and enjoy. Good luck and keep up the good work. We are all rooting for you.
Because i play a Turkish instrument, i have already a feeling to how to play. Like timing and rhythym and some lead. I started 6 month ago. I bought my very first strat, never played a guitar before. Sometimes i play just one song maybe 10 times to master it. Or practise another song/lick for about 15-30 minutes. Put it away and try again a few times trough the day. Sometimes not... The other day i just play all the songs I know which is just a few at the moment. Sometimes i just mix it up. Play a song, try a lick, try different effects. And then there are days i don't touch it all.
Man im so torn. I've been playing guitar on and off since 2008 and you need to find a perfect mix of "Having fun" jamming to keep the passion, and stopping for a moment to learn the theory, or that particular scale. You raise alot of good points in this video. When the world goes back to normal, standard guitar lessons would be perfect. A flaw that these guitar courses can't help you with is pointing out any particular mistakes and how to avoid them. A really nice tip from Tim Henson (lead guitarist of polyphia, one of the best guitarists of this generation so far) mentioned "Finger tone". this was his tweet but i'd thought id share it with you too "Encouraging all young guitar players to actively work on your finger tone. Playing crazy shit is cool and all but if your finger tone is bad the whole thing sounds bad. You wanna sound like you got more years in your hands than you actually do"
I just spent all my practice time learning songs I loved. I been playing for years and I would have probably progressed much faster if I’d done specific exercises and courses but the reason I started to play guitar was to play songs I like. If I had to do courses and exercises when learning I would have never stuck with it I feel
Fair enough and that is the most fun for me also. Recently I have understood that to learn a difficult song (for me) I have to break it right down to it's smallest parts. Although this was obvious after the fact, this has been a bit of a revelation for me. I'm sure by learning all the songs you have that you have acquired many skills and techniques and learning songs is such a fun way to do that. What are you currently learning to play?
Yup, that's how I feel too. I tried to start with theory, I learned how to read music on a music sheet, and other basics, but I wasn't motivated until I learned how to play songs. Then my progress took off!
I play for about an hour a day these days. Played the ukulele for about a year, now 7 months into learning guitar and making my way through Six String Fingerpicking's guitar fingerstyle song list Zero to Hero, starting with easier songs and moving difficulty up a notch with each new song. I like to think I'm making really fast progress, already playing that F barre chord in some songs - although the ukulele definitely gave me a big head start!! I find it so much more fun to play songs I like a lot - and I make sure they're not too difficult for me (really important to me in order to prevent frustration) and every now and again I do a short exercise just to improve technique.- all in a session. I also tend to take a lot of short breaks, and I find it really helpful to learn around 3 songs at a time, bit by bit, just to mix things up a little so I don't get bored doing the same thing over and over. Got quite a few full songs down to satisfaction, feels so good when you finally nail that song you've been practicing so much. And I frequently practice the songs I've learned so I won't forget how to play them later - I just play each whole song through until no big mistakes every other day. And when you learn a couple of songs at the same time and get them right in the end, the good feeling hits you in shorter succession - if that makes any sense. Just my thoughts - that's what works for me. Keep up the good work man, your videos are great!!!
I used to practice making my chords and strumming, back then my fingers still hurt so I would only go 20-60 minutes. But now that I can switch quickly without looking, I can strum and sing at the same time, so now I just practice songs that I'm learning and basically jam out for AT LEAST an hour. I just love it so much I only really stop when I need to do something else like sleep or chores. I could play all day. Edited to add: I just started working on finger picking, and I need to learn the scales etc.
I always run scales and spider exercises etc for 15-20 minutes before doing any practice to wake my fingers up. I'll be watching TV at the time so I dont count it as practice time. When practicing I usually concentrate on the most difficult part of the crux of the song (not solos) first. Its helps to optimise your practice time as technique comes quicker.
I'm definitely with you. It takes me a good half hour just to get the fingers moving well. I'm 10 months in, and can count on one hand how many days I haven't practiced. I average about 2 hours a day, and definitely like the progress I've made. The first 7 months, though... Brutal. Can't agree more to find a course. *Any* course and have the faith to work on what they say, otherwise relying on yourself to make the right decisions when it takes so long to click can be demoralizing. Now, I really really enjoy taking on new songs, or new skills. My typical session involves: 5+ minutes of stretching the hands and wrists, 5 minutes of basic string drills, and then either just all song practice, or dive into skills for about 30 minutes (bends, hammers, etc) first then fun up the rest of the session with my favorite songs I've been working on. ...hardest part now is forcing myself to not play. Especially, after warming up the fingers. All in, probably 600+ hours in so far. Perhaps that 10K hours thing is bogus. I like to consider it a language which if my hours were words - I'm squarely a beginner. Yep, can say a few things - some even well, but still a beginner. Need about 4K "words" to be proficient is my guess. ...better go get my guitar! Thanks for the vid!
I want to get to C.G.P. level, I won’t stop til I get there lol. I try to practice at least a couple hours per day, sometimes it’s intensely focused, sometimes it’s just messing around. I definitely relate to the hands not really being loose right away, I try to stretch and take magnesium before practicing.
I do guitar playing in 15 minute segments: ideally after breakfast, after lunch, and around dinner. In reality I usually only hit it twice per day. I spend one session doing finger exercises since I can't independently move my pinky; it always follows my ring finger. That session lasts around 10-15 minutes. I generally follow playing with a 15 minute session on ear training. I generally follow that with a 15 minute session on memorizing the notes on the fret board. Add in the times I extend my playing and I spend anywhere from 1-2 hours per day on guitar practice of one sort or another. Add in youtube watching and I refuse to answer how much time I think about the guitar. I've been tracking my time on a spreadsheet. To date I've spent 86 days learning split between 32 hours of guitar playing, 23.75 hours of ear training, and 12.5 hours of fret memorization (some things started on later dates than others). I don't track time on finger exercises. I sound like someone who picked up the guitar a couple of days ago, but I've been generally okay with it since I've peppered in some song fragments and I am noticeably better than when I started. Daily it's spider exercises for the first 5 minutes, playing a couple song fragments that I'm trying to improve, and round out the rest of the time with whatever the lesson is on GuitarTricks that I subscribed to (I'm on chapter 3!). I am a bit of a perfectionist with myself and refuse to move on until I can play almost all notes without buzzing or touching other strings. My goal is to be able to play songs around the campfire and my far-flung goal is to be able to compose songs that I find interesting. Thanks for being my confessional today. :)
I think everybody’s ’secret sauce’ is different. I agree there is a minimum amount of time needed to create and maintain muscle memory, 30 minutes of uninterrupted time could be the magic number. Personally, I find that the effort to really focus on what I am doing leaves me a bit mentally shagged. So, that’s the number for me. I do try and have two sessions each day.
I know what you mean about the half hour mark, I feel the same. When I practice longer than that the second half is a lot less structured and just work on a few songs. What are you working on at the moment?
I tell myself, 5 minutes a day. and after a while, practicing for an hour is super easy while not even noticing the time goes by. i can do five minutes. Leave it out. even after practicing for many months, years, i still tell myself just 5 minutes. and that was the key for me. "Edit" - I also never put the guitar away. always out by a chair, tv chair while watching sports. anywhere nearby is my key to starting.
Nice video. I am a 11 times world record breaker in different sports. I would say for sports its what your body can handle. Two hours a day is great! But learning gitar is more easy. You don't have the physical part. I am playing gitar now for 9 months and i can already play Megadeth tornado of souls and almost arpeggio part of Jason Becker altitudes within 2,5 weeks practice. I would say you can practice as much as 6 hours a day with resting periods in between. I practice myself abouth 2,5 hours avarage a day.
I've been practicing for three years and I'm absolutely stuck. For the first two years I stuck rigidly to theory lessons. Then one day I was asked what I could play and realised I couldn't play anything. So songs became my obsession but unless I have the chords or notes laid out in front of me I still couldn't play anything all the way through. This is where I'm at today. There's a void in my knowledge that I search RUclips for on a daily basis. It's difficult to find because I don't know what I'm looking for.
In his interview with Alan Lomax, Muddy Waters said he practiced 2 to 3 hours a day fora few years since his late teens. I found it fascinating to hear what it took to get super skilled quickly.
I've been practising mostly two 1/2 hour sessions a day morning and night and occassionally during the day as a 3rd session. I take one day off a week to catch up on life the day after my in person lesson to catch on life (pay bills). I also gave up on internet lessons as I found they didn't work for me. If you are curious about whether in person will do good for you, just try it for 6 weeks. I found that is long enough to decide if that teacher is a good fit or not as I went thru 2 others who did not jive with me but I have now found one that I like. Another very important thing is know your learning style if you can tell the teacher your strengths and weaknesses and the way you learn easiest teach may have ways to overcome the barriers much faster. Not all teachers are equily good for you. And just remember one thing Voice is $120 an hour for someone who is really good Guitar is $30 per 1/2 hour. So guitar lessons are a bargin. Also 1/2 hour guitar lessons are fine but vocally that first 1/2 you are just getting vocally warmed up and that is a big difference. I even found if you have a male or female teacher vocally makes a difference. I've had only 4 lessons from the new guy but can tell it is a good fit for me.
I'd say on average in my first year, I practiced about 2 hours a day, playing every day. After that, I think it's closer to about an hour day, on average. So in about 3 years, I'd say I've practiced about 1500-2000 hours. You can judge for yourself on my RUclips channel how much I've improved by investing that amount of effort. Bear in mind that I started at the age of 40, and I think I'm above average for effort put in, and number of days practiced in a row.
I don't have a set time to practice per day, but I do put in has much time per day that I have available and that I have enough energy to engage 100%. Some days that could be 8-10 hours, other days it could be as little as 5 minutes. But I've never missed a day since I started learning. As a warmup, I start with practicing scales up and down the neck, practice spider exercises, practice basic licks. Some days I practice these to a metronome, so see what my current level is, but I try not to get carried away spending too much time working on speed. After that, I spend time working on longer term projects that I'm working on, such as Fade to Black, One, Little Wing, Hey Joe. I practice the solos licks in those songs that I'm working on, listen to the original, listen back to my own versions, they try to figure out my mistakes. I also spend some time practicing simple songs that require only 3 - 4 chords such as Knocking on Heaven's Door, Wish you Were Here, making sure all chords are clean, I can play the whole song start to finish in time. Then I also spend time practicing singing along to these simple songs, now that I've been taking vocal lessons. So I spend some time practicing singing the melodies I've worked out, making sure I hit the right notes. There's a lot of things to work on, and you can't fit it all into one day. So you have to spread it out over multiple days. I don't have a formal method for which days I work on what (but that's something I probably should do). How I determine what to work on each day is based on what I want to work on, given all these things that I need to work on. I've only been playing just under 3 years, and you can judge for yourself how my effort is paying off. I've played every day for 1015 days, have taken vocal lessons, taken private guitar lessons, joined a Friday night jam session that was run by a guitar instructor, and I did all this after starting at the age of 40. I'm having a blast, and I realize that I have a long way to go! But I'm not giving up, ever. Ever!
I am 51 and trying to learn. I won’t lie, I wished I had learned to play the guitar as a child. However, I now have developing tricks and have the time to dedicate myself. For instance, I breakdown tasks in small bits (strumming patterns, bar chords, scales, etc). I also know that repetition is key. Thanks to all the comments here, I have many tips to make this process easier.
Not sure where the best place to put this is, so I just picked your most recent video to ask... I've watched and enjoyed your reviews of the different beginner services and am curious on if you plan on doing any kind of round up or to crown a "winner" out of all of these services? I'm starting guitar in the near future and with all of these options out there I'm really interested in trying to find the best fit for me out of these. I think even something like a tier list or a ranking system of the classes you've taken so far would be really valuable! Also, are you considering trying Rocksmith or Yousician at all? Would love to hear your take as a comparison to the other classes. Thanks for your input and keep playing man!
I tend to practice about an hour a day average. I have been concentrating on improvising and working up my speed. What I tend to do is practice 2 techniques at once-tremolo picking learning a new scale or lick. I find that really helps concentrate practice on areas I need to work on. It works both hands at once. The other thing I’ve been working on is making melodies instead of scale patterns. Instead of ever practicing a non musical sounding scale exercise, I’ll find the areas I’m having trouble with and work out a musical sounding riff and practice that. Honestly, it really does come down to how many hours you play. 1/2 hour a day can help if it’s consistent and efficient, but as you said it takes time just to warm up and get really going. If you want to improve, you have to practice more than you practice now.
Two 20 minute sessions in the morning, two more in the afternoon and two at night. Each session separated by at least an hour. One of those sessions is dedicated to review, the others are done using Troy Stetinas Rhythm and Lead books.ruclips.net/video/bwbR2ny8iCo/видео.html
Great video, Luke! I have been thinking about this question too lately. For me, the more I try to structure my practice, the less fun I seem to have. So, I just try to pick up the guitar everyday for a few minutes and sometimes it turns into hours. At these sessions I work on a mix of challenging and easier songs and I try to find skills that I want to learn and work on during the moment. This is probably not the most efficient way, but it keeps it fun for me and I still feel like I am improving. I have only been playing for about 9 months, so this may change.
I know the feeling and I am always looking to strike a balance of fun in my practice. Do the skills and techniques compliment the songs you are learning or are they not related?
@@MidlifeGuitar Yes, I think that your point on remembering why you started playing and what kind of player you want to be is the most important. I try to find challenging songs to learn that motivate me to practice the techniques required for that song. It feels so nice to apply the techniques you are practicing directly in a song you couldn't play before. That being said, finding these songs that strike the balance between challenging, but manageable is not easy... For now I use the grade system from Justin Guitar to judge which songs are appropriate for me and which one interests me. How do you choose songs to learn that are just outside your comfort level?
@@tjabatta I struggle with exactly the same thing. The Jamie Harisson course I am working through I thought would be the right level but is proving a lot tougher than I first thought. So I am learning a few others along side it that I believe to be a bit easier. One of those is Slow Cheetah. As you say, getting the balance isn’t easy.
@@MidlifeGuitar You mean his Crossing the Bridge course? I was looking at buying that course too after seeing it in your videos. I went through his beginner course, but he goes quite quickly over the bar chords and Hendrix chords. After all the open chords this step is huge to play these comfortably, so I don't feel like I have the basics down to go to his harder courses... And coincidentally I have been working on Slow Cheetah last week too! One of my favourites from Stadium Arcadium for sure! A friend tried to teach it to me, but I didn't get much beyond the intro though. Good luck!
I am trying to play at least twice each day. Scales and homework in the morning before work and then something fun in the evening. This is often a song but at the moment I'm having fun working through Rocksmith to answer some questions asked of me recently. With regards to time, I try for half an hour each session and longer if I can. That said, sometimes life gets in the way and I miss a day or two.
@@MidlifeGuitar Thanks Luke. I have been working hard on strength and dexterity in my fretting hand and (whilst it makes for slow progress) it is very beneficial. Loving your channel lately with some great videos.
So I have really been investing a lot of time into a learning method called the "Pomodoro Technique." It takes advantage of "focused" and "diffused" learning. Basically, you consume whatever you are trying to learn through reading/audio/video or in this case by playing guitar in however many minute increments you prefer. The technique recommends 25-minute intervals. And then you take a short break. And during this break, you do something completely unrelated to the task you were just performing. During these break periods is when the diffused learning occurs. An example of this would be being stuck on a particular problem you aren't able to solve, but when you step away and do something else the answer comes to you, or at the very least you make additional progress. Muscle memory is probably a good example of this as well. It is definitely something worth checking out.
Never heard of that before but it's amazing how many times I just can't get something but when I come back to it after a break it suddenly starts to click. I saw a Mary Spender video recently where she talked about learning being consolidated through sleep and I'd vouch for that too.
Been playing for just over 5 years now and sometimes struggle with motivation: I found the best thing to do (and the most enjoyable thing I do on guitar!) is to play with a mate or a band. I am working through the Rockschool grades and my current grade is HARD!! Passed grade 4 in Dec 19 and I'm still working on grade 5 -some days I just don't want to go through the same old stuff, over and over again, but before lockdown I was playing with an old schoolmate who drums: we'd get together in his garden room and play along to various tracks. If we could we'd then do them without the backing tracks (someone has to sing but luckily we know each other well enough that my bad singing is not an issue). Firstly it meant we'd learn whole songs, and secondly, we'd often find we'd been playing for 2-2.5 hours and not even noticed, it's a great way to get some hours in. As it happens we eventually got invited to join a band and Band practice would just fly by. If you can find an open mic night (not now, obviously) you will meet other musicians who can be surprisingly encouraging.
By the way, I lied: playing with a mate or a band is not the most enjoyable thing I do on guitar, it's the most enjoyable thing I do in my entire life! Secondly, it's only very recently I have been able to sing and play, and then only certain songs, but that feels like a real step forward, my advice would be to start trying to do this as soon as possible, however badly you do it, it helps make the strumming, chord changes etc far more instinctive and automatic, when I learn a new song now I always see if I can sing it too.
I do 25 minutes every morning before work. In that time I will play scales and practise different barre chords. After work I do 30 minutes playing my own songs. 20 minutes working on new songs I’m trying to play (mainly arctic monkeys and oasis) 20 minutes practising lead and then 10 minutes where I watch either the next Justin guitar video or Andy guitar. Alternate which video every other day. I’ve been playing 18 months. After 24 months I’m going to start recording my music into logic and start releasing my songs on soundcloud. Love your videos by the way
That sounds like good split between the two practice sessions. Are the scales and barre chords related to what you are learning song wise or songs you are creating? Look forward to hearing your songs!👍
@@MidlifeGuitar I just sort of go over every barre chord in the morning with just a down strum coz I need to be pretty quiet in a morning. So I do 2 mins major and minor then I do 5th string major and minor. Minor7/maj7 and I do a few minutes practising triads. I know all the notes on the fretboard and I can (badly) improvise using pentatonic and a little bit of your natural major/minor scales. One of my biggest problems is palm muting. I just can’t do it so I don’t practise it and I know I should
I’ve been working from home since COVID hit I get 30 mins for my lunch, so during this time - I’ve been picking up the guitar. It usually looks like this: Warm up - 10-15 mins Then either 10 mins simple chord changes exercises OR play a couple of songs from my repertoire I feel this is almost just maintenance work - I don’t think it’s make an huge improvements to me playing. However, it is an extra session, it’s more time on the guitar - so added to my other playing time - it’s probably adding up. If I only got 30 mins - then I would have to make changes for sure: not sure what they’d be tho.
Thanks for detailing that out. What do you do in the 10 to 15 minute warm up? and are you chord exercises just working on speeding up different transitions?
@@MidlifeGuitar my warm up is chromatic runs starting at fret 1, low E. so it’s 1, 2, 3 4 - then I go to A string and repeat. Do this across all 6 strings, then I move one fret across - and go 5, 4, 3, 2 on the high E string, then repeat on the B, etc. I start each string this with a down stroke as I go up the strings - E A D G B E and when I go up the strings - I start with an up stroke. I do this until I have gotten my index finger to the 12 the fret I repeat this again, but I switch my picking direction - so on fret 1, going down the strings - I start with an upstroke on each new string I repeat this again, but the fingering becomes 1, 3, 2 and 4 on the way up and 4, 2, 3 1 on the way down Again I repeat this changing the starting pick direction My short warm up - I play these once but if I have more time -then - I usually do it 2-3 times each Sometimes - I throw in the blues scale in A minor and play each position a couple of times Hope this makes sense
@@MidlifeGuitar I am bad at chord changes, and barre chords - so I change between F barre and and an open chord. E.g Monday might be F to A. Tuesdays, I do F to B. Wednesday F to C. Once I have done F to A B C D E G - I start again and put the metronome up once BPM
I don’t think you’ll become a master on 30 minutes a day, but any time at all can keep you from going in the other direction. Guitar is a relaxing and fun endeavor. I’m too damn old to be a rock star, and have no desire to even play with people around. But the guitar really is a beautiful instrument and the process of learning how this thing works is fascinating. I’ve got the rest of my life to learn it, but I doubt I’ll be on my deathbed thinking I should’ve practiced more.
The main problem... If you cant sing and try to play guitar ( like me) people will never listen you and dont care the solos you play over a backing track...
Pro tip. Keep the guitar out of the case always on display by your bed😅. More likely to pick up. My journey learning jazz and music theory😅. It’s not easy
15 Mins of Finger Exercises 30-40 mins of A&E major chord progression practice 20 mins of Practicing song's lead/Riffs i learned & sometimes learn some new riif/Lead.. Overall i practice 1&half hours in a day on an average I started playing Guitar 1&half months ago
My current practice routine for Saturday (using Justin's assistant): * 10m Triads (includes 5x1m changes) * 5m YGS 365 (actually I will probably skip this, it just happens to be triads for the next 15 weeks for Saturday) * 10m Fretting Hand Techniques (legato which I still suck at it) * 10m Scale Picking (I'm now tossing in sequences because my improvisations sounds scalular) * 10m Blues Lead (learning all of Justin's licks, been doing this for a while and still haven't learned them all) * 5m Fingerstyle (skipping this, my acoustic is with the luthier & I'm doing folk stuff so doing it on my Epi LP would annoy me) * 10m Theory (where I'm at in regards to the Intermediate lessons, I'm now just spending the 10 minutes focusing on finding notes on the fretboard as fast as possible with a metronome) * 10m Transcribing/Ear Training, 10m Improvising, 30m Repertoire. That's 110m total if I do it all. It is quite focused, but I'm starting to think it may not be focused enough & might be to much actually. I'm thinking it might be close to combining "Fretting Hand Technique" & "Scale Picking" in with the Blues Lead stuff where I'm just learning licks in the various scale patterns, do that for 30 minutes. Then combine fingerstyle & rhythm stuff into my repertoire practice as I keep at least 1 fingerstyle song in my song list and try to do stuff with different strumming patterns & what not. Also, thinking it is time to ditch 1 minute changes unless I really need to work on it. 30m technique (legato, licks, etc), 30m knowledge (theory, transcribing/ear work), 30m or more having fun with songs and improvising. But right now, every day is 110m of things to do, different every day but the same a few times a week. Yeah, I've watched other peoples progress videos as well and one thing I forget to think about is just how much time they've spent. I've watched 1 year progress on a few and was like yeah ok I'm good, then watched a few where I was like holy hell, how did they get that damn good. With my acoustic in the shop getting some fretwork done I'm stuck with my Epi LP which hasn't had me all that inspired to play, but last night I jammed for probably an hour to an hour and a half on it. Justin released that Cocaine video yesterday so I spent 30 minutes trying to get the sound on my amp and learn it which I picked up fairly quickly. And it's fun improvising to the gazillion backing tracks on YT. I keep checking local shops & Craigslist for Tele's and Strats & nothing yet, we are actually pretty bare around here in the stores right now. OK, this novel is over.
Yeah you are packing a lot of skills in to a practice session there Rich but if you are enjoying then that is the important part. I remember you recently saying that you were enjoying the transcribing a lot. Have you been learning songs all the way through? I am really struggling to work my way through a whole song but it is down to my song choice just being too challenging (it feels). I keep at it though. What model of strat or tele are you looking for?
@@MidlifeGuitar Probably a MiM for both. Though with the Tele I like the Esquire & the Nashville models too, so that makes it difficult. Transcribing wise I've been transcribing whole strummy songs & 1 fingerstyle song. I've only transcribed Justin' solos from the ear training course. As for learning & playing songs, only song I haven't learned all the way through is Stairway. Shoot, I finally got the intro & 1st verse down. I'm up to the point of where the strumming begins, but the last fingerstyle portion before the strumming is a total pain in the ass.
Im practically brand new only had my guitar for about 4 to 5 days and have spent maybe hour and a half a day on it and have made great progress... that said today was a little rough because i cant feel my finger tips anymore because they are so numb making it a bit difficult to find my string placement
I'd like to see a video on how to improve memory retention regarding guitar. At 54, I (like many my age) suffer from "CRS : Can't Remember $h1t". To make matters worse I have a condition as a side-effect from when I had thyroid cancer that when certain levels are off I get a mild aphasia and "tip of the tongue syndrome", where I know I know it but I can't get the right word or, in the case of guitar, the right chord or chord order, that kind of thing. Sometimes I feel like I have what I call "Parrot Brain": I can remember about 300 things and if I learn thing #301 then, say, #28 has to go. ARGH! SO FRUSTRATING! All the stuff I learned before the condition is still there. It's the new stuff that's a bitch getting into long term memory.
For me personally. It was when I left my guitars out and could play while waiting for my girls to get to the car. I swear I get an extra hour of play time and I'm not stressed out that we're going to be late as usual.
What I want to know is how can anybody practice guitar 15 hours a day like Steve Vai who practices 10-15 hours a day how is this possible. What are the possibilities of length of time you practice without suffering injuries like tendonitis..??
Hi My problem is not the time I dedicate to the guitar. I am interested only in fingerstyle guitar, almost all the methods are focused on strum and it is very frustrating. But to learn fingerstyle you have to know the chords and change chords fast and this period of time is very boring. You have to spend months to be able to change chords fast, and focus on fingerstyle.And this barrier is the one that is sometimes difficult, but necessary. This discourages me a lot .
Hi Luke. Good topic. So I started Justin’s course 3 weeks ago and have been using the practice tool online and following the website lessons. . I’d downloaded the app and got a years sub, as I feel it’s good to give back, plus it seemed useful . Well more than I imagined. In fact I practice maybe 2 hours per day. Mostly due to using the songs in the app differently than some. Finger pain holds all beginners back as after a while, clean chords become impossible. Instead of stopping though I do light touch chord changes on songs I’m working on, while air strumming. Or mute strings and practice strumming. Patterns during songs, or practice fingerstyle patterns in time with them etc... I do a lot muting the strings as the kids are in bed as it gets later. I end up learning the songs easier due to more exposure than my noob fingers would get, if I actually was playing them, only as intended. Training Separate techniques like this is actually really handy, I find up to now. Muscle memory and speed, dexterity and timing, as well as learning songs, all happen and this is without the finger pain that I’d already accumulated from the standard practice. I reckon it’s sped up my progress although how would I know. Lol. One other thing I do daily is the exercises Justin Johnson shows in his ‘fingerpicking tips to save years of guitar practice’ video on RUclips. Damn that stuff has helped There’s actually a lot you can do. I grab twenty minutes or so, here or there throughout the day. It adds up.
That is interesting Dan and brings back memories, I used to do a lot of strum practice with muting the strings when my fingers hurt. It definitely helps to concentrate on each hand and increases your progress so I think you are going down the right path for sure. There is definitely a lot you can pack in to 20 - 30 min sessions.
@@MidlifeGuitar yes, I find that having 4 or 5 20-30 min sessions is great. I can practice just one thing in each, other than the main lesson session of course. It’s a bit addictive innit!
In my case I started when I was 15....By 17 I was better than any of the older dudes playing in bands.Did I practice alot...yes.However I also "got it" pretty fast.So I guess its subjective...I know guys to this day been playing over 20 years and suck.I am the same age as Mustaine now,I still play everyday.How long should someone practice depends on how fast that person...gets it
Fair point, I guess I only have my perspective and one as an older adult. I think there is a certain amount of background of hand eye coordination and motor skills that can help as well as the brain elasticity of youth that all add to the mix.
I am limited by how stiff my fingers/knuckles have got since over doing the string bends :p sucks because I need to take a proper break for my hand to heal but I just wanna play
I know that feel all too well Paul. It is the number one thing that holds me back, that and work/life of course. When my hands are bad, I revert to some of the basics to keep the practice going. For example, I did a one hour video which was all bending a few days ago. I was trying to hit a challenge. I blistered my finger and they were red raw. I therefore swapped to doing some pentatonic scale practice for a couple of days. Back to bending a few days later. Hope your hands heal quickly. btw - I have invested in a hand exerciser which makes a huge difference and it enables me to work on hand strength whilst working, watching the tv, reading and more. Highly recommended.
I made a commitment to myself long ago to try to do something with guitar every day even if it's just 5 or 10 minutes. So, if it's going to be as little as that I try to review a song or two try to drive it deeper into memory and play it better, or practicing chords and chord changes. I'm never going to be a lead player beyond some riffs, and never really wanted to be one. Rhythm guitar always interested me more, so I don't spend more than a few minutes warming up then get onto lessons or reviewing songs I've learned so I don't forget the songs I've learned. It's also been beneficial to not have a divided practice most time. "5min warmups. 10 mins scales. XX mins of this or that. XX more mins on something else..." doesn't work for me most times. I'd rather focus on 1 or 2 things. TV time is also a great time to just practice making chords or scales; or building finger strength endurance, and callouses when new.
Hi Luke, Jerome here. How do you deal with trolls who leave posts on your videos who's only purpose is to be negative and put you down? Do you just ignore them, deleted them, engage them?
Hey buddy let me give you a tip to make your videos more engaging and to enable people to watch to for longer to ensure that the algorithm catches you,you will have to play some background music along your video it should be something light but present to keep your video engaging subconsciously try it and you'll thank me later
Been playing over 30 years and a tip a picked up was to split up your practice sessions. Guitar playing involves a large amount of muscle memory, so for instance 1 session in the morning, one in afternoon and one before bed prevents the 23 hour lag between your hands having to recall what you did last. Also it is often easier to find time for frequent shorter sessions than the excuse of 'I cant practice because I cant get an hour out of my schedule' ; 3× 20 might be more plausible
Yeah I do a similar thing, I play bass tho, I find that it's easier to practice more if I do 20 minute chunks and record down what I did. If I do 20 minute chunks I can even practice at work, so I can do morning practice, lunch practice, after work practice, and then usually before bed practice.
That’s a good suggestion, I usually just have one practice per day, but splitting it up several times a day, is something I may try out.
That is a really good idea. I have wanted to take my guitar to work for a while and just have a quick practice (so I could get 3 practice sessions in) but wanted to avoid the 'show us what you can play' situation 😂
Best advice. Usually I only practice my fingers with metronome for 40 mins up to 1 hour
And after dinner, i play songs, solos or improvise for two more hours.
I have been playing since 7 months and i am quite happy about my progression
The only thing I wonder how can I play faster legatos.. At the moment i play triplets at 90 - 95 bpm
This approach seems to work for me. I play about 20 mins (fairly focused practice) mid day then in the evening another 15-20 minutes of the same material. I find the second practice session goes much better. I don't feel it gives quite the same progress as I would feel the next day's session (benefit of sleep, neural pathways forming and all that stuff) but it seems to work better for me than 40 mins all at once.
Also, dont keep the guitar in a case . Keep it always accessible. Dont allow any obstacles or excuses no matter how small.
You are the architect of your best and worst habits, this is great advice
I dont want my guitar to become dirty also i keep my guitar beside me in the cover.....
I really careful with my guitar because it is a only thing i have
If I practiced as much time as I do watching Guitar Videos on RUclips ....I'd be a Master Player! :)
Jajaja , me too
Great points... i need to flip my amount of time watching youtube guitar videos with my actual guitar time 😥
Don't we all!😂
Mary Spender mentioned in a video here about a psychological process we do that lets us think that thinking about, talking about, watching, and pretty much anything but doing the actual thing, as somehow equal to doing that actual thing.
For me it meant having to pare down the subscriptions I have and what videos I watch, and set some guidelines, like a kind of formula about the length of the video and relevance. But all work and no play sucks so I do have some that are just pure fun, like Fluff's outrageous Reverb listings, or as I call it, "Dude, you're f@#imng high!" LOL
Ain't that the truth. I am searching youtube for "how to improve at guitar" and then I look over at the stand and think "just play the damn thing!" If my time spend watching videos was equal to my practice I'd be quite advanced by now!
I am 62 years old and a total beginner. Played now for 2 months and my fingerpain has stopped being a problem. I practice 40-60 min a day devided in 2-4 sessions. I only practice changing between chords and a few strumming patterns. Only three chords A D E. 80 % of the time on chord changies. So far I am not playing songs. I think this focused practice will pay off. I now can change chord 45 times a minute and it sounds ok. When I ger to 60 / m I will start playing songs.
That is decent goal, some of the hardest parts of learning a song is the chord transitions even if they are a familiar with you. What is the first song that you want to learn?
@@MidlifeGuitar Maybe my first song will be "Three little birds" by Bob Marley
@@raggmunken1958 are you on the juston guitar course? I’m 19 and I’m in my second month. My approach is fairly similar but I like to practice songs after a a few minutes of doing chord changes
@@Sean-gz4yu Hi! Yes I follow Justins course.
Love it 😊
I think Justins advise is the best . At least for beginners . 20 to 30 minutes . And as you get better built up
As an older beginner who started playing guitar back in February 2016, I practice every (except for last year, I missed a few days because of bad health), for about 1 to 1.5 hours every day. If I’m learning a new song, and depending on the difficulty, I’ll practice two to three hours a day.
Whilst learning the guitar can be difficult (especially for not very talented people like me), If you persist and put in the hard work, it will pay off. When I first started back in February 2016, I thought I was going to fail, but when I found some great teachers on RUclips, and copied their lessons, as I was able to play some of my favourite songs, that I thought I’d never learn. I can now play over 100 (mostly AC/DC songs, just the rhythm part, lead is too hard for me), I’m not very good, but what I played is recognisable.
Being able to play a song from start to finish, I find gives you a great sense of satisfaction.
Some people pick it up quicker than others but there is always stumbling blocks along the way. I totally agree with you, hard work and effort will bring the results.
I love learning songs and have had difficulty in recent times trying to learn a song the whole way through due to the difficulty of the song I chose. So I have mixed in some easier songs now and varied it a bit so I feel like I'm moving forward.
You are putting a decent amount of practice time there. Do you concentrate just on songs?
@@MidlifeGuitar
Yes, most of the practice is dedicated to learning new songs, and practicing old songs so that I don’t forget them.
In the last two days, I learned another AC/DC song from their latest album, it’s called “Witch’s Spell”, I learned how to play the song by watching another guitar player on RUclips. I copied his lesson and slowed it down.
I play at least 30 minutes a day Monday through Thursday. Get home friday night and barely put it down all weekend. I practice as much as possible on the weekends, sometimes 6, even 7 hours a day.
Luke, where did you go? Hope you're still at it. This channel is a real inspiration to us old guys.
I'm at a similar level to you - 1year & around 365hrs total. Now trying to practice 2 hours per day split into 2-3 sessions. My goal is 750hrs for 2021. Not easy with a family & full time job!
Did you succeed in your goal?
1.5 hr per day.
1. Warm up/exercises (20 min).
2. Pentatonic scales (maj/min) (20 min).
3. Blues Guitar Unleashed Lesson (20 min).
4. Strummimg and Rhythm (20 min).
5. Chord changes (20 min).
6. Improve over backing tracks (15 min).
7. Major and minor scales (15 min).
8. Licks and riffs (learn and practice) (15 min).
9. Sing while playing (15 min).
1 + odds: sun, tues, thurs.
1 + evens: sat, mon, wed
Free Play Friday.
Been at it almost year. Developed above schedule in December. Keeps me focused and efficient.
Apologies for the length of this - I thought I’d just share something I’m doing: Having watched this video I took the decision to take a step back and (try to!) focus on just one main source of learning (@justinguitar) and thus reduce valuable practice time trawling RUclips. This week I have concentrated on two areas, Songs (with the app) and one minute changes ... please believe me when I say I now finally get why the the one minute changes are so important and are actually quite testing! Much easier in some cases with Barre Chords once you have the finger strength . Beginners, try it, just go back to stuff you think you’ve done, you may be surprised that your understanding and application now makes more sense. Also try mixing it up, I am noodling one min changes with three chords (but remember form and sound are still key so keep it slow enough to be musical until you’re ready). Feel free to ignore btw! 😊
I am a beginner and when I strum the Amaj and Dmaj chord it sounds really bad and I learned the emaj too how do I make it sound better I use a pick and a electric guitar
This is a just a suggestion, the way I learned to play lots of songs, was to look on RUclips for other players who have played a cover of the song you want to learn to play.
I copy the video, slow it down and watch the position of the guitarists fingers, because once you have been playing for while you build up a large vocabulary of chords and notes.
You haven’t posted for a while. I wish you well and hope you are ok. I have lots of experience with depression in my family. It is nothing to dismiss. Get some help. In addition keep up the progress. We miss your regular postings. We are all here for you. If it is any consolation, I have been hacking at it for years and am not that great at it. Regular focused practice is hard. We all want to copy that great riff or great cover on youtube and end up bombing and getting frustrated. We must stay in our lane and accept where we are at. In the end few of us will ever play in a band. This really is a case of enjoying the journey. Have fun and enjoy. Good luck and keep up the good work. We are all rooting for you.
Because i play a Turkish instrument, i have already a feeling to how to play. Like timing and rhythym and some lead.
I started 6 month ago. I bought my very first strat, never played a guitar before.
Sometimes i play just one song maybe 10 times to master it.
Or practise another song/lick for about 15-30 minutes. Put it away and try again a few times trough the day. Sometimes not...
The other day i just play all the songs I know which is just a few at the moment.
Sometimes i just mix it up. Play a song, try a lick, try different effects.
And then there are days i don't touch it all.
Man im so torn. I've been playing guitar on and off since 2008 and you need to find a perfect mix of "Having fun" jamming to keep the passion, and stopping for a moment to learn the theory, or that particular scale. You raise alot of good points in this video. When the world goes back to normal, standard guitar lessons would be perfect. A flaw that these guitar courses can't help you with is pointing out any particular mistakes and how to avoid them.
A really nice tip from Tim Henson (lead guitarist of polyphia, one of the best guitarists of this generation so far) mentioned "Finger tone". this was his tweet but i'd thought id share it with you too
"Encouraging all young guitar players to actively work on your finger tone. Playing crazy shit is cool and all but if your finger tone is bad the whole thing sounds bad. You wanna sound like you got more years in your hands than you actually do"
It's just like anything else in life you get what you put into it
I just spent all my practice time learning songs I loved. I been playing for years and I would have probably progressed much faster if I’d done specific exercises and courses but the reason I started to play guitar was to play songs I like. If I had to do courses and exercises when learning I would have never stuck with it I feel
Fair enough and that is the most fun for me also. Recently I have understood that to learn a difficult song (for me) I have to break it right down to it's smallest parts. Although this was obvious after the fact, this has been a bit of a revelation for me. I'm sure by learning all the songs you have that you have acquired many skills and techniques and learning songs is such a fun way to do that. What are you currently learning to play?
Yup, that's how I feel too. I tried to start with theory, I learned how to read music on a music sheet, and other basics, but I wasn't motivated until I learned how to play songs. Then my progress took off!
really enjoy your videos.
have you got anymore planned. seems like youve been inactive for a while. ⚒⚒⚒⚒
I play for about an hour a day these days. Played the ukulele for about a year, now 7 months into learning guitar and making my way through Six String Fingerpicking's guitar fingerstyle song list Zero to Hero, starting with easier songs and moving difficulty up a notch with each new song. I like to think I'm making really fast progress, already playing that F barre chord in some songs - although the ukulele definitely gave me a big head start!! I find it so much more fun to play songs I like a lot - and I make sure they're not too difficult for me (really important to me in order to prevent frustration) and every now and again I do a short exercise just to improve technique.- all in a session. I also tend to take a lot of short breaks, and I find it really helpful to learn around 3 songs at a time, bit by bit, just to mix things up a little so I don't get bored doing the same thing over and over. Got quite a few full songs down to satisfaction, feels so good when you finally nail that song you've been practicing so much. And I frequently practice the songs I've learned so I won't forget how to play them later - I just play each whole song through until no big mistakes every other day. And when you learn a couple of songs at the same time and get them right in the end, the good feeling hits you in shorter succession - if that makes any sense. Just my thoughts - that's what works for me. Keep up the good work man, your videos are great!!!
I used to practice making my chords and strumming, back then my fingers still hurt so I would only go 20-60 minutes. But now that I can switch quickly without looking, I can strum and sing at the same time, so now I just practice songs that I'm learning and basically jam out for AT LEAST an hour. I just love it so much I only really stop when I need to do something else like sleep or chores. I could play all day.
Edited to add: I just started working on finger picking, and I need to learn the scales etc.
I always run scales and spider exercises etc for 15-20 minutes before doing any practice to wake my fingers up. I'll be watching TV at the time so I dont count it as practice time. When practicing I usually concentrate on the most difficult part of the crux of the song (not solos) first. Its helps to optimise your practice time as technique comes quicker.
I'm definitely with you. It takes me a good half hour just to get the fingers moving well. I'm 10 months in, and can count on one hand how many days I haven't practiced. I average about 2 hours a day, and definitely like the progress I've made. The first 7 months, though... Brutal. Can't agree more to find a course. *Any* course and have the faith to work on what they say, otherwise relying on yourself to make the right decisions when it takes so long to click can be demoralizing.
Now, I really really enjoy taking on new songs, or new skills. My typical session involves: 5+ minutes of stretching the hands and wrists, 5 minutes of basic string drills, and then either just all song practice, or dive into skills for about 30 minutes (bends, hammers, etc) first then fun up the rest of the session with my favorite songs I've been working on. ...hardest part now is forcing myself to not play. Especially, after warming up the fingers.
All in, probably 600+ hours in so far. Perhaps that 10K hours thing is bogus. I like to consider it a language which if my hours were words - I'm squarely a beginner. Yep, can say a few things - some even well, but still a beginner. Need about 4K "words" to be proficient is my guess. ...better go get my guitar!
Thanks for the vid!
I want to get to C.G.P. level, I won’t stop til I get there lol.
I try to practice at least a couple hours per day, sometimes it’s intensely focused, sometimes it’s just messing around. I definitely relate to the hands not really being loose right away, I try to stretch and take magnesium before practicing.
my dream is to beome a pro musician when I'm older. on school days I play around 4-6 hours and on weekends 12-15
I do guitar playing in 15 minute segments: ideally after breakfast, after lunch, and around dinner. In reality I usually only hit it twice per day. I spend one session doing finger exercises since I can't independently move my pinky; it always follows my ring finger. That session lasts around 10-15 minutes. I generally follow playing with a 15 minute session on ear training. I generally follow that with a 15 minute session on memorizing the notes on the fret board. Add in the times I extend my playing and I spend anywhere from 1-2 hours per day on guitar practice of one sort or another. Add in youtube watching and I refuse to answer how much time I think about the guitar. I've been tracking my time on a spreadsheet. To date I've spent 86 days learning split between 32 hours of guitar playing, 23.75 hours of ear training, and 12.5 hours of fret memorization (some things started on later dates than others). I don't track time on finger exercises. I sound like someone who picked up the guitar a couple of days ago, but I've been generally okay with it since I've peppered in some song fragments and I am noticeably better than when I started. Daily it's spider exercises for the first 5 minutes, playing a couple song fragments that I'm trying to improve, and round out the rest of the time with whatever the lesson is on GuitarTricks that I subscribed to (I'm on chapter 3!). I am a bit of a perfectionist with myself and refuse to move on until I can play almost all notes without buzzing or touching other strings. My goal is to be able to play songs around the campfire and my far-flung goal is to be able to compose songs that I find interesting. Thanks for being my confessional today. :)
I think everybody’s ’secret sauce’ is different. I agree there is a minimum amount of time needed to create and maintain muscle memory, 30 minutes of uninterrupted time could be the magic number. Personally, I find that the effort to really focus on what I am doing leaves me a bit mentally shagged. So, that’s the number for me. I do try and have two sessions each day.
I know what you mean about the half hour mark, I feel the same. When I practice longer than that the second half is a lot less structured and just work on a few songs. What are you working on at the moment?
I tell myself, 5 minutes a day. and after a while, practicing for an hour is super easy while not even noticing the time goes by. i can do five minutes. Leave it out. even after practicing for many months, years, i still tell myself just 5 minutes. and that was the key for me. "Edit" - I also never put the guitar away. always out by a chair, tv chair while watching sports. anywhere nearby is my key to starting.
Nice video. I am a 11 times world record breaker in different sports. I would say for sports its what your body can handle. Two hours a day is great! But learning gitar is more easy. You don't have the physical part. I am playing gitar now for 9 months and i can already play Megadeth tornado of souls and almost arpeggio part of Jason Becker altitudes within 2,5 weeks practice. I would say you can practice as much as 6 hours a day with resting periods in between. I practice myself abouth 2,5 hours avarage a day.
I've been practicing for three years and I'm absolutely stuck. For the first two years I stuck rigidly to theory lessons. Then one day I was asked what I could play and realised I couldn't play anything. So songs became my obsession but unless I have the chords or notes laid out in front of me I still couldn't play anything all the way through.
This is where I'm at today. There's a void in my knowledge that I search RUclips for on a daily basis. It's difficult to find because I don't know what I'm looking for.
For me I sometimes find shorter bursts through out one day spread out makes things stick more because I am a lot more focused.
In his interview with Alan Lomax, Muddy Waters said he practiced 2 to 3 hours a day fora few years since his late teens. I found it fascinating to hear what it took to get super skilled quickly.
I've been practising mostly two 1/2 hour sessions a day morning and night and occassionally during the day as a 3rd session. I take one day off a week to catch up on life the day after my in person lesson to catch on life (pay bills). I also gave up on internet lessons as I found they didn't work for me. If you are curious about whether in person will do good for you, just try it for 6 weeks. I found that is long enough to decide if that teacher is a good fit or not as I went thru 2 others who did not jive with me but I have now found one that I like. Another very important thing is know your learning style if you can tell the teacher your strengths and weaknesses and the way you learn easiest teach may have ways to overcome the barriers much faster. Not all teachers are equily good for you. And just remember one thing Voice is $120 an hour for someone who is really good Guitar is $30 per 1/2 hour. So guitar lessons are a bargin. Also 1/2 hour guitar lessons are fine but vocally that first 1/2 you are just getting vocally warmed up and that is a big difference. I even found if you have a male or female teacher vocally makes a difference. I've had only 4 lessons from the new guy but can tell it is a good fit for me.
I'd say on average in my first year, I practiced about 2 hours a day, playing every day. After that, I think it's closer to about an hour day, on average. So in about 3 years, I'd say I've practiced about 1500-2000 hours. You can judge for yourself on my RUclips channel how much I've improved by investing that amount of effort. Bear in mind that I started at the age of 40, and I think I'm above average for effort put in, and number of days practiced in a row.
I don't have a set time to practice per day, but I do put in has much time per day that I have available and that I have enough energy to engage 100%. Some days that could be 8-10 hours, other days it could be as little as 5 minutes. But I've never missed a day since I started learning.
As a warmup, I start with practicing scales up and down the neck, practice spider exercises, practice basic licks. Some days I practice these to a metronome, so see what my current level is, but I try not to get carried away spending too much time working on speed.
After that, I spend time working on longer term projects that I'm working on, such as Fade to Black, One, Little Wing, Hey Joe. I practice the solos licks in those songs that I'm working on, listen to the original, listen back to my own versions, they try to figure out my mistakes.
I also spend some time practicing simple songs that require only 3 - 4 chords such as Knocking on Heaven's Door, Wish you Were Here, making sure all chords are clean, I can play the whole song start to finish in time.
Then I also spend time practicing singing along to these simple songs, now that I've been taking vocal lessons. So I spend some time practicing singing the melodies I've worked out, making sure I hit the right notes.
There's a lot of things to work on, and you can't fit it all into one day. So you have to spread it out over multiple days. I don't have a formal method for which days I work on what (but that's something I probably should do).
How I determine what to work on each day is based on what I want to work on, given all these things that I need to work on. I've only been playing just under 3 years, and you can judge for yourself how my effort is paying off. I've played every day for 1015 days, have taken vocal lessons, taken private guitar lessons, joined a Friday night jam session that was run by a guitar instructor, and I did all this after starting at the age of 40. I'm having a blast, and I realize that I have a long way to go! But I'm not giving up, ever. Ever!
I am 51 and trying to learn. I won’t lie, I wished I had learned to play the guitar as a child. However, I now have developing tricks and have the time to dedicate myself. For instance, I breakdown tasks in small bits (strumming patterns, bar chords, scales, etc). I also know that repetition is key. Thanks to all the comments here, I have many tips to make this process easier.
These videos are so clear and inspirational. Thank you.
What do people find best course online for beginners? Justin Guitar? Guitar Tricks?
Not sure where the best place to put this is, so I just picked your most recent video to ask... I've watched and enjoyed your reviews of the different beginner services and am curious on if you plan on doing any kind of round up or to crown a "winner" out of all of these services? I'm starting guitar in the near future and with all of these options out there I'm really interested in trying to find the best fit for me out of these. I think even something like a tier list or a ranking system of the classes you've taken so far would be really valuable!
Also, are you considering trying Rocksmith or Yousician at all? Would love to hear your take as a comparison to the other classes. Thanks for your input and keep playing man!
love the quality of your videos mate keep em coming
Thanks 👍
They're good. I laughed when I saw the desk lamp steal the focus at about 7 minutes into the video.
Excellent advice. You have a new subscriber.
😆 the guy fallin🤣🤣
Him saying that I should practice 30mins -1h per day.
Me practicing 4h a day.
I tend to practice about an hour a day average. I have been concentrating on improvising and working up my speed. What I tend to do is practice 2 techniques at once-tremolo picking learning a new scale or lick. I find that really helps concentrate practice on areas I need to work on. It works both hands at once.
The other thing I’ve been working on is making melodies instead of scale patterns. Instead of ever practicing a non musical sounding scale exercise, I’ll find the areas I’m having trouble with and work out a musical sounding riff and practice that.
Honestly, it really does come down to how many hours you play. 1/2 hour a day can help if it’s consistent and efficient, but as you said it takes time just to warm up and get really going. If you want to improve, you have to practice more than you practice now.
Two 20 minute sessions in the morning, two more in the afternoon and two at night. Each session separated by at least an hour. One of those sessions is dedicated to review, the others are done using Troy Stetinas Rhythm and Lead books.ruclips.net/video/bwbR2ny8iCo/видео.html
Great video, Luke! I have been thinking about this question too lately. For me, the more I try to structure my practice, the less fun I seem to have. So, I just try to pick up the guitar everyday for a few minutes and sometimes it turns into hours. At these sessions I work on a mix of challenging and easier songs and I try to find skills that I want to learn and work on during the moment.
This is probably not the most efficient way, but it keeps it fun for me and I still feel like I am improving. I have only been playing for about 9 months, so this may change.
I know the feeling and I am always looking to strike a balance of fun in my practice. Do the skills and techniques compliment the songs you are learning or are they not related?
@@MidlifeGuitar Yes, I think that your point on remembering why you started playing and what kind of player you want to be is the most important. I try to find challenging songs to learn that motivate me to practice the techniques required for that song. It feels so nice to apply the techniques you are practicing directly in a song you couldn't play before. That being said, finding these songs that strike the balance between challenging, but manageable is not easy... For now I use the grade system from Justin Guitar to judge which songs are appropriate for me and which one interests me. How do you choose songs to learn that are just outside your comfort level?
@@tjabatta I struggle with exactly the same thing. The Jamie Harisson course I am working through I thought would be the right level but is proving a lot tougher than I first thought. So I am learning a few others along side it that I believe to be a bit easier. One of those is Slow Cheetah. As you say, getting the balance isn’t easy.
@@MidlifeGuitar You mean his Crossing the Bridge course? I was looking at buying that course too after seeing it in your videos. I went through his beginner course, but he goes quite quickly over the bar chords and Hendrix chords. After all the open chords this step is huge to play these comfortably, so I don't feel like I have the basics down to go to his harder courses... And coincidentally I have been working on Slow Cheetah last week too! One of my favourites from Stadium Arcadium for sure! A friend tried to teach it to me, but I didn't get much beyond the intro though. Good luck!
I am trying to play at least twice each day. Scales and homework in the morning before work and then something fun in the evening. This is often a song but at the moment I'm having fun working through Rocksmith to answer some questions asked of me recently. With regards to time, I try for half an hour each session and longer if I can. That said, sometimes life gets in the way and I miss a day or two.
You are doing great Sypher. And bringing the world with you!!
I thought you had increased your practice time recently. I think you have definitely seen some recent improvement and it is great to watch.
@@robertclarkguitar Thanks Robert. I still take a heck of a lot of inspiration from your channel.
@@MidlifeGuitar Thanks Luke. I have been working hard on strength and dexterity in my fretting hand and (whilst it makes for slow progress) it is very beneficial. Loving your channel lately with some great videos.
@@SypherLXVII-MySixStringJourney thank you my friend. Likewise!!! See you soon brother.
You still at it???? I hope you're well!
Start playing over jam tracks. Great way to practice soloing. It's better than running scales up and down.
So I have really been investing a lot of time into a learning method called the "Pomodoro Technique." It takes advantage of "focused" and "diffused" learning. Basically, you consume whatever you are trying to learn through reading/audio/video or in this case by playing guitar in however many minute increments you prefer. The technique recommends 25-minute intervals. And then you take a short break. And during this break, you do something completely unrelated to the task you were just performing. During these break periods is when the diffused learning occurs. An example of this would be being stuck on a particular problem you aren't able to solve, but when you step away and do something else the answer comes to you, or at the very least you make additional progress. Muscle memory is probably a good example of this as well. It is definitely something worth checking out.
I have heard about this technique many times before but never implemented it. I will try this out, thanks for the tip.
Never heard of that before but it's amazing how many times I just can't get something but when I come back to it after a break it suddenly starts to click. I saw a Mary Spender video recently where she talked about learning being consolidated through sleep and I'd vouch for that too.
Been playing for just over 5 years now and sometimes struggle with motivation: I found the best thing to do (and the most enjoyable thing I do on guitar!) is to play with a mate or a band. I am working through the Rockschool grades and my current grade is HARD!! Passed grade 4 in Dec 19 and I'm still working on grade 5 -some days I just don't want to go through the same old stuff, over and over again, but before lockdown I was playing with an old schoolmate who drums: we'd get together in his garden room and play along to various tracks. If we could we'd then do them without the backing tracks (someone has to sing but luckily we know each other well enough that my bad singing is not an issue). Firstly it meant we'd learn whole songs, and secondly, we'd often find we'd been playing for 2-2.5 hours and not even noticed, it's a great way to get some hours in. As it happens we eventually got invited to join a band and Band practice would just fly by. If you can find an open mic night (not now, obviously) you will meet other musicians who can be surprisingly encouraging.
By the way, I lied: playing with a mate or a band is not the most enjoyable thing I do on guitar, it's the most enjoyable thing I do in my entire life! Secondly, it's only very recently I have been able to sing and play, and then only certain songs, but that feels like a real step forward, my advice would be to start trying to do this as soon as possible, however badly you do it, it helps make the strumming, chord changes etc far more instinctive and automatic, when I learn a new song now I always see if I can sing it too.
I do 25 minutes every morning before work. In that time I will play scales and practise different barre chords. After work I do 30 minutes playing my own songs. 20 minutes working on new songs I’m trying to play (mainly arctic monkeys and oasis) 20 minutes practising lead and then 10 minutes where I watch either the next Justin guitar video or Andy guitar. Alternate which video every other day. I’ve been playing 18 months. After 24 months I’m going to start recording my music into logic and start releasing my songs on soundcloud. Love your videos by the way
That sounds like good split between the two practice sessions. Are the scales and barre chords related to what you are learning song wise or songs you are creating? Look forward to hearing your songs!👍
@@MidlifeGuitar I just sort of go over every barre chord in the morning with just a down strum coz I need to be pretty quiet in a morning. So I do 2 mins major and minor then I do 5th string major and minor. Minor7/maj7 and I do a few minutes practising triads. I know all the notes on the fretboard and I can (badly) improvise using pentatonic and a little bit of your natural major/minor scales. One of my biggest problems is palm muting. I just can’t do it so I don’t practise it and I know I should
I’ve been working from home since COVID hit
I get 30 mins for my lunch, so during this time - I’ve been picking up the guitar.
It usually looks like this:
Warm up - 10-15 mins
Then either
10 mins simple chord changes exercises OR play a couple of songs from my repertoire
I feel this is almost just maintenance work - I don’t think it’s make an huge improvements to me playing.
However, it is an extra session, it’s more time on the guitar - so added to my other playing time - it’s probably adding up.
If I only got 30 mins - then I would have to make changes for sure: not sure what they’d be tho.
Thanks for detailing that out. What do you do in the 10 to 15 minute warm up? and are you chord exercises just working on speeding up different transitions?
@@MidlifeGuitar my warm up is chromatic runs starting at fret 1, low E. so it’s 1, 2, 3 4 - then I go to A string and repeat. Do this across all 6 strings, then I move one fret across - and go 5, 4, 3, 2 on the high E string, then repeat on the B, etc. I start each string this with a down stroke as I go up the strings - E A D G B E and when I go up the strings - I start with an up stroke. I do this until I have gotten my index finger to the 12 the fret
I repeat this again, but I switch my picking direction - so on fret 1, going down the strings - I start with an upstroke on each new string
I repeat this again, but the fingering becomes 1, 3, 2 and 4 on the way up and 4, 2, 3 1 on the way down
Again I repeat this changing the starting pick direction
My short warm up - I play these once but if I have more time -then - I usually do it 2-3 times each
Sometimes - I throw in the blues scale in A minor and play each position a couple of times
Hope this makes sense
@@MidlifeGuitar I am bad at chord changes, and barre chords - so I change between F barre and and an open chord.
E.g Monday might be F to A. Tuesdays, I do F to B. Wednesday F to C. Once I have done F to A B C D E G - I start again and put the metronome up once BPM
I don’t think you’ll become a master on 30 minutes a day, but any time at all can keep you from going in the other direction. Guitar is a relaxing and fun endeavor. I’m too damn old to be a rock star, and have no desire to even play with people around. But the guitar really is a beautiful instrument and the process of learning how this thing works is fascinating. I’ve got the rest of my life to learn it, but I doubt I’ll be on my deathbed thinking I should’ve practiced more.
The main problem... If you cant sing and try to play guitar ( like me) people will never listen you and dont care the solos you play over a backing track...
3 to 4 hours a day. Plus youtube videos in bed. Been playing for 3 years. Starting to really enjoy it.
Pro tip. Keep the guitar out of the case always on display by your bed😅. More likely to pick up. My journey learning jazz and music theory😅. It’s not easy
15 Mins of Finger Exercises
30-40 mins of A&E major chord progression practice
20 mins of Practicing song's lead/Riffs i learned & sometimes learn some new riif/Lead..
Overall i practice 1&half hours in a day on an average
I started playing Guitar 1&half months ago
My current practice routine for Saturday (using Justin's assistant):
* 10m Triads (includes 5x1m changes)
* 5m YGS 365 (actually I will probably skip this, it just happens to be triads for the next 15 weeks for Saturday)
* 10m Fretting Hand Techniques (legato which I still suck at it)
* 10m Scale Picking (I'm now tossing in sequences because my improvisations sounds scalular)
* 10m Blues Lead (learning all of Justin's licks, been doing this for a while and still haven't learned them all)
* 5m Fingerstyle (skipping this, my acoustic is with the luthier & I'm doing folk stuff so doing it on my Epi LP would annoy me)
* 10m Theory (where I'm at in regards to the Intermediate lessons, I'm now just spending the 10 minutes focusing on finding notes on the fretboard as fast as possible with a metronome)
* 10m Transcribing/Ear Training, 10m Improvising, 30m Repertoire.
That's 110m total if I do it all. It is quite focused, but I'm starting to think it may not be focused enough & might be to much actually. I'm thinking it might be close to combining "Fretting Hand Technique" & "Scale Picking" in with the Blues Lead stuff where I'm just learning licks in the various scale patterns, do that for 30 minutes. Then combine fingerstyle & rhythm stuff into my repertoire practice as I keep at least 1 fingerstyle song in my song list and try to do stuff with different strumming patterns & what not. Also, thinking it is time to ditch 1 minute changes unless I really need to work on it. 30m technique (legato, licks, etc), 30m knowledge (theory, transcribing/ear work), 30m or more having fun with songs and improvising. But right now, every day is 110m of things to do, different every day but the same a few times a week.
Yeah, I've watched other peoples progress videos as well and one thing I forget to think about is just how much time they've spent. I've watched 1 year progress on a few and was like yeah ok I'm good, then watched a few where I was like holy hell, how did they get that damn good. With my acoustic in the shop getting some fretwork done I'm stuck with my Epi LP which hasn't had me all that inspired to play, but last night I jammed for probably an hour to an hour and a half on it. Justin released that Cocaine video yesterday so I spent 30 minutes trying to get the sound on my amp and learn it which I picked up fairly quickly. And it's fun improvising to the gazillion backing tracks on YT. I keep checking local shops & Craigslist for Tele's and Strats & nothing yet, we are actually pretty bare around here in the stores right now. OK, this novel is over.
Yeah you are packing a lot of skills in to a practice session there Rich but if you are enjoying then that is the important part. I remember you recently saying that you were enjoying the transcribing a lot. Have you been learning songs all the way through? I am really struggling to work my way through a whole song but it is down to my song choice just being too challenging (it feels). I keep at it though.
What model of strat or tele are you looking for?
@@MidlifeGuitar Probably a MiM for both. Though with the Tele I like the Esquire & the Nashville models too, so that makes it difficult. Transcribing wise I've been transcribing whole strummy songs & 1 fingerstyle song. I've only transcribed Justin' solos from the ear training course. As for learning & playing songs, only song I haven't learned all the way through is Stairway. Shoot, I finally got the intro & 1st verse down. I'm up to the point of where the strumming begins, but the last fingerstyle portion before the strumming is a total pain in the ass.
Im practically brand new only had my guitar for about 4 to 5 days and have spent maybe hour and a half a day on it and have made great progress... that said today was a little rough because i cant feel my finger tips anymore because they are so numb making it a bit difficult to find my string placement
I'd like to see a video on how to improve memory retention regarding guitar.
At 54, I (like many my age) suffer from "CRS : Can't Remember $h1t". To make matters worse I have a condition as a side-effect from when I had thyroid cancer that when certain levels are off I get a mild aphasia and "tip of the tongue syndrome", where I know I know it but I can't get the right word or, in the case of guitar, the right chord or chord order, that kind of thing.
Sometimes I feel like I have what I call "Parrot Brain": I can remember about 300 things and if I learn thing #301 then, say, #28 has to go. ARGH! SO FRUSTRATING!
All the stuff I learned before the condition is still there. It's the new stuff that's a bitch getting into long term memory.
For me personally.
It was when I left my guitars out and could play while waiting for my girls to get to the car.
I swear I get an extra hour of play time and I'm not stressed out that we're going to be late as usual.
😂I can relate to this more and more as my girls get older
What I want to know is how can anybody practice guitar 15 hours a day like Steve Vai who practices 10-15 hours a day how is this possible. What are the possibilities of length of time you practice without suffering injuries like tendonitis..??
Hi
My problem is not the time I dedicate to the guitar. I am interested only in fingerstyle guitar, almost all the methods are focused on strum and it is very frustrating. But to learn fingerstyle you have to know the chords and change chords fast and this period of time is very boring. You have to spend months to be able to change chords fast, and focus on fingerstyle.And this barrier is the one that is sometimes difficult, but necessary. This discourages me a lot .
Look into Mary Spender's course for beginners in fingerstyle.
Thanks so much for this; very helpful.
Hi Luke. Good topic. So I started Justin’s course 3 weeks ago and have been using the practice tool online and following the website lessons. . I’d downloaded the app and got a years sub, as I feel it’s good to give back, plus it seemed useful . Well more than I imagined.
In fact I practice maybe 2 hours per day. Mostly due to using the songs in the app differently than some. Finger pain holds all beginners back as after a while, clean chords become impossible. Instead of stopping though I do light touch chord changes on songs I’m working on, while air strumming. Or mute strings and practice strumming. Patterns during songs, or practice fingerstyle patterns in time with them etc... I do a lot muting the strings as the kids are in bed as it gets later. I end up learning the songs easier due to more exposure than my noob fingers would get, if I actually was playing them, only as intended.
Training Separate techniques like this is actually really handy, I find up to now. Muscle memory and speed, dexterity and timing, as well as learning songs, all happen and this is without the finger pain that I’d already accumulated from the standard practice. I reckon it’s sped up my progress although how would I know. Lol.
One other thing I do daily is the exercises Justin Johnson shows in his ‘fingerpicking tips to save years of guitar practice’ video on RUclips. Damn that stuff has helped
There’s actually a lot you can do. I grab twenty minutes or so, here or there throughout the day. It adds up.
That is interesting Dan and brings back memories, I used to do a lot of strum practice with muting the strings when my fingers hurt. It definitely helps to concentrate on each hand and increases your progress so I think you are going down the right path for sure. There is definitely a lot you can pack in to 20 - 30 min sessions.
@@MidlifeGuitar yes, I find that having 4 or 5 20-30 min sessions is great. I can practice just one thing in each, other than the main lesson session of course. It’s a bit addictive innit!
@Dan Parks Just a little!👍
In my case I started when I was 15....By 17 I was better than any of the older dudes playing in bands.Did I practice alot...yes.However I also "got it" pretty fast.So I guess its subjective...I know guys to this day been playing over 20 years and suck.I am the same age as Mustaine now,I still play everyday.How long should someone practice depends on how fast that person...gets it
Fair point, I guess I only have my perspective and one as an older adult. I think there is a certain amount of background of hand eye coordination and motor skills that can help as well as the brain elasticity of youth that all add to the mix.
I found that an hour a week is just enough to stop me from getting worse. And after 10 years of playing I'm still average lol
I am limited by how stiff my fingers/knuckles have got since over doing the string bends :p sucks because I need to take a proper break for my hand to heal but I just wanna play
I feel for ya, that must be frustrating but at least you are hungry to get started again when you can. Here is to a speedy recovery!
I know that feel all too well Paul. It is the number one thing that holds me back, that and work/life of course. When my hands are bad, I revert to some of the basics to keep the practice going. For example, I did a one hour video which was all bending a few days ago. I was trying to hit a challenge. I blistered my finger and they were red raw. I therefore swapped to doing some pentatonic scale practice for a couple of days. Back to bending a few days later. Hope your hands heal quickly.
btw - I have invested in a hand exerciser which makes a huge difference and it enables me to work on hand strength whilst working, watching the tv, reading and more. Highly recommended.
I made a commitment to myself long ago to try to do something with guitar every day even if it's just 5 or 10 minutes. So, if it's going to be as little as that I try to review a song or two try to drive it deeper into memory and play it better, or practicing chords and chord changes.
I'm never going to be a lead player beyond some riffs, and never really wanted to be one. Rhythm guitar always interested me more, so I don't spend more than a few minutes warming up then get onto lessons or reviewing songs I've learned so I don't forget the songs I've learned.
It's also been beneficial to not have a divided practice most time. "5min warmups. 10 mins scales. XX mins of this or that. XX more mins on something else..." doesn't work for me most times. I'd rather focus on 1 or 2 things.
TV time is also a great time to just practice making chords or scales; or building finger strength endurance, and callouses when new.
That consistency has surely paid off, nice one!
its been 3 years .. how is the progress ??
i spend all my time answering youtube messages for my feeble 1k views a video . I should just play guitar
0:35 hahahahaha
Hour is too long to he honest. I think consistency is key
Hi Luke, Jerome here. How do you deal with trolls who leave posts on your videos who's only purpose is to be negative and put you down? Do you just ignore them, deleted them, engage them?
I've had quite a few. I just hide them from the channel so that I never see any more of their comments.
Hey buddy let me give you a tip to make your videos more engaging and to enable people to watch to for longer to ensure that the algorithm catches you,you will have to play some background music along your video it should be something light but present to keep your video engaging subconsciously try it and you'll thank me later
Here's the best thing I learned: spend less time practicing and more time playing.
I disagree
The guitar hero's I admire and would like to aspire to seem to have spent their practice time imbibing huge quantities of booze and cocaine.
Another bloody Englishman?
For me, even 10 minute strummings here and there are good. I do a bit of technique, and a bit of some song. It has been good at the start.