Practicing Guitar: Self Discipline Or Fun?
By Tom Hess
Do you find it difficult to fully
enjoy the process of highly disciplined practicing? Most guitarists either have
lots of fun practicing, but are not highly disciplined, or try to be very
disciplined, but find it boring or unfulfilling when they do so. So most people make a (conscious or unconscious) choice to
sacrifice ‘fun’ for discipline, or discipline for fun. Making sacrifices
with your guitar practice is not only unnecessary, but can be counterproductive
to becoming the guitar player you want to be.Let me show you why . . .
There was a time many years ago when
I was not enjoying practicing. My learning sessions were not fun and I began to
think of them as an unpleasant chore. I tried to make practicing more
enjoyable, but my efforts slowed down my progress more than they helped. I
responded to this by becoming more self disciplined and practicing very hard
every day hoping that bigger progress would come. Unfortunately that didn’t
make me much better at playing, and only made the learning process feel even
less fun. I talked about this to the teacher who I was studying with at that
time, and he made me realize that practicing shouldn’t be seen only from one
perspective, such as all fun or all discipline. The key to success is the right
balance of both elements in practicing. Once I understood this, he and I could
start working on creating the appropriate practice schedule and improving my
mental approach to practicing to finally get me on the right track to becoming
the musician that I am today. In other words, I learned that there is a way to
do serious practicing that produces real results while enjoying that process at
the same time. This success comes partly from the practice routine itself and
partly from your mindset and attitude during the process.You will get more from the rest of this article, if you have a better
understanding of how effective you are now at making serious practicing
"fun" without reducing the results. To test yourself, take this short
survey about practicing
guitar
.
Let’s now take a closer look at each of the two components that you must
balance in order to enjoy the process of practicing and see consistent
progress. I will also share with you the common mistakes people make that lead
to an imbalance of these two elements.Serious/Purpose Driven Practicing
(Self Discipline)
Many people assume that sheer self
discipline and persistence will make them as good as they want to be.
Unfortunately, most guitarists do not understand how to discover and sustain
"the right kind" of discipline.In order to sustain your motivation
for a long time, your work must be "fulfilling". If you don’t know
the reason why doing something is in your very best interest, you will not be
fulfilled, and will be unlikely to continue for long. On the other hand, if you
do feel the reasons very strongly, you will be able to pull out the needed
intensity and discipline from within yourself without trying very hard. Start
looking at practicing as something you do in order to achieve a benefit (become
a better player). This will automatically create a meaningful reason (beyond
simply having fun) to be involved in the activity and not treat it as a chore
that you dread doing every day. This may seem obvious and insignificant, but
even a small change in thinking will bring about big changes in results!Some people stereotype this kind of
practice as boring or "requiring too much work". However, it is not
the practice approach that is "boring", it
is often your mental state during practice that makes the process seem tedious.
Of course, sometimes the opposite problem can occur and your practice approach
may cause you to mindlessly go through the motions of practice. It is very
difficult to get yourself to enjoy such activity. In this case, your learning
strategy would need to become more effective. For more information about this,
read this article about guitar practice techniques.One of the biggest mistakes
regarding focused practicing that I see regularly is excluding variety and fun
from the learning process. This happens frequently, especially when you are not
under the guidance of a teacher who fundamentally understands this issue. You
may think you are doing all the things necessary for fast progress, but your
practice approach could still be susceptible to improvement. One such change
may be including more variety into your practice. This will help avoid mental
burn out and frustration.Incorporating variety into your
practice does not mean a lack of focus, or doing things that are inconsistent
with your goals. It simply means that you have multiple approaches for
learning, applying and integrating musical skills. I call this
"intelligent" variety. This is much different from "random"
variety that involves mindless jumping from one item to another in your
practice, with no sense of direction.Another issue that makes it
difficult to see discipline as "fulfilling" is that results usually
do not occur immediately and the small gains made along the way might seem
insignificant. This delayed gratification will make it hard for you to practice
well on a consistent basis unless you learn to enjoy the process. (more about this later).Improper application of the idea of
variety can also lead you to working on weaknesses that don’t really matter.
For example, let’s assume that your goal is to become a highly advanced metal
player. Since this style doesn’t require you to fuse elements of other musical
genres, it wouldn’t be worth your time to work on finger picking or Segovia
fingerings for scales (for example). This is because these skills are not
necessary for you to reach your goal. So don’t waste time on them! It will take
you so much longer to reach your goal if you keep getting distracted by working
on unnecessary playing elements.Enjoying The Process (Having Fun While Practicing)
Many guitarists think (on some
level) that one cannot have fun learning guitar and get results at the same
time. This thinking arises from an idea that "having fun" means
random, disorganized practicing with no clear direction and no goals. While it
is true that such an approach will not produce significant results, it is still
very possible to have fun while working on your playing. Having
fun means being able to enjoy the process of practicing. There are many
things that go into this, and here is a short list:
- Experiencing consistent,
measurable results throughout the learning process- Having confidence that you will
reach all of your goals with time.- Avoiding boredom by knowing
when to make adjustments in your practice schedule.- Fueling your desire to reach
your goals by surrounding yourself by what inspires you!- Practicing application and
integration of new skills (together with the old skills). The ways in
which we practice mastery, application and integration are totally
different and naturally provide a source of ‘intelligent variety’ into
your practice routine.If I told you that you would get to
experience all of the above (and much more) by creating an intelligent,
relevant and flexible practicing program, wouldn’t you suddenly feel motivated
to practice longer and harder in order to see these results? If you answered
yes, then you must understand everything I wrote above about how discipline
naturally develops from fulfillment!Summary: 7 Steps to Effective
Balancing of Discipline and Fun
- Make your practice fulfilling!
Without the feeling of accomplishment, your motivation and desire will
fade. If you are having trouble achieving fulfillment, try the following:
- Soak yourself in inspiration –
Think back to what made you want to play guitar. Relive the excitement
you felt when you got your first instrument. Finally, look ahead to the
day when you will have the skills you desire! Focus your mind on the
satisfaction of reaching your goals instead of obstacles!- Become self-reliant – even if
you are working with the very best teacher, you are still practicing on
your own most of the time. You must make sure that whatever instructions
your teacher gives you (or that you assign yourself) get carried out
correctly and consistently!- Never give up! Remember YOU
CAN learn to play guitar as well as you want to, if you have all of your
fingers, a strong desire to improve and follow an effective approach to
practicing! Never give up!- Have specific goals. You have
to be absolutely clear about what level of playing you want to achieve and
what you plan to do with these skills once you have them! This is not only
critical for guitar playing, but also for everything in life. You need to
identify where you want to arrive before you can get there. This means
keeping the goal in the FOREFRONT of your mind in order to enable yourself
to harness the power of your intentions and desire. Set goals for your
practicing, find out how to reach them, and take consistent action to get
yourself there.- Incorporate intelligent variety
into your practicing. Doing this will help you prevent boredom and burn
out. At the same time, by "structuring" your variety in an
intelligent way, you will be able to make consistent and measurable
progress. Both things can be achieved if your practice schedule is
efficient and effective (and proper mindset is applied).- Find an effective way to
measure your progress. This is useful for many reasons. First, it is fun
to compare your current skill level to your playing from several weeks,
months or years ago, and second, it will help to keep you on track toward
reaching your goals. Few people do this consistently; most wander
aimlessly with no clear sense of direction. This leads to inability to
make significant progress.- Keep your mind focused on the
item you are practicing until you go on to the next thing on your practice
schedule. Don’t switch between different things at random. If you
understand the reason why practicing a specific item is important for your
goals, this becomes easy to do.- Design an effective and
flexible practice schedule. You need to organize all the things you want
to learn in a system that is effective enough to bring results and also
one that can be adjusted to introduce variety.- Find ways to apply your musical
tools. The easiest way to have fun while practicing is through application
of skills to real music. This sounds obvious, but far too many students
think that practicing should be all about "learning new things".
Because of this, they don’t schedule time for application, integration and
mastery of what they already know. As a result, many end up with lots of
isolated things "they can do", but no ability to actually use
their skills. Learning more things is important but it shouldn’t be your
top priority all of the time. It is also not much fun to practice things
that you can not really integrate with your
other musical skills in a real musical context. Great players aren’t great
because they ‘know more’, it’s usually because they can integrate and
apply more than the common player.Above all else, remember to keep at
it! Use the advice from this article to make your practicing both fun and
focused in order to decrease the time needed to reach your goals!
