How long/often do you practice guitar?

[Aragha]

If you play, how long and often do you practice? I just started, so I'm just wondering what a good time would be.

[Alright_Computer]

Practice until your fingers bleed.

If you don't want your fingers to bleed, then 20-30 minutes at first should be OK. You can add or subtract at your discretion minutes later when you get better.

[LORDJUJU]

Practice until your fingers bleed.

If you don't want your fingers to bleed, then 20-30 minutes at first should be OK. You can add or subtract at your discretion minutes later when you get better.
Yes, just make sure you find some time everyday.

[Phoenix7012]

I try to get atleast a half hour a day in.

[Aragha]

Alright, I've been practicing on and off all day for a few minutes each, doing E F# G and the one that comes after it... DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME! My teacher asked and I said... "Uh... H?"

He was all like, "LAWLZ"

and I was all like "EWPS"

and later my dad was all like, "AYCH?!"

[Alright_Computer]

I believe you were looking for G#, if you were doing major scales.

[RicoTheAwesomeCat]

I practice random tabs for at least an hour a day.

[hawkofva]

Since there seem to be plenty of you real players in this thread:
My parents tried to get me to learn guitar when I was a kid, but I didn't have the patience for it. I'm thinking about trying to pick it up again. (I'm sick of playing other people's music, I want to make my own.)

The real question is, if I start with acoustic, would it be relatively easy to move to electric later, or should I learn on an electric guitar?

[Hamsterhitman]

I try to do it for at least an hour a day, preferably more.

But sometimes I'll practice for 3 hours and sometimes I'll either have too much work or just completely forget and not play at all.

[Mikey803]

pretty much all the time...


...actually I'm doing it right now...after I finish typing...

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

Since there seem to be plenty of you real players in this thread:
My parents tried to get me to learn guitar when I was a kid, but I didn't have the patience for it. I'm thinking about trying to pick it up again. (I'm sick of playing other people's music, I want to make my own.)

The real question is, if I start with acoustic, would it be relatively easy to move to electric later, or should I learn on an electric guitar?
If you start with an acoustic, it will help you build up finger strengh more, which will help you when you move up to an electric.

And to your question Aragha, I say that you should practice for at least 20-30 minutes a day. Once you get better and can start playing and improvising and such, you won't even consider practicing practice, because you will be having so much fun.

I suggest that you go to ultimate-guitar.com and check out the lessons and tabs. If you don't know what tabs are, then look at lesson. This site helped me a lot when I first started out.

Good luck to all of you beginners. The guitar is a great instrument, and you can all be good at it if you work really hard.

[slashndestroy]

i try to practice at least 1 hr every day. but on weekends i get to do it for up to 3. or durin jam time, counts too!

[DarkSide247]

I practice every day, at and least a couple hours each day...

But until you develop you good calluses, 20-40 minutes is a good amount.

[visualdeity]

Since there seem to be plenty of you real players in this thread:
My parents tried to get me to learn guitar when I was a kid, but I didn't have the patience for it. I'm thinking about trying to pick it up again. (I'm sick of playing other people's music, I want to make my own.)

The real question is, if I start with acoustic, would it be relatively easy to move to electric later, or should I learn on an electric guitar?

If you start with an electric, it will take a bit to get used to the acoustic, it digs into your fingers harder. You'll still do fine, but you might be sore for a week or two while you adjust. That's the only difference.

You'll learn just fine on either variety, so pick the one that you like the sound of better, I'd say.

[metallamb111]

in my band i am the lead guitarist,i practice it most of the time,sometimes drums just because it is fun.

[theantkid12]

I practice guitar about 20-25 minutes every few days. I also have an hour and a half period every other day (During school days) of guitar class, which is the best school class of all time.

[ThrobingCane]

Its pretty much crutial that you practice everyday!!

When one of my guitar buddies was teaching his little brother how to play he unpluged his computer, tv and every other electronic thing he had. And then he would wake his brother up by chucking a guitar on him to wake up and he told him that he had to play allday, and he got his stuff back when he could master a bunch of songs. needless to say hes the best 11 year old guitarist i have ever herd.

So to get good do that.

[Alright_Computer]

I would start with an acoustic guitar myself if you haven't bought one already, and then move on to an electric later. Acoustics build up finger strength.

[KingForADay]

Practice an hour a day. Practice some chord shapes, moving them up and down the neck and saying which chord your playing. That'll help you learn what note is where. Practice some basic scales, like a pentatonic scale, those are pretty simple to learn/memorize. Do that for a little bit and learn a song! If you have a teacher, hopefully he'll guide you in the right direction as far as theory and application go. But chord shapes and scale patterns should be good exercise for your fingers

[trench762]

There are different kinds of practice. There is the technical side where your learning new techniques chords scales ect. then there is the creative side where you use what you've learned and have fun with it. Both are important to your growth as a musician, one is obviously much more fun though. I've went through phases where I would practice for at least an hour a day, I've had phases where I played guitar from the time I woke up till I went to bed, that was when I was determined to better myself. Lately though I have only been picking up the guitar for around 2 hours a week, but I moved to a town where I don't know anyone, there are no local venues, and I don't have anyone to jam with, so I'm losing the passion.