Have you been experiencing a lack of motivation in your guitar practice? Are you unsure about what and how to practice? Do you wish you could practice guitar effectively and get better results? If so, you are not alone. It take most guitar players many years before they learn how to practice guitar in a way that is both productive and enjoyable.

As a guitar teacher, I come across all kinds of guitar playing issues through my guitar students. Over the years, I have noticed that most of my guitar students have very specific reasons for why they lose motivation for guitar practice. In order to help you increase your motivation, I have created a list of the 5 most common reasons why guitar players are unable to get great results when they practice guitar:

Reason Number 1: Not having fun with guitar practice

Many guitar players have conditioned themselves to believe that guitar practice is nothing more than a boring set of repetitive tasks. If you have this mindset, you are truly misunderstanding the basic idea behind guitar practice. In order to gain motivation to practice your instrument, you must learn how to create an effective practice schedule that helps you enjoy the learning process as you work toward your guitar playing goals. Once you obtain the right tools to create a such a highly productive and inspirational practice schedule, you will find it much easier to have fun with the time you spend practicing guitar. When you learn how to practice guitar so effectively that you see yourself getting better on a regular basis, it becomes much easier to look forward to your next guitar practice session.

To gain more insight on how you can have more fun while practicing guitar with greater motivation, check out this guitar practice methods article.

Reason Number 2: Not sure what needs to be practiced on guitar.

The majority of guitar players do not know exactly what they should be practicing and why they should be practicing it. This causes them to attempt learning as many new ideas on guitar as possible. Then, by practicing so many different ideas for guitar at once, the guitarist becomes overwhelmed. This happens because they simply do not give themselves enough time to fully process all the new information they are learning.

The key to practicing guitar effectively is to fully understand ‘what’ you must practice and ‘why’ you must practice it. Understand what you should be practicing on guitar by checking out this unique article about manifesting musical goals.

Reason Number 3: Not focusing enough on long term goals.

It takes many years to become a great guitar player. If you want to become a great guitarist, you must clearly determine the best paths to take in order to achieve your long term goals. Once you have clearly identified your long term music goals, you will need to focus on using your guitar practice time effectively to reach them. To illustrate a point, think of each of your guitar practice sessions as separate pieces of a puzzle that make up the big picture of your guitar playing goals. The more clearly you can see the big picture that you are trying to create, the easier it will be to think of ways to effectively practice guitar.

Reason Number 4: Losing motivation due to lack of quick progress.

Even if you understand the best way to effectively practice guitar, you will not achieve big results overnight. Many guitar players expect instant results when using a new practice method. Unfortunately, when they do not get the quick results they are looking for, they end up abandoning (what might be) a truly effective guitar practice method. This results in inconsistent guitar playing progress since you do not give yourself the time to get the benefits from the guitar practice methods you use. This practicing method is like listening to 15 different songs, but stopping the music after one or two seconds in each song before you can hear what the music is about. When practicing guitar, give your practice methods time to develop so that you can determine whether or not the methods are effective.

Reason Number 5: Unorganized and ineffective practicing habits

Most guitarists practice in a totally unorganized and ineffective manner. Unfortunately, they are usually unaware of this and go for weeks, months, or even years at a time using the same ineffective guitar practice methods! One example of a commonly used, yet ineffective method is the idea of using an equal amount of time on every task in your guitar practice. This is just like trying to prepare a dish by using an equal amount of ingredients without thinking about how each of the ingredients will affect the taste of the food. This guitar practice method will cause you to spend too much time on things that are not important to your overall guitar playing progress.

Another mistake that guitarists make during their guitar practice is that they spend a lot of time focusing on the guitar skills they WANT to practice rather than the guitar skills that they NEED to practice in order to achieve their musical goals. This causes their guitar playing skills to become imbalanced. As a result, their weak areas tend to hold back their ability to apply their well developed skills in musical situations.

In order to make progress in your guitar playing, it is essential to analyze your own practice methods so that you can develop an effective guitar practice schedule. To build a highly effective guitar practice routine, fill out the questions in this effective guitar practice assessment.

What should you do next?

After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of why you have a hard time staying motivated in your guitar practice. Think about how the guitar practice solutions mentioned above can apply to your current practice routine. Even though this article has only touched on a few of the problems that you might face as you develop your guitar skills, your guitar playing will benefit greatly by applying them in your everyday practice.

Learn more about the things you should be practicing during your guitar practice time by studying the information in this unique manifesting musical goals article. If you have yet to take the assessment on effective guitar practice, do this now and get personalized advice to help you improve your guitar practice methods.

About The Author: Tom Hess is a successful professional guitar player, composer and the guitarist of the band Rhapsody Of Fire. He trains rock guitarists to reach their goals in music in his electric guitar lessons online. Visit his guitar lessons website to read more articles about becoming a better guitar player.