If you're reading this, there's a good chance you live a busy life and you want guitar to be part of it, but you struggle to find the time or the motivation.
So here are some tips for fitting guitar into your life in a way that suits you. I'm starting with the mindset ones, because I think without them the practical stuff doesn't really matter. If you're sure you're in the right headspace, skip ahead. But you might hear something you haven't thought of before.
Drop the all-or-nothing mindset ▶ 0:45
I'm guilty of this with lots of things in my life. I think if I can't do something for three hours a day, or put loads of time into it every week, it's not worth doing. That's just not true.
Yes, if you only play for 10 minutes a day you probably won't make loads of progress. But you might maintain what you've got, or make a little bit of progress. And when you do find the motivation to sit down for an hour, or even half an hour, you'll be thankful you kept things ticking over.
I've not been very good at going to the gym lately, but I do a lot of bouldering, and I make sure to do a few exercises at the start or end of each session. I've maintained some strength and even built a bit in some areas. Not ideal, but good.
So when you pick the guitar up, don't feel you have to do everything at once. Maintain something, maybe pick up a new idea here and there, and it'll be there for you when you've got more time.
Make playing the goal ▶ 1:47
I think a lot of that all-or-nothing feeling comes from being misaligned with your goals. If your goal is to play a particular song, improvise to a certain level or nail a technique, you could in theory sit down for eight hours a day chasing it. You can always do more, so you'll always feel like you're not doing enough.
Instead, reframe it: the goal of picking up the guitar is to play the guitar and enjoy it. Obviously you want to get better, but that should happen alongside playing and enjoying it. And I promise, once you reach your next goal, you'll just set another one that feels a million miles away.
Honestly, I'm not sure goals are as useful as people think. So make playing the instrument the goal. If you've picked it up, played it and had a bit of fun, you've achieved it.
Pick it up for 60 seconds a day ▶ 3:20
Off the back of that, all I'd aim for is picking the guitar up for 60 seconds a day. That sounds like nothing, and that's the point. You could have had the worst day possible, but if I asked you to pick the guitar up for one minute and play something, you could probably do it.
And if you pick it up for 60 seconds, you'll play for longer. You just will. It's actually harder to pick it up and stop after one minute than it is to carry on for five or 10. If you only manage the minute, you probably really didn't have the time or motivation, but at least you can thank yourself for picking it up. These small, seemingly insignificant habits are what drive more regular practice.
Separate practice time from play time ▶ 4:09
When you do pick it up, keep practice and play separate. This matters especially if you improvise.
A lot of my students don't focus enough to improve what they're working on, but don't set time aside to just play what they like either. They end up with a blurred routine where they're neither getting the most out of practice nor enjoying the instrument.
If you've got an hour, spend half an hour practising and half an hour just playing. Or 45 minutes practising and 15 enjoying it. You'll probably find you want to spend more time practising anyway. The split is different for everyone, but keep the two separate.
One thing per short session ▶ 4:59
When you practise, I'd spend no less than half an hour on the thing you're practising. And if your session is shorter than that, it's even more important to work on just one thing.
If you've got an hour or an hour and a half, you could work on two, maybe three things. But in a 20 or 30 minute session, pick one thing and make sure that by the end you feel like you've genuinely put the work in on it. You might even improve slightly in that session. Try to cover more than one and you just won't see progress in that time.
That doesn't mean one thing forever. You could have four or five techniques on the go and do a different one each session. Jotting down which one you did in a practice log makes it easy to rotate them.
Keep your guitar out and ready ▶ 5:52
Now the practical stuff. First off, keep your guitars in view. Put them in the way, so it's hard to avoid playing.
Don't pack your amp away every time. Most amps look pretty cool, so make a guitar corner with the guitar on a stand and the amp underneath, plugged in and ready, so you just press the on button and play. Make it a space you want to be in. The less setup and pack-down time, the less friction between being ready to play and actually playing.
Try practising with headphones ▶ 6:35
A lot of people get self-conscious playing when there are other people in the house. Plugging a decent pair of headphones into your amp shuts out the outside world and cuts out distractions too.
Make sure they're decent, though. Guitar doesn't sound nice through bad headphones, so spend a bit on them if you can.
Stay in the guitar headspace ▶ 7:02
If you haven't got much time to play in a given week, keep consuming content that keeps you in the right headspace. Follow guitarists and teachers on YouTube or Instagram. You don't have to act on every lesson straight away. It just keeps your mind turning over, so you've got some inspiration when you do pick it up.
Instead of a show on Netflix, watch some guitar content. Rick Beato is a great one to follow. He's so passionate that even a non-musician would find it hard not to be interested.
Join a community ▶ 7:58
There are loads of online and local communities to stay involved with music. Facebook groups, sites like Skool, and in-person events like open mic nights. There's a cafe near me that hosts guitar nights two or three times a week, and they're very low pressure. As far as I know you don't have to perform, you can just get involved and meet like-minded people.
Go to gigs too, especially small ones where you can chat to people in the audience. And if everyone around you plays guitar, you'll want to join in, which gives you a bit of accountability.
Buy gear you actually like ▶ 8:36
I might get some flak for this one, but buy equipment you like, and buy good equipment if you can. Not everyone has the money, of course. But one of the main things that puts beginners off is a really cheap, rubbish instrument. People often turn up to their first lesson with me and one of the first things I say is that they should probably get a new guitar. It's already an uphill battle building the strength and coordination, so you want a guitar you like the look and sound of.
If anything, I'd put money into a nice amp before a nice guitar, because the amp makes a big difference to your sound. I'd sooner have a £3,000 amp and a £100 guitar than the other way round. That said, a nice guitar does make you want to pick it up, so it's a balance.
If money's tight, there are loads of great second-hand instruments, and you can plug into a laptop for a pretty decent amp sound cheaply.
Get someone to hold you accountable ▶ 9:48
Last one: get a tutor, or someone, to hold you accountable. Over the years I've had plenty of students turn up every week saying they haven't practised enough. But I think part of why they come is that they want someone there each week giving them something to think about. Even telling friends and family can help. But there's nothing like a professional to help you along, even if it's a lesson every month or so.
So start small. Get the guitar out on a stand where you'll see it, and pick it up for 60 seconds today. See how long you actually end up playing.
