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Understand that becoming a better guitarist means becoming a better musician as well. When developing your musical skills, make sure to think beyond skills that are specific to guitar.

So you can barely squeeze in any time at all in a day to practice, huh? There are many of us that share the same dilemma, but by knowing what to practice in those short moments of time you can maximize your effort. For example, if you only have ten minutes in between jobs, or other things you need to do, here is a list of some of the things you can do:

Here is a simpler scenario for beginning players. Perhaps you suffer from the common complaint of not being able to change chords smoothly so you can sing that old favorite of yours without feeling like a new driver learning to drive a stick shift (go, stall, go, stall, etc.)

As weeks and months go by, your old “bad habit” will begin to weaken, it will change. It will be replaced by the new finger action you are training into the fingers. The important point to realize is that the new habit will take over, if you are doing the proper proportion of correct practice on the bad habit.

The sculptor visualizes what he/she wants to create. The act of carving away at the raw material is a form of “destructive creation”. In the beginning there is only a block of marble, stone or wood. The sculptor must remove all the material that is not needed so that only the finished sculpture remains!

Define exactly why your purpose exists in your mind. I specifically choose to list this separately from defining your purpose because I did not want you to let the WHY get lost in the act of DEFINING. Trust me, this is important.

Measure your progress. Document your practice time. Keep a record of how much you practice each day. For technique things, use a metronome to see how fast you are able to play a particular scale, exercise, lick, arpeggio, etc. cleanly. Write down the result, practice it all week and see if you can play it one or two beats per minute faster by next week (or next month).

Music just happens to be your medium and guitar just happens to be your instrument, but YOU are the artist. From this day forward when someone asks you what you do or who you are, don’t reply by saying you are a guitarist or musician.