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Every time I look at my guitar I could practice.

January was terrible for me! Between work , family and studying , I found myself being inefficient with my time. In February, my plan is utilize my time more efficiently so that I can practice because guitar is something that I genuinely enjoying doing. I would say guitar is not just a hobby for me, but a passion. Anyways, good luck everyone!

I set a goal of 45 minutes a day/315 minutes a week. I figured that this was an attainable goal. Admittedly, it’s been a little difficult. I work 60 hours a week and have an infant at home, but I made the decision to be a “real” musician when I came to Columbia Guitar Academy and I am dedicated to following through. I don’t count my minutes meticulously. I practice when I can. Some days this will be a 2-hour Saturday session, some days its 10 minutes before bed. I hit 315 minutes, sometimes a bit more or less, every week. Either way, I pick up my guitar everyday and practice something. I’ve learned that with anything, not necessarily just guitar playing, if I motivate myself to start the task I will follow through (at least a little). If I pick up my guitar, I will practice more. If I don’t pick up my guitar, I won’t practice. It’s as simple as that. I only have myself to blame if I don’t improve.

I too found January to be challenging given all of the extra demands on my personal time. And I was delighted to see the note from David in February seeing that I was not alone! For this month even prior to receiving the card, I found myself with more time and more desire to step up my practice time.

I even thought of a solution to being more accountable to my time. I want to see if I can find an Alexa skill that allows me to track my time... If I find it, I'll add it to the post for those who have an echo or a dot and want to track their time.

As a result of me not reaching my goal last week, I wasn't as ready as i think i could have been. But this week, I am trying harder to reach my goal. I am using my paper that he gives me more often, and it is going to show that I am getting better. Also, everyone out there, please use your technic books! They help you so much with your fingering, and could help you with songs like poppy seeds and Aguado (For those of you who know what those songs are). It also improves your guitar method skills! Also, for whatever time you have, use a stopwatch, or timer, or Alexa, maybe a google home if you have one. Just find a way to reach you goal.

A New Year marks new guitar playing resolutions. Coming up on my third year of playing guitar, it’s interesting to reflect on my how my practice has evolved. I remember learning basic chords and being ecstatic if I could just get my fingers down on the right strings.
Now I am continuing my journey as an intermediate player. At times, I grew complacent. I grew a bit over confident thinking that doing finger exercises, scales, and the like were behind me somehow. I was very wrong, As I advance my guitar playing, I see that these skills are more valuable than ever as I push through more challenging pieces and learn barre chords.
I play my guitar everyday and I am very passionate about singing and playing. However, I really need to put more time into the basics. I strive to practice an hour a day. I really want to be a better guitar player this year!

Every time I wake up I practice my guitar.

I’ve really spent a lot of time lately playing for three of my daughters at night. They all live in the same room that has been really special for bedtime. I use the Ultimate Guitar Tabs app and find a song they like and we sing and play for up to an hour, and since it is dark, they drift off when they are ready. They have enjoyed Moana As Far As I’ll Go, Dust in the Wind, Brown Eye Girl and many others. Lately they have loved American Pie but some can’t make it through such a long time before falling asleep.

I don’t practice my technique and method book enough and my goal for this month has been to commit to that more frequently during the week. Mostly, I want to set a good example for my oldest daughter, who started playing recently. I have increased how much time I’ve spent on the the guitar with note reading and tech and I think she appreciates my practice especially when it is her time to do the same. As always, more would be better, but increasing has felt right.

January actually wasn't a "bad" month for me, but I made leaps and bounds in February. Honestly, I haven't had too much additional practice time compared to any other month; it's always way too little, but I do what I can, when I can with a demanding job & two young children, including a newborn.

However, one thing that I have changed, is putting more into practice "think 3 times and play once" because it's easier to integrate thinking about music, finger positions, frets, and notes, than it is to find the time at home to practice. How do I do this, and what are the benefits, you ask?

I'll read the notes in the hymns at church, while singing, maybe not all of them, and maybe not as quickly as they're played by the organist, but I do my best to keep up. This makes my brain think faster about notes and playing. I'll also alternate verses between reading the note and thinking about which fret & string that note would be played on. This has done WONDERS for my playing speed. I've only been playing for a little over a year, but I've made leaps and bounds over the past month or two!

This is just one example, but others could include, when watching YouTube tutorials for playing songs, I'll pick out the notes, and identify them in addition to chords, or when listening to music on the radio or otherwise, just even the basic thought of is that moving up or down the neck of the guitar, and where might that be played?

All of these things combined with more focused practice sessions using headphones plugged directly into a VOXac30 headphone amp makes me play faster and more accurately tonally.

I work full time, but try to practice every day because I’ve heard it is easier to learn something new (better memory retention) if you practice a little bit every day instead of a lot of time on only one or two days a week.
My Victories have been better tone quality and consistent practicing. My Defeats have been trouble in trying to do the opposing motion of my right hand “m” and “a” fingers (my “a” finger always wants to follow my “m” finger) and defeat in quickly mastering new syncopated rhythms.
My Plans are to practice wiggling my right hand “m” and “a” fingers in opposing motion during whatever stolen minutes I can find during the day until my fingers learn to do what they are told!

I'm a morning person which means that it is tough for me during the week because I get up early for work. I prefer to practice in the morning when the house is quiet and nobody else is awake. I have not set a specific time goal but rather have been focusing on developing a habit. Actually, I have been working on developing habits in a few areas this year (working out, reading, practicing guitar.) I'm trying to build practice times at regular times and then trying to make it a habit. The other effort I've been making is to really focus during my practice times. Rather than just trying to hit a time, I just try to build the time into a habit and then focus on really making progress in a specific area during the time.

Getting to the 45 minutes I said I would do everyday was been difficult, but one thing I make sure to do is at least pick up the guitar everyday. Sometimes it means I only play for 10 minutes and sometimes for an hour. But at least I am still playing everyday that way.