back on the wagon..

I'm pretty busy myself. I find what works for me is practicing my scales as sort of a warm up and then working on a batch of songs. I might be working on 1/2 dozen songs at once to varying degrees of completion. After that, or whenever I feel like it, I hit some the songs I already know. It really all depends on my mood.

You don't have to become a guitar god overnight. You are busy. Take an hour or so and plan out some short term goals in your life. Figure out how you are going to accomplish them. Prioritize. If you want to play guitar, put it in there somewhere. If it takes you several years to be able to play one song all the way thru, so be it. The key thing about playing guitar is to have fun with it. Good luck and have fun with it!

For me, lessons are a way of making sure I get some things done -- the lesson gives me a weekly goal.

When there's something I want to do but don't have time during the day, what i sometimes do is find time for it in the morning before my day really gets going. You don't need a lot of time to practice. Fifteen or twenty minutes of focused practice in the morning with a specific goal will work. the goal can be pretty simple like learning a new chord change that's in a song you want to ;earn, for example.

You don't have to become a guitar god overnight. You are busy. Take an hour or so and plan out some short term goals in your life. Figure out how you are going to accomplish them. Prioritize. If you want to play guitar, put it in there somewhere. If it takes you several years to be able to play one song all the way thru, so be it. The key thing about playing guitar is to have fun with it. Good luck and have fun with it!

+1 I've been playing for just a tad over 2 years and still can't play a whole song all the way through. I know a good chunk of some lead and rhythm parts, but couldn't play a song from beginning to end. And you know what? I'm OK with that. My goal isn't to play other peoples stuff. I'm learning guitar for my enjoyment and to come up with my own stuff. Sure, I'll eventually get around to learning some of my favorite songs, but I'm in no hurry. While guitar can be frustrating at times, I am enjoying my journey!

One way to make playing really enjoyable and to force yourself to play is to find some others to jam with. Has been working wonders for me.

Jason

I am just the opposite of Jason. For me, one of my main goals has always ben to be able to play along with songs I like. I make it a habit to try to learn one song a week - beginning to end. I usually start with taking a look at online TAB to get me started - to get a good idea of the chord changes. Most times, the TAB is not 100% correct (at least to my ear), and I work from there, listening to parts of the song and pretty soon, I am playing right along! Downloading tunes on the internet has helped out a lot. Now, any song I happen to hear and want to play, I can get the music in an instant! I also work on some of my own stuff, but I don't have enough time to properly devote to the craft of music writing - and it is a craft!

But hey, thats the great thing about guitar! Jason and I have two totally different goals and approaches and they both work! So, figure out what you want to get out of the time you are willing to spend with your guitar and develop goals based on it.

Yup, that's the great thing about guitar. Everyone has a different way of learning and none of them are wrong.

As just another example ... when I started jamming with a buddy of mine we quickly realized we were going to do wonders for each other. Our main goal of writing our own stuff we shared, but we had taken much different paths to get there. He had been playing since high school and was pretty good. He played by ear and when I'd ask him what chord he was playing he had no idea! His path had been to listen to songs and learn them by ear. He never even cared what chords/notes/keys he was playing. He'd find the notes on the fretboard and just play. I, on the other hand had started out learning chords, scales, etc. but hadn't learned to put it together very well yet. In the six months we've been jamming we've helped each other out a lot. He's gotten better at knowing what he's playing and he's helped me with technique and ear training. To be honest, I'm glad to be helping him out so much since he's helped me so much.

Anyway, the main point here is don't worry about what you know and how quickly. It really isn't a race and the more you treat it like one, the less fun it will be. Play when you can, enjoy it, and just keep at it.

Jason

Thanks for the replies...playing the guitar should be about having fun but to be honest when i was getting lessons it felt more like a chore - I was under pressure to learn x,y,z before the next lesson, which is one of the reasons I stopped...there must be a happy medium where i enjoy playing at my pace but still do it productively.