Guitar Discipline - How do you manage to stay away from distractions?

Muzick

Muzick

Experienced
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen!

As I wait for my Axe II - I pondered the topic of discipline, specifically practicing the guitar.

My guess is that most of you here probably have that burning desire to be better and practice, practice, practice.

On the other hand, I struggle with this unless I'm up against a very important dead line. For instance, my band played at a Dragon Boat Festival a couple Sundays ago and we came together to make an outstanding performance! When I was on stage I felt at home, excited, and at peace with my soul. Before this gig we were energized and practiced with energy, emotion and discipline.

However, without this carrot in front of me it feels more like a chore rather than a passion to practice. It becomes a double edged sword because if I go a day without practicing, it makes me feel as though I'm off course in my life. It feels like I'm depending on a piece of technology (Axe II) to pursue my passion. Is that right?

I guess what I'm asking is:

To the people out there that have an unending desire to practice as soon as free time presents itself:
What's your perspective?
Where does that come from?
Did you build upon it to get to where you are now? Or was it always with you?
Has the Axe FX increased your desire?
How do you balance your day job? (as long as it's something other than playing music for a living)
How do you balance your relationships?

To the people out there that stuggle with this same problem I do:
What are your distractions?
How do you improve upon this?
How do you avoid distractions and focus on practicing habits?
Do you look to something like the AXE FX to resolve your conflict? Has it been successful?
How do you balance your day job?How do you balance your relationships?

My goal in life is to be the best guitarist (and musician) I can be. But there are so many distractions I easily give into(Alcohol, Video Games, Random Internet Browsing, etc). Plus being exhausted from a full time day job which I tolerate, leaves me with little energy and motiviation to practice.


Sorry for the long winded post but I'm very interested to hear what amatures and pros have to say.

Thank you,
Brandon
 
Last edited:
Well my very first thing I do is......






is that a butterfly ?????:?:?:?



Sorry I couldn't be any help, but this hopefully will turn in to a nice thread. I have a terrible time with focusing on one thing.
 
-Schedule practice.
-Schedule 'screw around time'
-Have a POSITIVE ATTITUDE towards honing your art.
-Do not regret missing a personal practice time, but be prepared to lose an hour or more of sleep so you can feel confident in EVERY aspect of each song you do when you are able to 'catch up'.
-Practice can be just listening to songs and getting the vibe, hearing a new change you didn't hear before, or just using visualization of you playing the song.

Life is a bitch. You don't always have the time, the energy, or the 'forward motion' to work on your art. The point is that it's not the effect of what happens, it's your REACTION. Prepare the best you can, and relax. Noone plays well tense, or tentatively.

I know some of that sounded metaphysical, but I am of the firm belief your mind can both ruin and MAKE your performance; it's up to you to decide which one it will be.

Ron
 
Music should always remain fun and inspired. I do find it beneficial to set both short and long term goals for playing, but remember to make those goals realistic, definitive and measurable. Setting aside time is also a smart practice, but only if your mind is right. If you turn it into a scheduled task, what are you really hoping to produce? I am in the military, have a wife, four kids and three dogs. My kids are into sports, music and other activities that require my time like scouting, swimming, etc... I am an avid barbecue enthusiest. I am taking college classes. I am involved with many volunteer activities in the town we live in. I like to drink beer and watch MMA. I like to shoot zombies. I guess what I'm getting at is, with as little free time as I have, I needed to fit my passion for playing guitar into my life. The only way it worked for me was to have, as stated above, realistic, definitive and measurable goals. I ended up enrolling in the Berklee College of Music Master of Guitar program online. It was a 2 year course and I have 4 weeks left until I am finished. It has been an awesome experience and my playing and music knowledge have reach a completely new level. That is what worked for me. I am kind of bummed that I won't be taking another guitar class next semester, but I am going to be giving lessons, so that will keep me fresh.
 
Ok, I typed up a response to this, but it ended up being a massive book about my life story. If you'd like to read that, I'll post it, but here's a much more direct answer to your questions.

What's your perspective?
I'm obsessed with music. In high school, I used to play guitar 7 hours a day and have literally played until my fingers bled. It wasn't a conscious thought, it was a compulsion. I HAD to play.

Where does that come from?
It started with the need to fit in. I was a dishwasher and all of my co-workers were in a band together, so on breaks they would pass an acoustic around. I couldn't play, so I just sat there feeling like an idiot when the guitar was handed to me. I pulled one aside one day and asked them to show me something. I learned the intro to "Under the Bridge" by RHCP and was instantly obsessed with mastering the instrument.

Did you build upon it to get to where you are now? Or was it always with you?.
It comes and goes over the years. It's a struggle between my love for guitar vs my laziness vs life stuff. I am married, work full time, play in a band, and still manage to squeeze some video games in there. The more you play and the more you learn, the more you hear in music. I'll be listening to a generic pop song on the radio and pick out something cool way in the background or think, "Wow, I really like how Eminem split that phrase up to serve as a call and answer motif". Throughout the years, the compulsion has faded and resurged based on how much time I was spending with music. I lost a lot of chops because I played once a week for a few years. I conquered the "But my guitar is downstairs and I could just sit here and watch TV with my wife instead" by putting a guitar in every room I waste time in. So, next to the computer I have my 7 string. Next to the TV in the living room I have my strat.

Has the Axe FX increased your desire?
Yes and no. It's definitely increased the time I spend crafting tones! It's also influenced a couple songs because the tone I stumbled upon inspired me to write in a certain style.

How do you balance your day job? (as long as it's something other than playing music for a living)
I manage call centers all over the world and have for the last 10 years. In the beginning, it was hard because I was exhausted from work and didn't want to practice, but then I realized it's the times that I don't want to practice when I need it the most. Guitar makes me happy. If I don't play for a few days, I get crabby, so for me, playing guitar is how I wind down after work. Now, I work from home and it's difficult to focus on work with a guitar sitting next to you!

How do you balance your relationships?
I have the best wife on the planet and I'll fight you to the death if you say otherwise. Early in our relationship, I told her, "Don't ever ask me to choose between you and music because you won't like the answer". It was hard for her at first because she thought every song was about her, but one of the things she likes is how passionate I am about music. She never objects to me practicing and a few years ago decided to pick up playing Bass. She lacks discipline and it drives me crazy... don't ever try to teach your wife an instrument btw. Let some schmuck that teaches guitar lessons do that. She comes to every show, helps burn demo's, sells our merch, and even teaches the other band members gf/wives on how to be "a band wife".

Really, the bottom line is it's not easy for anybody. I've struggled with practicing. I'm nowhere near the shredder I should be after 13 years of playing, but I am a solid enough rhythm player to only need 1-2 takes to nail something in the studio. Also, I do a lot of study on song structure, scale usage, etc... which helps with writing. Listening to music and thinking about it is just as important as physically playing. Mental practice is incredibly important. If you're struggling with something, see if you can visualize yourself playing it slowly. If you can't audiolize the notes, your fingers aren't going to know wtf to do. When I'm at work sometimes, I drift off into some solo that I am struggling with and really try to picture myself playing it and when I get home I find that I'm a lot better at it.

Just keep your head down and keep playing. Surround yourself with musicians and it'll inspire you to stay on your game. Around here, it's not uncommon to get called up on stage by a band you know, so it's important to be able to recognize a song and figure it out on the fly, which only comes with playing tons and tons of covers by ear.
 
I want to add a quote I read a long time ago that keeps me going. "The novice knows everything, but the master realizes he knows nothing". It's not a reminder to "realize you suck", but rather it excites me to know that there's always more to learn and a new avenue to explore. I really don't think about it as practicing so much as exploring sound and mastering a technique.
 
Your post already holds the answer (how deep!)
You have to set goals. If they be sub goals, they still propel you toward the overall goal "be the best guitarist (and musician) I can be".
So decide that this week, you're going to master and understand [_______] fill in your sub goal. And go for that. Don't allow the week to end without that target being achieved. Then you'll have something worthwhile to work for and get done.
It's the same in life, you have to set a course and an objective, otherwise every zephyr carries you where it wants to and you're no more than an effect rather than the cause. By setting and having a goal, you can relate all the other activities in your life as to whether they advance you towards your goal or distract you from its achievement. It's the stable datum around which all other data can be evaluated and which establishes their importance or triviality.
So for practice purposes, evaluate how far you are from your stated goal, break down what you have left to accomplish to achieve said goal into sub-goals and then set a plan (sequence of sub-goals) and go for it.
You'll reach your goal eventually and then can shoot the moon!
 
I SHOULD write a book on this... man...

Set your goals REALLY high and don't beat yourself up if you don't meet a goal. As long as you're working your hardest to achieve the goal, you're making forward progress. Read John Maxwell's "Failing Forward" for more info on that concept.
 
BORNintoMUSIC said:
To the people out there that have an unending desire to practice as soon as free time presents itself:
What's your perspective?
Click to expand...
I'm a guy who wants to be proud of my musicianship.
BORNintoMUSIC said:
Where does that come from?
Did you build upon it to get to where you are now? Or was it always with you?
Click to expand...
I think it comes from hanging with a lot of great musicians and being jealous of their abilities.

I definitely wasn't always of such a mind. I didn't become particularly serious about practicing/improving until a couple years ago (nearly 30 years after picking up the instrument).

BORNintoMUSIC said:
Has the Axe FX increased your desire?
Click to expand...
Absolutely. While a lot of my practice is unplugged, when I use the AxeFx, I can get "my tone" at any volume level from zero to ear crushing. Since a lot of my practice time comes after my kid's bedtime, good headphone tone makes practice a lot more enjoyable.

BORNintoMUSIC said:
How do you balance your day job? (as long as it's something other than playing music for a living)
How do you balance your relationships?
Click to expand...
Practice for me is a matter of quality, not quantity. I'm pretty well focused in what I'm working to improve so I spend my 30-60 minutes/day focused on accomplishing the latest goal. It's cut into my "quality forum time" but I get over that. :D

Here's something I wrote recently about my newfound practice discipline:
When I was in high school, I played constantly, 3-4 hours every day. It wasn't structured practice but with that many hours I developed some decent skills. When I hit college, I was something of a hot shot, esp. by West Point standards. I had some huge gaps in my playing (remember that lack of structure) but what I could do, I did pretty well.
Click to expand...
At that point, I was pretty full of myself. I believed most of the hype I'd created and I didn't practice outside rehearsals and was something of a prima donna. I ended up getting unceremoniously kicked out of my band sophomore year. By my senior year, my skills had atrophied quite a bit but I made up for it by being tasteful. Thank goodness David Gilmour was my primary influence!

I basically stopped playing for a ten year period from when I graduated from college in '89 until late '99 or early 2000. When I picked back up, my skills had degraded considerably from their less-than-peak college level. I spent more time obsessing over gear than playing it. Even when playing in bands from '03-'06, I wasn't very serious about the craft.

For some reason, a couple years ago, that started to change. I can't say for sure but I think that the AxeFx was a significant factor. It allowed me to set up in the living room and modest or zero volume rather than disappearing into the basement and rattling the windows. The tones were more than satisfying and I can get them at any volume level.

For whatever reason, I started to get serious about the instrument. Then after attending NGW last year, I found a teacher who presented things in a way that really clicked for me. That week really enhanced my grasp of the instrument and made me believe that I could actually be a good player. Not a guy with some tricks up his sleeve but a guy who can actually git 'er done. That inspired me to actually practice rather than just play when I picked up the guitar. I was still very limited in my practice time (<3 hours most weeks) but I structured things to take maximum advantage of the time I put in.

Now I'm going to have to take it up another notch. At least in the short term I'll have to double down on my practice time (band leader wants 2 hours of music learned in the next 8 weeks) plus 2 hours/week of rehearsal. I recently ordered a Ministar Lestar travel guitar for my upcoming beach pilgrimage. It's cheap enough and compact enough, I think it'll live at the office as my thinking/plinking guitar. At a minimum I'll be able to get some more practice in over lunch.
Click to expand...

 
The most helpful thing I've done in the past 10 years about practice is to practice first thing when I get up. There are thousands of things vying for my time and nobody cares if I practice or not other than me. Once I'm out into the world, it's really hard to stop and carve out enough time to feel like I practiced enough to be continually improving (that's one big goal). I sometimes practice later in the day, but mostly I just play or learned new tunes.

In the morning, I run scales with a metronome, work on chord melody tunes, practice singing (I'm late to the game of singing. I highly recommend it if you don't do it as one of the best things to do for your musicianship) and generally work through things that are hard. Fortunately I have a great job that doesn't start early and I don't have to work a ton of hours. I also don't have kids and have a partner who's a musician, so she gets that AM practice is a good thing for my sanity. Things I don't do most morning...program Axe Fx...go wow about my great sounds. I mostly play acoustic when practicing. Occasionally electric as it's good to keep a hand in with it as it's what I play most live.

Those are all good questions you ask. I try to get at least enough good practice in before I'm awake and asking existential questions, that by the time I am that awake, my hands have gotten a good workout and I've made some progress. For me it's a slow and steady wins the race kind of thing. Musical growth and development takes place over a LONG period of time and keeping at it is huge for me.

Things I don't do...play any video games, watch tv except with my sweetie later in evenings, spend evenings doing stuff that makes it impossible to get up in AM (other that late gigs which are fine).
 
This is a great thread, I'm excited to see it explode with more great insight. I find myself getting major ADD when I practice guitar. I just have so much fun playing random stuff that I start noodling after like 10 minutes of running scales w/metronome. I am still getting better by just screwing around but it's frustrating when I can't focus on a certain goal (ex. running 3-notes-per-string scales, legato, across the neck) and realize I've been just noodling around for an hour.

I also find that I often feel that it's more of a task than a pleasure too. I'm pretty confident that when I (finally) get my Axe Fx II, that I will have a lot more fun playing, but will have to set time aside for both messing with tones, and building up my skills on the guitar.

I'm not a crazed "guitar-hero-wannabe" anymore (I'm still only 19 though) so really at the end of the day, as long and I'm having fun, things are by no means pointless, however, I am in two bands, and would like to continue improving my craft and musicianship so that I can contribute as best as I can to my bands. I love making music and improvising which is why I think I get bad ADD at times too because I find it more appealing than just running boring old scales regardless of their importance.

I have a question for y'all that is related to the OP: How do you guys discipline yourselves to learn songs and new scales and such, do you break them up in little pieces? Do you start really slow? All of the above? Basically I want to learn a bunch of new songs and scales when I get the Axe Fx II and possibly do some online song covers, but like I said earlier, I get really bad ADD when trying to learn songs and scales, and end up starting to learn a song one day, learn one riff in it, go off noodling, realize I've been noodling for 10 hours (!exaggeration alert!), turn off amp/put guitar away, then don't come back to the song the next time, help me Dr.Phil!
 
Porkchop Xpress said:
Music should always remain fun and inspired. I do find it beneficial to set both short and long term goals for playing, but remember to make those goals realistic, definitive and measurable. Setting aside time is also a smart practice, but only if your mind is right. If you turn it into a scheduled task, what are you really hoping to produce? I am in the military, have a wife, four kids and three dogs. My kids are into sports, music and other activities that require my time like scouting, swimming, etc... I am an avid barbecue enthusiest. I am taking college classes. I am involved with many volunteer activities in the town we live in. I like to drink beer and watch MMA. I like to shoot zombies. I guess what I'm getting at is, with as little free time as I have, I needed to fit my passion for playing guitar into my life. The only way it worked for me was to have, as stated above, realistic, definitive and measurable goals. I ended up enrolling in the Berklee College of Music Master of Guitar program online. It was a 2 year course and I have 4 weeks left until I am finished. It has been an awesome experience and my playing and music knowledge have reach a completely new level. That is what worked for me. I am kind of bummed that I won't be taking another guitar class next semester, but I am going to be giving lessons, so that will keep me fresh.
Click to expand...

WOW! An incredible schedule to still fit personal guitar time into! (Here I thought a full time job sucked away too much time lol)

I've looked at the Berklee Course a few times. Would you say it's completely worth it?

Thanks for your feedback!
 
Sidivan said:
How do you balance your relationships?
I have the best wife on the planet and I'll fight you to the death if you say otherwise. Early in our relationship, I told her, "Don't ever ask me to choose between you and music because you won't like the answer". It was hard for her at first because she thought every song was about her, but one of the things she likes is how passionate I am about music. She never objects to me practicing and a few years ago decided to pick up playing Bass. She lacks discipline and it drives me crazy... don't ever try to teach your wife an instrument btw. Let some schmuck that teaches guitar lessons do that. She comes to every show, helps burn demo's, sells our merch, and even teaches the other band members gf/wives on how to be "a band wife".

Really, the bottom line is it's not easy for anybody. I've struggled with practicing. I'm nowhere near the shredder I should be after 13 years of playing, but I am a solid enough rhythm player to only need 1-2 takes to nail something in the studio. Also, I do a lot of study on song structure, scale usage, etc... which helps with writing. Listening to music and thinking about it is just as important as physically playing. Mental practice is incredibly important. If you're struggling with something, see if you can visualize yourself playing it slowly. If you can't audiolize the notes, your fingers aren't going to know wtf to do. When I'm at work sometimes, I drift off into some solo that I am struggling with and really try to picture myself playing it and when I get home I find that I'm a lot better at it.

Just keep your head down and keep playing. Surround yourself with musicians and it'll inspire you to stay on your game. Around here, it's not uncommon to get called up on stage by a band you know, so it's important to be able to recognize a song and figure it out on the fly, which only comes with playing tons and tons of covers by ear.
Click to expand...

You've definitely got an incredible wife!! She involves herself in your passion which is the foundation to any relationship.

Thanks for sharing. I like the idea of placing a guitar in every room that time is wasted! I'll pick that one up. :)
 
Can't really add anything that hasn't already been said, but.... It's normal to go through phases where you don't practice much or at all. Depends on what your goals and projects are at that time. Notice I said "practice", not "playing". Two different things and you should make time for both as needed.

I have acrazy, busy schedule and a family as well. I am preparing for some projects and need to "practice" more so I made a schedule for myself. I'll work with it and tweak it a little to make it flow and gel with my life while getting the desired results.

Part of this schedule requires me to get my butt out of bed an hour earlier on some days. Not easy but I get motivated thinking about the results I'm going to get. And yes... my Axe II does inspire me!

Define your goals, your reasons for those goals (the deep ones) and create a plan. Make it work 1 minute at a time if you need to. Let your "reasons" drive you/motivate you.

And remember.... it's not the destination, it's the journey. The journey is the destination.
 
My approach has always been a little different. I always have guitars laying around the house, and I am picking it up constantly throughout the day. I find it impossible to set aside "practice" time, so I tend to play unplugged while I am watching tv, reading the paper, doing whatever....I am ALWAYS playing....even if it's just running scales or noodling. I have done it that way forever, and I think it has allowed playing to become second nature. So the "distractions" I think actually help in some ways. Obviously if I am trying to stretch myself and learn something I haven't done before, I have to buckle down and work it, but generally I think my multitask method works for me.
 
When I was young (high school), I didn't need discipline. Playing guitar was the only thing I wanted to do, so I did four to eight hours a day. Now that I have a day job, a kid, and gig three nights a week, I have very little time to practice. My only discipline was to give up television entirely. I don't miss it.

Since all of my "play time" is gigging or learning songs for future gigs, I will never get substantially better than I am right now. I just have to live with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom