It can be very frustrating for any guitarist to feel like they’ve lost their enthusiasm for practice. They know they should be practising but don’t feel inspired to pick up the guitar.
If you’re feeling a bit like this, then this article is for you. We’ll be kick-starting a series of articles that will examine various ways of increasing your motivation for guitar practice.
But before starting this article, I need to make a couple of important points…
- I’m not a psychologist. If the lack of motivation is because of something like depression, then that is way above my pay grade—the practice strategies I talk about will probably not help.
- I believe in practising guitar, even when I don’t feel particularly motivated. I’ve done my best to make practice a deeply ingrained habit. By developing the habit of practising on most days, I don’t have to rely on feeling highly motivated to do my practice.
Now that I’ve got those two disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at the first practice motivation strategy…
Five-Minute Practice Sessions
If you’re not feeling inspired to practice, then five-minute practice sessions can be very helpful. Here’s how they work in three easy steps…
- Pick up your guitar, even if you’re feeling super unmotivated.
- Do five-minutes of practice on anything. What you choose to practice doesn’t really matter, just do something.
- If you’re still feeling unmotivated at the end of the five-minutes, then put your guitar down. If you’re enjoying the practice, keep on going.
For some of my students, this incredibly simple practice strategy has been a game changer. What they found was that getting started with practice was the hardest thing. Once they actually sat down and did five-minutes practice then they were keen to keep practising for longer.
To get the most value from the five minute practice sessions, you might find it helpful to write a short list of things now that you want to practice. That way, when you sit down to do your five minute practice session you don’t waste all of the five-minutes thinking about what you will practice.
My Seven-Day Challenge To You
Up for a challenge? Great!
Over the next week, I recommend doing a five minute practice session every day—even if you really don’t want to practice. If you feel like doing more than five-minutes on a particular day, then go for it.
A Few Last Words
This is the strategy that I use anytime I feel unmotivated to practice guitar. Most of the time, once I get started I’ll start to feel more enthusiastic and will continue practising well beyond the initial five-minutes.
Give the seven-day challenge a go—you might find that it works for you.
Good luck!