Regular guitar practice is one of the key factors in how much you progress and how much fun you can have on guitar. Sometimes it is much more difficult to get the time you want to be able to put in good practice sessions and it can become frustrating.

The situation can be anything. You may have an increased workload at your job, family duties may temporarily require more time than normal or you could be studying and preparing for important exams, like finals. There are a limitless amount of reasons why you could temporarily have less practice time than normal.

First, what you need to know is that there is always some time you can make to practice. If you really do want to find the time, it is always possible. It might seem overwhelming, but when you sit down with a calendar and plan it all out, you will notice that there is always a way to get some time in.

An Order Of First Importance Is To Inform Your Guitar Teacher

If you don’t have a teacher yet, do yourself a favour and find yourself one. Even in normal circumstances you will make considerably more progress if you are being taught by a great teacher. But the importance of one is magnified when you are faced with more extraordinary circumstances, like practicing for an important performance, trying to build a band, trying to write your first record or in this case, dealing with the challenge of too little time for practice.

A good teacher will be able to help you face this challenge head-on. You should tell your guitar teacher something like: “Hey, I am having some trouble finding enough time for practicing guitar. Can you help me find more time to do it and to get more out of the time I can put in?”

A teacher worth his or her salt will know exactly what you mean and will be able to solve this problem in numerous ways. I will quickly list out three of them below.

1. A Good Guitar Teacher Will Help You Find More Time To Practice

Most people waste a lot of time in their daily and weekly schedule and they don’t even realise it. The good news is that this time is often used for something that is unimportant. Why on earth would that be good news? Because in that case it is much easier to cut out that activity and use the time for something better!

A good teacher will know this and thus it will be easy for him or her to help you find the time that you could be using better. Even though people are different, they will often follow similar patterns in where you can find time. You will make realisations based on your teacher’s suggestions that you didn’t see before.

Even if you can only find one hour a week more to practice, that one hour can be very precious in times when you are strapped for practice time. You could easily double your progress if you ask your guitar teacher to help you find more practice time!

2. A Good Guitar Teacher Will Show You How To Get The Most Out Of Your Practice Time

Good teachers know that the quality of practice is often more important than the quantity of practice. They will also teach this proactively to their students, so that in general you will get more results for each hour you practice. This alone will in advance prepare you better for times when practice time is scarce.

But there is also another side to this. When you have a hectic schedule, you may end up with shorter practice sessions than you usually do. Often the practice items and how you practice them will have to be adjusted in order to get the most out of the new, shorter practice sessions.

A good teacher will be able to show you how to increase the quality of your practice and tailor your assignments depending on your life situation, so that you progress as much as possible in both good times and bad.

3. A Good Guitar Teacher Will Show You How To Practice Away From The Guitar

There are many different skills you need to learn to become good at guitar. Some will definitely require you to physically play everything out on the guitar, but there are also skills that you don’t need a guitar for. This is good news!

Imagine if you could practice these items anywhere even if you don’t have time to take out your guitar, or if you don’t have your guitar even with you, like when visiting the supermarket for groceries.

A good guitar teacher will help you in this area by showing what are the best practice items for you to practice away from the guitar and how best to practice them.

As you can see, having a good guitar teacher will make sure that you enjoy progress when you are limited in the time available for guitar practice. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends!

About The Author

Hello, my name is Jere Toikka and I am a guitar instructor in Turku, Finland. I have a business, Kitaratunnit Turku, where I strive to be the best teacher in my area - and I’d say I have succeeded in that. I love my work and want to get even more people enjoying music like it should be enjoyed!