How to improve your guitar playing when you have little time to practice.
Think about all the things that you have to practice in order to reach your musical goals. Some of things require that you have a guitar in your hand (such as practicing string bending) and other things will not (such as fretboard memorization).
You can learn, study, review or practice some things away from the guitar. When you do this you are able to spend 100% of your actual ‘guitar playing’ time on things that require you to physically play.
For example, let's say you need to improve in these areas:
Fretboard MemorizationAural Skills (ear training)SongwritingImprovisationMusic TheoryRhythm (timing)Various Guitar Techniques
Although it can be useful to have your guitar in your hand when learning or practicing the above items, ALL of these areas (except “Various Guitar Techniques” can be learned, practiced and improved away from your guitar to some extent!
Why is this information so valuable to you?
Because although you may have limited time to “play your guitar” you probably DO have time throughout your day to become a better guitar player when you can’t actually hold a guitar in your hand.
Here are some examples:
Fretboard Memorization – you can practice this almost anywhere (including while you are falling asleep with your eyes closed! (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR)
Aural Skills (ear training) – again this too can be practiced almost anywhere or any time. (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR)
Improvisation - you can practice this almost anywhere in a wide variety of ways using your voice and imagination (try creating theme and variations on anything you hear. (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR)
Music Theory - you can study and learn this almost anywhere! (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR)
Songwriting - you can work on this almost anywhere (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR) especially if your music theory and aural skills are pretty good.
Rhythm (timing) - you can improve your basic timing and challenging rhythms easily without a guitar. Most rhythmic problems are mental, not physical and typically have nothing to do with the
actual act of playing your guitar… therefore you can work on this (WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR)
So, now you have no excuse for not becoming a better musician even if your actual guitar playing time is very limited :)