We humans tend to be a bit impatient. We don’t like things to take forever and that is certainly true for learning to play guitar. If you are a bit impatient, you don’t want to spend three weeks just learning the chord progression. But is there a way to speed up learning guitar? The good news is yes – you can make little changes to the way you practice and speed up your learning.

Play for 5 Minutes Every Day

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you think you need to play for 30 minutes or for an hour every day. But the truth is that it isn’t the length of your practice sessions, it’s the quality of them. Spending five minutes going over chords can be much more educational than spending an hour trying to stay focused.

Furthermore, you put yourself under a lot of pressure if you feel like you need to play for 30 minutes every day. Playing sessions will become a must-do, which will take all the joy out from playing and when there’s no joy, there’s no progress.

Instead, play for just five minutes every day. Set a timer for five minutes; pick up that guitar and practice. After your timer goes off you can continue if you feel like it or stop – either way you’ve played for a bit and improved your skills!

Analyse Your Playing and Progress

You should also start paying more attention to your playing and the progress you make. Knowing your problem areas and seeing the progress in writing can boost your confidence and help you stay on the right course.

Film yourself playing and focus on the mistakes you make. What is causing the problems? Is it your posture or the way you hold the guitar? Are specific chords just too difficult? Understanding the mistakes you make and the reasons behind them will boost your progress because you are more able to focus on fixing the issues.

You should also track your progress. For example, use a metronome to measure how quick you can play specific notes. Gradually increase the tempo and write down when you feel you have mastered a specific speed.

Furthermore, if you start learning a new song, write down when you start and each step with the progress you make. This way you can figure out which parts you had to spend more time learning and spend more time on those when you start a new song.

Let Others See Your Progress

Sometimes it’s easy to stop making progress when you are the only one aware of the development. But if you go public with your playing, you’ll have more of that healthy pressure to improve your skill set.

You can either start posting videos on Youtube or even create a music blog. Not only does this give you more incentive to practice, you might also get valuable tips from other people. It’s also a great way to connect with others who are as passionate about music as you are!

Keeping track of your progress will help you focus on the tougher parts and stop you from wasting time going after the bits you already know. Make sure you challenge yourself with guitar lessons, tougher songs and different genres – you’ll boost your skills in no time!