The human mind can easily get distracted. You can probably remember moments where you were watching TV or reading a book and suddenly realise you haven’t really been paying attention to what you were doing. If you are tired and you are trying to practice a new skill, it’s even more likely that you find it difficult to concentrate.

When you are playing guitar, you might come up with a new idea or you remember you needed to turn the dishwasher on and you get up to ‘quickly’ do that. As you are ‘just doing a hobby’, it’s all too easy to get up and do a small chore, only to realise you didn’t end up practicing enough that time.

Therefore, in order for your practice to succeed, you need to add more structure for your learning. Here are some tips on how to do this.

Set Aside a Time

Plan your guitar practice just like you plan any other activity. It is much easier to stick to your plan, if you have one in the first place! When you pick a time slot and the length of practice, remember to think your own personal learning style. Not everyone has the patience to practice for an hour straight, so you may prefer to split your session to 30-minute or even 15-minute segments. Indeed, the latest research supports the idea of dividing your tasks for shorter segments.

Divide Your Practice

Now that you have set the time and decided how long you want to practice at each session, it’s a good idea to divide your practice sessions further. The idea is to ensure you focus on one thing at a time and don’t jump from chord progression to scales.

Let’s say you have decided to have two 30-minute sessions during one day. In the first 30 minutes, you can first spend 15 minutes repeating the things you learned last time you practiced and spend the other 15 minutes learning new chords.

In the next 30-minute session, spend the first quarter practising scales and the final quarter playing a specific song, for instance.

If you don’t know how to divide your learning, then consider adding some of these ideas to your sessions:

• Practicing chords
• Practicing strumming
• Learning scales
• Learning licks
• Playing songs
• Improvising

Time Yourself

Make sure you set a timer, to ensure you spend the right amount of time on each point. You can use your phone’s timer or even get a simple kitchen timer for yourself. If you feel your mind wander or you get an idea, you can always write it down for later, but try to make sure you don’t start doing anything else.

If you feel like you just simply can’t concentrate, stop the timer and stand up. Walk around the room – or go outside – for five minutes, trying to clear your head and try again!

Change Your Session Structure

Although the above ideas bring a lot more structure to your sessions, remember to mix and match them. You don’t want to keep doing the same thing every single day, as this can easily become boring.

Try changing the length of your sessions and focus on a few different things each time. Play on your own, watch online guitar lessons, play with friends and remember to read about music theory as well! This way practicing stays structured yet different and you will learn faster as a result.

When you start playing guitar, you often go for the simple acoustic tunes for practice. Although these common guitar songs can be great to play, it might not be your cup of tea. If you are looking for something a bit different, but which would still teach you the basics, check out these easy to play alternative guitar tracks.

Interstate Love Song –Stone Temple Pilots

Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots is one of the best rock songs of all time. The song was released back in 1994 and it has become one of the most known songs for this American band. It’s also a great song to play with guitar.

The song is not too fast, although it will put your knowledge of chord progression to test. It will teach you all the basic chords and you can easily just start at a lower pace and increase the speed as you improve your skills.

You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette was one of the biggest artists of the 90s and her songs are very suitable to play with guitar. You Oughta Know is from her third studio album ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and it’s perfect song for an acoustic guitar.

If you’ve been browsing online tabs, you’ve probably noticed that some versions are harder than others. This is true for this Alanis Morissette song, as some version are better for trying once you’ve improved your skills a lot. But the simple acoustic versions are perfect for beginners, so make sure you browse tabs before you find a suitable version for your skill set.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Deep Blue Something

The American rock band, Deep Blue Something, recorded this famous song in 1993 and there’s been countless other versions of the song. It is definitely a good tune for beginner guitarists, as the chords are simple and the song is fun to play.

The song uses just the basic chords, although it can get a bit fast. It’s a good idea to slow down the pace a bit and add more speed as your skills develop.

Hurt – Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt was nominated for the Best Song Grammy in 1996, but it lost to another song on the list, You Oughta Know. It’s still a very good song to play with an acoustic guitar.

If you want to add a bit of a twist to the song, then it’s a good idea to consider practicing the famous Johnny Cash version of the song. It was one of Cash’s last songs before his death and the guitar composition in his version is perfect for beginners.

1979 – Smashing Pumpkins

1979 proved to be a big hit, even though the song was different from the usual Smashing Pumpkins’ songs. The song has featured in many games over the years and you can even play it on the Guitar Hero World Tour game.

But it’s also a great song to play with a real guitar. It’s not necessarily the best song for a complete beginner, but if you’ve mastered all the basics, you should definitely give this song a go.

The Distance –Cake

You can always tell when a guitarist writes a song and The Distance was clearly written by a guitar player. Cake’s Greg Brown is the man behind the song and The Distance was one of the most popular songs from the band in the 90s.

The chords are nothing too difficult to master and the song fits an acoustic guitar well. You can also play this song with an electric guitar if you want to add a bit of kick to it.

When you are starting to play guitar, it’s essential to find songs you like to play. If you are a fan of alternative music, then the above songs will teach you the basics and make learning to play a bit more fun!

When it comes to finding the best guitarist in the world, everyone has his or her own unique pick. Although everyone has the right to their opinions and we all focus on different aspects when we think about the perfect guitarist, all the successful guitar players still share some common characteristics.

If you want to become a successful guitar player, then the following qualities are definitely something you need to obtain.

Clear Notion of Success

If you want to succeed in life – whether it’s playing guitar or being a good parent – you need to define what success means to you. The truth is everyone has a bit different way of looking at success. You may wish to learn how to play guitar, so you can entertain the family during Christmas, or you might want to become a recording artist.

Whatever your definition of success is, you need to think about it when you start playing guitar. You can always change or tweak your goal, but make sure you define what success means to you as you develop your skills.

Passion

You’ll also need to be passionate about reaching your goal and becoming successful. You won’t learn to play the guitar if you don’t even want to do so. Passion is what makes you pick the guitar even when you feel a bit tired or you’d rather be watching the football game on TV. If you always feel like doing something else, then you aren’t ever going to become successful.

Hard Work

If you read interviews by the famous guitar players, you’ll always here how they’ve spent hours just playing in the basement and going straight to their guitar after school. If you want to become a successful guitarist, you need to be prepared to work hard.

This is the same even if your end goal isn’t to play at Wembley. Learning to play will require you to make time for your playing and to practice hard, even if you don’t always feel like it.

The good news is that you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own house to learn. Online resources like video lessons and music sheets mean you can learn to play when you have the time to do so.

Ability to Analyse

You should also be able to look at your own playing, as well as other people’s playing, in an analytical way. The ability to be analytical is essential in order to truly progress. If you feel you are stuck, you need to step back and think what it is that makes it hard to improve at that specific time.

This also means that you need to be able to listen to other people. If someone gives you tips in regards your guitar playing, don’t immediately think they are trying to put you down or that you won’t ever improve. Think what they are saying and how you could use the information to boost your skills and move forward.

Learning to play guitar successfully will take time. But if you know what you want to achieve, you are passionate about what you do and willing to work hard, then you will eventually get there.