How to handle practice motivation being low
Written by Janus Buch
Every guitar player on the planet has experienced periods where his or her motivation to practice is high, they accomplished new things on the guitar which takes their guitar playing to new heights.
And every guitar player on earth has had the exact opposite experience where nothing seems to go their way and the motivation to practice seems to be non existent. What separates the true master of the guitar from the amateur is not whether they have these feelings or not, but the way we handle these feelings.
The amateur might give up and only pick up the guitar again when the motivation magically reappears while the professional seeks out ways to raise their level of motivation so they will be able to practice efficiently every time they sit down with the guitar. If you struggle with this, this article will give you some practical tools to get you started.
Get better gear
This might seem as a cheap shot because it will cost you some money, but a lot of my guitar students get really disappointed when they start playing their favourite music and it just doesn’t sound the way they imagined. Of course they will not be able to rip a solo up and down the fretboard like their favourite guitar gods, but if they are not even able to get the sound of a guitar as they imagine it in their heads and are used to hearing it, this can be a real motivational killer.
Plugging your guitar into great sounding gear just brings you so much closer to the guitar sound that you love and wanna experience. If you buy your guitar gear used you will be able to sell it for almost the same value if you decide you don’t want it anymore, so why not invest the money getting some killer gear, and getting motivated to play the guitar once again.
Attend live concerts with your guitar idols
Nothing is as exciting and raises ones motivation to play guitar as seeing somebody play guitar the way you want to play. It is one thing to hear the music of your favourite artists, but actually seeing them play is something totally different. That experience can be life changing. Though on television, Yngwie Malmsteen once said that seeing Jimi Hendrix perform made him wanna be a guitar virtuoso. Who knows, maybe the next live concert you attend will be your life changing experience. If you lack motivation, go try it out.
Remember why you started playing guitar in the first place
Everybody starts playing guitar for a reason. Whether you wanna impress the ladies, play songs and sing for your children or use the guitar to write your own songs and express yourself, there was some thing, experience or feeling that drove you to pick up the guitar and start playing. The reason why we don’t always feel motivated is because we don’t always enjoy the process of practicing. If every practice hour was nothing but fun and games this would never be a problem, but this is not always the case.
To counter the feeling of not being motivated we need to go back to the roots and the core reasons why we started playing in the first place. If we do this and really connect with our reasons on a deep emotional level, the problems of practicing will seem insignificantly small in comparison to the big benefits we get, when we have accomplished what we want on guitar. Therefor make a list with all the reason why you wanna be able to play the guitar the way you do. The list should be as long as possible. Every time you don’t feel the motivation to practice you want to read the list out loud. This will help your get back on track and you WILL see your level of motivation rise again.
About the author: Janus Buch is the founder of Bredballe Guitarskole and makes his living forging extraordinary guitar players out of ordinary people. If you local to the area of Vejle and are seeking the best value for money Guitar School Vejle