How many hours a day do I have to practice the guitar in order to actually get good at it?

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to answer a common question that I’ve heard many times in my career as a musician. 

How long does it take to actually get good at the guitar or music or anything in music period? 

Before we get into that, Let’s have our moment of silence and pray to God to help us to become the musician that he wants us to become. 

At this time, I would like all of us to take a moment of silence and pray to God to help us to become the musician that we are supposed to become. Take a minimum of 5 minutes and pray to God for these things. 

Now back to the show

Do you want the lie or the truth?

Alright everyone, here is the stone cold truth. Some of you may not like this truth that I’m about to share with you all. However, just know that it’s the truth. 

It takes years of hard practice in order to get good at music. 

It’s plain and simple. 

In order to have something for an audience that is worth listening to, It takes hours upon hours of practice and dedication in order to actually get good at music. 

Some of you are saying, “German, what about those prodigies that you see on the internet?” or how about, “I’ve seen 5 year old kids play crazy train from start to finish!” okay let me ask you a few things.

1. Do you think that those people on the internet could use special effects and video editing tools to make them look like they are doing it? 
2. Even if it was true that those kids are playing some crazy song like months after they started learning the guitar, How do you know that you’ll do the same?

Look maybe, 1 in 30,000,000 people will actually be a prodigy. 

You literally have better chances at winning some major scratch off’s than you do at being a prodigy. 

The rest of us, have to work hard! And I mean, INSANELY hard in order to learn how to do music. 

 Personally, I didn’t know how to keep beat when I first started the guitar. However, through persistence, I learned how to do different things in music. 

It took me 4 years before I played my first solo. However, when I played my first solo, I was the soloist in my ensemble. 

Everyone looked at me in order to do the solo. 

Everyone looked at me in order to do the best parts of the entire concert. 

It takes time in order to actually be the best. 

Every little thing that you’ll do in music requires time and practice in order to perfect it. From reading music to playing difficult rhythms. From playing fast and aggressive to playing soft and mellow. It all takes time in order to do it. 

Some things might come more naturally than others, but just remember that it was built upon the foundation of other things that you worked on in music. 

What about people who claim they can teach you with minimalist effort?

I really don’t personally believe in anybody that claims that they can teach you how to play guitar in 6 months because everyone has their own learning curve. What some people think is easy, others might think it’s hard. 

I had a guitar student who was a natural musician. He had perfect pitch and was in several music groups. 

However, it was difficult to teach him because he was a kid. I’m not blaming the kid or the parents, but sometimes when you’re too young, you don’t really appreciate what’s being put in front of you. 

I was trying to teach him everything I had to offer, but he just didn’t want to focus on what I was teaching. 

It’s no one’s fault, and the kid was super nice and very talented. But that’s part of the learning curve, your ability to learn from people. 

I had another student, who didn’t know anything about music, but would always pay attention in class. However, he wouldn’t practice. And the number one thing that you’re supposed to do in music is to practice. It’s your homework! 

So I had him for a few months and then he just dropped me. I was disappointed because he didn’t even give himself or myself a chance to actually play the guitar. 

The first group of guitar students that I ever had, was my best group of guitar students. They payed attention in class and were always looking to practice their music. They would always strive for the best and it was just a great class to be in. 

The reason why it didn’t go too well is because my teacher who was in charge of the class told me to just teach them songs and not theory or basics. He didn’t want me to teach them how to read or anything, he just wanted me to teach them songs.

It was strange because I didn’t like that approach. You’re supposed to teach students different things about music in order to increase their learning. 

I thought that my way was actually better. He just wanted a group of ready musicians to play at the concerts. 

So I’ve seen some “apps” on the internet that claim they can teach you within 6 months. I personally think it’s a lot of baloney. 

The reason why they say that is because, I don’t personally know how it works, but oftentimes with music lessons you’ll have to sign a contract. 

And that contract means that you’ll pay for a year or two before you can quit the music lessons. 

During that time, you’ll realize that it takes more effort than you realized at first. And you’ll sign up again the next time your contract is over. 

And what happens is that when you first start out playing the guitar, you pick up things easily. Most people pick up things easily. But once you’re two weeks or a month in, your fingers start to hurt, that song sounds boring and you want to play another song, you find things that you can’t do, you find things that take hours of practice, literally. 

You find things that take days if not weeks to practice. And that’s where reality hits, you signed up for a two year contract and you’re not past week 1 of your lessons, 4 months after.

So basically it’s a sort of scam because they claim that you can learn guitar within 6 months, and sort of not a scam because it could be possible that you learn guitar within 6 months. It just depends on your learning curve and how long you practice and how often you practice each day.  

For most people, I would say that, that’s not true. That you can’t really learn the guitar within 6 months. It’s just too difficult. There are so many things that you have to take into account for. 

The first thing that you have to take into account for is how much time you have to dedicate to learning the guitar or any instrument. How long are you willing to practice each day. Because if you’re not practicing each day, then you’re not doing your best to be the best musician possible. 

And even still I’m not saying that you’ll learn everything about everything that there is to know about guitar within those 6 months. I’m just saying that you’ll become adequate enough to play a couple of easy songs. And maybe improvise in G

But you’re definitely not going to be able to do a pinch harmonic, sweep, tremolo, syncopate, etc. etc. I’m not saying exactly definitely because there’s probably some dude out there who did it.

I know a year after I started playing the guitar I was learning the solo to One by Metallica. BUT THAT”S ME!!!! Okay I was a kid who loved guitar more than video games. Okay THAT’s ME! DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO ME!!!! I SAY THIS AGAIN, I’M DIFFERENT!!!! Okay, For one, I had nothing better to do than to play the guitar! I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have kids, I barely did homework because I was actually really smart. Okay! My parents wouldn’t let me play video games on the weekdays because they said that those times were supposed to be for more productive things. 

So literally the only thing I did, was play guitar! 

I remember I would come back from school at 2 oclock maybe 2:30 and sometimes I wouldn’t drop the guitar until 10 at night! Literally that’s a whole work schedule! 

Sometimes literally, I would wake up earlier than normal just to get a few minutes of practice. HAHA! Some would call me obsessed. 

But that’s how long I was practicing the guitar, that’s how much dedication you have to give to music! It’s really that simple. You need to dedicate time and effort into learning an instrument in order to actually become something good. It’s just like any other job or career. You dedicate time and effort into learning it and something good will come out of it.

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember if you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. Remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.  

German Gonzalez, signing out!