In the words of the great football coach Vince Lombardi, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” This old adage applies directly to the time you spend mastering guitar. Too many musicians neglect practice, or don’t feel the need to try their best each and every time they sit down to play. Others practice poorly and forget the point of practicing entirely. Don’t allow yourself to fall into this rut! Take a look at these 5 essential guitar practice tips to ensure you’re getting the most out of your efforts:

1. Create and follow a practice schedule.

There's a simple reason why guitar teachers encourage their students to follow a routine practice schedule – it helps! Setting aside a specific time for formal guitar practice is a reliable way to improve your skills, especially as a beginner. To create a successful practice schedule you have to find a time (preferably the same time every day) when you can drop everything you’re doing and focus on the instrument.

The length of your practice session is going to vary. A lot. Depending on your experience, motivation, free time, which side of the bed you woke up on, and the alignment of Pluto in relation to Andromeda, it could be anywhere from 15 to 500 minutes on any given day in your musical career. As is the case with lots of guitar questions, there’s no right or wrong answer.

…Now that that generic disclaimer is out of the way, we’d like to point out that it’s probably a good idea to spend at least 20-30 minutes per session as a budding guitarist. As you build your skill set and get a better feel for your relationship with the guitar, it becomes easier to determine how long your sessions must be in order to be valuable to you. After some time the question of “how long should I practice?” just answers itself.

Getting into the habit of picking up your guitar every day is what will make the instrument an inseparable and fundamental part of your life. Sure you may be feeling lazy, tired, or unmotivated for any number of reasons. But if you can get yourself to pick up the axe every day, it soon becomes second nature. That’s the real value of a routine practice schedule: proving to yourself that you’re serious about mastering guitar and making music.

2. Build a quiet and comfortable practice environment.

The value of your own personal practice spot cannot be overstated. The ideal space is quiet, comfortable, and free from distractions. A distraction-free environment means no interruptions from nosy family members…but it also means no computer, TV, or cell phone either. Listen - anything worth doing is worth doing right. If you’re going to bring poor focus and muddled concentration into your practice sessions, you’re going to get low-quality results in return.

A good practice setting should also be a physically accommodating place. That means a comfortable, ergonomic seat (burn all of your wooden stools), good lighting, reasonable acoustics, and hey, maybe even a plant or two to spice up the ambience. Lots of guitar players like to hang up inspirational posters of their favorite players, or even instructional posters that provide easy chord or scale references. The decoration details are entirely up to you. Just make sure that the room is quiet and comfortable at the very least. Practicing in a room offering anything less only results in frustration and an increased willingness to walk away.

3. Set goals and track progress.

Okay. You’ve got your special practice spot and you’ve had no trouble showing up for a half hour a day, every day. Now how can you make sure that you’re on the right path? Lots of guitarists (beginners and more advanced players alike) have issues with giving some structure to their quest for mastery. Many feel restricted by the process of setting goals and tracking progress, while others avoid the responsibility and deem it unnecessary.

Try not to be too quick to make a snap-judgment about goals. At least take the process for a test drive before you write it off. The key is to take goals seriously, but to have fun with them as well. Lots of great improvisational musicians create their best work on-the-fly…but most of these jams grow out of carefully coordinated and structured compositions. Try to keep this spirit in mind when setting your goals. You want to have an idea of where you’re headed and what you’re working towards, but you don’t want to be so hard or strict on yourself that you strangle the passion and fun out of your practice time.

4. Go towards discomfort, challenge yourself, and explore new territory.

One frustrating aspect of human nature is our habit of staying too long in our comfort zones. When we get comfortable with something, we tend to get lazy. It’s very easy to keep practicing the same scales day after day as you increase your speed and dexterity. But what about those tricky chord shapes you’ve been neglecting? What about the alternate picking you were supposed to be working on, but found that it slowed you down too much? It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when you start to excel in one aspect of your playing and start to ignore others. Working on your weak spots can be frustrating and make you feel like you’ve taken a step backwards. But the alternative, which is playing only to your strengths, means you’ve chosen to willfully ignore your chance to become a well-rounded musician.

When practicing, always make sure that you’re challenging yourself to get better. Explore new territory. Step outside your comfort zone. Forget what you know and what you’re good at for a little while, and work on something new that may be more difficult and frustrating. It’s the only way to get better! If you don’t challenge yourself each time you sit down, the quality and value of your practice sessions will steadily decline. Eventually you’ll even get bored with your strengths.  Instead, if you commit to growth and enter uncharted fretboard territory, you’ll find it’s easier to stay enthusiastic and build a comprehensive and well-rounded skill set.

5. Have patience.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same goes for your progress as a guitarist. Especially in the beginning, you may be tempted to learn everything at once. You’ll spend hours cramming as much as possible into as little time as possible. You’ll constantly ask others, “How long does it take to get good at guitar?” This is a mindset you really need to abandon. If you truly want to get good at your instrument, you’re going to have to adopt a new attitude of patience, focus, and a dedication to long-term growth and progress.

Learning guitar, like so many other things, is about the journey – not the destination. Each second you spend with the instrument in your hands adds to your musical strength. Have faith in the process of mastery and stop focusing so much on the end result. Instead, really allow yourself to bond with the instrument and luxuriate in the time you spend with it. Slow down. Take everything one moment at a time.

Think of your musical progress like the growth of a plant. You can water the plant, give it nutrients and sunlight, but you can’t force it to flower if it’s still a seedling. You just have to give it time and space to grow. Like the plant, your skills must also be nurtured by practice and dedication, but also by the realization that you can’t force yourself to do anything you’re not ready for and you can’t force yourself to be anything you are not.

Have patience. Stay excited and focused. In time, your budding skills will develop into the mature musical range  you’ve been waiting for.