Practicing guitar for two hours per day can rapidly speed up your skill development as a guitar player.
However, the time itself is not the important factor, it is what you do with that time that makes the difference.
Throughout this article, I will explain what you need to consider in making your two hours of practice as effective as possible.
How Can Two Hours of Guitar Practice Be Ineffective?
Even though two hours of guitar practice is a lot, it is very possible to spend all that time over weeks and months and years, and not actually make any real improvement.
If you don’t have a clear goal in mind, of what type of skills and proficiencies you are wanting to develop, what type of music you want to be able to play, and in what way, you could invest a lot of time into guitar practice, without much improvement on your skill.
How To Make Guitar Practice Effective?
The thing you need to keep to be clear on is what your guitar practice goals are.
Are you trying to learn a piece of music, or trying to learn some new chords, or are you trying to develop your chops on lead guitar? Maybe all of these things! And that is ok, but it needs to be clear for you.
Improving your guitar skills is like any other mission you set out to accomplish. You need to have a clear goal in mind, and then figure out the steps you need to take to achieve your goal.
If two hours are what you plan to commit to practicing that that is worked into your plan.
Making A Guitar Practice Plan
A good practice plan will make sure that your time spent practicing the guitar will get you closer to your goal, than if you just ‘play guitar for two hours’. You need to be crystal clear on all these steps, to make sure your guitar practice time is not a waste.
- Know Your Goal– What are you trying to achieve? What skills or competencies of songs do you want to be able to play.
- Know the Steps You Need to Take to Achieve Your Goal – You might know this already, or you may need to research, or even get some assistance from a guitar coach/teacher to determine, what steps you need to take, and in what order, in order to achieve your guitar skill goals.
- Make SMART Goals – SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. By making sure your goals and phrased in this way, you have a way to look back at your goals, and measure your progress to see if they are delivering the required result.
If you are following your set practice routine consistently and you are not meeting your goals, this information will help you identify what is not working.
You will then be able to revisit step two, re-consider the steps you are taking and potentially change them up and then observe how the new routine impacts your guitar skill, and if it is having the desired effect.
Should I Practice Two Hours of Guitar In One Block or Break It Up?
There is no single answer as to whether you should practice guitar for two hours, or break it up into multiple sessions.
Some people might have very specific practice routines whereby this is the only way they can fit it in their schedule, whereas others may have no choice but to split it up into two 1 x hour blocks.
If you have a choice, then you will need to try some different processes and see what works best.
For me personally, I would struggle to maintain concentration for a two-hour period, so it would not be good for me to practice guitar for two hours in a row, I would personally break it up into two different one-hour sessions, or even three 40 minute sessions.
Along with mental concentration, you also need to know what your hands are capable of. If you are just starting this routine then your hands may not be up to two hours per day of guitar practice, and you might need to break it up into smaller time chunks, or even start with less than two hours and gradually build up.
What Should I Practice If I Am Practicing Guitar For Two Hours?
The type of practice you should do in two hours of guitar practice is totally dependent on what your goals are as a guitar player.
If you want to be an all-rounder then you are going to need to spend some time on chords, some time on lead, and some time on theory.
Whereas you just want to ‘shred’ and only shred, then all of your practice will be centered around that.
If you are not clear on what steps you need to take, then I highly recommend getting in contact with a guitar teacher/coach to get help developing a practice plan.
A little bit of time and money invested upfront in devising your plan could save you months of wasted playing time, where the work you put in, does not give you the results you want.
Should I Include Music Theory In My Guitar Practice?
There are many benefits to learning music theory, but the main issue is whether learning theory will get you closer to your goals.
In most cases, at least a little bit of theory will definitely help you become a much better guitar player, but it has to translate to your overall goals.
