What is the best way to practice?
On reddit.com, you can find a whole thread pertaining to this topic. This is useful since it provides very personal and relatable responses from people who actually play the instrument.
In this thread, one user suggests practicing for short periods multiple times in a day, rather than practicing for a long period once in the day (e.g. practice for 10 minutes 5 times a day instead of practicing for 50 minutes 1 time a day). This allows your brain to process the broken-down information during downtime, as opposed to being crammed with information after a long practice session.
Something else which may be useful is practicing along with a metronome - this can greatly help with your timing, and offers a staggered path to increasing your speed in certain passages.
Personally, I find that a balance between using a metronome and not using it is key - you need to learn the notes before you start challenging yourself with a metronome, otherwise you will inevitably practice and learn it wrong.
Another user suggests creating a set routine, for example 5 minutes for scales, 10 minutes for improvisation etc...
I believe having a set structure may be useful as it prevents you from straying off-topic.
Furthermore, practising with a clean signal instead of a majorly overdriven signal may prove useful when learning a passage, as the distortion cannot hide the mistakes. Sometimes, though, practising with distortion is necessary - usually, distortion brings up a lot of unwanted sound which you will have to learn to mute.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/93z0xp/question_what_is_the_best_way_to_practice/?rdt=63859
What are the best things to practice?
Although very subjective according to skill level, it could be useful to practice chords, arpeggios, licks, improvisation, set songs and ear training.
One thing every guitarist should practice is warm-ups and finger drills before playing to reduce the possibility of damaging your wrist, hand or fingers.
Arguably the most famous warmup, the spider exercise for guitar is one I practice every time before I play. It takes literally about a minute but the impact it has is shocking. Not only does it get the blood flowing in my fingers, it allows me to practice my hand synchronisation so I don't get out of sync while playing later on.
Some people find it useful to practice scales and arpeggios as warmups; I plan to start doing so in the near future.
Source: https://breakthroughguitar.com/what-should-i-practice-on-guitar-every-day/
I am currently attending guitar lessons where I am given the opportunity to practice challenging passages from my favourite songs. I think this is very useful as it keeps me motivated (I'm not just doing boring scale exercises the whole time) and improves my technique concurrently.
This leads me on to the next topic.
Learning Songs
Another Reddit conversation here. The general consensus of most users commenting below the post is that exclusively learning songs will not get you very far on the guitar. Sure, it's possible to learn the songs you like, but neglecting the regimented practice of scales, chords and music theory will leave you essentially clueless and lacking good technique.
On the other hand, most beginners will find it very tedious and boring to delve into the lesser-discussed side of learning an instrument - like the drills mentioned above. This could very quickly lead to burnout and dropping the instrument entirely. For this reason, one user suggests learning songs to start off (to stay motivated) and practicing drills later.
A lot of commenters said you can learn to play songs, but just knowing songs isn't the same as knowing the guitar. Although I can sort of agree with the sentiment (since knowing the guitar can be a decades long pursuit), it comes off as a bit arrogant and it isn't something I would personally say.
In conclusion, it really depends on a player-to-player basis. Personally, I started out learning songs (which I could hardly play) and chords; it kept me motivated without allowing me to neglect the basics of guitar playing. In my experience, learning songs was what truly carried my progress.
All this being said, it is imperative to maintain discipline while learning songs on the guitar (e.g. don't rush ahead, don't play too fast) and keep the basics in mind.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarlessons/comments/8awjfy/could_you_learn_how_to_play_guitar_by_just/
Ear Training
This is not a guitar-exclusive skill. In fact, some would say it's most useful in singing.
Training your ear has numerous benefits, the most notable being able to play something just by listening to it. It can also be used to improve your improvisation and confidence.
Many reddit users suggest downloading apps or visiting websites dedicated to ear training, such as 'Perfect Ear' and musictheory.net. These apps often play intervals and leave you to guess what interval you just heard. For example, if the first note played is a C and the next note is a G, it's a perfect fifth; though obviously, you wouldn't know the names of the notes - you would have to decode them by ear.
The same sort of training can be done for chords and notes, though intervals are probably the most common ear training exercise.
On justinguitar.com, a guitar teacher suggests using memorable songs to memorise intervals. For instance, the song (if you could even call it that) 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' pitches up by a perfect fifth between the first two words. Some people might find this easier to do if they can think of the songs accurately in their heads, while it may be easier for others to practise the old-fashioned way.
The best part about ear training is that it improves your musicianship across the board, rather than just on one particular instrument.
Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarlessons/comments/13k3rxm/how_do_you_train_your_ear/
https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarlessons/comments/13k3rxm/how_do_you_train_your_ear/
Practicing with a Tutor
It goes without saying that having a professional provide you with constructive criticism can do wonders for your guitar playing. A tutor will not only help you focus on the areas in which you lack skill, but will also aid you in creating a frequent practice regiment (and following through with it).
There are a lot of ways to learn guitar online now (which is how I started), however, many people believe there is no substitute for an in-person teacher providing real-time feedback.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/3xhb5c/guitar_lessons_are_they_worth_it/
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