I’m often contacted by people who tell me they’ve been playing for a while but can’t play anywhere near as well as they’d like.
Now, there can be a few reasons for this.
One reason is they may not have very good technique and need to learn how to play in a more efficient way.
Another is they just play the same things and don’t attempt to expand their knowledge.
But something else to consider is they’re likely NOT DOING ENOUGH PRACTICE.
In order to get good at guitar, you’ve got to put in the hours.
I once had someone tell me they’ve been playing for at least 30 years, have studied material by most of the well known online guitar teachers, and still can’t play as well as they wanted to.
They told me all they want to do is shred.
When I asked them how much practice they do, they told me they only practice about 3 times a week.
This was the first problem, if you want to be able to shred – you’ve got to be practicing EVERY DAY.
When I asked them to describe an average practice session, it was all over the place.
For 10 minutes they might muck around with one solo, then move to another solo for the next 10 minutes, then spend the next 15 minutes doodling with a riff.
They even said they might hear a song at work then spend the next few practice sessions messing around with that.
If you want to be able to play well and want to get there sooner than 30 years, you’ve got to be doing a lot more consistent practice and your practice sessions need to be focused.
You also need to stick with certain practice material for long periods of time.
Some things take a while to get down, you can’t just practice something for a week then say “OK, I’m bored, what’s next?”