You are currently viewing How Long Does It Take To Get Good At Guitar?

How Long Does It Take To Get Good At Guitar?

  • Post published:August 24, 2022

One of the most common questions asked by those who show an interest in learning how to play the guitar. People also ask how long it takes to learn how to play the guitar. This question doesn’t have a straightforward answer. This article will answer the questions.

First, the term “good” means different things to different music students. The term good might mean being able to play along with people who are singing at a party.

To someone else, it could mean being able to improvise rock solos on the spot. It could mean to another as, someone who can write his songs and perform them in a band setting.

This could also mean to another as being able to play different styles of music competently. So you see, the word “good” in this context means different things to different people.

Getting good on the guitar depends on certain factors. Let’s see what it requires to being a good guitarist.

Practice time

The time allotted to practicing or rehearsing with the guitar is a major factor that determines your progress. The time spent during practice makes a lot of difference. Individual learner’s growth expectancy is not measured by how long they have been learning how to play the guitar. Some learners put in more time in 6 months while some other learners invest 4 years.

Let’s take a deeper look to consider what this really means. For instance, Thomas may practice for 4 hours every day, while Greg, another learner who started at the same time does his for 30mins daily. After 2 years, both would have spent 2,920 hours and 365 hours consecutively. Meanwhile, if both were asked when each started out into learning the guitar, they’ll say 2 years ago.

From here we can see that the time you started is not what matters most, but hours invested in practice. Certainly, Thomas, who practices 4 hours daily, would have made more progress than his colleague. The amount of hours spent practicing is one of the key factors that determine the learner’s growth level.

Consistency in Practicing

Just as consistency is important in almost everything we do, it is vital here. When there is an absence of consistency, the progress rate will not be impressive.

Inconsistency will bring about rapid growth rate during a period, and diminished growth rate at some other times. To have a rapid and progressive growth rate, consistency is inevitable. There are students who show lots of interest in learning how to play the guitar. They practice a lot, and in return, make rapid improvement. When they get to a point, they get slack in their practice, and their improvement stops being rapid.

How the practice time is spent

How you make use of the period scheduled for practice is very crucial. It determines how long it takes before you can be referred to as being a good guitarist. The quality of the rehearsal matters a lot. At times, when individuals go to practice, they don’t optimize the time spent at the practice place. They do other things before they begin to put their mind to work.

For instance, Jake and Brooks, who are new learners, go to practice. Both decided to spend 4 hours of their time doing practice. Jake uses 3 hours 45 minutes of the time spent in the practice for an active rehearsal, and Brooks spent 1 hour 50 minutes. If this continues to reoccur, after a period, you’ll observe that Jake has made more progress than Brooks.
In other words, discipline should be put in place to fully optimize the time carved out for practice.

Another aspect of how the practice time is spent is, what exactly you practice. You should constantly try to improve in your areas of weakness and not stick to your strength alone during practice. This is necessary so that you can become rounded –up in this field. If you stick to your strength alone during practice, you’ll only get better there, and never at your weak areas.

So, quality should be the focus during your practice, and not only the quantity of time spent.

Learning speed

This is another factor that determines how long it takes an individual to learn to play the guitar. Some people learn very fast, faster than others do. For fast learners, it may require a shorter time to master the guitar.

Goals vary, so commitment is required

The commitment you’ll put into learning the guitar or any other musical instrument will be determined by your set goals. Individuals that show interest in learning the guitar have their various set goals. There are varieties of famous experts in this field, the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, and John McLaughlin.

If your goal is to attain their level of proficiency, you will need to rehearse for lots of hours, every week. For someone who just loves the guitar and wants to play it, may just require 20-30 minutes rehearsal, 4-5 times a week. Summarily, the goal in mind determines the effort invested in practice.

Access to good learning materials

This like the others is also an important factor in determining your progress in guitar learning. Some people are eager to spend time doing a lot of practice, but easily get tired during practice. When there is nothing new to the practice, you can get tired easily.

They lack good materials, and usually, they spend most of their practice time playing what they are good at already. This, after a while, becomes boring and kills their motivation to rehearse further. Good music materials will always motivate you to practice.

To experience rapid progress in your guitar-learning process, you need good teaching materials that will match your music interest. There are varieties of music genre, such as blues, rock, metal etc.

Good mentorship

Mentorship is an important factor that determines how much time it takes you to learn to play the guitar. As a coming-up guitarist, having a mentor in this line, with a significant proficiency level is important. However, it is not compulsory to have one, but when you do, you’ll be increasing your pace. Aside from increasing your pace, it will also help you to maximize your practice time, so you don’t waste them.

A good mentor already knows your weaknesses and strengths, and he knows what to do, to help you improve rapidly. He must have gone through various challenging moments in the process of learning. This will make it easy for him to guide you as you begin your learning process.

Taking the necessary decisions as guided by this article, will help you record significant improvements in your field as an up-coming guitarist. It is not peculiar to guitar learning alone, but also applicable to other musical instruments.