There are many philosophies when it comes to practicing guitar. Some people don’t practice at all, others practice for 10+ hours per day! Steve Vai’s legendary 10-hour guitar workout comes to mind. But consider this…who do you think is the better guitar player? The person who hardly practices, or the person who practices on a regular basis? Of course it’s the person who practices regularly!

I’m a strong advocate of practicing on a regular basis because with good guitar technique, you can play anything! If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If you can alternate pick most any any lick or picking pattern, then any time youre trying to learn something new youll be able to pick it up much more quickly then if you dont have good technique.

Obviously you want to practice things that you have difficulty playing, or create your own exercises that are similar to those things you struggle with. By focusing your practice time on these things, you will improve much quicker. Then in the future when you encounter things you previously used to struggle with, youll breeze right through it!

Think about itif all you practice are power chords, you just really limit yourself as to what you can potentially play. By focusing on certain techniques, youll be able to do so much more. But you can still play power chords if you choose. I dont know, maybe some people are happy only playing power chords, but I digress

Now I’m not saying that you should go out and start practicing for 10+ hours per day. I never practiced for more then 3-4 hours per day. I think that what you practice is more important then how long you practice. Of course its ultimately up to you. This is just how I view the guitar.