Being great at anything requires focus but in today’s world staying focused is a challenge. This is especially true for musicians because for the most part playing music has little financial return.

Many years of teaching have put me in a privileged position of being able to identify what the great guitar students do in terms of focusing and therefore achieving better results. Here are 3 ways I have found great guitar players use to stay focused.

In most cases the great guitar students followed a practice ritual. The ritual would vary but it may involve listening to some music or watching a video prior to practice or preparing their studio or even meditating. Having a standard ritual helps to get you into the right frame of mind. This is quite common among high achievers in most fields.

Great guitar players don’t take chances. They plan when they will practice and exactly what they will be working on each time. The opposite is true of those who tend to fail on guitar. They generally have no practice schedule and inevitably something creeps up forcing them to cancel their practice. Even if you do practice it’s important to have a clear mind so you are not distracted. Planning ahead ensures you will not be disturbed or distracted.

In almost every case my best students had their practice well planned. They knew exactly when and what they were going to practice and for how long. They might for example break everything down in to 10 min sessions. This allowed them to fully focus on just one skill or song.

The G4 GUITAR METHOD