I always say it should never be practice, it should just be “playing”, but regardless of your feelings in this direction, it is certainly important that you start to establish a certain degree of regularity to your practicing, or playing, routine.
First, and certainly foremost, you must truly love to play. This is after all, why you are playing the guitar in the first place! If you just want a fast ticket into “Rockstardom” this is not the way to get there. Certainly, if you do want a degree of “stardom” you better get pretty good at the guitar, though that certainly has never been the only thing that gets you there! Plenty of folks who have the right look, sound and whatever else have made it as rock stars, perhaps only knowing three chords on the guitar, but if you really want to be recognized for your playing, you better play a lot!
I know that I have always possessed the will and the drive to be the best I can be on my instrument, and my passion for it has always pushed me onward. I never needed any “push” to play, but rather have taught myself, and always felt guilty if I let myself not play enough. I am always stopping into music stores to have a little guitar workout if I happen to be far away from home, and am not traveling with a guitar.
I used to love to play when I got home from school when I was first developing as a player, and my parents used to regularly find me asleep with my guitar in my hands, with the record I was playing to skipping at the end! I would come home from school on the bus, and literally be dreaming up licks and song ideas that I couldn’t wait to try when I got home! In high school, all of us players used to get into the habit of bringing our guitars to school and jam, and even have jam sessions after school at various friends’ houses. This was a great time of rapid-fire learning for me, and is a great way for you and your guitar-slinging buddies to improve on all fronts!
So, please try to be sure to play at least a little every day, and be sure to try and teach yourself something new, or at least exhaust the possibilities of what you already know as much as possible. If you intend to start doing a little teaching to others, that’s also a great way to improve your “chops”, because it’ll literally force you to play for X number of hours each week. I know that helps me tremendously!
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