Has this ever happened to you? You sit down to play guitar for a couple of hours only to notice that you have not really accomplished anything. The next day you practice for the same amount of time and boom–you feel like your guitar playing has improved quite a bit.

What happened?

Why is it that one day you can make great gains in your playing and other days, it seems like you just wasted your time?

The answer is actually very simple. In fact, it is so simple that most guitarists ignore it because it seems either too obvious, or they underestimate its power.

What is it?

It is goal setting.

Think back to the last super-productive practice session you had. Did you have some clear expectations before you started to play guitar? Did you know exactly what you wanted to do and accomplish? I will bet you did. I will also bet that you met or exceeded your expectations.

Now compare this to your last practice session where you felt like you just wasted your time. In that case did you have a clear plan on what you wanted to accomplish?

Probably not—hence the lousy results! When you do not have a clear plan and goals for your practice session, you tend to drift around, waste time and not really get very much accomplished.

To get the most out of every guitar practice routine, you must get clear on what you want to accomplish. So every time you play guitar you should ask yourself: “What do I want to accomplish on the guitar today?”

It does not matter whether you are going to play guitar for five minutes or five hours. You should always have at least one guitar goal for each practice session.

If you do not know what you want, how will you ever get it? Setting a goal at the start of your practice session will provide you with a clear objective to work on. When you know what you want to achieve from a practice session you are much more likely to get it.

Goal setting is a crucial step to becoming a great guitarist. By setting practice goals, you decide in advance, what you want to achieve from your guitar practice session.

Do you think your favorite guitarist just woke up one morning as a great guitar player? No way! All good players made the decision to become good guitar players. Once this decision was made they put in the effort that was required to become great.

One of the keys to becoming the best you can be on the guitar is to use your practice time wisely. Whether you have 30 minutes or several hours to play guitar, the most important thing is how you use your practice time.

When you know what you want to accomplish in your guitar practice session, you will have the direction you need to get the most out of your practice session.

An important way to view goals is to see them as being part of a continuous process. When you set a goal for each practice session and work towards achieving the goal, you will either:

1) Reach the goal or,

2) You will realize that you are one step closer to reaching this goal.

Depending on the size and number of your practice goals, you may or may not realize some or all of your guitar goals in the current practice session. If you do not reach a goal at the end of your practice session you should continue to work on this goal during your next practice session. If you find it is taking considerably longer to reach your goal than you expect, you may need to divide the goal into smaller sub-goals.

Goals can be small or large and should be ultimately determined by your skill level. You should always challenge yourself enough to grow as a guitar player, but you must also make sure that your goals are realistic and achievable.

Let’s say your goal is to memorize a new song. The level of complexity of the song and your proficiency on the guitar, should determine how you tackle the song. You may be able to memorize the song in large sections. If so, this will make it easy for you to completely memorize the song in one practice session.

If it is a complex song, or if you are new to the guitar, your goal may be to simply learn the first section of the song.

So the next time you are ready to play guitar, remember to ask this crucial question: “What do I want to achieve this practice session?” Do this and you will definitely hear improvements in your guitar playing by the end of your practice session. Try doing this consistently for 30 days and look out–you will hear and feel substantial improvements in your guitar playing.

Check out Guitar Accelerator to discover more ways to get great results every time you pick up your guitar to play. Learn how to play guitar to unleash the master guitar player within.