So I decided to learn guitar in the busiest time of my life, full-time job, raising a family, church duties, etc. While I would like to be able to practice for 2 hours each day, I can only realistically guarantee 30 minutes. I want to focus on rhythm, because I sing as well, so lead isn’t terribly important at the moment. Anybody that can offer help designing a 30 minute routine/schedule that will help maximize my practice efforts? I usually get to go to a 2+ hour jam weekly. Thanks in advance for the help, right now I just feel like I spend my time noodling around.
Practice Help!
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So you can use this format with any amount of time, but using your 30 min I would take about 5 min for a warm up. Then I would spend about 15 min on something you’re trying to work on. Maybe it’s getting a song faster, maybe it’s just a lick or phrase from a song. Make it something you don’t have down and be disciplined to really work and improve on that one thing. The last 10 I would spend playing songs you like. Not to say you don’t like the other ones, but we all have songs we love to just play, sing, or whatever. Use that time for those, or to play something you’re working on at a tempo you know is a bit too fast and just see how it goes. Push yourself. Hope it helps a little.
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Scott’s 30 min format sounds like a good plan!
What I would probably add is, fit in at least 10 min multi-task within your regular schedule itself (so as to not take away time from your schedule) to listen to songs with differing rhythm patterns. You might already be doing this, but this listening should improve your play without your knowing.
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If that’s what you can do, that’s what you can do.
Set your expectations accordingly.
As a beginner, that’s my expert advice. 
Hi
Been a lot of useful chatter going on in the Motivation Post I personally always mix it up but listen to all and everyone!
Motivation - HELP! - General chit chat - Forum - Banjo Ben Clark
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Hi Ryan this is a common problem no matter what instrument you play. There was a time I sat down for a twelve/fourteen hour practice session on my banjo. I was a bit obsessed back then. Over time I cut my hours and I am down to about three hours a day depending how motivated I am. Some times I go for days when I can’t be bothered.
My advice for what it’s worth is keep your instrument handy and grab any and every opportunity to play. I often watch TV with headphones on when I practice playing tricky repetitive licks. Learn to multi task.
Set up a plan to manage your time, it doesn’t have to be too strict so long as you can fit in some time for practice.
I would like to rely more on BanjoBen’s lessons, but it seems to me they are mostly geared towards playing breaks and lead. Thanks for the replies.
Hi Ryan, Check out the link below it lists a ton of lessons on rhythm guitar - Plus every Banjo & Mandolin Solo Lesson has a TEF file with TAB for rhythm guitar.
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/filters/instruments:guitar?search=rhythm
Thank you, I’ll look into it!