Any music teachers(or musicians) around?

[StillMedusa]

I'm learning the guitar..classical guitar with a teacher, having mucked about with one for a year basically teaching myself a few chords and mangling songs using guitar tab.

Now I'm learning properly, learning to read music etc. I'm finding it both rewarding and frustrating as my 50 yr old fingers are stiff, but I am making slow progress.

But I'm not sure how much I should be practising every day. It's been fine in the holidays (I work term time ) when I can pick it up whenever I like, but once back at work my evenings are busy , and I will struggle to get a hour in at most. Is an hour a day enough??

I'm not aiming to be amazing but would like eventually to be able to play without making people wince

I was told that you need to practice 10 mins per day for the grade you are at. So a beginner would be 10 mins daily, grade 2 is 20 mins etc.

I also think 30 mins a day is better than an hour every other day.

Hope this helps, enjoy learning!

I’ve had too much wine. By my last comment I just mean a little but often is best rather than bingeing.

What does your teacher say?

If you can do an hour a day of efficient practice you will make great progress. Classical guitar was hard for me . I got to around grade 8 level and in the run up to exams would have done around 3-4 hours a day but only for a few weeks. I think if you can even do an hour occasionally, then 30 minutes will be fine other days. Better to do 15 minutes good practice rather than say oh I don't have an hour I won't do any. It is a very satisfying instrument but one that I personally found hard as the sight reading is tricky. You can use other times to help you eg listen to good recordings of pieces you are playing or want to be able to play so you hear what 'good' sounds like. I personally like john Williams and Timothy Kane a( other guitarists are available!) To be honest, I think classical guitar sounds lovely even with the odd wrong note! If you want to play for people, choose simple pieces played with a nice tone and feel. Do you have a guitar orchestra nearby you can join? It can be quite a solitary instrument, which suits some but I enjoyed playing in our regional ensemble at school etc. Also, in extra curricular there is a music thread for each month too, you would get lots of advice.

Thank you for your replies:)
I think I'll aim for a minimum of 30 mins, any more is a bonus on a week day.
My teacher hasn't said how long I should practise for but I have set finger exercises (which I struggle with) then music exercises..sight reading in the book we are using and now I am working on a little 'proper piece' It seems slow but as I couldn't read music 8 weeks ago, I think actually I must be doing ok, but I am impatient with myself!

Once I am less incompetent I will see if there is a guitar ensemble or group for adults around, I hadn't thought about playing with others!

I’m a music teacher (not guitar but play a bit).

Effective practice is important by which I mean don’t always start at the beginning and play to the end, work on the tricky bar(s) then slowly add in the bars either side. Also, don’t practise too fast! Slow, careful practising is far more useful- get the movements, timings etc correct slowly then gradually speed up.

And a set time, like 10 minutes or whatever, isn’t always the best way to go - set yourself a goal e.g. today I will conquer these 4 bars of my technical exercises and once you’ve done this give yourself a reward!