If you're a student, I know you have heard me say this. Yes, call me a broken record, but you get better by practicing.

And to make sure you approach your practice as something you like to do, rather than a chore that has to be done, you must learn to love to practice...

You have to learn to enjoy challenges...
  I will learn how to play this Gmaj7#11 chord...even if it takes me all week!!!
You have to learn to cherish surprises...
  Wow! That sounded so cool - what did I just do? Let me try to do it again.
You have to set goals and work to reach them...
   By the end of the week, I will be able to play the bridge to this song. I have 4 days to get it perfect.
You have to learn how to compliment yourself when you reach your goals
   I'm sounding good! My guitar teacher isn't crazy after all.

And, you have to do it all over again and again and again...

National Public Radio (NPR) recently had a segment on a guitar player discussing practice. The guitarist, Glenn Kurtz, has recently published his book, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music. The web link below provides both a written and audio transcript of the segment. Very interesting and definitely worth a few minutes to read or listen to. I plan to pick this book up soon and will post on it in the future.

NPR Segment - Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music