I practiced wrong for 40 years, so you don't have to!
View the full lesson at justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/broad-vs-focused-practice-which-works-best-yt-2026-01
Really great video, that reminds me of another practice wrong and that was me with Golf. Played for almost ten years, and I enjoyed it a lot, but was never great. I decided to go to a pro and have my swing analyzed.
They did 2 hours video taping all the aspects of my swing, and I was pretty excited by the end to see where I needed to concentrate my efforts.
I met with the pro and to make a long story short, he told me the best way to improve was to start all over again from the beginning. I had been doing it all wrong for ten years.
Still to this day a hard pill to swallow, but it just goes to prove that taking it step by step and learning the right way is the best way to progress.
Hopefully with Justin’s help I’m learning the right way.
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I can relate to the Guitarist A in the video (Broad Practice). I’m building a new practice routine for April and May where I explore many genres : rock, blues, fingerstyle, funk and even a bit of metal 
A few days each !
It’s unfortunate that the progress will be slow, just like the lego analogy in the video 
But, my motivation was slowly decreasing - practicing similar stuff for 2-3 years.
Somehow, to my family most blues song sounds the same. They mostly thinks that I’m practicing the same song all the time even when it’s a new one 
At the same time, I was thinking that progress gets harder after a few years of practice. It might take someone 3 years of BLIM to get from beginner blues to intermediate blues. But, it might takes 10 more years to go from intermediate to advanced blues. 
That takes some serious dedication to work 10 years on BLIM. 
Would the feeling of progress and/or motivation be higher trying new styles at a beginner/intermediate level ? Or would it be higher trying to achieve mastery/advanced territory in one focused style?
That’s a good food for thought for my next learning log update 
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My Legos seem to be a lot smaller than his. Takes me a lot longer to get some height out of my practice.
I narrowed down a great deal a year ago. After BLIM, I knew I struggled a lot with some basic capability. I set my focus on blues and blues rock, backing off on classical and ancient music I was trying to do. I stopped beating my head against the barre and worked on picking and fretting accuracy. Today, a bit over a year later, my picking is a bunch better, not excellent, but better. I can move faster with some accuracy and I can see a chance at getting up to full speed on some stuff that looked too fast when I started.
Still plenty of Legos to place, but it is going a bit better after narrowing the focus a bit.
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Great video, thanks Justin, it made me think about my recent journey.
I picked up guitar again after +20 year break in Aug 2024, having played on and off since age 11. I went through JG Grade 1-3, in parallel I learnt 6-8 rock songs on an app, and I tried to learn some Blues and looked at acoustic fingerpicking. In June 2025 joined BLIM and focused all I could on that, playing 3-4 hours a day, life got in the way in BLiM Units 4-6, so I rejoined in January and refocused.
From my personal experience.
JG Grade 1-3 gave me back the basics, I never truly learnt songs enough to carry them with me forever, maybe one or two, I did not do enough on rhythm/timing always a personal weakness, I am doing daily exercises to try and improve that, the 6-8 rock songs I have gone back to over the past months and realised again I never really learnt them and would have to relearn them to get to a good standard, I didn’t I carried on with BLIM. Fingerpicking was or is a hap-hazard thing, and a different but enjoyable distraction.
My current thinking is that I have most improved playing Blues, my improvisation has got better, and my dexterity and soloing has improved. I have recently been feeling frustrated with progress, lack of it, or struggling to improve technique, a feeling of being struck on a ledge halfway up a mountain and no way up. As a result I started to look at other songs some old some new outside of the Blues, but I now realise this will slow and hinder my blues mountain progress, so I have strictly limited that to 1 song, and everything else is Blues whether inside BLIM or other material it is all Blues.
I am now 67 and no longer have a lifetime to develop my guitar playing. I have decided I would rather learn to play guitar well in one genre, the Blues, which I like and enjoy doing than dabble in lots of styles and be mediocre in them all. If and when I get good enough I might side step into related Jazz or Blues driven Rock.
Thanks again, Adrian
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Interesting talk. I am an intermediate player and feel as in past I have explored different styles, that opened up my playing but agree now time to focus more on 1 or 2 styles. Thanks
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I guess if you’re certain about what you want to do then the single tower is fine but it’s probably better to start with a slightly wider base than that because maybe you’ll chance upon something else you enjoy. It will likely make you more knowledgeable as well.
I’m thinking that something of a pyramid shape is the way to go. I’m not saying start trying to learn everything, that’s just unrealistic but pick a range of things and focus more over time
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Very interesting topic!
I think Justin doesn’t cover the difference in returns/effort. You will not have linear progress by stacking blocks vertically. Very soon you will come into the area of severely diminished returns (i.e. whoever tried to practice playing 16th notes at 120bpm understands this very well :-). If we are talking about the most efficient approach, I would argue that stacking blocks widely makes sense completely until you have good returns for your effort - that would be in many of those topics until you reach the intermediate level. By that time you will figure out two things: (1) what you want to play mostly and (2) what you are good at. Hopefully, those will intersect nicely, and from that point on you can start building your high tower on a broad intermediate base.
Having said this, 99.99% of Justin’s students will not be professionals. This is a hobby for us and the main thing about a hobby is having fun. If you indeed have fun following the efficient approach, that is perfect, but many people will find this boring and off-putting. I met people who are perfectly happy playing 20y+ only open chords and some fingerstyle. They sing (and some spend a lot of time perfecting this) and use the guitar as a tool to perform. Those basic guitar skills cover all they need and want. On the other hand, we saw recently a player with 1,500+ hours of very focused/niche practice in the first year. The progress/level is stunning!
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To answer Justin’s question: What one thing I want from my guitar playing is to convey emotion in my playing and for it to connect with the audience
My response to the lesson:
The distinction between an artist finding their voice and the general hobbyist is important here.
I find an analogy with food useful:
A restaurant can develop and refine a single dish, like a fish and chip shop, get a great reputation for it and enjoy a successful business where people come from miles around to eat their signiature dish.
However , if the same chef was to serve up the exactly same thing for his family to eat every day, day after day, no matter how wonderful it is; they’re just going to get sick
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The old saying Jack of all trades, master of none springs to mind.
It stands to reason that progress will be faster if the focus is narrower.
Having gone through the beginner grades and then BLIM, I’m now focusing on lead guitar - which has always been what I wanted to learn.
Motivation has certainly improved.
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I switched from trying to learn everything to only learning solos, which is all I’m actually interested in playing. Since I mostly play by myself with the song, I figured I don’t need to learn everything that a band’s guitarist needs to. Before I switched, I was still getting good at lead but my chord playing was abysmal. When I switched to only learning solos, I said to myself “screw chords, I don’t care about playing them”. But guess what, now that I am fairly good at lead and soloing, I find I play chords much better and cleaner. Because you can’t really learn a solo without eventually noticing how it’s sitting on the of the chord, how the riff is on the up beat, why the phrase ends on the minor third instead of the root, and so on. So I’m actually learning all those things at some level, while my lead practice is making my finger skills better. So I would actually say for me progress in those “secondary skills” has actually been faster once I started ignoring them! Just my experience, may or may not work for everyone
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Yes Matthew, I generally agree with you.
But, and there is always a but, I think how an individual will approach learning and playing guitar will be heavily dependent on what they want to achieve, and this in fact can change over time and as experience of the instrument grows.
Most I think start guitar as purely as a hobby with realistic goals, possibly initially just wanting to learn songs and strum chords and possibly sing along, maybe with a view to attending local open mics. As they progress in skill level then they may add aspects like finger style or adding chord melody and fills etc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this if that is what floats your boat. However some may on their journey increase what they want to achieve.
Others will have greater aspirations early on ranging from playing in a local band to becoming a star, or professional musician in what ever genre they like. From personal experience, across this scale mentioned, focus on specifics will be required to get on, with less or greater intensity of practice depending upon ability and how quickly each wants to reach their goals. For example getting to and performing in a local band will mean becoming reasonably competent, and learning a set of songs, whether the bands or other artists. It may mean focus on purely rhythm playing or may require soloing and improvisation, and how to fit in and play with others. Already I can see at least 5 or 6 towers of proficiency needed to climb. If the band plays different styles/genres of songs then the towers to climb will increase, and a broader skill set will be needed.
In my guitar playing life I have been at the beginning stage several times and started with the broad brush approach. In my early 20’s I played in two amateur bands primarily as the rhythm guitarist for 2 yours, my focus then was clear, learn the chords of the songs and play accurately in the band context.
When I attended a Music BTEC course over 20 years ago the approach was learn to play 3 songs every 2 weeks, and solo over one, perform them live in a band context, sing at least 3 songs live in a year. At the same time as learning Music Theory, Modern Music History and Music Media recording. It was extraordingly challenging for most on the course, my opinion was a lot of simultaneous towers to climb which was probably a good basis to getting to an intermediate level, but for many understanding and proficiency in any one aspect was probably lost, for me included. For some it was too much and they did not continue with music at University or as a career, others very quickly narrowed their focus and became proficient in what they wanted to do, be it Jazz, Rock, Pop, Blues etc, a few became artists in their own right or in bands. Only a few went to Uni and went on to work as music teachers or session musicians. I had to stop playing due to an injury at the time.
Personally I think how you approach guitar and learning it depends on what your goals are, but I think a broad brush approach will take many years and hours and hours of practice to get good across them all, that is itself could be quite negative for many. The opposite end of this is the band or artist or individual that starts with some basic skills and knowledge, focuses on that and develops skills and material that they like and does nothing else becoming highly proficient in that alone, they effectively ignore everything else at the beginning of their journey, and only add to it over years to come.
I have come to the conclusion that by narrowing your focus gives you a better chance of becoming good at least in a specific style or genre, there will be several skills and towers to develop for each. You can always explore others later on, I think if you start to explore others too early on then it can become a distraction and hinder progress form the origanal.
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Your 55 years young? I don’t believe you, you look marvelous!
Interesting video. I think the most important thing you say in it is: “It depends.”. I don’t disagree with what you are saying but there isn’t a right or wrong approach here. It depends on what you want out of playing guitar. I first picked up the guitar in retirement at age 69 and for me the broad approach has educated me in music to a degree I never knew. I have now been playing almost 5 years. I have no illusions about becoming a professional. I just love to play. Your lessons and broad approach to various genres and techniques as well as theory have really generated my interest in music. I play 2-3 hours a day. My song choices are eclectic and range from praise/worship to Smoke on the water. The point is I love it. My progress is undoubtedly slower. But I think in your lessons you emphasize, it’s the enjoyment you get, not necessarily the end goal. Had you not chosen a broad approach, you would not be the excellent teacher you are. But if you are young and aspiring to earn a living in music, you have a much different end goal.
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I agree. Unless your doing this for a job, I believe you should just do the thing that makes you happy when you pick up your guitar, and stop feeling guilty about not learning chords or scales or modes or whatever
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I appreciate everyone’s reflections on this lesson, but honestly what I really appreciate is that it’s clear Justin spends a lot of time thinking about teaching and trying to help students learn. I can’t say that about any of the in-person guitar teachers I’ve had. Thanks, Justin.
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When I started playing 5 years ago at age 67, I realized that rock rhythm guitar was what I most enjoyed and was what I could become somewhat proficient at. I’m still there although, like other beginners, I tried other things as they were introduced in various lessons. So I get Justin’s point and think it’s valuable. Taking it a step further, once you do that initial focus, how do you focus within it to keep improving? Mastering new chords in songs? Improving chord changes? Better strumming? Music theory? Justin has discussed this in multiple lessons, but does he have any new thoughts? How do you get better at playing what you love?
Study what you love. If rock rhythm is what you have your heart set on then focus mostly on that. Pick a rhythm guitarist like Malcolm Young or Keith Richards and study their playing styles.
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I have been playing for 6 years now. When I started I wanted to play rhythm and lead rock guitar, and that’s still my main area of interest. Around 2 and a half years ago I still found myself trying to work through the beginner grades when I got the opportunity to play with other musicians and this has evolved into a 6 piece covers band. I play rhythm guitar and although we do play some rock songs, we also play songs of other genres. Playing with the band has been a great experience, but it means that 90% of my practice time is taken up with learning songs leaving little time to work on technique. I now consider myself an intermediate guitar player but there are gaps in my knowledge/ skill level and I am afraid to say that I have developed bad habits and got a bit slack with my technique. As some of this relates to my strumming, and I am supposed to be a rhythm guitarist in the band I have started the strumming SOS course to try and tighten up in this area. I now really want to explore rock lead guitar but I just don’t have the time at the moment.
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Makes me wonder if I should abandon one of the 5 songs I am trying to memorize for grade 1 and just do the 4 I like better, and then just go to grade 2.
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