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[–] 18020747? ago 

You need to find the most efficient means of practicing. Usually this involves focusing on the fundamentals, with an eye towards constant progression. For example with language learning you have to grind vocab with flash cards using an efficient SRS system. Each flash card has to have as much context as possible (image, sentence, audio). Then you have to be advancing in difficulty at a smooth pace so that you're dealing with mostly comprehensible input, but just difficult enough for a slight mental struggle. Where you still need to look up words in a dictionary fairly often, but not so often that it totally breaks the flow of enjoying the content.

For guitar it would probably look like a good routine of working the scales, chord progressions, all against a metronome to build rhythm from the beginning. The bulk of your time should be spent on these sorts of exercises rather than just playing off of a songbook. Systematically cover each of the main major and minor scales. If things start to get easy, move on. Then periodically come back to the basics so you can reinforce them. You want to be aiming for as close to a 1:1 correspondence between effort and results as possible to avoid long plateaus. When you are close to a 1:1 correspondence then you can increase the practice time and make massive progress quickly. Make sure that your guitar is always in tune and at hand, sitting on a stand next to the amp, with picks at the ready and strap adjusted or next to a good seat where you're comfortable playing. If an obstacle is the amp being to loud for neighbors or something, get a pair of headphones that plug into a portable amp. All of this should be at the ready so you can pick it up at a moment's notice and practice in short bursts, without it being a chore to set up. Similar to how if you have a pullup bar in the threshold on the way to the bathroom you can easily crank of tens of pullups every day with little effort to increase volume just as a habit. You should also use an electric guitar rather than an acoustic for your main practice, since it will be easier on your fingers which means will translate to the ability to practice for longer and more frequent sessions. At the same time you must understand that plateaus are inevitable, while learning to get yourself out of them ASAP without dwelling on frustration. You also want to be reading about music theory so you can tie the practical into the real and make periodic leaps and bounds in your understanding. Then you can translate that knowledge into the ability to jam. When you can, get with better players so that you're absorbing their knowledge. Ideally you'd have a sort of mentor. If you can join a band. If you are the best member of the band, switch bands to where you're no longer the best, and ride that pattern of switching until you're happy with your skill level. This is similar to how a boxer or MMA fighter would want to switch camps if they are stagnating either because the level of the gym is too low for them to make progress, or they just need to be exposed to new coaching methods, technique pool, and sparring partners. Don't cheap out on things that will facilitate your progression. If better strings will be easier on your fingers, buy them. If you are stuck on music theory, buy several of the best books so you have multiple sources to reference in case one of them doesn't click, and to cover knowledge gaps. Don't be afraid to alternate between skimming reference materials and doing deep dives. You don't always have to read the entire book from cover to cover, often it's best to skim the whole book quickly after looking at the ToC then zoom in on a chapter or two that are most relevant to your current sticking points.