FINALLY!   I finally got a chance to sit down and grab the guitar to practice a bit… a good, solid hour of uninterrupted focused practice.  And it felt great.

I don’t mean to sound like I was fending off pangs of addiction withdrawal or anything, but I’ve really formed a habit of picking up the guitar and practicing almost every day.  So when two full days go by without a single minute spent strumming a few chords, yeah, I was feeling a little empty.

But admittedly, this is the reality of a grown-up learning guitar.  Grown-ups have responsibilities and, for me, this weekend was full of them.

Here’s a snapshot of what the last two days looked like for me:

charity dinner —> night out with the wife —> kids up @6:30 a.m. (and thus, me too) —> charity run —> son’s T-ball practice —> lunch with mother —> yard work —> dinner with family —> relax with wife, then early to bed —> sleep in —> install air conditioners —> cut grass —> more yard work —> games with the kids —> dinner —> shower —> (Finally) practice guitar —> and, yeah, write this diary entry!

I suppose nothing too out of the ordinary on this list for your average grown up, but a look at what I had going on…

Perhaps you had a similar weekend?

Even if not, you get the point: we lead busy lives.  We all do.  We’re adults and we’ve got shit to do.  And in the middle of all it we’re working on learning guitar.

But despite the fact I missed two days, I’m feeling great for getting back on track tonight.  And I’m feeling great about taking this so seriously.  It means that playing guitar is turning in to more than a hobby… it’s becoming not just something I do when I’m bored or hanging out with time to kill, but rather an important part of my daily life.  And when a day goes by when I miss it, I feel it.

If you’re at this stage in your life, I applaud you.  If not, then my advice to you is make the guitar a real part of your life.

Some might call daily practice a good “strategy” towards improving your playing.   But I think it needs to transcend a bit further…

Your life is the sum of what you do. You ultimately become the result of the actions you take.  Thus, if you play guitar every day of your life, you lay the framework for being a guitarist.  And no one else can tell me anything different.

Happy practicing!