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Have you ever done any of the following?

• Made excuses for not practicing because you "didn't have time"?
• Practiced the same licks and exercises that you did last year?
• Felt like you had hit a brick wall in your progress?
• Felt unsure as to what to practice?

Unless your name is Steve Vai, chances are you've done at least one of the above!

They are all symptoms of having a lack of vision.

What do I mean by vision? Vision in this context is having a clearly defined picture in your mind's eye of how you would like to play. It must be a crystal clear, exciting and inspiring picture!

Without an absolutely clear picture of what you would ideally like to sound like, you will not know what you need to practice in order to realise that vision. You will also probably lose the drive and motivation to practice daily for many years until you can play like your vision. You may even start using the loser's mantra which is "I don't have time to practice".

Exercise One:

Think about how you would like to play in 10 years time. Close your eyes and try to see yourself playing exactly how you would like to play. Write down what you see now.

Make sure that it is detailed. What techniques are you a master of? What songs can you play? What bands are you in? How many students do you teach? How does it feel when you play like you do?

Exercise Two:

Now write down what areas of your playing you will need to start working on in order to reach your vision. What techniques do you need to start practising? What chords do you need to learn? What music theory do you need to start learning about? Do you need to start doing ear training? What books, teachers, CDs and other tools will help you realise your vision? How much time every day do you think you will need to practise in order to play like you want to play?

Exercise Three:

Spend 10 minutes a day for the next 30 days imagining yourself playing exactly how you would like to play. Do this with your eyes shut. Don't worry, it won't make you want to start eating tofu or go around the neighborhood hugging trees! At the end of every time you do this, write down one small new detail about your vision. By the end of 30 days you should be feeling so excited that you'll want to practice 24/7!