Hi, my name is Greg Clark and I'm a guitar teacher based in Plymouth, UK.
This is a question that you see quite frequently as the subject of videos/forums or on social media. I would say this is as a result of often seeing those videos with titles such as "Steve Vai's 8 hour Practice Routine" or "Why You Need To Play for 10,000 Hours" etc.
I think one thing to understand is that time put in does not necessarily equal the relevant increase in ability.
What I mean by this is that the quality of the practice or playing is more important than simply the amount of playing that a guitarist does.
So this leads me to the question of the article; How Much Should An Intermediate Guitarist Practice?
The simple answer to this would be, how much your schedule allows, and to the point of where you still enjoy your playing and the process of improving on the instrument!
By this I mean if you only have 30 minutes to play a day, then it's important to use this time in the most effective way possible.
For example if you want to improve your technique above all else, then you could put certain amounts of time into, legato playing, picking, bending etc and other various technical exercises.
Another example could be you want to learn songs, so you could spend your entire playing time looking at and learning new songs.
What I would advise as a professional musician and guitar tutor, would be to loosely split your time into different sections work on various aspects of your playing.
If we take 45 minutes of playing as an example:
5 minutes warm up (some light playing, finger exercises, stretching, a song, different chords etc)
10 minutes of combining right hand technique (e.g. muting, alternate picking, string skipping, fingerpicking) with left hand use (scales, arpeggios, different chords)
10 minutes of learning or practicing a new song (this is great for overall general improvement)
10 minutes of one specific focus for you personally, e.g. left or right hand technique, improvising, different styles, scales, ear training.
10 minutes of improvising. This can be just noodling or playing whatever comes to mind, or more specific such as working on a particular style or piece.
Hopefully this gives a general idea of how much, and what to practice!
Now, to be honest, the more complex answer has a lot of factors including, lifestyle, time management, flexibility, discipline and environmental demands. And how much of these you are willing to sacrifice for more potential improvements on the instrument. Maybe something for another article
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my website!
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