I have been putting in lots of hours on my guitar practice/playing the past year and just recently started playing piano again and am getting lots of joy from it. However I have this mental thing now where I feel like I need to be spending all of my time on guitar and not piano. How do I balance this out? 80 percent guitar 20 percent piano? Anyone else have these types of struggles mentally? I have always been an “all in” type of person. Putting in 5-6 hours day sometimes practicing guitar.
I feel like guitar has become just lots and lots of practice for me/ technique/scales/theory. Where piano I am playing lots of songs and finding joy in that.
Growing up, I used to think that I had to spend as much time playing guitar to get better at it.
Nowadays, I believe that there’s only so much dedicated “no bullshit” practice you can do before you lose focus / “gains” and you need to stop for a while. That’s my cue to switch to something else (take a break, play bass, write, record, mix / master, etc).
I would recommend you warm up and start playing guitar, follow some kind of practice routine that you’re tracking, and stop when you feel like things aren’t improving anymore in that session. Switch to playing piano after that.
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maybe try every other day with guitar and then add in a saxophone! heh jk 
wish i could play saxophone. 
this way you at least get a full day dedicated to one instrument before switching to another so you get a full day of down time before practicing again maybe the recovery time could be beneficial.
Haha I played alto sax all through school in the jazz band! Ill have to break it out someday again! Good advice although I dont think I could actually take a day off guitar.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
If you want to practice that much…by all means. If you feel as if you must - I’d ask “Why? What’s the rush?” If you’re doing any of it because you’re ‘supposed to’…I’d take a hard look at why you feel that way.
As for splitting up the two…go with the one you take the most joy from in the moment. Or, more practically speaking alternate days of the week.
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I try get about two hours guitar and two hours drums, if I can. I can’t always and I don’t always feel like doing that much.
If I want to do songwriting and other things then I practice less and use that time to try create something.
I could never do 4 hours plus on one instrument. I tried in my younger years but it drove me a little nuts.
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I agree playing songs is far more rewarding than practicing (scales, techniques, etc.). For me, finding songs I liked that were at the appropriate skill level is what kept me learning and getting better. It’s always possible to play a song better: better than the last time you played it, better than you’ve ever played it (assuming no loss of physical abilities), and even come up with an original solo instrument arrangement of a song you like rather than a part of the band.
An alternative to just practicing a technique, is to find a song with parts using the technique you’re looking to learn, and practice the technique to get the song down. I’ve more motivation to learn a technique to play a song, than to just learn the technique. IMHO, this is where an instructor (or guitar buddy ahead of you) who shares a love of your genre would know and recommend good songs to push your skill set. And, FWIW, some of the instructors on the internet have suggested songs for different levels from which you might find songs to learn in your, or just beyond, your skill set.
Have fun!
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