Learn the biggest guitar playing mistakes
Avoid these guitar playing mistakes and achieve new levels of progress in your guitar playing right away! You have made an excellent decision to find out what is holding you back, or your child back in their guitar playing and what you can do to overcome those challenges!
Mistake #1. Most Guitarists Do Not Know What Kind Of Guitar Player They Want To Become
When you think about learning the guitar, what do you feel like you need to learn in order to become better? Create a list, it could be “learn lots of chords” “learn strumming patterns”, whatever you can think of, do the best you can.
Now if you had that skill(s), what would you do with those skills?
Now if you had that skill set, what could you then do that you couldn't do before.
Continue this line of questioning until you can’t go any farther.
Example: Many guitarists think they need to learn all the notes right away or the circle of 5ths
If you knew how to use that information, you could write your own melodies and songs.
Once you’ve written songs, you could record them or play them for friends and family or even play a performance.
So really, this person is not after the notes or circle of 5th. They want to EXPRESS THEMSELVES by writing their own music and maybe recording or performing it someday!
What vision do you have for yourself as a guitarist? Do you know what kind of music you want to play? What artists, what styles, do you want to be lead or rhythm? Do you want to jam with other guitar players or play in your room alone?
Or do you want to “just get the basics.” There is NOTHING motivating about “the basics” but learning your favorite songs from when you are were a kid, or writing a song for your wife and kids, or actually getting up and jamming at the 4th of July BBQ is exciting. You need to get excited about guitar playing!
Now once you have written down the type of guitar player you want to be, now think about how amazing it will feel to finally reach that goal!
If you have actually done the above exercise, you should feel some positive emotions right now. This is the vision that you should ignite every day to motivate yourself to take action on the guitar. Learning the guitar is mental accomplishment and a physical one because without the right way of thinking, you will never dedicate yourself to becoming the guitar player you want to become.
Mistake #2. Allowing Guitar Playing Myths To Hold You Back From Even Trying
Here is a short list of common guitar playing myths:
- My hands are too small
- I’m too old
- You have to start when your a child
- You have to practice 8 hours a day
- You have to have natural talent
- Any excuse you can think of
A quick trip to youtube and you will find good guitar players with small hands, big hands, old guitar players that started later in life, guitar players with NO HANDS.
Take inventory of your life and think back to a time where you were faced with a challenge that seemed insurmountable. Maybe it was a life situation that landed in your lap or something less serious but you did not have a choice but to come out on top or perish.
If you are reading this article, it means you are a person that has more power than you realize. In the grand scheme of things, learning the guitar is not a challenge. Approaching guitar with a sink or swim attitude is the first thing you must have in order to get results.
What you need is someone that has been through the process of “developing natural talent” and has figured out the process to install it into you. People with natural talent are simply people that avoid mistakes faster than others. A great teacher will show you everything to avoid and what to focus on.
There is very little the human spirit can’t achieve when you have the right system, the right dedication and persistence, and the right teacher to achieve results. I personally have helped several 50 somethings you were just starting on guitar. Some of whom had no ‘talent’ and no ‘rhythm’ and they are now playing in bands less than 3 years later. They had family issues, deaths in the family, 60 hour work weeks, and every other reason why most people quit. They persevered and there become excellent guitar players. Anything the mind and conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. Quitters never win and winners never quit!
Mistake #3. Trying to teach yourself through youtube.
There is an epidemic right now going on the world which is the confusion of entertainment and information with wisdom. Guitar players that wish to get great results from the their guitar playing do not sift through video after video on youtube. This is a form of distraction. Guitarists must avoid this mistake as it is detrimental to their results.
Let’s compare this to cooking. Say you have a dish in mind, the correct thing to do would be to look up a proven recipe (strategy), put in all the right ingredients in the right order (practice), and following through on the process (track progress). This causes you to end up with the desired dish (the result).
Instead of that however, you decide to bounce down the aisles, grabbing whatever shiny object catches your eye, you mix it all together once without any guide or instructions, and are frustrated when your dish is a cheese curl cupcake dog with a side of cereal. This is how most people approach their guitar education and they wonder why the get no appreciable results. They are merely entertaining themselves with video after video.
Most of the videos put on youtube are just information, and low quality information at that. Every time you get information and act on it, this can be seen as a tactic. A tactic that does not fit into an overall strategy will not yield you the same result as lining up a series of tactics that have been proven to create a result, and then executing them in the correct order.
Mistake #4. Guitarists Do Not Track Their Practicing
Remember when you were a kid and your parents would mark your height on the wall and date it? You would go back to it the next year and notice that you had grown and you were would mark the new height. Without that measurement, you would not really notice any growth. This guitar playing mistake is the easiest to fix and is EXTREMELY effective but most guitarists skip this part.
Guitar progress is hard to perceive without measurement. You might not notice progress because you view your guitar playing on a day to day basis. Many guitarists become frustrated with their perceived lack of progress but they don't think about their progress long-term.
Measure your progress by keeping track of your tempo markings, the number of songs you learn, your ability to improve rhythm and other elements of the guitar, and you will gain more confidence in your guitar playing and increase your motivation to sustain practicing over the long haul. This will help you notice what IS helping your playing versus what is not adding improvement to your playing. It allows you to trim the fat, and speed up the process.
Mistake #5. Guitarists Do Not Make Practicing The Guitar A Scheduled Priority
Time is a perceived problem that gets in the way of a lot of aspiring guitar players. I challenge you however to really take a look at your schedule and see if it’s really your schedule, or your dedication level. Did you know the average American watches 3 HOURS OF TELEVISION PER DAY! Do not make this guitar playing mistake if you can avoid it.
I once had a student named Jim, 52 years old, father of two, full-time employee of Legal Seafood, and he drove from Quincy to take lessons with me. Jim had no ‘talent’, no physical technique (his hands didn’t do what he wanted to), and he had very little time to speak of, not to mention he was commuting 45+ minutes every week to take lessons with me.
Jim is playing in bands now and is a solid musician as a result of his dedication. His dedication surpassed his excuses! He would get up at 4 am to practice before work every day. He would stay up a little later everyday to practice. Even as deaths in the family happened, children’s problems at school, health issues with his wife and every other conceivable bad thing happened to him, he stayed the course on his instrument. Now even I asked him “you know if you need to take a break, I’d understand.” His response was “this is the only thing in my life that is stable, consistent, and I know i’m getting better each day. It’s my meditation and it’s the only thing keeping me sane right now.”
Guitar Playing Solution
There are certain fundamentals (like mastering guitar chord switches) that must be acquired in order to give yourself a strong chance of becoming a real good guitar player. A common mistake that all guitar players of all skill levels make is that they do not know what to work in what order to become a well rounded and skilled guitar player. They spend most of their time trying to learn tricks and tips that may or may not improve their guitar playing.
When they see little progress because they approach learning the guitar with a 1 step forward, 1 step back attitude, they become frustrated and give up on their progress. Do not want to become resigned or frustrated about your perceived lack of progress. Focus on the long term results you are want and search for a method or a teacher that can guarantee results.
Look at your calendar for this week and carve out 15-20 minutes of at least 4 or 5 days of the week. Set an alarm to go off in your phone and when it goes off, you trigger yourself to go get the guitar and play something.
Next Step For You To Take- Get A Free Guitar Lesson And Start Improving Today!
At this point if you are still reading, it shows you are someone with the right mindset and opens that is dedicated to becoming the guitar player you’ve always wanted to be. If you want to learn how to avoid these damaging mistakes and get strategies that will improve your playing in the shortest amount of time while you enjoy the process, visit https://tauntonguitarlessons.com/get-started-now-get-a-new-guitar-teacher/
Fill out the form and I will contact you to set up a free intro lesson where I will show you how to get more out of your guitar playing in less time. You will see a path of success in front of you and with time, dedication, and perseverance, you will become the guitar player you have always dreamed!
https://tauntonguitarlessons.com/get-started-now-get-a-new-guitar-teacher/