Learn Guitar Online – Which One Of These 3 Learning Guitar Mistakes Are You Making?
Learn Guitar Online – Which One Of These 3 Learning Guitar Mistakes Are You Making?
Article by Mike Hayes
Guitar playing should be a lot of fun. I’ve just completed aGoogle search for “How To Play Guitar” and received 16,300,000results, wow with this sort of help learning the guitar should bea breeze for everyone.
So why do we have more confused, frustrated and aggravated guitarplayers than at any other time in the history of the instrument?
We can’t say we don’t have enough information… the world issaturated with it and we can access this information 24/7/365, sothat can’t be the problem.
The problem can’t be lack of quality instruments, recordingequipment, signal processors or software every music store onlineand offline are packed to the rafters with stuff…
It’s because guitar players constantly make one (or more) ofthree common learning guitar mistakes. Here they are… see ifany of these scenarios are familiar to you.
Learning Guitar Mistake #1: Constantly buying new information -and getting more and more confused!
The Problem: the golden rule with information is QUALITY notquantity… if you got it for free, you probably paid too muchfor it!
Who cares if you can download 1,700 “How To Play Guitar” videosfor free, if they are all little disjointed snippets of randominformation, you would be better off without them!
The Solution: structure and order
Without structure and order you have chaos…
The only way we make progress in any field of endeavor is tolearn in an organized manner. We learn fact “A” then move on tofact “B”. Fact “B” sits on the shoulders of “A”.
Moving to “B” without understanding “A” is a recipe for disaster.Only when you have absorbed and applied the information do you”own” it.
One of the major issues with learning the guitar in the 21stcentury is that there are so many self appointed “experts” readyto share their information.
Recently I came across a well known “learn guitar” website wherethe guitar instructor was giving a demonstration of the 12 barblues, the only problem… he played an 11 bar blues, now if youwere a beginner how would you know?
Remember you can’t learn skills from someone who does not havethem… you would be well advised to do your research on thesource of the information before you waste your time and money onrandom, unstructured, messy stuff.
Learning Guitar Mistake #2: Practicing endlessly – and can’tremember what you have learnt!
The Problem: information overload – what’s the point of learningsomething if you can’t remember it?
You could have saved yourself a lot of bother by not learning itin the first place, the result would have been the same.
The Solution: learn how to practice in a rewarding, motivatingway. Ask yourself questions such as…
(a) What style of guitar playing do I want to play? rock,blues, country, jazz, folk, bluegrass etc
(b) Do I want to play electric or acoustic guitar?
(c) Do I want to learn how to read standard music notation?(recommended)
(d) If you are learning new information keep your practicesessions short 3 – 5 minutes.
(e) Correctly diagnose your practice problems are they physicalissues (motor skills) or long term memory problems (data memory).
(f) Learn to slow everything down to a tempo where you cannotpossibly make a mistake then gradually bring the tempo up toperformance speed.
(g) Set yourself musical goal(s), write them down and review themoften.
(h) Research a guitar course that is relevant to your particularstyle and interest and make a daily practice commitment toimprove your guitar playing.
Learning Guitar Mistake #3: Relentlessly Investing in guitars andsound equipment – looking for the Holly Grail!
The Problem: there isn’t any music in a guitar/amp/effects unitetc
The Solution: learn musical skills and apply them to yourinstrument
Once you understand that no matter how much money you invest inmusical equipment it can never replace musical skills.
It’s the old story “junk in…junk out!”
A hack guitar playing with an expensive top-of-the-line Gibsonguitar is still a hack guitar player.
For many would-be players hours spent buying musical stuff is agreat diversion from the real job of serious guitar practice.
Of course, you should play a good quality instrument (notice Idid not say expensive), once you have your quality instrumentit’s time to roll up your sleeves and get into the practice.
Musical instrument companies spend untold fortunes marketingproducts in a way that makes ‘newbie’ players feel like theycannot possibly live (or progress) without the latest guitargadget or gimmick.
Important: Music is something we all have inside… we just haveto work on getting the music out. You don’t have to go out andbuy stuff, music is not something external, it’s existsinternally in every human being.
A guitar is just a tool for musical expression, it is to themusician what a computer is to a writer, a tool for expression.
Spend your time improving your musical skills and applying thelanguage of music to the guitar and you will reap rich rewards ofmusical expression and enjoy the real fun of playing guitar.
About the Author
Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed inyour guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fastwith his popular free ecourse, available at:=> http://www.guitarcoaching.com