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Mistakes Guitar Players Make

Mistakes Guitar Players
Mistakes Guitar Players

Do you know how some guitar players practice most days of the week, work hard, and are passionate about their playing, but they always struggle to be able to play the way they want to? They are frustrated because they don’t improve fast enough, begin doubting their potential, or even feel discouraged or angry with themselves when thinking about how long it is taking them to become better guitar players.

Can you relate to that? I sure can, I just described myself 4 years ago. There are specific reasons why guitar players go through such frustration and disappointment. Here are 11 key mistakes players make and repeat over and over again that you should definitely avoid.

1 Teaching Yourself

Many people attempt to teach themselves. Yes, it’s true that some well known players were ‘somewhat’ self taught, but I do not suggest following that strategy even if your favourite player was self taught. If you are 100% sure that you can build powerfully effective learning and training systems on your own, that’s great. However, if you are like most of us, doing it alone is the hardest, most time-consuming, stressful, and frustrating way to learn anything.

This is a mistake that you should avoid. Some guitar players think it will impress others if they say, “I’m a self-taught player”. That statement might impress a few inexperienced people, but being self taught is not a ‘badge of honour’. Would you rather impress other with your playing or with an unimportant statement about your playing? I’m not criticizing self taught guitar players, I’m only saying that there is no advantage to being self taught… and no, it is no true that being ‘self taught’ makes us more original! In fact, the opposite is usually true.

2 Taking Lessons From Ineffective Guitar Teachers

Unfortunately, most electric guitar teachers receive ZERO training on how to teach guitar. What is worse is that the vast majority of teachers do little or nothing to improve their teaching skills. Want some proof? Use Google and type in this keyword phrase: ‘improve guitar teaching skills’, ‘guitar teaching skills’, or ‘guitar teaching training’ and you will find that less than 10 searches per month are done on these topics! Of course there are some highly effective teachers around, but there are a whole lot more ineffective teachers.

3 Seeking New Guitar Information Without A Proven Strategy To Reach Your Specific Musical Goals

We need information, advice, help and music to play, but without a proven strategic learning and training process that is specific to you, your skill level, your musical style and what you want to be able to do as a guitar player, information won’t get you where you want to go. It is better to first seek help developing a customized strategy for you to become a better guitar player. After that strategy is in place, then it is time to deal with learning the right information.

4 Not Knowing Specifically What You Want To Be Able To Play

Most guitar players are not specific enough when they think about what they want to be able to do with their guitar. To say “I want to play whatever I wish to play” is too vague. How can you develop a specific and effective guitar training strategy unless the goals you have are specific? It’s like saying you want to be a great athlete, how can you effectively train with such a vague goal? Sure there are things you can do to become faster, stronger, more flexible, but it’s much easier if you first get specific such as, I want to train to be a gymnast, or a long distance runner, or a body builder.

Yes, you can still improve without a strategy, but it will take a lot longer and be much more frustrating. You can always change your goal later if you discover you want to do something else instead. Goals are constantly changing!

5 Not Enough Focus On Things That Matter Most To Making You A Better Guitar Player

Have you fallen into the trap of practicing guitar without focusing on the specific things that can quickly begin to improve your guitar playing? Many people really do not understand and apply this concept in enough detail… for example, I had a past student named “Bob”  who used to take lessons from another teacher in the past. Bob was studying sweep picking arpeggios with his previous teacher, and was making some progress.

However, Bob did not understand what ‘specific’ things he needed to focus on first before attempting to master the sweep picking arpeggios he was practicing. This was holding him back and making him feel very frustrated. Bob’s previous teacher only knew how to ‘teach’ arpeggios and general sweep picking concepts. He did not really know how to “train” Bob with the specific things to focus on how to overcome the challenges bob was having.

6 Too Much Focus On Things That Are Not Core To Your Goals

In addition to not focusing on specific things, many guitar players focus on the ‘wrong things’. Some enthusiastic guitar players become temporarily obsessed with things which are distractions from other things that could be helping their playing much more. Here is an example: I used to get so frustrated and angry when I could not play something perfectly, I’d lock myself in my practice room and say, “I’m not coming out of this room until I master this damn lick even if it takes me the next 19 hours! No breaks! No food! No human contact! I’m going to nail this!” And I did master it. On the surface, it might seem that I was on the right track and practicing in a good way… But in reality, I was spending my time only to stop being angry and frustrated.

I was not investing my practice time wisely by focusing on the things that mattered most to making a better guitar player. In other words, my perseverance was commendable, but my strategy to master important long-term goals was weak. I allowed myself to be distracted. I don’t make this same mistake anymore, and I urge you to also avoid it! Focus on the things that really matter for your guitar playing right now. If you don’t know how to do this, seek out a proven guitar teacher today.

7 Focusing On The Right Things, But In The Wrong Order

This is a common mistake that even many advanced guitar players make which causes a lot of wasted time and frustration. Imagine you want to improve your ability to create your own cool guitar solos. Let’s assume that you are advanced enough to truly understand all the primary and secondary elements of composing guitar solos. Each of the many elements need to be learned and/or practiced in order to easily create awesome solos that you like.

Where should you begin? What should you focus on first, second, third? Which of these things should you practice simultaneously? There is always a specific order in which musical skills should be learned and mastered in order to EXPLODE your musical skills. Unfortunately, that order is totally different for every person, style of music, musical goal, skill set and knowledge, so giving an example here would be pointless. My advice, find the best teacher you can and study with him/her in order to be able to do what you want to do with your guitar much faster and easier.

8 Not Isolating Problem Areas

Few guitar players are aware of the small things that hold them back in the big ways. Because these little imperfections seem insignificant to us, we often ignore them. The truth is, small hinges open big doors. For instance, holding your pick differently, and making smaller movements with your picking hand, will increase your speed much more than just moving your hand faster up and down!

9  Learning And Practicing Guitar In A Step By Step Linear Process

Does following a linear step by step approach to learning, practicing and mastering guitar seem like common sense to you? Yes, it does! And that is why guitar players who follow such a path are NOT great guitar players. The truth is, following a linear approach to learning, practicing, and mastering is the NUMBER ONE REASON WHY “GOOD GUITAR PLAYERS” STRUGGLE TO BECOME “GREAT GUITAR PLAYERS”! The reason for this is, musical styles and goals differ, and following a step by step guide will make you good, generally, but not great in a specific genre!

10  Practicing Guitar In The Same Way Your Favourite Guitar Players Practice

Have you ever read about how your favourite guitar players practice and then tried to repeat the same practice routine? Yes, I have made this mistake too! It seems natural to use a similar guitar practice schedule that our favourite players are using. This is a mistake, because your current guitar skill level and knowledge of is music is probably very different from your favourite player. His/her challenges and needs are likely not the same as yours.

Professional guitar players practice for different reasons than most amateur players do. For example, before recording an album, I would practice very differently then how I would before going on tour. Once I’m actually on tour, my practice routine changes drastically again. The rest of the year my practicing schedule changes yet again. This happens because in each case my challenges and goals are totally different. Your practice schedule and strategy needs to be built around YOU and you only!

11 Learning From Too Many Different Sources Of Information

There will always be great learning opportunities and various paths to take, but it is critical that you do not get distracted into following a piece of advice from one person, then another piece of advice from another person and then follow more resources from somewhere else and so on and so on… while different people may have some good ideas to offer, the fact is, distraction is a big reason why many guitar player who are actively learning, don’t really move forward quickly.

These people are always busy following totally different resources, teachers, philosophies, instructional dvds, free online guitar lessons, but all of this leads them to take 1 step forward, then 2 steps to the right, then 1 forward, then 3 steps to the left, etc. Once you have an effective strategy to become the guitar player that you want to be, ALWAYS stay focused on it, unless your goals change. The very best way to do this is to have ONE primary guitar teacher who helps you to become the musician you really want to be.

* Taught at the Campus of Performing Arts (Pretoria Campus)
* Has played in front of 60 000 people
* Started touring at the age of 18
* Has 10 years teaching experience
* Teaches bass and guitar
* Plays in the Liezel Marshall Band
* Loves Blues, Funk and Hard Rock (all three mixed are even better)

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