Guitar playing should be a lot of fun. I’ve just completed a Google search for “How To Play Guitar” and received 16,300,000 results, wow with this sort of help learning the guitar should be a breeze for everyone.

So why do we have more confused, frustrated and aggravated guitar
players than at any other time in the history of the instrument?

We can’t say we don’t have enough information … the world is
saturated with it and we can access this information 24/7/365, so
that can’t be the problem.

The problem can’t be lack of quality instruments, recording
equipment, signal processors or software every music store online
and offline are packed to the rafters with stuff …

It’s because guitar players constantly make one (or more) of
three common learning guitar mistakes. Here they are … see if
any 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 not
quantity… if you got it for free, you probably paid too much
for it!

Who cares if you can download 1,700 “How To Play Guitar” videos
for free, if they are all little disjointed snippets of random
information, 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 to
learn in an organized manner. We learn fact “A” then move on to
fact “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 21st
century is that there are so many self appointed “experts” ready
to share their information.

Recently I came across a well known “learn guitar” website where
the guitar instructor was giving a demonstration of the 12 bar
blues, the only problem … he played an 11 bar blues, now if you
were a beginner how would you know?

Remember, you can’t learn skills from someone who does not have
them … you would be well advised to do your research on the
source of the information before you waste your time and money on
random, unstructured, messy stuff.

Learning Guitar Mistake #2: Practicing endlessly – and can’t remember what you have learnt!

The Problem: information overload – what’s the point of learning
something if you can’t remember it?

You could have saved yourself a lot of bother by not learning it
in the first place, the result would have been the same.

The Solution: learn how to practice in a rewarding, motivating
way. 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 practice
sessions short 3 – 5 minutes.

(e) Correctly diagnose your practice problems are they physical
issues (motor skills) or long term memory problems (data memory).

(f) Learn to slow everything down to a tempo where you cannot
possibly make a mistake then gradually bring the tempo up to
performance speed.

(g) Set yourself musical goal(s), write them down and review them
often.

(h) Research a guitar course that is relevant to your particular
style and interest and make a daily practice commitment to
improve your guitar playing.

Learning Guitar Mistake #3:  Relentlessly Investing in guitars and sound equipment – looking for the Holly Grail!

The Problem: there isn’y any music in a guitar/amp/effects unit etc

The Solution: learn musical skills and apply them to your
instrument

Once you understand that no matter how much money you invest in
musical 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 Gibson
guitar is still a hack guitar player.

For many would-be guitar players hours spent buying musical stuff is a great diversion from the real job of serious guitar practice.

Of course, you should play a good quality instrument (notice I did not say expensive), once you have your quality instrument it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get into the practice.

Musical instrument companies spend untold fortunes marketing
products in a way that makes ‘newbie’ players feel like they cannot
possibly live (or progress) without the latest guitar gadget or gimmick.

Important: Music is something we all have inside … we just have
to work on getting the music out. You don’t have to go out and
buy stuff, music is not something external, it’s  exists
internally in every human being.

A guitar is just a tool for musical expression, it is to the
musician what a computer is to a writer, a tool for expression.

Spend your time improving your musical skills and applying the
language of music to the guitar and you will reap rich
rewards of musical expression and enjoy the real fun of playing guitar.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System

https://www.GuitarCoaching.com
https://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com