by: Tom Hess
Do you know how some guitar players practice most days of the week, work hard,and are passionate about their guitar playing, but they always struggle to beable to play guitar the way they want? They are frustrated because they don’timprove fast enough, begin doubting their guitar playing potential, or evenfeel discouraged or angry with themselves when thinking about how long it istaking them to become a better guitar player.
Can you relate to that? I sure can, I just described myself 15 years ago.
There are specific reasons why guitar players go through such frustration anddisappointment. Here are 11 key mistakes guitar players make and repeat overand over again that you should definitely avoid.
1. Teaching Yourself To Play Guitar. Many people attempt to teach themselveshow to play guitar. Yes, it’s true that some well known players were ‘somewhat’self taught, but I do not suggest following that strategy even if your favoriteplayer was self taught. If you are 100% sure that you can build powerfullyeffective learning and training systems on your own, that's great. However, ifyou 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 youshould avoid. Some guitar players think it will impress others if they say,"I am a self taught guitar player". That statement might impress afew inexperienced people, but being self taught is not a 'badge of honor'.Would you rather impress others with your guitar playing or with an unimportantstatement about your guitar playing? I'm not criticizing self taught guitarplayers, I'm only saying that there is no advantage to being self taught… andno, it is not true that being 'self taught' makes us more 'original'. In fact,the opposite is usually true.
2. Taking Guitar Lessons From Ineffective Guitar Teachers. Unfortunately, mostelectric guitar teachers receive ZERO training on how to teach guitar. What isworse is that the vast majority of teachers do little or nothing to improvetheir guitar teaching skills. Want some proof? Use google’s keyword tool. Typein this keyword phrase: ‘improve guitar teaching skills’, ‘guitar teachingskills’, or ‘guitar teaching training’ and you will find that less than 10searches per month are done for these topics at google! Of course there aresome highly effective electric guitar teachers around, but there are a wholelot more ineffective teachers. Here is a free resource on how to tell thedifference between the good guitar teachers and the mediocre ones, free guide:how to find a guitar teacher: http://tomhess.net/HowToChooseAGuitarTeacher.aspx
3. Seeking New Guitar Information (tricks, tips, tab) Without A Proven StrategyTo Reach Your Specific Musical Goals. We need information, advice, help andmusic to play, but without a proven strategic learning and training processthat is specific to you, your skill level, your musical style and what you wantto be able to do as a guitar player, information won’t get you where you wantto go. It is better to first seek help in developing a customized strategy foryou to become a better guitar player. After that strategy is in place, then itis time to deal with learning the right information.
4. Not Knowing Specifically What You Want To Be Able To Play. Most guitarplayers are not specific enough when they think about (or tell others about)what they want to be able to do with their guitar. To say, "I want to playwhatever I wish to play” is too vague. How can you (or your guitar teacher)develop a specific and effective guitar training strategy unless the goals youhave are specific? It's like saying you want to be a great athlete, how can youeffectively train with such a vague goal? Sure there are things you can do tobecome faster, stronger, more flexible or whatever, but it's much easier if youfirst get specific such as, I want to train to be a gymnast, or a long distancerunner, or a body builder. Yes you can still improve without a strategy, but itwill take a lot longer and be much more frustrating. You can always change yourgoal later if you discover you want to do something else instead.
5. Not Enough Focus On Things That Matter Most To Making You A Better GuitarPlayer. Have you fallen into the trap of practicing guitar without focusing onthe specific things that can quickly begin to improve your guitar playing? Manypeople really do not understand and apply this concept in enough detail…. forexample, I have a student named Mark who used to take lessons from anotherteacher in the past. Mark was studying sweep picking arpeggios with hisprevious teacher, and was making some progress. However Mark did not understandwhat ‘specific’ things he needed to focus on first before attempting to masterthe sweep picking arpeggios he was practicing. This was holding him back andmaking him feel very frustrated. Mark’s previous teacher only knew how to‘teach’ arpeggios and general sweep picking concepts. He did not really knowhow to “train” Mark with the specific things to focus on and how to overcomethe challenges Mark was having. If you would like to see a small sample of thischeck out this short sweep picking video lesson: http://tomhess.net/3StringArpeggiosLessonFull.aspx.
6. Too Much Focus On Things That Are Not Core To Your Goals. In addition to notfocusing on specific things, many guitar players focus on the ‘wrong things’.Some enthusiastic guitar players become temporarily obsessed with things, whichare distractions from other things that could be helping their guitar playingmuch more. Here is an example: I used to get so frustrated and angry when Icould not play something perfectly, I’d lock myself in my guitar practice roomand say, “I’m not coming out of this room until I master this damn lick if ittakes me the next 19 hours! No breaks! No food! No human contact! I’m gonnanail this!” And I did master it. On the surface, it might seem like I was onthe right track and practicing in a good way…. But in reality, I was spendingmy time only to stop being angry and frustrated. I was not investing my guitarpractice time wisely by focusing on the things that mattered most to making abetter guitar player. In other words, my perseverance was commendable, but mystrategy to master important long-term goals was weak. I allowed myself to bedistracted. I don’t make this same mistake anymore, and I urge you to alsoavoid it! Focus on the things that really matter for your guitar playing rightnow. If you are not sure how to do this, seek out a proven guitar teachertoday.
7. Focusing On The Right Things, But in The Wrong Order. This is a commonmistake that even many advanced guitar players make which causes a lot ofwasted time and frustration. Imagine you want to improve your ability to createyour own cool guitar solos. Let’s assume that you are advanced enough to truly understandall the primary and secondary elements of composing guitar solos (or you have aguitar teacher to help you). Each of the many elements need to be learnedand/or practiced in order to easily create awesome solos that you like. Whereshould you begin? What should you focus on first, second, third? Which of thesethings should you practice simultaneously? There is always a specific order inwhich musical skills should be learned and mastered in order to EXPLODE yourmusical skills. Unfortunately, that order is totally different for everyperson, style of music, musical goal, skill set and knowledge, so giving anexample here would be pointless. My advice, find the best teacher you can andstudy with him/her in order to be able to do what you want to do with yourguitar much faster and easier.
8. Not Isolating Problem Areas. Few guitar players are aware of the smallthings that hold them back in big ways. Because these little imperfections seeminsignificant to us, we often ignore them. The truth is, small hinges open bigdoors. In the video mentioned above I explained how allowing your guitar pickto lose its momentum when you are ‘not picking’ a note on the guitar makes yourplaying slow and sloppy…. which will make you feel very frustrated. This is whyI was sure to make a special point to help you avoid that mistake. Check outthe small sample sweep picking video for more details: http://tomhess.net/3StringArpeggiosLessonFull.aspx.
9. Learning And Practicing Guitar In A Step-By-Step Linear Process. Doesfollowing a linear step by step approach to learning, practicing and masteringguitar seem like common sense good to you? Yes it does… And that is why guitarplayers who follow such a path are NOT great guitar players. I’m going to letyou in an insider’s secret… The truth is, following a linear approach tolearning guitar, practicing guitar, and mastering guitar is the NUMBER ONEREASON WHY “GOOD GUITAR PLAYERS” STRUGGLE TO BECOME “GREAT GUITAR PLAYERS”… Ioriginally thought I would write an article on this one point alone, but Ithink you will learn this concept better in another short video I recordedwhile I was doing a recent guitar instructional clinic tour a few months ago. Checkout this free sample from my clinic on how to practice guitar http://tomhess.net/LinearVsGeometricApproach.aspx.
10. Practicing Guitar In The Same Way Your Favorite Guitar Players PracticeGuitar. Have you ever read about how your favorite guitar players practiceguitar and then tried to repeat the same practice routine? Yes, I’ve made thismistake too! It seems natural to use a similar guitar practice schedule thatour favorite guitar players are using. This is a mistake, because your currentguitar skill level and knowledge of music is probably very different from yourfavorite player. His/her challenges and needs are likely not the same as yours.
Professional guitar players practice for different reasons than most amateurplayers do. For example, before recording a new album I will practice verydifferently compared to the period before going on tour. Once I’m actually ontour my practice routine changes drastically again. The rest of the year mypracticing schedule changes yet again. This happens because in each case mychallenges and goals are totally different. When my guitar students ask me,“Tom, how do you practice guitar?” I’m careful not to let my students assumethat they should practice the same way that I do. Your practice schedule andstrategy needs to be built around YOU and you only! If you need help buildingyour own practice schedule, email me directly.
11. Learning From Too Many Different Sources Of Information. There will alwaysbe many learning opportunities and various paths to take, but it is criticalthat you do not get distracted into following a piece of advice from oneperson, then another piece of advice from another person and then follow moreresources from somewhere else and so on and so on... while different people mayhave some good ideas to offer, the fact is, distraction is a big reason whymany guitar players who are actively learning, don't really move forwardquickly... these people are always busy following totally different resources,teachers, philosophies, instructional videos, free online guitar lessons, butall of this leads them to take one step forward, then 2 steps to the right,then one step forward, then 3 steps to the left, then one step backward, thentwo to the right, then 1 step forward and then another step to the left...
An illustration of this is shown below. The first path is obviously the mostdirect way to arrive to your goals. The second path is the inefficient approachfilled with many distractions that come from various pieces of advice from manysources:
http://tomhess.net/files/images/articles/11BigMistakes/StepsToGoals.jpg
Once you have an effective strategy to become the guitar player you want to be,ALWAYS stay focused on it (unless your goals radically change)!! The very bestway to do this is to have ONE primary guitar teacher who helps you to becomethe musician you really want to be.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't take advice from other people too, but youshould have one 'primary' source of information, training and coaching, and seethe other advice as an additional resource, but do not become distracted by it.
Download this free guide on how to find the best guitar teacher with proventeaching strategies, proven training strategies and proven results so that youbecome the awesome guitar player you want to be and play the guitar the wayyou’ve always wanted to play. About The Author
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