Are You Losing Interest in Guitar?

Maintaining your momentum is hard sometimes

Just like with exercise, beginning guitar lessons can bring the inevitable plateau. Sometimes it seems the harder you try, the worse you get. When this happens it's time to take action! You need to jump start your playing and your interest, here are some suggestions.

• Listen to some good guitar players. Inspiration can take many forms. One way to regain your focus is to listen to some great guitar music to remind you of why you started learning guitar in the first place.
• Find a new piece of music that you'd like to play. Ask your guitar teacher to give you something that you'd enjoy playing or give him or her your idea of what you like. Make a list of songs that you listen to and enjoy and see which ones you're ready for.
• Get a "practice buddy." If you're off of the total beginner stage, or even if you're not, find someone you can practice with. It's more fun to work on songs if you can play them with others. A little friendly competition or at least not wanting to look like you didn't put in the effort will help you get going.
• If you're not taking guitar lessons, finding a teacher can be a good move. Getting stuck in a rut and not feeling like you're getting out of it can be difference between going on with guitar or quitting.
• Have fun! Try to play along with recordings, get a metronome and try to play faster and smoother, see how many times you can play a chord progression or scale in a given amount of time. 

With a little effort and the suggestions above you can get over the hump and on to the next stage of learning.