Concentrate On The Music, Not Your Hands

Focus on the music.

Beginning guitar students tend to watch their hands instead of the music. This usually happens when they're close to having a piece of music memorized. As their confidence in the song grows, they tend to watch their fingers, look up to see where they are, and then get lost.

Don't practice mistakes.

Listen to yourself perform the song and watch for trouble spots. While I don't advocate watching your hands, I also don't advocate never looking at them. If you've made a mistake, stop, look at your hands and reposition your fingers. Narrow down the trouble area, and slowly and deliberately play through the passage several times. Don't try to speed up until you can play that section perfectly.

Don't go too long without listening to the song.

With You Tube, DVDs, CDs and iTunes available, there's no reason to not have a recording of the song you're trying to play. Listen and/or watch so you're sure you understand what the song is supposed to sound like. It's best to do that when you're not trying to play along. You'll be surprised at what repeated listening can do for you. It helps develop your ear and lots of times you'll hear things you missed when you listened earlier.

Play the song for you guitar teacher so you can gauge your progress.

I have students question why I make them play what they're working on, and the answer is quite simple. We want to correct mistakes, check fingering, and hear how things are progressing. When I took up banjo playing after years of concentrating on guitar, I made the mistake of trying to learn a song I didn't have a recording for. I practiced it for months, then when I tried to play it with others it turned out that I was adding extra notes. I actually quit playing the song for several months and concentrated on listening to the recording when I wasn't trying to practice the banjo. Only after I could visualize how the song went did I go back and re-learn it.

Want to Improve Your Playing? Be a Positive Thinker.

Sending negative messages to yourself.

It never fails to amaze me how many students start off a song with a phrase like "this is the one I always screw up." Or, "I just can't get that part to sound right." They'll then proceed to experience the self-fulfilling prophecy and screw the song up or complain, "see, that part doesn't sound right."

What causes these problems?

In many cases it's not lack of practice, but lack of confidence. Do negative thoughts or statements instill confidence? Absolutely not. How do you develop the ability to play confidently? Start off by listening to yourself play the song. Isolate the trouble spots, and concentrate on smoothing them out. If you continue to think a part doesn't sound right, listen to a recording of it. Don't try to play along at first,  just listen several times so you know exactly what it sounds like. When you can hum it or sing it, then go back and fix your mistakes.

There's plenty of help available, do some research.

With You Tube videos, guitar teacher websites, recordings, and all types of instructional material available, there's really no reason to struggle on your own. Find a guitar teacher, watch videos of the song you're trying to play, or any combination of those.

Change your attitude and your outlook.

I've talked a little about this in other posts, but it bears repeating. Think positive thoughts, focus on what you're playing, and try to improve each time you play. Practicing the parts you already do well doesn't help. Work through the difficult passages, playing them slowly at first, then build up the parts around them. I tell my students to work on the hard part, then add a measure or two that lead into that part, and then on the measure or two after it.

Don't Lose Your Momentum, or, Keep On Keepin' On

Does your interest in learning guitar seem to be disappearing?

Don't worry, it's something we all go through. Call it a rut, a plateau, a screeching halt, whatever, everyone slams into the wall at one time or another. Sometimes it seems you're just not getting anywhere, or the music doesn't seem all that interesting, or you get this hopeless feeling that you're getting worse instead of better. These are complaints guitar teachers hear a lot.

Breaking out of the rut.

Although it sounds counter intuitive, sometimes taking a little break can help. I'm not talking about stopping lessons for 6 months, putting the guitar away, or anything that drastic. Instead, learn a different technique or style of music. After my guitar students have worked on notes for a while we switch to chords, then advanced strumming, then more difficult songs, you get the idea. In addition, you can recharge your batteries by taking a few days off from practicing. Listen to some music, watch some videos, visit some instructional websites, do something to make you want to play the guitar. I've exposed students to music they never heard before, didn't know it existed, and ended up liking it better than what they thought they wanted to learn.

Picking out the fun stuff.

Learning guitar is hard, especially in the beginning. Your fingers hurt, you sound terrible, and you're sure you're the worst guitar player ever! If you don't have a guitar teacher, find one. As soon as you're capable of it, try to find others to play music with. There are lots of people at the same level, and it really helps to try to make music together. You may have to play simple songs, but once you're a little more comfortable you'll be surprised at how good it feels to be in a group with similar interests and abilities. At our studio we run beginner jam sessions where there's no pressure, you only need to know a few basic chords, and you learn to work together. If your guitar teacher is working out of a method book teaching you notes, ask about simplified songs that you could play that are available. We use the Hal Leonard Guitar Method and supplement it with Easy Pop Melodies and Easy Guitar books.

Follow these tips and you'll find it much more fun to practice. And remember, talent is overrated, it's sticking with it that makes the difference.