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.