Make a To Do List, Set Some Goals and Focus

How to start making progress again.

It happens to the best of us. We're learning songs, working on technique, feel like we're getting somewhere, and then we hit the proverbial brick wall! We seem to be getting worse instead of better, our motivation's taken a serious hit, and we're starting to wonder if this is as good as we'll ever be able to play. I see and hear this from my students all the time, and experience it myself too.

First things first, take a break.

It sounds wrong, but sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away.  Take a few days or even a week or so and just do something else. My feeling is that we still practice in our subconscious mind, and taking a break is the same as going on vacation and not thinking about work. I've quit playing and working on a song and actually been able to play it better after leaving it alone for a while.

Make a to do list.

Record yourself, listen to how you sound, and make a to do list of things to work on. We're all our own worst critics, so be critical and write out exactly what was good and what needed improvement.

Set some goals for yourself.

After you've listened and critiqued yourself, set a deadline. Decide you'll master what you're working on, and hold yourself accountable. Be realistic and reasonable, but be hard on yourself as well. With a specific time frame in mind, your motivation will definitely improve.

Focus.

Now that you have the to do list and goals in place, work on being in focus. It's way too easy to get distracted, let your mind wander, and play things that are easier and more comfortable. Set a timer and use that as a way to give the song your undivided attention. Work on difficult passages, smooth out the rough parts, and again, record yourself. It's hard to hear progress from day to day, so a recording is a good way to judge where you are and where you still need to be.

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.

Memorizing Difficult Passages

What's keeping you from playing the song perfectly?

Beginning guitar students often hit a plateau where they wonder if they'll ever get any better. This usually happens after a couple months, when they realize what they've gotten themselves into. A mental block forms, and pretty soon they've convinced themselves that "that part doesn't sound right." Sometimes that's true, but a lot of times it's their perception of what it's supposed to sound like.

How to get over it and get on with it.

• Listen to a recording of the song. By listening to a correct version of the piece, you start to understand exactly what it should sound like. The best time to do that is when you're not trying to play the song. I had a banjo song that I learned wrong, and the way I corrected it was to listen to the recording over and over until I knew what it was supposed to sound like.

•  Slow down. I know, it sounds better fast. I also know if you can't play it slow you can't play it fast. Slow, deliberate practice is how you get over the hump and polish up the song.

• Have your guitar teacher play it with you. Learn the phrasing, the correct fingering and the correct dynamics. Practice the trouble part, then the parts before and after it, then build up speed.

• Be patient. Too many beginners try to do too much too soon, and then can't understand why they're not making enough progress. Take the advice above and you'll find that your progress will be slow but steady.

If you have any questions, comments or subjects you'd like to have me address, leave a comment and I'll be happy to help.

Bob Lucas
www.blguitars.net 

Are You Spending Too Much Time in Your Comfort Zone?

Practicing what doesn't need practicing.

First of all, yes, reviewing old material is good. What many beginning guitar students do is practice what they already know, not what they're supposed to be learning. I hear the "that's too hard" excuse many times in the course of a week. Usually it means, "it's easier to play what I already know". The way to improve your guitar playing is to be trying new songs, picking techniques, working on rhythm and all the other things your teacher is showing you.

Getting distracted.

Where do you practice and how many times during practice is there an interruption? Cell phones, the internet, texting, television, way too many distractions. I even had a student tell me one time that he had the radio on in the background while he practiced!  Upon further questioning, he assured me that it was at a very low volume and not at all interfering with what he was doing. Wow.

Goals during practice.

Is it possible to have set goals and still have fun playing the guitar? Absolutely. There are times when you do need to be completely serious, but there are also times when you can let go. I encourage my guitar students to make a game out of practice. See if you can play the song or exercise a certain number of times without a mistake. See how slow or how fast you can play. Make up words to the songs, you get the idea.

Get out of the comfort zone.

Everyone needs to push once in a while to keep improving. Problem areas include never being able to memorize a song, going back and playing songs that are way too easy at this point, and never totally finishing a song. If there are still trouble spots, FIX THEM. Don't practice mistakes, and don't avoid the harder passages. Almost every song has at least one, so work it out.

What's Your Excuse?

Having trouble finding time to practice?

We all have busy schedules, but those that really want to learn guitar simply find the time! I've heard enough excuses that I've toyed with the idea of writing "The Beginning Guitarist's Excuse Book.) Kids, family, work, vacations, you name it, there's a never ending list of excuses.

Get up earlier? Are you kidding me?

Learning to play guitar, or any other instrument, requires commitment and time to practice. Too many people are content with practicing 15 to 20 minutes a few days a week, then upset because they don't see much progress. I go through their typical day, and if it seems like there's not a spare minute, they look at me like I'm a space alien when I suggest staying up later or getting up earlier.

"I haven't practiced, should I come to my lesson anyway?"

Another pet peeve. You should absolutely come to your guitar lesson anyway, we can still teach you something. Skipping the lesson is like skipping the gym, the more you do it the easier it becomes. Your guitar teacher can find lots of ways to fill the time even if you haven't picked up the guitar all week. You can work on theory, rhythm,  scales, finger exercises, or just spend the lesson doing what you should have done all week, practice.

"I'm going to take a short hiatus."

Again, bad idea. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the vast majority don't come back, or at least not in a short time frame. Usually it's a couple years later, accompanied with lamenting about how they should have stuck with it.

The bottom line.

The bottom line is that if you're going to pursue anything, playing music, writing a book, learning a skill or a hobby, you have to commit yourself to it. My theory is that if you really, truly want to do it, you'll find the time.

Getting Your Money's Worth From Lessons

Are your lessons worth the money?

With all of the materials out there, is it worth paying for guitar lessons? I'd argue that the answer is yes for several reasons, even though it sounds self serving. The biggest reason is that you have someone to ask questions of, give you honest feedback and keep you on the correct path. As more and more information becomes available, and this isn't limited to music lessons, people become confused about what's important, where they should focus, and how much time they should spend on learning the concepts they've discovered. A beginning guitar student needs to forget about how overwhelming everything seems to be and to concentrate on one area at a time.

Getting your money's worth.

Your guitar teacher needs to know what you like, how you feel about your progress, and how you practice. These are some of the things you need to be clear about to get the most for your money. I've had students work on songs for weeks and then finally tell me they don't like that song. There are many others that will teach the same concepts, but I can't give you a different song unless I know you're unhappy.  Most beginning guitar students don't see much progress, so if you're in doubt about how you're doing, have your teacher give you an honest evaluation. Guitar is very slow going at first and it can be discouraging to say the least. If you're unhappy with your where you are, talk over ways to improve how you practice. Too many guitar students aren't really practicing, but they're just playing songs over and over. You need to have a specific goal for that practice session. Whether it's learning a new song, smoothing out trouble spots or improving the whole song, focus on what needs the most improvement.

Learning From Other People

Pay attention, you just might learn something.

Over the years I've learned lots of licks, songs and tricks to enhance my guitar playing. The sources I learned them from are as varied as the techniques. Playing with others, whether they were better than me or not, reading guitar magazines, interviews, and ads, listening to recordings and watching live performances all contributed to my education. Yes, I took guitar lessons, had a great guitar teacher and learned a lot from him. At the same time I learned from the above sources. Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, and Paul Stookey were just a few of the many guitar players I liked, listened to and learned from.

Each style of music has an element you can add to what you like.

My guitar teacher questioned what I was trying to do, since there were many times when I'd hear something I liked and it was a different style. One week I wanted to play classical guitar, a couple weeks later it was Chet Atkins style, then country or maybe blues. When he asked me about it my reply was that I just wanted to play what sounded good on the guitar regardless of what kind of music they called it.

After saying all that, you still need to focus.

Even though it seemed like I had no sense of direction, I wasn't looking to be a virtuoso in those styles, but rather looking for something that would improve my sound and my playing. My main focus was on the folk and acoustic music of the day, but I never had that as my only interest. So map out a plan, listen to lots of different kinds of music and see if there's a way to work it into the music you like best.

Tablature vs Notation

Learning to play using guitar tablature (TAB for short).

We're seeing more and more music publishers using TAB as a way of showing you what to play. Learning from TAB is good news and bad news. The good news is, it's easy to learn how to read it. The lines represent strings instead of sounds, numbered from the bottom up. So in guitar music, the bottom line would be the thickest (6th) string, the top line would be the first. The numbers are the frets, and that's the basic concept. The bad news? No one's decided to standardize tab, so there's no agreement how to show timing. Most of the TAB you find either has regular notes above it, or there's no indication of rhythm at all. The other problem is that if the TAB is computer generated, there are times when it will have the right note but in the wrong position on the guitar. On guitar, unlike piano, you can play the exact same note on more than one string.

Learning to play using standard notation.

While it's an easy concept, there are lots of complications. The easy part is that the lines represent sounds and each line has a letter name. The letter corresponds with a note on the guitar. Beginning students have hard time, especially when they get to the low notes. Guitar notation is written one octave lower, so the C that we show as middle C in notation is actually 8 notes below where it would sound on the piano. As a result, all guitar notation is in treble clef, but we use lots of ledger lines which make the note reading more difficult. The good news is that standard notation is much more accurate since it's all universally the same. There are tempo markings, dynamic markings, ways to show the different positions on the guitar, and ways to notate the length of the notes.

So, which one should you use?

If you're heavily into rock or popular music, there's a good chance that TAB can work for you. Having a recording of the version of the song you're learning, and a device like the Riffmaster Pro to slow songs down, you can probably learn the song without reading music. There are even books of classical and jazz songs now that use TAB, so you may want to check it out.

Isn't it "cheating" to not learn to read music?

There are people that definitely think it's cheating, but I've always thought the best method was the one that works for you. I know how to read music and TAB, and to be honest, I usually find myself reading the notes. The best thing to do is to try out both ways and see which is most effective for you and the style of music you want to play.