One of the best ways to effectively learn how to play guitar is to learn from your mistakes. But there are also mistakes that might hinder your playing as well. I thought I would highlight some of the most common mistakes guitarists face when learning to play, learning to play faster, and even how to become a professional musician. Often times guitar players will face challenges when beginning on guitar, but the lesson to be learned may not be clear. Here you will find some of these common mistakes and how to learn from them.
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| Guitar lessons neon sign |
Guitar players that are just starting out should learn how to practice effectively. That sounds really easy but I assure you that many guitar players to not use their time well during practice. Three very basic, but crucially important lessons can be found here at
http://www.abclearnguitar.com/guitarmistakes.html.
Twenty years ago as I was reading a guitar column in a industry magazine when I came across a great phrase "the dedicated take care of their time and time takes care of the undedicated".
This particular phrase made a gigantic impact on me and I think about it almost everyday for two reasons:
(a) it keeps me motivated to make the most of everyday and not waste time, after all 'time is all you got!'(b) as I go about my work as a professional musician/guitarist I'm aware of how much time would-be guitarists waste by repeatedly making the same awful mistakes everyday.
I've listed my top three mistakes or should I say "time wasting traps" that the majority of guitar players fall into.
Mistake #1: practice too long - in most cases guitar players who practice long hours are literally throwing countless hours of practice out in the street.
The solution: the trick is to determine what type of practice you need to do; many guitar players are not aware that there are types of practice (a) data memory training; and (b) motor skill training.
In a nutshell data memory practice sessions should be short 3-5 minutes whereas effective motor skill practice sessions can be as long as 20-30 minutes.
Mistake #2: practicing too fast - long hours of sloppy guitar practice results in a sloppy guitar technique; don't train yourself to make mistakes.
The solution: speed is a by-product of accuracy. The first mistake should be a warning to slow down. There's no point practicing mistakes, that defeats the whole purpose of practicing, once a mistake is ingrained it is extremely difficult to eradicate.
Use a metronome to track your progress, always practice everything slowly and gradually build up the tempo, never play faster than you can accurately!
Mistake #3: can't remember what they have learned - most guitar players suffer from short term memory training. In our school years we learned to retain information only long enough to pass the test, once our short term objective (the test) was achieved most or all of the information was discarded; the information is still in our memory banks somewhere the difficulty is recalling it!
While not being able to fully recall your algebra assignment may not really bother you (unless of course you are working for NASA); we don't want this type of 'short term' memory training to spill over into our guitar practice habits.
The solution: develop long term memory and recall training habits by practicing for short time frames of 2-5 minutes, use a timer to keep an accurate track of your time frames, when the timer rings take a break, stand up and get away from the guitar, leave your practice area stretch have a drink etc., the idea is to change your environment before going back to practice.
Summary: Avoid these mistake and develop effective, efficient practice habits, learn how to work with your nervous system not against it and you will be well on your way to becoming a successful guitarist.
There are many more lessons to learn when trying to play guitar effectively. Find three more of these lessons here at
http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Three-Mistakes-Guitar-Players-Make&id=5451513.
Mistakes that Guitar players make are few and far between. Guitarists of all levels of ability are prone to mistakes whether you are a bedroom guitarist or play in huge concert halls concerts we are all human regardless. I have seen players make mistakes such as Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and others they hit an incorrect note and have to quickly cover it up. It sticks out a mile because the mistakes are shown with the sound and sounds unprofessional like.
Here is my view of the three biggest mistakes guitar players make:
Mistakes Guitar Players Make - Vibrato is not done efficiently
Vibrato is one of the most common aspects of guitar playing however it is not always done correctly. A common mistake I see and hear about players doing is placing their index finger on the string and wiggling their index on the string left to right continually. This makes no effect and does nothing to alter the sound as you can only alter the sound of the note you are playing by stretching the string and this can only be achieved by moving it up or down. Moreover, the correct way of performing vibrato is to place your index finger on the string and use your wrist to slightly bend the string up and down. The wrist action moves the string not the fingers. The secret is to turn your wrist anti-clockwise and then clockwise continually.
Mistakes Guitar Players Make - Players don't practice properly
Practicing is another big mistake which guitarists seem to make. A lot of them seem to practice only when they have the time and is decided at that moment and not planned. Practice makes permanent so it is essential to organise your practicing properly. You don't need to spend hours practicing, aim for around 30 minutes per day. Create a structuring plan to organise the practice session and focus on different things each time. Spend no more than 10-15 minutes on each task or theory. If you really do not feel like practicing on a particular day then don't force yourself.
Mistakes Guitar Players Make - Incorrect use of the fretting hand
There are countless mistakes which guitarists make with their fretting hand. Each players hand works differently so it is hard to pinpoint these mistakes. If you feel a lot of tension in your fretting hand then the chances are is that you are overworking it or you are using it incorrectly. Shake your hand every so often to release the tension and blood flow. Take some time to carefully monitor your hand and watch the movement of the hand and muscles to see how it is working.
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| Frustrated guitar player |
Guitar chords are a huge part of learning guitar. So huge, in fact, that many guitar players struggle with it quite a bit. I found a few mistakes that can and should be avoided to improve your guitar chord playing here at
http://www.instantguitarist.com/guitar-chords/learn-guitar-chords-top-10-mistakes.
Learning guitar chords is one of the most frustrating times for new guitarists. Your fingers are new to the fretboard and the strings, just getting the correct fingers into the correct position can be a chore, but I can assure you all the effort, cursing and determination is worth it.
Take a look at what I’ve learned from my students who have all gone through the stage of learning guitar chords, I present their struggles so that you can learn from them and hasten your own success in this area.
1. Giving up too soon
Like anything you learn you’re going to suck at it when you first start out, and this goes for everyone, I don’t care if you’re Jimi Hendrix or Joe Blow from down the street, you are going to have a hard time when you try to learn guitar chords but you absolutely have to stick to it.
The critical time is when you’re almost there, you know how to make the shape of the chord, and can sometimes strum it cleanly and you’ve been practising for the past 7 days but haven’t seen any improvement… well that’s the worst time to give up because you’re so close, you just need to get over that next rise and you’ll see how it all comes together.
2. Not visualizing success
When you are forming a chord it’s really important to visualize where each finger is going to move to, and how it’s going to happen. I guarantee you will speed up your chord changes if you follow these simple steps:
Look at where your fingers are now, visualize where they need to be and figure out the shortest distance you need to move them in order to form the new chord.
Sometimes you won’t have to move half your fingers because they’ll be used in the other chord. Keep looking for these ways to speed up your playing.
3. Making it too hard for yourself
Changing from one chord to another is without a doubt the best way to learn guitar chords. However if you make it too hard and pick some nasty chords it can really put you off the idea. Make sure you pick some easy ones like G to A, E to A, D to G.
4. Not working on your fingers
It seems really obvious to me that you use your fingers to form these chords and to strum them, so you need to exercise your fingers and build up some finger strength. This can be done using little finger weights, pushing down hard on the strings, doing wide scale exercises (stretch those fingers and use that pinky!), and doing good old finger press-ups (not so popular).
5. Looking at your hands too much
I always say you should be wearing a blindfold once you can play each chord. You need to be able to form the chord without looking at it. You can drive a car without looking at the steering wheel and foot pedals all the time… as the saying goes ‘practice makes perfect’.
6. Only practicing one chord at a time
This is a bad habit some people get into, and it’s not really their fault, it’s just they way their tutors have been teaching them or that they’re reading a book or tutorial that doesn’t really convey a solid learning process.
By practicing 3 chords at once you’ll find you learn the fingerings for each of them a lot faster than if you learn just one at a time. It has to do with how your brain works, giving your brain 3 different patterns to memorize in varying orders strengthens the pathways in your brain so that when it comes to remembering that chord your brain is able to bring up the information a lot faster.
Just try it! It works.
7. Leaving your pinky out of sight
This is a weird one, but I see people doing it all of the time! Your fingers should be hovering over the strings of your guitar ALL OF THE TIME. Meaning that when you form a D chord your pinky finger should be hovering somewhere over the high E string or B.
A lot of the time people will tuck their pinky fingers under the fret board or some other weird place, and it really makes it difficult for them to learn more advanced chords later on.
8. Not understanding to root note
The root note of a chord is its bass note, it determines which string you should start strumming or picking from. An E chords root note is an E which is played as the open low E string on your guitar, this means you start strumming or picking from that note.
9. Not picking the chord
Sometimes by strumming the chord you will notice you are hitting a lot of dead notes, however most beginners will stop there and keep strumming until they get it right. It’s kind of like a brute force way to learn guitar chords.
As a more learned student (and reader of my blog) you will know it is better to pick each note separately so you can quickly analyze what string is giving you the dead note. You can then apply more pressure or move the finger slightly to get it into a better position. This can save you a lot of time and heartache.
10. Not using all your senses
I believe the best way to learn is to engage all your senses in the activity, you should be seeing the guitar chord in a photo (of someone playing it) in a diagram (of where your fingers should be) and even in a video so you can see how the person gets their fingers into position.
Although sight is a great way to learn, when trying to learn guitar chords you can’t get very far without being able to hear the guitar chord being strummed or picked so you can compare yourself to a professional. Getting information into your brain from every angle is the best way to succeed at learning how to play guitar chords in the shortest amount of time.
Look for tutorails and courses that use a multitude of ways to teach you, not just text!
Conclusion
I haven’t put these tips in any particular order; they’re all solid gold tips to being able to learn guitar chords faster than anyone else. I’d suggest writing down each method onto a piece of paper and start using it in your daily practice, you’ll be surprised at how fast you can see results.
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| Guitar teacher and student |
Every guitar player wants to learn how to play faster. Most of the time, beginning guitarists will spend most of their time trying to reach this goal, but might be doing it the wrong way. I dug up some information that should reveal good lessons to build your speed and accuracy on guitar here at
http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/how-to-play-guitar-fast/.
Do you struggle with playing guitar fast? Is your lack of guitar speed making it difficult for you to express yourself fully as a musician? Although playing guitar fast is not every guitarist’s most significant goal, those who do want to improve their guitar speed desire this skill very much and are often frustrated with being unable to develop this part of their guitar playing. If this describes you, I want to share with you several important insights about building guitar speed that will greatly help you to develop this skill.
Good news and bad news:
The good news is that virtually anyone can learn to play guitar fast. In addition, you can directly control the practicing process to make it more effective and achieve your guitar speed goals in a lot less time than it takes an average guitar player.
The bad news is that most guitar players (those who can’t yet play guitar fast) are totally on the wrong track in their approach to increasing guitar speed. I see this all the time when working with new guitar students who come to me wanting to improve their guitar playing. The typical path to increasing one’s guitar speed is usually limited to “starting to practice slowly with a metronome and gradually increasing speed in small increments.”
Such a tactic can be effective early on in the process of learning new guitar exercises, but if you rely on it exclusively to develop your maximum guitar speed it will lead to plateaus and frustration. Here are a few reasons why:
- This approach shifts most of your focus on trying to “move your hands/fingers faster.” However, the concept of moving your fingers faster is a tiny, insignificant part of the big picture of what it takes to improve in order to build guitar speed. The most important elements of guitar speed remain neglected and under-practiced with this guitar practice method. As a result, the practice sessions often turn into a series of impatient attempts to break through a current guitar speed plateau.
- There is a large number of different elements that require attention and training in order to learn to play guitar fast, including: two- hand synchronization, picking articulation, tension control, mental processing speed, hand endurance at fast tempos, guitar speed with a single technique vs. guitar speed with integrating a variety of guitar techniques and many more. Each of these ‘guitar speed components’ need unique practice strategies in order to be mastered effectively. Relying exclusively on ‘any single’ guitar speed practicing strategy (such as the most common one described above) is not going to help you improve all of the guitar technique elements that are needed to build guitar speed.
Great guitar players who can play guitar fast were able to successfully master all of the above mentioned elements of guitar speed whether they consciously realized it or not. You need to do the same in order to increase your guitar speed to your maximum speed potential. If you do not know how to begin the process of practicing these skills in the most effective ways, check out this free mini course about learning to play guitar fast.
To help you expand and improve upon the conventional approach for building guitar speed, here are several guidelines to follow.
Get specific about what problems you are having with trying to increase your guitar speed.
Simply saying “I can’t play guitar fast” is not specific enough. Being unable to play guitar fast is only a symptom of a more complex problem that usually has several causes. As you have seen above, the root of your guitar speed limitations can exist in any or all of the specific technical elements that make up the multidimensional skill of “playing guitar fast.” Knowing exactly what is causing your problem is the first step to solving it. When you learn exactly what is holding you back, you can focus your guitar practice sessions on the specific problems that needs to be overcome. Having your guitar playing analyzed by an expert guitar teacher is the fastest way to get this required level of clarity.
Use a variety of practice strategies for increasing your guitar speed.
As your guitar playing skill level evolves, so will your specific guitar technique challenges. Therefore, the practice techniques you use at each stage of your guitar playing must evolve as well in order to be effective. There is no such thing as ‘one’ ultimate guitar practice routine for increasing your guitar speed. Of course there are approaches to practicing guitar that are far more effective than others, but the way you organize your guitar speed training routines should be unique to your specific guitar technique and guitar speed challenges at any given time. You can see many examples of effective guitar speed building strategies that I use with my students by studying this free mini course on how to build guitar speed.
Practice integrating your guitar techniques together to avoid sounding like a “guitar speed robot.”
Over the years of teaching hundreds of guitar players to improve their guitar technique (as well as other musical skills), I have found that most guitarists spend very little time applying and integrating their musical skills and guitar techniques in particular. This results in lack of musical freedom to express yourself completely and fully in any musical context.
When it comes to increasing your guitar speed, most guitarists typically focus on becoming faster with only one technique at a time. For example, you may practice your sweep picking for 15 minutes, then move on to 15 minutes of legato, followed by 15 minutes of 2 hand tapping. Although this approach will help you to improve at these techniques in isolation, you also need to specifically practice using all of these techniques together in the same way that you will find these techniques used in real guitar solos. Neglecting to do this will make your guitar playing sound unnatural and rather robotic as you will struggle to play consistently well with using a variety of guitar techniques at once.
Although guitar speed is clearly only one out of many musical areas that must be mastered in order to become a truly expressive and creative musician, it is a highly desired skill that most guitar players do not have. Applying the suggestions above during your guitar practice sessions and following the guidelines from this free guitar speed training mini course will help you greatly to build as much guitar speed as you desire for your specific guitar playing goals.
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Guitarist dreaming of
music career |
There are of course important lessons and mistakes to learn from to advance your guitar playing. If you are planning to make guitar playing a profession, it is just as important to learn from common mistakes guitar players face when becoming professionals. Find a detailed list of these mistakes here at
http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/professional-musician-mistakes/.
There many things you need to know and do in order to become successful in the music industry. But even if you learn and do all of those things, you still might prevent yourself from achieving success in the music business by making key mistakes along the way.
There are many pitfalls on the path to success, and that is particularly true in the music industry.
After mentoring many musicians who are developing their own music careers, I see the same false assumptions, problems, and mistakes appear again and again. Here is the list of the Top 10 mistakes that can hold you back:
Mistake #10 – Not having a compelling image that is congruent with your music. Most musicians (and bands) severely underestimate the importance of their image. Yes, music is about “music,” but the music business success is about having a total package that includes music, image, a visual stage show, and many other things that need to be fully developed and integrated in a congruent way.
Mistake #9 – Trying to “get your name out there.” Although this seems to be a main goal of most musicians and bands, it is the wrong approach to start with. Before trying to be seen and heard as much as possible, it is often more important to focus on “converting” the people who hear and see you into becoming actual fans. This “conversion” is the first key to your promotional success, not getting seen or heard as much as possible.
Mistake #8 – Believing that social media websites are the keys to online music promotion for musicians and bands. Social media websites are a tool. They are one piece of the online music marketing puzzle. Music industry companies (record labels, artist managers, booking agents, etc.) are far more interested in the popularity of your website, not how many friends you have at MySpace, YouTube, Facebook or any other website that you do not own and control. Want to impress the industry with your band’s promotion? Build your own personal website traffic.
Mistake #7 – Not investing enough time into building your music career. Most musicians spend most of their time on music, but put very little effort into the many other critical elements needed to make it in the music business. If you are already a talented musician, you should invest at least 50% of your time into starting or advancing your music career. If you are still developing your musical skills, you should still invest around 25% of your “music” time into building a future music career.
Mistake #6 – Surrounding yourself with people who are negative, lazy and lack ambition. If you are very serious about becoming a professional musician and building a great career in music, then you absolutely must surround yourself with like-minded musicians.
Mistake #5 – Having merely mediocre live performing skills. Many musicians who are not yet in a good band put off developing their live performing and stage presence skills. This is a big reason why talented musicians don’t get into really good bands that they audition for. Your music may be good, but a live show requires more than great music. If people only wanted to hear the music, they would listen to you at home. Both fans and record labels want (and expect) to see a real show. Neglecting live performance skills results in talented musicians and bands becoming quickly forgotten.
Mistake #4 – Focusing on increasing the quantity of fans instead of the intensity of your fans. The number of fans you have should always be your secondary focus (not your primary one) if you want to become successful in the music industry. The fact is, it is not the number of fans that matters most, but rather the number of fanatics which will contribute more directly to your success (or lack of it). This is particularly true in the beginning of a band’s music career. Focus more effort on converting your existing fans into raving fanatics. Learn to do this and the number of your overall fans will increase through powerful word of mouth.
Mistake #3 – Not enough cash flow to support your music career. Like it or not, it takes money to build a music career. Even if other people/companies are paying for your record, tour support, merchandise, etc. you still need to have the freedom to pursue opportunities as they come. Sadly, many musicians miss opportunities because they can’t afford to take advantage of them. In addition to a decent income, you also need the flexibility of being able to take time away from that income source to go into the studio, go on tour, etc. That is why learning how to teach guitar is such a great way to achieve both if you learn how to become a highly successful guitar teacher.
Mistake #2 – Not enough depth in your music relationships. There’s an old expression, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” In music this is often modified to, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” The truth is it’s not about either. The most important aspect of connections within the music industry is how deep are the current relationships you have now and will develop in the future. You don’t want to simply know people or be known, you want people who know you to have a real deep connection with you so that you are always on the top of their mind when opportunities present themselves. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to deepen my existing relationships further on an ongoing basis?”
Mistake #1 – Having a fundamental misunderstanding about what record companies look for – and expect – from new bands. This is a huge topic, but in a nutshell it’s very useful to think of record companies like a bank that lends money to people or small businesses. Record companies make most of their decisions about with whom they will work and what the terms will be in much the same way that a bank will determine who they will loan money to and what the terms of the loan will be. Both record companies and banks basically want to know three things:
- How much value do you bring to the deal right now?
- How much risk do you bring with you right now?
- How much potential value and risk might you bring to them in the future after they invest in you?
If you want to buy a house, the bank wants to know a lot about the specific house you want to buy and even more about you. Record companies are the exact same, they want to know about your music, your talent and your band, but they also care as much (or more) about you (and your band mates) as people. What is it about you that will make a record deal a good or bad investment for them?
Every guitarist faces difficulties as they progress on the instrument. The most important thing to remember is to overcome these challenges and learn from them. I hope this list of common mistakes is helpful to you. My goal is to help every guitarist reach their dream of playing guitar.
Good luck and stay tuned for more!
Mike
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