How to learn to play the guitar, or any instrument

[VinceG]

I just finished my practice session. The song is Jose Gonzalez's Heartbeats. You can hear it here:
YouTube - Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats

That song is played at 180bpm. Before I started tonight's practice session I was playing confidently at 150bpm. Now I'm playing with the recording. I practiced for maybe 45 minutes. I need to learn the bridge part where he plays arpeggios instead of the main pattern and I need to get singing while playing down. Then I'm done.

Looking back at all the practice sessions I did to get to this point, I made real, serious progress in all of them just like the one I finished. A measurable speed increase, a real fluidity gain in one of the three chord changes, or just a real breakthrough in understanding how the song works.

But none of these accomplishments was the real one. The real accomplishment was in believing I could tackle this beautiful and difficult song. I've never played anything even remotely this difficult, and it's only the second fingerstyle song I'm attempting. (The first was Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, and that relatively easy song was the most difficult song I played then) I figured, aww hell, why not give it a try, this song's been moving me for years.

Two weeks later, I'm playing Jose freaking Gonzalez, at speed.
Shoot for the moon, even if all you have is a model rocket. You just might make it.

How did I do it? And more importantly, how can you do it? It's a very simple application of effectiveness principles. One, set down to practice with purpose. Don't aimlessly pick at the guitar, be trying to do something. If it's a song you're learning, sit down with a clear idea of what you're working on. Is it fluidity of a particular picking pattern? Play that pattern for thirty solid minutes. Is it a chord change? Boil it down to the essentials, then drill for five minutes. Play the whole song, figure out where you're getting blocked, figure out another way to drill through, then drill until you get it.

That's the first part. The second part is a different skill, unrelated to music, but essential to its practice. You must work on your ability to concentrate on your task. When I say practice a pattern for thirty solid minutes, that doesn't mean to play for five or six minutes, then rest and read forums or whatever. I mean don't stop playing for the whole thirty. It's tough, but if you'll realize HUGE gains if you get the hang of it. Those calluses will be there before you know it. The quality of attention you give to your guitar WILL get reflected back at you. This is the key to getting to a point where you actually like playing.

If you're starting out, you learn the chords and the simple songs first to teach you the mechanics, but after that, the world of music is your oyster. Pick your favorite song and learn it, no matter how hard it looks. Just take it one step at a time.

The concentration bit is key. It lets you get the most out of your time. I practiced once a day, and I counted my time by how long my hands were on the strings. Fifteen minutes of intense practice can realize a real gain.

This practice ethic works just as well when you're exploring a new style and don't have any particular goal in mind. You might have a pattern or two that you're fleshing out, so you put them to different chords, and make little variations on them. You might have several chords you want to put together somehow. So you try a bunch of different patterns with them. If something sounds right, you work your way into that musical niche. You should feel like you've gotten deeper than before you started, each time you play. There's an endless rabbit hole of musical expression, and it's up to you to go down.

[VinceG]

Sat down for twenty minutes, I'm not flubbing so badly now when I start singing, but it'll take at least another session or two before I can do it well. Let's hope for only one. I'll practice again when I get home from work tonight.

[jayh]

Congrats and keep up the good work. I'm a long time musician myself, and just did a google search for "learn an instrument personal development", and came across your post... I'm thinking about starting a blog along these lines...

I think learning an instrument, or even a new song is a perfect example of LOA in action - i.e. if you believe you can do it, you'll be inspired to practice (take action), and eventually you will achieve it - of course the joy being in the journey the whole way there...

[gloci]

Very Inspiring!

I play guitar myself, and I'm learning Ocean at the minute.

I actually needed this post to give me a kick up the ass and start practicing!

Your dead right about playing for 30 minutes straight to make progress and it's kind of after changing my outlook on guitar. Usually I get frustrated with how little progress I make, you see. I realise now it's probably because I don't do 30 minute straight runs like you. Mine usually aren't focused on one spot and not to intense

[mindset]

Just be inspired and you definitely should love what you're doing to be able to do anything with an instrument. Of course, additional lessons won't hurt too. Keep up the good work! Believe in yourself...

[Canadian]

Great post. I'm nearly inspired to learn this monster of a song: YouTube - Guitars Suck - Bumblefoot

[spacecadetglow]

Hey dreamer, thanks for inspiring me to learn Heartbeats now.

[Jaiysun4]

You are absolutely right about concentration and practise.

The most powerful learning materials I have ever come across are Learn To Play Guitar! Start guitar the right way, no bad habits, OR fix your playing and get off your plateau!.

You become as good as the amount of mindfulness you put into your practise. You need to ingrain good habits by training all 4 fingers of the LH with no tension, using no-tempo practise on chromatic scales and all the scales you want to learn.

The key is repetition of the correct way of playing, over and over again. If you just strum away, or do not analyse all the aspects of your technique, you may be ingraining bad habits that in the future become progressively more difficult to break.

This is kinda a zen way of playing with no tension. What will hinder you is tension in the wrist, arm and particularly shoulder/neck/back. No tension + correct thumb/hand position + well trained fingers = perfect technique! You even need to play attention to posture when playing, to make sure you are sitting or standing well.

Keep it up!

[danthony]

Yes, good point and really like that heartbeats song. I play the guitar as well and it's so easy to give up when you are learning a challenging piece. You are on the money when you say that if you believe in yourself you will get through it. I've never been rewarded as much as when i've accomplished something that i put my mind to. good post.