Guitar Article Written by “Friend Of Mike Walsh”
How To Make Learning Guitar Even More Fun
There’s nothing like the feeling of becoming a better guitarist and being able to play things you always wanted to play. However, for a lot of guitar players, improving becomes frustrating due to their approach to learning. When you get rid of the common frustrations most guitar players have such as getting stuck, not knowing what to practice or losing enthusiasm to practice, you can enjoy the improvement process much more. Here are several ways to do it:
Set clear musical goals
Learning guitar without musical goals presents several problems:
1. You won’t feel motivated to practice without a goal to move towards
2. It feels overwhelming to consider all the possible things you can learn without having any sense of direction.
3. It’s less fun to learn when you don’t know why you’re learning something
When you set clear musical goals for yourself, you give yourself something to look forward to and narrow down the things you should be practicing. This makes it much easier to know what you should be practicing at any given time, which eliminates the overwhelm that comes with practicing too many things at once (a common problem amongst guitarists).
When setting musical goals for yourself, be very specific. For example, don’t make a goal of simply becoming “better”. Instead set clear, tangible goals such as learning how to play a song without making any mistakes, learning how to improvise guitar solos over measures containing 4 different chords, learning how to memorize the fretboard, etc.
Track your progress
Once you have chosen specific musical goals for yourself, it’s important that you track your progress. When you track different aspects of your playing consistently, you can see where you are improving and where you need to make improvements. Seeing yourself get better in specific areas of your playing is very motivating, and makes getting better at guitar much more fun than simply practicing and hoping you eventually improve.
Take lessons with an experienced teacher
When you take guitar lessons with an experienced teacher (who has a proven record of getting great results for his students), you make much faster progress than learning on your own. Not only does this kind of teacher help you improve faster, but he keeps you on track with your goals, motivates you and shows you new and interesting ways to play things you thought you had already mastered.
Experts agree that taking guitar lessons is the best way to make learning more fun and enjoyable. Tom Hess shows people how to get started teaching guitar and is the leader in online guitar lessons. He believes that all guitarists should seek out a great instructor to work with: “Finding a great guitar teacher is absolute gold for anyone looking to get better fast. If you're serious about becoming a better guitarist and want to put an end to any musical struggles you currently face, go find a teacher right now.”
When you find your guitar teacher, see if he/she teaches group classes. This is not only a good way to learn new skills, but also one of the most fun ways to learn the instrument. Working together with other guitarists with the same goals as you makes learning more engaging and motivates you to get better through friendly competition.
Apply the topics above into your guitar learning journey and have fun!