Mistakes Made by Beginner Guitar Players

Learning to play the guitar can be very tricky – regardless of how you go about doing it. Whether you learn the guitar on your own, enlist the help of a professional, or use online resources to learn to play the instrument, certain mistakes and obstacles can seriously hinder your progress or even worse, cause you to form bad playing habits and prevent you from really enjoying playing the guitar.

Often times, this discourages beginner guitar players from learning the guitar, and they give up trying.

Here are a few mistakes that many beginner guitar players make:

Mistake 1: Not putting in enough practice time

I’m a firm believer in quality > quantity, and I’ve probably even said this before: when it comes to practice, the quality of the practice is more important than the quantity. Essentially, you want all your practice sessions to yield a result of some sort (which is why it is essential to set short-term or daily goals). However a 10-minute practice session won’t do you any good, will it. It is therefore essential to set aside at least 30-60 minutes each day, for practicing the guitar – when you choose to do this is entirely up to you. But the important thing is to be as regular as possible about it – make it a point to practice daily, and if you miss out on one, make up for it the next day.

Mistake 2: Not practicing ‘correctly’

What this essentially means is that it is important to plan out your guitar practice sessions in advance, instead of picking up your guitar without knowing what to do. Schedule your time well in advance, in order to know what exactly it is that you’ll be working on. For instance would you use this week’s practice session to work on a particular technique that requires improvement, or do you want to learn new riffs or a new chord this week? Often times, the best way is to find a balance between the two – for this purpose, divide your time between working on what you know already and learning new material.

Mistake 3: Using the wrong instrument

This one’s tough to spot, however any guitar player – even a beginner one – would instantly be able to tell if his/her guitar is causing problems in playing. The importance of using a good guitar cannot be overstated. Beginner guitar players often may not want to spend too much on a good, expensive guitar (understandably so), however buying a cheap instrument which causes you problems or gives you trouble (like a guitar which cannot even stay in tune, for instance) will only frustrate you. It should be known that these days, you can get a good, branded guitar at just about every price-point. Don’t have money for an expensive Les Paul – get the Epiphone Les Paul, virtually the same instrument, for less than half the price! The Stratocaster’s out of your budget – get the Squier Strat for as low as $150. I simply cannot stress more on the importance of buying a good guitar as your first one; it will probably stick with you for quite some time, and make your practice and playing sessions, as well as the process of learning much better, enjoyable and frustration-free! Cheap guitars do not stay in tune, and have a bad action as well, stay away at all costs (at the same time, you also don’t need to spend big in order to get a good guitar).

Mistake 4: Not enjoying playing or practicing the guitar

When it comes to beginners who’ve just picked up a guitar and learning to play it, one of the best advice you’ll get from anyone is to try to enjoy playing the guitar. Do not look at practice sessions as a chore. Try having some fun when learning the guitar, and above all, enjoy the process of your learning as well.

Mistake 5:  Not making it a habit to warm-up before picking up the guitar

I simply cannot stress enough on the importance of warming up before playing the guitar! A proper warm-up regime/routine allows you to loosen-up your finger, arm and shoulder joints and muscles, gets blood flowing through these parts of your body and gets your body as well as your mind to optimum levels, which enables you to put in a great practice/playing session. An effective warm-up routine consists of physically warming up through various finger, wrist, and arm exercises, as well as playing a few easy scales or licks that you’re already familiar with – shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes at max. As an experiment, try this: pick up your guitar one day without warming-up and try playing stuff you’re well familiar with and usually play with ease; you might be surprised to find how tough it is to play the same stuff! Now warm-up, and notice the difference!

Mistake 6: Not setting guitar playing goals

I spoke about the significance and importance of setting short-term and long-term guitar-playing goals in one of my articles on this blog. Setting goals is essential for beginners, perhaps more so than anyone else. I strongly suggest going through that article (linked above) at least once, especially if you’re learning to play the guitar. In a gist: without goals, you’re just someone who’s basically wandering aimlessly, and you cannot expect to make any progress whatsoever without a long-term goal, and a set of short-term goals to be used as stepping stone to accomplish the ‘end-game’.

Mistake 7: Ignoring the importance of aural skills

Tom Hess, guitar instructor and musician, calls aural skill as “the most important skill that most guitar players don’t have”. And I have to say that I agree with him! Ear training and acquiring aural skills is an essential skill that beginner guitar players and those learning the guitar should definitely work on. Aural skills allow you to maximize your creativity, and provide with you skills important to being a good guitar player, such as the ability to improvise. Read the whole article here.

Mistake 8: Not enlisting the help of a professional guitar instructor

Yes, private guitar instruction usually costs a buck-and-a-half, but a lot of the guitar-playing mistakes made by beginner guitar players mentioned in this list can be easily rectified by working with a guitar instructor/teacher. And the best part is that you don’t even need to pay $60-an-hour to a private teacher for lessons, you could look online for much cheaper lessons which give you a better bang-for-the-buck. Or perhaps think about joining a beginner guitar class at your local community center.

9 Reasons Why You Should Play the Guitar

As someone who’s been doing it for a while now, I can personally attest to the fact that playing the guitar is, in one word, AWESOME! Here are 9 reasons why:

1. It enhances your metal and intellectual capacity

Learning to do something new, and enhancing or working on your skills is known to be extremely beneficial for your memory and mental capacity! Studies have shown that musicians who play one or more musical instruments tend to have higher test and IQ scores than others! Learning new things on the guitar, playing new songs, improvisation, studying music theory, and learning different guitar-playing techniques keeps your brain active and fresh, allows you to remain mentally alert and active, and can help with retention and help with intellectual capacity-building.

2. Playing the guitar also helps you from a physical point-of-view

A large part of playing the guitar has to do with your body and your physical well-being. How do you think the likes of Angus Young, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Kirk Hammett continue to play the guitar despite being in the business for many, many years now? By keeping themselves physically-fit and in top shape! And that is one of the advantages of playing the guitar; it will allow you to correct your posture, build stamina strengthen your arms, fingers and hands, and become more energetic. Warming up before playing increases blood-flow in your body, and loosens up your joints and muscles. Playing the guitar will keep you in top shape for many years, provided you do it the correct way.

3. It helps develop important personality traits, attributes and characteristics

…such as discipline, patience, self-motivation and time-management to name just a few of these personality traits and attributes. Learning to play the guitar is quite tough (as anyone who’s ever attempted to do it will attest to). Doing so will develop a sense of patience, persistence and perseverance in you. The discipline that is needed to master the instrument will help you in your daily routine with countless other tasks in your everyday life. Furthermore, learning the instrument and everything that accompanies the process of doing so will allow you to be more self-motivated, and finally, practicing regularly (every single day, for instance) will help you become more regular with other tasks in your life, allow you to set schedules and follow them, and be more sensitive to the importance of time!

4. Making music helps relieves stress

It is a universally-known fact that listening to music is a great stress-reliever. If listening to music relieves stress, then actually making music – or in your case, playing the guitar – will allow you to relieve ten times more stress! Having a bad day or a crappy week, why not pick up that Les Paul and play some Guns n’ Roses (or whatever helps you relieve stress). The sound of the acoustic guitar has been known to be very soothing and relaxing, and playing the guitar can help relax the mind, and even lower blood pressure and tempers!

5. It helps kill boredom

One of the best things about playing the guitar is that there’s never a dull or a boring moment in your life! So you find yourself alone at home with nothing to do? Got a few minutes (or a hours) to kill? Looking for the best possible way to spend on your free time? Simply pick up your trusty axe and start playing!

6. You can play the guitar just about anywhere

For me, this is one of the best things about playing the guitar, you can simply pick it up and play it anywhere that you might be. An acoustic guitar, in particular, is very portable instrument which you can easily carry around with you if you’re travelling somewhere (such as on a road trip, to the park, a trip to the beach, etc.) and they don’t call it the ‘campfire classic’ for nothing! Fire up that grill in your backyard, pick up your acoustic guitar and you’ll be easily able to entertain not only yourself, but also your friends and family! Invited to a party, why not take your acoustic guitar along with you!

7. The bragging rights

Playing the guitar is a skill that only a few people in the world can acquire. Not everyone can play the guitar, and a large number of people who attempt to learn the instrument give-up halfway through the process. In addition, the fact that you can play the instrument can be a great conversation-starter and gives you great bragging rights (and not to mention, a way to show-off) as well! Guitar players always bring up the fact that they play, and the next time you see a hot girl at a bar or a party, you know what you can tell her if she asks what you do!

8. Playing in a band gives you the opportunity to work as a team

Apart from some of the personality traits an attributes that we discussed earlier, playing in a band, for instance, gives you the opportunity to play with other musicians, which develop a sense of teamwork. Working in a team is one of the most essential skills out there; it allows you to grow as a person and a human being. Playing with other talented musicians enables you to collaborate with them in order to make great music. In addition playing in a band also lets you learn from other musicians and expand your musical horizons as well!

9. Playing the guitar helps develop social skills

As a guitar player, you’ll get the opportunity to speak with a large number of people, work with other musicians, collaborate with band mates, and generally meet with, come across and interact with many different people on a daily basis. In fact, if you go on tours, you might even come across people from different cultures, places and countries. All this will help develop your social skills.

Popular Signature Guitar Models

1. Angus Young Signature Gibson SG

Who doesn’t like ACDC, perhaps the best rock n’ roll and classic rock act in the last 50 years or so! The Aussie rock band is one of the most popular bands of all time, have a large fanbase all across the globe, and continue to sell out stadiums and dazzle people with their music and their live performances despite being in the business for a good 40 years now! On the forefront of their immense popularity and success is the band’s lead guitarist Angus Young – a man ranked 24^th on Rolling Stone Magazine’s Greatest Guitarist of All Time! Young was a big fan of the uber-famous Gibson SG, and Gibson and Young collaborated to make the Angus Young Signature SG, a guitar which had a pickup designed by the man himself (Angus Young Signature Humbucker) in the bridge, and came with distinctive lightning-bolt inlays in the neck as well as a distinctive double-cutaway body design. The ‘Thunderstruck’ comes with a MSRP of around $3200! But that’s a small price to pay if you’re an ACDC fan (with deep pockets) and want to own one of THE BEST signature guitars out there today!

2. Slash Signature Gibson Les Paul

Slash, you might know is the guy who made history with a little band called Guns n’ Roses, has been known to be a big Gibson Les Paul fan – a guitar which he says is the best all-round guitar out there! According to well-attributed sources, Gibson has even  accredited him with single-handedly bringing the Les Paul ‘back into the mainstream’! Perhaps unsurprisingly, Slash has more than 10 Gibson/Epiphone signature models to his name – the most popular of which is the ‘97 Gibson Custom Shop Slash Les Paul Standard known as the ‘Snakepit’. "I had Gibson make this for me in 1996 or 1997. It's got the embossed Slash logo on it and the snake inlay in the neck. It's a gorgeous guitar. I only have one of those and they are very rare" he said about the guitar. Only 100 of these beauties were ever made, making this signature model one of the rarest collectible guitars out there! 

3. John Mayer Signature Fender Stratocaster

John Mayer is someone who, like just about all others on this list, needs absolutely no introduction. Whatever opinion you might have of him as a person, there’s no denying that he is one of the most acclaimed and accomplished musicians of present times, and hence it is only fitting that he has many Fender signature Strat electric guitar models to his name. These limited-release Fender Stratocasters, part of the Fender Artist Series, sound amazing and look just as great as well, even though they might not be the most exciting instruments on this list! The John Mayer Stratocaster costs around $1500, and has an alder body, maple neck, African rosewood fretboard, single coil Strat pickups, and an synchronized American vintage tremolo. The guitar, like other signature models, was created in close collaboration with Mayer.

4. Kurt Cobain Signature Fender Mustang

Easily one of the most well-known and renowned musicians of our times, Kurt Cobain was one hell of a talented musician, singer-songwriter and of course, guitarist – the true definition of raw, natural talent! And just as famously, he is also known as a member of the 27 Club. But I digress; Fender, in memory of the Nirvana frontman introduced the Fender Mustang, a signature electric guitar ‘inspired by a true grunge legend: Kurt Cobain’. A guitar which had a big influence on Cobain and Nirvana’s distinctive sound, and a guitar famously used by Cobain over the years – as can be seen in the infamous ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video from ’91, or when he extensively used the Mustang during Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ tour in 1993-94. The guitar had an alder body, 24” scale neck, rosewood fingerboard, a Mustang single-coil neck pickup and a Seymour Duncan bridge humbucker, and the price today for one of these is around $1400.

5. Kirk Hammett Signature ESP KH-2 Electric

And my personal favorite, the Kirk Hammett ESP KH-2! I’ve been a big, big fan of Metallica for as long as I can remember and Kirk Hammett bleeds Metallica! He’s been an ESP player for as long as I’ve seen him play; in fact, the first Hammett signature guitar released by ESP in 2007 was to commemorate 20 years of association with Hammett! This particular modified KH-2 had a price of $9999-a-pop, and only 41 of these were ever made! Over the years, ESP has released tons of Hammett Signature KH-2 models, such as the ‘Bride of Frankenstein’, ‘Skully’, the ‘Ouija’, to name just a few. The Signature KH-2 black retails for $2300, and is actually a modified ESP M-II Deluxe with EMG active humbuckers, and some sweet skull-and-crossbones inlays in the neck!  A must-have for any and all Hammett and Metallica fans, and guitar players aspiring to play and sound like Hammett.

5 Easy Ways to Learn the Guitar

The internet’s emergence has changed a lot, as far as learning to play the guitar is concerned. It has now become one of the easiest methods to learn just about anything under the sun – including how to play the guitar. A simple Google search will probably reveal thousands of different sources on how you can learn to play the instrument – starting from the basics all the way up to the toughest of lessons. Then there’s the plethora of websites offering dirt-cheap guitar lessons. And let’s not forget the countless online-learning/online-education websites offering different university and college courses free-of-cost to anyone who has internet access (such as Coursera)!

My point is that the advent and emergence of internet in the last decade has made it very easy for guitar players to pick up a guitar, learn how to play like their favorite rock stars and become a pro at it! But there are countless other ways through which you can learn the guitar as well. Let’s have a look at some of these, shall we:

1. Guitar-learning Websites

Guitar-learning websites are getting more and more popular with the passage of time. And why shouldn’t they, since these websites do provide the best of both worlds – (a) they provide guitar lessons aimed at all sorts of guitar players, regardless of their proficiency, (b) use a combination of different material in order to deliver these lessons, such as videos, one-on-one time with instructors, instructional books, and so on, and (c) give people an immense amount of freedom as far as choosing what lessons they’d want to take, and/or what exactly they would like to learn or work on. Above all, these guitar-learning websites don’t cost a lot; GuitarTricks, for instance, provides access to 5000 lessons for less than $15 a month! Other good online guitar-learning websites include JustinGuitar and JamPlay.

2. Private lessons

Another great way of learning to play the instrument is through the help of a guitar teacher or an instructor. For me, private lessons are the best way of learning guitar hands down. However they are more suited for people who are willing to put in some serious time into learning the guitar, who may want to fast-track the process of learning the guitar, and those who have deep pockets – private lessons usually cost crazy money (a good guitar teacher may cost you as much as $60-an-hour!). On the upside, private lessons can be customized and personalized according to your specific requirements or needs. It is the quickest way of learning the guitar, and working with a professional on a daily basis will develop and hone your skills in the best possible manner, and the instructor will also be able to identify and correct any mistakes in your playing style.

3. Youtube

You have got to love Youtube! One of Web 2.0’s crown jewels, and one of the greatest achievements of our time, Youtube has been an absolute revelation when it comes to looking up video-lessons or learning stuff through the help of videos. A simple ‘learn guitar’ search on Youtube should yield hundreds of results, if not thousands, on all kinds of guitar lessons on video! Learning to play the guitar on Youtube can be a lot of fun, not to forget that videos allow you to see every detail in real-time, as it happens in front of you. Above all, these videos are free. You can also find series of lessons on Youtube.

4. DVD-based Guitar-learning Lessons

Another form of guitar lessons which used to be quite popular a few years back. You can still easily get a hold of guitar lessons on DVDs from any music store, or online off any guitar store as well as from guitar-learning websites. Like Youtube, these DVD lessons provide learners with certain advantages, such as the freedom of time, and practicing and learning the instrument whenever you find the time to do it. Unlike other aforementioned forms of learning however, you don’t get any personalized attention or instruction at all.

5. Coursera (and other online education websites)

Coursera is a popular online-learning website that partners with some of the top universities and schools in the world to provide all kinds of different courses to just about anyone who might want to take them up. The beauty of the model is that it allows people no matter where they might be in the world to take courses offered by the top universities in the world, free of cost! Coursera is also a Berklee College of Music partner, and offers many of their courses on the website – such as the Introduction to Guitar course (direct link), a 6-week course taught by Thaddeus Hogarth, which starts in April 2013, and is aimed at students thinking of picking up an acoustic or electric guitar. I suggest all beginner guitar player thinking of learning the instrument enroll for this course for free (you also have plenty of time to prepare for it). Apart from Coursera, there are plenty of other online-learning/distance-learning websites out there as well, offering similar services.

The Importance of Setting Goals as a Guitar Player

“Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.” - Brian Tracy.

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland

Setting goals is important with just about everything that you do in life!

Goals provide us with a clear idea about what we want to achieve, and where we see ourselves down the road. Goals drive us forward, keep us focused and committed, help us develop a sense of accountability, and above all, help us achieve our true potential and maybe even go beyond that.

Setting goals is the first step towards successful goal achievement, as it gives us a path towards how we can go about achieving our goals and get to our destination.

People who do not set goals ultimately live life on a meandering, day-to-day basis, which is precisely why they never achieve anything of meaning or substance in their life. Their lives are pretty much the same even 5 or 10 years down the road!

Setting goals is hence also of the utmost importance for guitar players – regardless of whether you’re an amateur/beginner guitar player, or a pro. Setting goals allows you to be the kind of musician you want to, or you aspire to be, and both short-term and long-term achievables are essential to your success as a guitar player.

Having said that, setting goals as a beginner/novice/amateur guitar player is particularly important. The best way for guitar players to make progress with the guitar is for them to know where they are going, and for them to have a set of tangible ‘achievables’, aka. goals.

How to Set Goals

As a beginner guitar player, it can be quite the task when it comes to setting goals. From what I’ve seen, beginner guitar players can have a tough time identifying and setting tangible goals – especially since they may feel like they’re unqualified to create these goal themselves. And even if they are able to do so, their goals are often too unrealistic or simply unachievable. That’s where a good teacher and mentorship can really help!

A good teacher work with his students to not only help them achieve their goals, but also set them. In fact, the mark of a good guitar instructor/teacher is that this will be one of the first things he asks his students!

Setting guitar-playing and/or guitar-learning goals is usually a two-step process: the first of which is setting long terms goal (or goals, yes you can have multiple long-term goals!), and then breaking things down into smaller, short-term goals which will help achieve the long-term goal(s).

Setting Long-Term Goals

Long term goal can also be referred to as ‘big-picture’ goal!

Long-term goal – or ‘goals’ – provide your practice and playing sessions with structure and purpose. From a guitar-player’s perspective, these goals determine (a) why they started to play the guitar, (b) what kind of artists they see themselves become, and (c) what their aspirations are.

For instance ask yourself this: where do you see yourself as a guitar player down the road, say 1 or 2 years from now? What kind of an artist would you want to be? Who do you want to play like?

Setting Short Term Goals

In order to achieve your long term goal/goals, you need to break it down into smaller chunks – or short-term goals, which essentially refer to a smaller set of achievables. Think of these as day-to-day goals (more on this below), weekly or monthly goals that you would want to achieve with your daily practice sessions.

Short-term guitar-playing goals are stepping stones towards achieving your ultimate long-term goals. These should therefore help you accomplish whatever long term goals you set for yourself.

Setting Daily Goals

These are perhaps the most important set of goals for you, and should allow you to achieve your short-term as well as long-term goals.

Daily or day-to-day goals provide you with direction as far as daily-practice sessions are concerned. These form the crux of your daily practice sessions. For instance these could be things such learning or mastering a new skills, as improving your technique or working on improving a skill, etc.

Daily goals are the easiest to measure as well, since you can virtually see what you’re learning and what you’re improving upon.

Goals Need to be Realistic

After all’s said and done, the important thing to know about goal-setting is that your goals need to be realistic, reachable and achievable. Setting the bar high is a good practice, but it should still remain realistic.

Goals Should be Measured

One of the best things about goals and milestones is that they provide you with a yardstick to measure your progress. At the end of the month or the year, for example, look back to see how far you’ve come since you started off, and compare where you are today to where you were an year back, for instance.

Keep measuring your progress, and continuously refine your goals.

Zig Ziglar’s 7 Steps to Goal Setting

Here’s an excellent article on goal setting, Ziglar’s 7-steps to setting goals, courtesy LearningGuitarNow, that should be of immense help to guitar players without any mentorship and struggling with setting goals for themselves. Definitely worth a read!

Concluding Thoughts

Measuring your progress will also provide you with a great way of motivating yourself (such as when you see how far you’ve come), and take pride in your progress and accomplishments. Use it as a source of inspiration for yourself.

The additional focus will make your practice sessions less frustrating as well!