A Few Absolutely Must Know Essential Tips for Learning Guitar (Part 1)

I want to let you in on some life saving tips you will need to know when learning your guitar. Trust me – these tips will take YEARS off of your learning curve! For the next few weeks, I will write another article with more tips like these. So stay tuned!

1. Learn, Play and Practice OBNOXIOUSLY SLOW

This is not a negative, or a thing NOT to do, but something to really strive to do. I come across guitar players almost every day who do nothing but fly up and down the neck of the guitar, which looks cool, but their execution is horrific. Each note bleeds into the note before and after it, and their playing ends up sounding like nails on a chalkboard. If you want to learn to play super fast, you MUST first play super slow. Playing agonizingly, super slow will make sure that you teach yourself how to define each note, and even better, how to CONTROL each note. This one tip will take you from sounding like you belong to a garage band to sounding like you should be filling up stadiums!

2. Stay away from learning too many things at once

This is the curse of YouTube, Online and correspondence lessons. You can probably learn effectively using these methods, but usually one video leads to the next, which leads to the next… by the time an hour passed, you played 10 techniques but learned zero. Focus on playing one new technique a day (one a week is even better). Then spend about a week or so figuring out how to incorporate that single technique into what you already knew how to play. Learn how to smoothly transition in and out of that technique. Learn how to mix that technique in with your current playing in unexpected ways. Play around with it. Get a feel for it. THEN you can move on to the next technique, eventually being a jack of all trades and master of each one!

3. Learn the right things in the right order

One of the major problems I had early on was trying to learn all the awesome stuff that my favorite guitarists were playing. The problem was, when they played something, it seemed effortless; and when I played it, I felt like my fingers were going to break off! It took me a long time to realize that they had a much deeper understanding of the multiple techniques they were using, the theory involved, the deep knowledge of the fretboard and the strength and endurance to play it so well – and that comes with time, and getting to know one area at a time. As soon as one of my mentors pointed this out to me, I went back over the basics.

Knowing that going over the basics would get me to my goals, I learned them quickly and intimately, until I built up the skills I have today! Imagine what it would be like for people to keep telling you “(Your Name), you made that look so easy!!” Believe me, if that happens for me, it can definitely happen for you! Learning the right way and in the right order is key!

Let me know how these tips work out for you and watch for the next installment!

Written by: Marcus L. Diaz
Owner, Mentor, Trainer, Coach
Master Your Guitar Music Academy
marcus@masteryourguitar.net

Here’s an extra tip:

The typical, average, logical approach to learning guitar that most instructors follow is NOT the best way to learn to play. My students come to me week after week because they learn faster with me than with any of their previous instructors! Why? Because there is madness in my method and a method to my madness! Learn how to prevent YEARS of frustration when you...