How To Become A Better Guitar Player

Learning to play guitar well and becoming a better guitar player is a process that involves many steps.  Although many guitarists feel that they are doing all that they can to improve their musical skills, they continue to face the same guitar playing problems.  If you find yourself in this group, there are several questions that you need to ask yourself to correctly identify what is holding you back from breaking through your plateau and learning to play guitar well.

Are You Learning About Guitar Playing From The Most Effective Sources?
By far the biggest factor in your guitar playing progress will be the effectiveness of your guitar practicing methods.  If your progress on guitar has been slower than you would like it to be, think about the approaches you are using to practice guitar and also consider the sources where your information about learning to play guitar is coming from.  For example, if you ask for tips on how to solve your guitar playing problems and become a better guitar player on an average internet guitar forum, the advice you will receive there is not monitored for quality and is usually written by guitar players who are not qualified to teach others how to play guitar well.  If the majority of your guitar playing information comes from such ineffective sources, seek out better ways to learn guitar. 

Do You Want To Become A Better Guitar Player Badly Enough?
The more ambitious your guitar playing goals are, the higher of a priority practicing guitar has to become for you. This does NOT mean that you must practice 8 hours per day, quit your job/school and abandon your family, but you need to make the choice "every day" to MAKE some time for practicing.  If becoming a better guitar player and solving your guitar playing problems is really important to you, you CAN find a way to squeeze an extra 30-60 minutes out of your day to practice guitar.  Guitar players who you look up to did not have any more time or any less responsibilities in life than you do.  They simply made a "choice" to arrange their daily schedule to always make some time for practicing guitar, no matter what.  If you want to play guitar as well as your favorite musicians, you must make this same choice.  Even if 15 or 30 minutes per day is the best you can do, "consistent" practice is going to be much more effective in the long run than "no" practice at all. 

Do You Procrastinate On Taking Action Towards Your Guitar Playing Goals?
Second only to not knowing what to do, procrastination is one of the most important obstacles that will stand in the way of you learning to play guitar well and solving your guitar playing problems.  If you find yourself feeling tempted to skip practicing guitar on a certain day, remind yourself how great you will feel after finally learning to play guitar well - the way you have always wanted to.  In contrast, think of the constant feelings of frustration and disappointment you will experience if you do not do the things you know you need to do in order to become a better guitar player.  Think about which feeling you would rather experience in the long run (fulfillment from being able to play guitar the way you want or frustration and disappointment from not reaching your goals) and take the action that is needed to achieve the result that you want. 

Do You Have An Organized Plan For Becoming The Guitar Player You Want To Be?
As explained above, one of the keys to becoming a better guitarist is consistency.  A very common mistake that guitar players make is practicing guitar without any sense of direction.  Many musicians simply “go through the motions” of playing each time they pick up the instrument and jump randomly from practicing one thing to the next without considering how the things they are working on relate to their current strengths, weaknesses and musical goals.  This approach will usually result in very slow progress and a lot of frustration. 

Although on the surface it may seem that spending time creating a plan and a guitar practice schedule will take away all the fun from playing guitar, in reality the exact opposite is true.  If you think about how much MORE fun you will get to have when you finally overcome your guitar playing problems and learn to play guitar well, it becomes easy to get inspired to do what is necessary to improve your musical skills.

If you are currently feeling frustrated because you are unable to play guitar as well as you want, ask yourself the questions listed above.  After doing this, think about what can be improved in your approach to practicing guitar and take the actions that are needed to overcome your guitar playing problems and learn to play guitar well.

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