10 Secrets to Learning Guitar Like Crazy
If you're looking to learn a musical instrument quickly and inexpensively you've chosen the right instrument my friend.
The guitar is easy to pick up and easy to make sound half-decent within a few days. But don't be under any illusion that learning to play guitar to a high standard is a walk in the park.
Sorry.
But do not panic! My goal is to give you a toolkit of techniques and tricks to help you speed up your efforts when learning to play guitar. I'd also like to suggest a few things that you can do to make your guitar learning as inexpensive as possible.
Whether you've decided to learn guitar online or look for the best guitar lessons in your neighborhood taught by a professional teacher, these tips should help you out either way.
Here are 10 secrets to learning guitar like crazy.
- Become immersed in all things guitar - Just as you learned how to speak your first language, immersing yourself in words, sounds and visuals of a discipline can really sky-rocket your learning. This is as true for learning to play guitar as it is for learning language. Instead of listening to the radio, try playing guitar CDs in the car - either tutorials or the albums of the greats - Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery are good ones to start with. Also make sure you buy a guitar magazine every so often. I'm not saying every month - they're expensive - at least 2 or 3 times a year.
- Get a band together - This is how I really learned to play in time and gain performance confidence. The key to getting a band together though is to make sure it's fun. Better to be in a less musically proficient band with your mates than in a very professional outfit that feels like being at school. Franz Ferdinand front man Alex Kapranos knew this when he put a bass guitar in the hands of his mate and told him how to play it.
- Record yourself - Listening back to recordings of yourself is one of the quickest ways to eliminate any sloppy playing or habits that you don't notice when you're playing. Yes, it can be a bit uncomfortable at first but stick with it and keep trying. The first time you do it, you'll sound crap. But your shortcomings will become obvious and therefore easy to correct. Better to fix them in the privacy of your bedroom than on stage in front of people.
- Practice 10 minutes a day - Every journey is just a series of small steps put together. And if you make a small ten minute conviction to practicing every day, those ten minutes will add up over the months to one big giant practice session. Make it easy on yourself and break your journey into bite size chunks of ten minutes a day. Otherwise, you'll feel overwhelmed.
- Believe in yourself - Create mental pictures of yourself achieving your guitar goal. Whether that is playing songs at the next party or playing on stage at the busiest club in town. Try and feel the emotions that you will feel when you achieve your end goal. This will condition your subconscious to believe that it is going to happen and so you will feel compelled to take the necessary steps to make it happen - i.e plenty of practice and dedication.
