Sadly, most people are rarely taught “how” to practise.
Instead, the guitar world is full of lots of lessons about “what” to do.
More scales, songs, chords, etc…
…But the “how” you practise is critical.
…Because if you don’t practise effectively, it can literally add years to the learning curve.
Believe me, I know.
I’ve been thinking and looking back lately on my beginnings on the guitar.
It feels like a long time ago (it was).
Just some of the mistakes I made which you want you to avoid include this:
- Learning bits and pieces of songs and never finishing them
- Letting myself forget how to play songs I’d spent many painstaking hours learning
- Not having any real focus on what I was going to practise that day
- Not realising the importance of trying to improve my sense of rhythm on a day-to-day basis
- Learning more stuff such as scales, chords, and complex theory which I did not ever use
- Not playing along with audio recordings or CDs (I avoided this because sub-consciously I think I KNEW it was going to highlight a lot of issues in my playing)
- Following the same old trend of learning strumming songs even though most were boring to me
- Not being kind to myself on the journey and letting the little voice in my head tell me, “I’m not good enough”
Thankfully, all of that is the past.
I’m older, wiser (and a little greyer).
Although, I’m human, and I do sometimes catch myself making the above mistakes occasionally.
Yet most of the above is pretty common with frustrated guitarists around the world.
I know that because whenever anyone joins my email list, the first email asks them about their biggest frustrations.
…But if I managed to turn it around, anyone can.
It wasn’t “natural talent” that helped me bypass the above issues.
…As I had zero musical aptitude at first. Sports was 100% my thing.
But it was simply a change in the way I practised that made the difference.
If you take one thing from this email, you can literally look at the above list and do the opposite of those things.
And if you do, you will make more progress than many on the guitar.
But if you want a systematic way of practising that will literally force you to avoid all the above pitfalls, improve at a faster confidence-building rate, and kickstart good habits in your practice….
Then I recommend you give the “10x Method” a go.
This is the primary way I get all students to practise, and it’s been a game-changer for both me and for them when used.
Whenever I’m learning anything new, I make sure I apply this method.
The good thing is, the more you apply it, the better you will get at using it, and the better results you will see.
Improving your guitar skills is like an aeroplane taking off.
So much energy comes from the initial burst of energy trying to take off.
But when you’re up in the air, you need far less power and can glide with much more ease.
The “10x Method” is simple, but it’s a lot like that in many ways – it takes the grunt work out of getting up in the air.
I teach this specific method in my new book, The Six String Lifer’s Handbook, which is my brand-new spiral-bound book.
The book features 27 very powerful mini lessons I wish I had known when I started out on the guitar.
…And the “10x Method” is tip #1 – it is that important.
Because “how” you practise will decide the speed at which you progress.
The book is only available to purchase for a short period of time and here’s the link to find out more…
Find out more about the 10x Method my brand-new spiral-bound book
…And if you enjoy fingerpicking, strumming, Travis picking, blues, and other fun acoustic styles, then you’ll no doubt love this book.
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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