Welcome to a new Monday post with 3 random thoughts on all things guitar, music, and life, including elf on the shelf, reading vs doing, and footie. Here we go…
#1 – Elf on the shelf
Here’s some festive fun.
It’s the elf on the shelf.
In case you don’t know, the elf on the shelf is basically a little elf who arrives from Santa’s grotto to ensure kids behave throughout December.
Well, we have one and Archie (who is 7 tomorrow) loves him.
I love the magical side of Christmas and how it gets children’s imaginations going.
What’s pretty cool about the elf is how he helps keep Archie accountable.
He’s a good lad, and he is on his best behaviour lately.
Accountability is good.
…Especially for us musicians.
Now I’m not saying we as grown adults should get an elf on the shelf to ensure we practise guitar more (who knows, maybe that could work!).
…But being accountable to someone or having an accountability partner is a good thing.
In terms of guitar playing, you can get or find a friend who is learning guitar and encourage each other on your journey.
This can be highly motivating.
You could even have a journal you write in each day about your playing, or you can log in to any of my courses and leave regular comments on the pages.
Any of these things can help make you more accountable when it comes to your playing.
…And that’s usually a good thing, especially if you need motivation to practise more.
#2 – Reading versus doing
I had a new member of one of my courses tell me the other day she is absolutely brand new to the guitar.
She doesn’t in fact yet have a guitar.
…But she’s been reading a lot, watching many videos, and taking a lot of information on board.
This is all good and shows she is super excited to learn.
It does come with a little warning, though.
It’s so easy to read about guitar, but nothing beats applying what you know.
Admittedly, for her, it’s pretty hard to apply any knowledge to the guitar without actually having a guitar.
…But the sooner she begins playing, the better (Christmas is when she’s getting one).
I sometimes see even experienced guitarists do this too.
For instance, when looking for a new guitar, some guitarists read a lot about guitars, but nothing beats going out and trying out a lot of guitars to see what suits you.
…Or some guitarists read about theory but don’t put it into practice or use it in their playing.
I always try to share a lot of advice and tips in my emails for instance, and they get a lot of really good feedback (thanks!), but I 100% urge you to ensure you apply what you learn.
…Because reading one powerful tip and using it is far better than reading dozens, but never doing much with them.
#3 – The World Cup
As you may know, it’s the football (as in soccer) World Cup at the moment.
What I really like about the tournament has been the number of shocks that have occurred.
Big teams like Argentina, Spain, and Germany (who got knocked out very early on) have all been beaten.
Lots of smaller teams like Japan and Saudi Arabia had surprising victories.
In tournaments like this, as soon as one team creates a shock, it opens up the doors for others to create shocks.
Why?
The power of belief.
For instance, if an underdog team wins, all the other underdog teams think “well, if they can do it, so can we”.
It’s the same on the guitar too.
Belief is crucial.
If you truly believe in yourself, your mind tends to find ways to increase your chances of success.
Then, success breeds more success.
…And that gets the ball truly rolling.
It all starts with seeing progress because once you do, the belief will come.
The problem can be that too many guitar resources take too long to “warm up” and give the student results.
…Or they start off well and then get too complicated too soon (which can be disheartening and ruin the student’s belief).
If you want a course that will get you started right away with real results from day 1, though, check this out.
Guitar Domination Super eBook Bundle
The lessons inside each of the eBooks are designed to give you results quickly.
I hope you enjoyed that and have a great Monday!
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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