Welcome to a new Monday email with 3 random thoughts on all things guitar, music, and life, including Indiana Jones, a simple notebook tool, and more. Here we go…
#1 – The power of a simple notebook
Do you ever use a notebook for your playing?
I ask because organising your songs, lessons, and everything else you know is a good idea.
You can be simple or complex with this.
On the simple side, you can just have a page where you write down all the songs you’ve learnt (or the ones you are practising).
Just having one simple page like this can be really handy, especially if you have learnt a few songs, or bits of songs.
It’s so easy to forget what to practise after all, and if you don’t keep on top of those songs, all that hard work of learning the song can go to the wayside.
If you want to take this idea further, you can have another page in your notebook featuring all the lessons – things such as Travis picking, fingerpicking patterns/strumming patterns, theory, etc.
Be as simple or as complex as you like.
It’s a simple bit of organisation, which most people never think of, and yeah, it takes a little effort at first, but it’s well worth it.
#2 – Perception is powerful
The other day I stumbled across an old article about perception.
In it, they talked about the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
When they created this ride, the designers wanted a big showstopper and to make the cars go backwards at the end.
They quickly realised this was impossible, as it would mean the cars would crash with the ones behind them.
…But they did it anyway. How?
By using the power of perception.
At some point, the vehicle stops and it feels like the car is moving backwards…
…But apparently, it’s the walls and ceiling that are moving, giving you the feeling that you’re travelling backwards…
The designer came up with the ideas from a car wash, which I thought was interesting. (One of those automated ones with the brushes mounted on the walls you see in petrol stations).
I love this.
It shows the power of perception which is powerful in music and guitar too.
You can sit there and rush through a piece of music or a simple four-note picking pattern…
…Or you can get totally lost in the moment, zone in on the beauty of a handful of notes, and get swept along to another place feeling the rush and thrill of making real music…
The same music – two totally different results, all because of the way you perceive it.
Music is powerful like that.
#3 – A simple rule everyone should follow
There are a lot of frustrated guitarists out there.
I get a lot of emails from new subscribers asking me how best to make progress, how to get over feeling overwhelmed and how to actually have fun.
While there is no super simple and straightforward answer to this, the very first step I encourage them to take is to follow this rule of mine…
Every day on the guitar, try to make some sort of progress (even just one teeny-tiny improvement) and play something fun (e.g., a bar or two of a recognisable piece of music).
If you follow this rule, every single day, in a few weeks you’ll notice a difference in your playing.
Over a year, the difference between doing this and slogging away will be huge.
Keep that rule in mind as much as you can.
I hope you enjoyed those three thoughts from this week and have a great Monday…
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. For more detailed, specific guidance on going further with the ideas mentioned above, you may want to check out my book bundle. The 7 short and to-the-point eBooks will help you to fix what I call the “7 stumbling blocks” of guitar playing so you can have much more fun from today. Find out more below…
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P.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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