The focus and desire to start again at the beginning
Here is a snippet of a comment I thought I’d share, especially for those of you who have the Fingerstyle 101 BOOK or EBOOK.
It was taken from the VIDEO version of the Fingerstyle 101 course and was a comment left last night…
“Hi, I’m Stewart from Wiltshire, England.
I bought your fingerstyle book last year and have been going through it very slowly. My problem is I can’t stop myself flicking ahead before I’ve mastered the earlier patterns.
Anyway, I decided to buy the video course, and it’s the best thing I ever did.
It’s given me the focus and desire to start again at the beginning and become the guitar player I’ve wanted to be for years. I’m 68. Thanks Dan”
Stewart
This isn’t the first time I’ve had this sort of comment from a student who originally purchased the Fingerstyle 101 book and then went on to get the video course.
…And this brings me on to something interesting that I was going to write about today anyway.
It’s about focus.
I’m not saying Stewart doesn’t have this, but a lot of guitarists hop from one shiny object to the next (I used to be the world’s worst for this).
You might know the feeling…
One day it’s strumming, the next barre chords, then it’s ear training, songs, a bit of fingerpicking, scale, and on and on, and everything becomes a bit of a mish-mash.
This reminds me of plate spinning in a circus or magic show. It looks cool, but they had to learn this wacky skill by working on spinning one plate at a time.
I doubt Eric Clapton or Tommy Emmanuel (who are both superb all-around guitarists) got good at trying to master everything at once. Instead, Clapton was an electric blues man, a blues-rock guy, an acoustic player, soft rock/pop artist, delta blues man, and so on. He didn’t do it all at once.
Don’t get me wrong, having variety is good and can work…
…but only as an additional bonus to what you really want to focus on.
If you want to become amazing at strumming, make strumming your priority each day.
Then, if you want or need it, add some variety after you’ve had a good strumming practice session.
Same goes for barre chords, fingerpicking, riffs, leads, theory, anything really.
…And if fingerpicking is your thing, you might want to take a look at the video version of Fingerstyle 101.
At midnight tonight (PST time), this course will go back up to full price and the bonus will no longer be available.
The bonus, in case you are unaware, is how to get started playing in the vintage Travis picking style of Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Tommy Emmanuel.
You can hear exactly how this fun style sounds at the link below…
Find out more about the Fingerstyle 101 Video Course
Have a great day!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. By the way, one very cool thing you can do in the video version is leave comments on each page and ask questions. There are 200+ comments in the course from students so far, saying things such as this:
“Awesome. I’m already learning more than I ever did with other lessons. Pace is good and explanations are clear.” – Kathy
“Loving this Dan. I think approaching the guitar in this manner is what I’ve needed all these years.” – Kevin
And one of my favourites…
“My wife didn’t know I’d got the course and doesn’t play but when she heard me she commented that it sounds classical with a really good tone…so it’s working well lol” – Rob
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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