Why do people quit?
Too many times I have seen friends of mine starting to learn how to play the guitar, only to give up after a few months or so. Some of them because it was to hard for them to learn, others claimed that it was to much for them to learn.
These are only poor excuses, I tell them. In my opinion, learning the guitar is an incredibly rewarding experience. Yes, it can be hard, but the rewards are immense.
If you want to learn how to play the guitar, here are three things to think about.
- What do you want to do?
- What level of playing do you want to achieve?
- What style of playing do you want to learn?
By thinking these thoughts, you can start to see where you’re going. Have you ever heard of a ” observers arrangement”? This is where friends who are learning to play the guitar get together and practice together. This is a great way to accelerate your guitar playing because your Observers are able to keep each other motivated by seeing how far they have come.
Whatever style you decide to learn, you’re bound to get bored if you go at it for too long without learning new things. Boredom is an extremely bad thing because you don’t want to practice just to return to the same level you were at.
It’s important to divide your guitar playing time up over a number of weeks, months or even years. The reason is that when the initial joy of playing the guitar is gone, so is the motivation. To repurpose your mind and get it to focus on new challenges is a much more effective way to get better rather than just playing the same thing over and over again.
- Level of playing what you want.
If you are just learning to play church style guitar, then playing some basic and vague chords will keep you busy for quite a while. As you get more advanced, this style of playing will become more defined and you will begin to really push the limits of your guitar playing.
The important thing is to set goals for yourself. You don’t need to learn tons of chords or scales in order to be a great guitar player, but you do need to be aware of what you want to achieve and how you want to play in order to grow as a musician.
- The style of playing what you like.
If you are just learning to play church guitar, you should be using a lot of mainly power chords and chord-heavy style songs. This is not the style of guitar playing that will get you nights and weekends worth of enjoyment.
You may think that learning to play power chords means that you can play absolutely any style of music and be successful. Forget it. You may be able to play more songs (rouse in your friends’ ears) with power chords than almost any other style of guitar playing. But if you want to be good, you will need to expand your ability and not limit yourself.
- Pick a cool guitar riffs from a CD or get inspired by your favorite band.
If you’re learning to play guitar, odds are you have already the musical influences that will get you going. Get a hold of some contemporary guitar riffs (most of the time state-of-the-art ones) and play them over the top of your power chords.
Never forget that the key behind playing guitar well is having fun. Don’t kill yourself trying to come up with interesting lead guitar parts. Have fun with your rhythm playing and write your own rhythm guitar riffs.
- Watch other guitarists live or online.
Take advantage of Google’s awesome new servers. If you don’t have the time to be in front of your computer and the opportunity to study some of the top guitar players online, strap on your big-screen theater chair and go to YouTube (see what I mean).
Note: This is not the time to be cheap. Lessons with a real guitar teacher can cost $20 or more per hour.
- Be extremely selective about your guitar teacher.
If your dream is to be able to play Ozzy, don’t be tempted to bite off more than you can chew. You need to build this important skill into your learning curve. Do your homework and only go with the highest quality lessons that are guaranteed to deliver results. When you are looking for a good guitar teacher, note the big difference in the cost of lessons.
The average cost of lessons will be between $15 and $50 (it depends on how far you wish to go) but do not be afraid to ask and explore the cost aspect of your situation to determine if this is the best use of your hard earned money.


