Senior Instructor at Halifax Guitar Lessons
You have dreamt about it for a long time and why not? You want to be able to play guitar and do it well. You want to be able to play something when you are asked what you know.
But you are not there yet. Maybe you are stuck, frustrated, and pretty much at the end of your motivation to learn. This is not as easy as you had hoped and you are starting to doubt you can do it.
Learning to play guitar can be challenging, especially at the beginning, so don’t despair. You CAN overcome this; you CAN do it!
Learning To Play Guitar Takes Time And Can Be Frustrating
It takes time and effort to accomplish anything in life. If it is worth doing, you will have to work for it. And you will likely run into challenges in order to do so.
Learning how to play guitar is no different. And for most of us it is actually very likely. None of us come programmed to play guitar.
Trying to do it on your own can be trying. There are so many resources available that claim they can make you a guitar player. So you try to do it yourself. But the reality is those did not likely work for you.
So it can get really frustrating.
You Will Have Challenges Learning To Play Guitar
I have been there. I have put the guitar down for many months because of it. I almost quit more than once because I started to think I did not have what it took to learn to play.
I remember spending hours and even days trying to learn what I was told should be easy, or that was at a beginner level. What I thought were basic skills on guitar were very difficult for me.
However I did not give up. I kept picking it back up and trying again. In time I finally started to see the light. I finally made it!
What kept me going? Good question because it can keep you going too.
Making A Commitment To Learning Guitar Is The Start
The first thing I did was that I made a decision and followed that up by committing to it fully.
That was a very important step because it got me started on the path. But it was not the thing that kept me going. I had the target and the resolve but without the fuel to propel me it did not get me very far.
Having goals is great and they can motivate us for a while. However when the going gets tough they are not usually enough to help us push through the challenges that you will run into when learning to lay or get better on guitar.
What else do you need to have success? It is very simple but also very powerful.
Add Fuel To Your Guitar Playing Goals Every Single Day
We all have reasons why we want to do something. The issue is we don’t think about them enough. Setting a target at the start is good to get the ball rolling but in time you forget why you really wanted it.
So what you need to remind yourself of why you want to learn to play guitar more often.
The easiest way I have found to do that is to write down your goal and also write down the reasons why you want it. The more reasons you have, the bigger they are and the more they connect with you emotionally, the better.
Then you review this daily. At least once in the morning and once before you go to sleep. This will not only keep the goal fresh but the reasons why you want it will be there too and will keep you on fire to get there!
To take this to the next level you should visualize yourself as if you have achieved the goal. See yourself playing guitar the way you want to. Make this as vivid as possible and include the feelings, the sounds, the smells, the sights, etc. The more detail the better!
Do this daily and you will absolutely mow down every challenge that comes up in your quest to learn to play guitar.