I hear that all the time. You probably too. We all have friends who procrastinate! They always talk about what they want to do, the places they want to go to, the business they want to start, and the New Year resolution failure type. When it comes to learning guitar, things are not that different. People want to learn how to play guitar, but they find all kinds of excuses to delay, dismantle, and quit!
The top five excuses people have when it comes to learning guitar!
- Excuse 1 – I don’t have time.
- Excuse 2 – It takes too long.
- Excuse 3 – I don’t have talent.
- Excuse 4 – It’s too expensive.
- Excuse 5 – I’ve tried, but I didn’t improve.
Excuse 1 – I don’t have time –
Time is the most important thing we have. In his book “On the shortness of life,” the philosopher Seneca says, “It is not that we have a short life, but that we waste a lot of it.” You have to learn how to organize your daily routine!
Sometimes people really want to learn guitar. They come to see me, and we talk about their goals and motivations. They are excited and ready to start. They buy the guitar, books and pay for the lessons. After the first lesson, you give them the stuff to learn and tell them to practice. One week later, they come back, and with a bit of embarrassment, they go like:
Student: Sorry, I didn’t have time to practice.
Me: Ok, why?
Student: Didn’t have time. Too busy.
Me: Ok. But you know that if you want to improve you have to practice. You don’t need a lot. Even just 15 min a day. I am sure you can find a little bit of time.
Student: I know, but I come back from work at 6 pm, and I am too tired. I usually cook something, and I watch tv till 11 pm.
Me: So, you have time. You have to know how to use it. Let me help you organize your session to get the most out of the time you have after work.
Blocking your time is key to success!
If you complain because you don’t have time, you probably never thought about organizing your practice session. The first thing to do is to know what you have to practice. Let’s say you are a beginner, and you have to practice:
- One major scale (one octave). 5 minutes
- Three chords – A major, E major, and D major. 10 minutes
- One song – Chasing Cars. 10 minutes.
Now that you have your timetable, the session looks less tiring. Let’s say you come back home at 6 pm like the student above. You could have a 10 minutes session after dinner. In these 1o minutes, you could practice the scale and some of the chords. Then you could take a break and watch some Tv. You could then finish practicing the chords for another 5 min and the song for 10min. The first session would last 10 minutes, the second 15 minutes.
If you find yourself not practicing even with time blocking, it might be because you don’t have enough motivation. Ask yourself this question: Do I really want to play guitar? If the answer is a big, Yes! Then you should push yourself and do it even if you are tired. It takes time and commitment! Remember: Plan your practicing schedule!
Excuse 2 – It takes too long –
If you think that learning guitar is a long process, you have to ask yourself this question:
Which kind of guitar player do I want to be?
- A professional guitar player: Yes, if you want to become a professional guitar player, it will take time and effort. You will have to practice a lot, be disciplined, and work hard. This type of guitar player love to play guitar and dream of making music his career. He wants to be a full-time musician. For him, “It takes too long” is not a problem.
- An intermediate, skilled guitar player: If you want to become an intermediate guitar player with good technique and skills, it will take probably about 5/7 years. This type of player love playing guitar for fun. He doesn’t really want to become a pro guitar player but practice hard every day to improve. For him, “It takes too long” is not a problem.
- A basic guitar player with a bit of knowledge about music theory and rhythm: You can achieve this level in 1/2 years. This type of guitar player learns guitar for fun. He doesn’t really practice a lot, maybe once or twice a week. He is a slow learner, and he knows it! For him, “It takes too long” is not a problem.
- A super basic strumming guitar player: The “strumming” guitar player wants only to do one thing: Strum chords!. He doesn’t want to learn about music theory or rhythm. Please give him a pic, three chords, and one song, and he becomes the happiest person on the planet. You can become a Strumming guitar player in 6 months.
If you think it takes too long to learn the guitar, you should try the last two categories.
Excuse 3 – I don’t have talent –
This is a funny one, especially when beginners say that. I mean, how do you know if you don’t have talent if you have never played before. Anyway, let’s try to fix that.
What’s the best and true nature of talent?
I was reading and an amazing book by Matthew Syed called Bounce. In this book, he talks about talent and practice. He goes on to say that talent alone is not enough to succeed. You must be highly motivated and practice purposefully what you are good at.
In 1991 Psychologist Andres Ericsson conducted one of the most mind-blowing investigations about talent vs. practice. They selected three groups of musicians.
- The first group: Boys and girls, expected to become soloists. These kids were considered to be super-talented or with a musical gift.
- The second group: Boys and girls excellent but not as accomplished as the first group.
- The third group: Boys and girls considered to be the least talented. I expected to become a music teacher at school.
By the age of 20 years old,
- The first group of musicians had practiced for more than 10.000 hours.
- The second group 8000 hours.
- The third group only 4000 hours.
There is a reason why the first group turned out to be more successful than the other two. They had practiced more hours. They had also devoted thousands of additional hours to the task of becoming master performers. They had practiced purposefully.
Before you say you don’t have talent, make sure you get some practice!
If you think you have no talent, ask yourself this question: Since I decided I don’t have a musical talent? How many hours’ worth of practice do you have on your shoulder? Start practicing and give yourself a bit of time, then try to play for your friends, family, and girlfriend/boyfriend. Listen to what they say. I am sure that if you spend a few hours worth of practice a week, the outcome will be more than you expect. Talent is not the main ingredient! Trust me! Give yourself a bit of time.
Excuse 4 – It’s too expensive –
Lousy excuse. Let’s forget for a second about all the free stuff that you have on webpages like YouTube. Let’s say that you want something more than just a free video. You want to have some valuable feedback from an expert or paid quality content. Let me give you four killing cheap resources that you can use to improve your lessons’ quality.
- Online guitar lesson.
- Skype guitar lesson.
- DVDs
- Private guitar lesson.
Online guitar lesson.
Nowadays, Online guitar lessons are probably the cheapest way to learn how to play guitar. There are many different platforms that you can use on a subscription basis. The online guitar lessons offer you a huge amount of content for a fairly low price. The cool thing about these guitar courses is that you can learn at your own pace. You can watch the videos when you want and fast-forward if you need them. This is a list of the three most used online guitar courses on the web.
- Jamplay – 19.95$ a month. They upload roughly 10 hours of new content a day!
- Guitarjamz – 29.99$ a month. Marty Schwarts is the YouTube guy that can teach you everything.
- Guitar tricks – 19.95$ a month. Same as Jamplay but with different teachers.
There are tons of other online courses for Classical and Acoustic Guitar; you just have to find the one suitable for you. As you can see, they are quite cheap, and the amount of lessons you have is almost unlimited.
Skype Guitar Lesson.
Skype guitar lessons are another cheap way to learn how to play guitar. You can talk to a teacher via webcam and pay as little as 15£ per lesson. Skype lessons are really good because you don’t really have to leave your place. I wouldn’t really recommend skype lessons for advanced guitar players, but if you are a beginner willing to start without spending a fortune in private fees, skype guitar lessons are the best way to start with.
DVDs.
I am not a huge fan of DVD courses. They are not versatile and, most of the time, boring. But they are cheap. If you really want to start playing guitar, with a DVD course (one-time fee), you will have material to start with.
Private lessons.
I am sure you are already thinking, “Man, private lessons are expensive”!! You are right bro. Private guitar lessons are costly and probably still the best way to learn how to play the guitar properly. This is still the only way you can talk one to one with a teacher, plan your music path, have specific feedback on your playing, ask questions, and fix bad habits. Private lessons are costly, but who says that you have to take one lesson a week? You could learn guitar using one of the cheap ways above and maybe once a month plan a private lesson with a teacher. The average private lesson here in London is about 30£ per session. You could book a lesson every 4/5 weeks to make sure you are learning the right things. It is good to have feedback from a private teacher! Trust me. So, do you think guitar lessons are still expensive? Leave a comment!
Excuse 5 – I’ve tried, but I didn’t improve –
If you tried to learn guitar and failed, you must ask yourself a question: How many hours did I put into it and for how many months? I am sure that you have something like: Practicing twice a week for 20 minutes for three months. If your number is close to this one, let me tell you straight away that it’s not enough. I saw people struggling to improve for more than six months before their playing took off!
Let me give you an example.
Take a look at the picture:
Two students start playing guitar at the same time. Their goal is to learn all the major and minor basic chords in two months. They split the chords into two groups: Easy (for the first month) and Difficult chords (for the second month).
- Student A starts slowly during the first month with the easy chords but learns the difficult one easily.
- Student B memorize almost all the chords immediately but struggle with the difficult chords.
As you check the pic above, you notice that the starting point looks different. Student A is slower than student B. After two months, though, both of them can play all the major and minor basic chords. They reached the goal at the same time. Student A struggled at first but learned the difficult chords quicker; Student B memorized the easy chords straightaway but struggled with the difficult chords.
If you are like Student A, don’t quit straight away! Results will come!
Give yourself a bit of time and keep trying. Don’t give up too soon! Set up monthly, weekly and daily goals. You will be alright!
Three Killing remedies to stop procrastinating and start playing guitar!
I will go into details in another post. I really like these three remedies. They work all the time.
- Work on your strength: You have to know what you want to learn. “I want to play guitar” is too generic! Try to figure out what you are good at. If you are naturally good with strumming, practice more strumming. If you are good with the fingerstyle, make sure you play more stuff with the fingerstyle technique. You will improve faster if you work on your strength.
- Set up a goal: Be realistic about the time you can put into it. Even just 20 minutes is fine. By setting up a goal, you know how much practice do you need. Try not to make it too simple. Your goal should be achievable but challenging, difficult but not impossible.
- Commitment: Make sure you do it, no, matter what! Commitment is an act, not a word. You have to put in time and effort every day to build momentum. You can freaking do it!
