Learn How To Get Unstuck As A Self-Taught Guitar Player
by Tom Hess
Description: Learning guitar on your own usually leads to getting stuck. This happens for many specific reasons. Learn what these reasons are by reading this page.
Why You Get Stuck As A Self-Taught Guitarist
It is very common for guitar players to go months or years without learning with a teacher. This makes playing guitar much more frustrating and difficult than it needs to be. When you are self-taught, you may learn some cool things here and there, but you do not improve your skills as fast as you would by learning with an experienced guitar teacher who has helped many others become great players.
As you learn on your own, you eventually become stuck in your playing for one or more reasons. Here are the biggest reasons why most guitarists get stuck and why working with a teacher helps you become unstuck in these situations:
Having Poor Technique
Simply put, when you learn guitar on your own you often learn technique in ineffective ways. It could be something as basic as using a wrong fingering or raising your fingers too high off the fretboard when playing a scale. Maybe it could be something like picking ineffectively while trying to play fast scale runs. Whatever the case may be, these poor playing habits lead to barriers down the road in your playing. Eventually you will struggle to play fast or clean due to bad technique.
When you work together with an experienced teacher, he/she quickly spots and corrects mistakes in your playing. This helps tremendously because you likely would’ve never spotted these things on your own and spent years being frustrated by mistakes caused by them. Your teacher will then show you how to play more efficiently in order to become the guitarist you want to be.
Not Knowing What To Do To Move Beyond Mistakes And Get To A New Level In Your Playing
Sometimes you might have pretty good technique, but are just making a few subtle mistakes that hold you back from taking your playing to a much higher level. This happens commonly with intermediate and advanced players. A great guitar teacher knows how to make subtle adjustments to your playing that will help you fulfill your musical potential and overcome plateaus. You’ll be shocked at some of the things you learn that you never would’ve guessed could help you finally play something exactly the way you intended to play it.
Not Having Clear Musical Goals
When you don’t have clear musical goals, it is extremely difficult to make progress on guitar. Regardless of whether you just want to play guitar solos or become a pro musician in a rock band… not having goals is the easiest way to not accomplish anything in your playing.
Without goals, you have no real reason to practice specific things. It’s likely that you’ll do what many players do and practice as many things as you can find. This commonly causes feelings of being overwhelmed and makes practicing guitar feel like work rather than fun (as it should be).
A great guitar teacher helps you understand exactly what you want to achieve on guitar, then creates a lesson plan that will get you there. This way you practice only the things that matter most and know for sure that what you are practicing is bringing you closer to becoming the guitarist you want to be.
Not Practicing Effectively
Finally, many self-taught guitarists simply do not know how to practice effectively… even if they practice the right things. A guitar teacher helps you not only practice the right things, but practice them in the right way and in the right order. This way you get the best results possible in the shortest amount of time.
Now that you know why working with a guitar teacher is so important, start looking for one immediately!