Yeah, I know it’s fun to make mistakes on the guitar because sometimes it opens you up to new possibilities of making you bounce around to new ideas and things of the guitar. But don’t make mistakes if you don’t have to, that way you progress faster……..
Yeah I know we all make mistakes, that’s what erasers are for. Yes you’ll still make mistakes on the guitar even after reading this. But I can save you from making more mistakes than you need to.
Don’t make this mistake # 1:
Trying too hard when playing guitar
Relax dude! You don’t need to press down on the strings that hard. I don’t mean that in a mean way but you’d be surprised how many people make this mistake when they first start learning guitar. They’re breaking ALL kinds of stings. (I know I did, when I first starting out playing guitar.)
One reason why I broke a lot of strings was because of seeing AC DC concerts on T.V. And I would always see him going hard at it playing the guitar. He was strumming the heck out of it.
And to top it off, after he would be strumming it real hard, he would throw up his hands real high in the air for a couple of seconds, with pick in hand and then all of a sudden his hands would come back down extremely fast and then he would strum it again real hard.
He never seemed to slow down, he looked like he was enjoying it and he was, but in my mind I said, “THAT’S HOW YOU PLAY IT!” If you want to play hard rock or any rock for that matter you MUST strum hard, I so foolishly thought.
I’ve seen other pro rockers strumming hard too. But as they say, looks are deceiving. What I didn’t realize was they weren’t strumming as hard as I thought they were.
Yes they were strumming hard but not THAT hard. Yes they weren’t strumming it like a granny but they were strumming it with relaxation and control, where they would strum it enough to where the strings wouldn’t break. Where they wouldn’t put too much power, too much strength in their playing.
He never seemed to slow down, he looked like he was enjoying it and he was, but in my mind I said, “THAT’S HOW YOU PLAY IT!” If you want to play hard rock or any rock for that matter you MUST strum hard, I so foolishly thought.
I thought it was normal to play the guitar like this. Breaking strings every now and then. It’s quite humorous now when I think about it every now and then.
But I really hate changing strings, so now I trained myself to not break strings no more by making sure I’m relaxed and by not putting to much power into my playing. I’m still putting power into my playing when needed but not TOO much power.
Now I haven’t broke strings in years. And that’s good because I don’t like running around worrying about changing strings, when I can just be playing and enjoying the guitar.
My brother told me you don’t need to play it that hard. (meaning the strings) And I told him, yeah but AC DC does it and other rock bands, I shouted. He said they are playing it hard but not that hard. It actually took a couple of months to sink in what he told me because I believed this mistake so much. Even broke some more strings even after he told me.
Sometimes it takes a while and sometimes a long while to stop the mistakes we make. When we find out that what we are doing is actually a mistake.
Finally after playing the guitar for a while longer and the advise I got. When I was playing, I noticed that I could play the guitar where it sounded like it was hard but I wasn’t PLAYING it too hard, but I was playing it hard enough but not too hard. I had the Midas touch.
Playing too hard not only happens on guitar but also on other instruments.
You don’t see famous trumpet players or other wind instruments falling out and falling down on the ground trying to breathe and catch their breath as they are blowing into their instruments, because they know it’s all in the WAY you breathe or blow into the instrument. Not by blowing too hard.
Same thing with guitar, don’t try too hard. It should feel easy and be easy to play. Although this doesn’t make playing other things on the guitar any easier, like learning solo’s, getting your timing down and doing techniques and such. But don’t knock yourself out and try to hard, like you’ve been in a boxing match.
You’d think I’m joking that people have a hard time playing barre chords and trying not to play them too hard. I seen this happen to a number of people.
Their excuses are…. “I just couldn’t get my fingers to move fast enough. Or I just can’t get all the strings to go down on the guitar. I can only play some of the strings in the barre chord.” So they begin to say, “Well, if I can’t play some of the strings in the barre chord, I’ll just press down HARD on the fret of the guitar in order to play the barre chord.
Which leads to PLAYING TOO HARD on the guitar. So not only are you playing the guitar strings too hard, you are now making the mistake of playing barre chords to hard.
The way to overcome playing barre chords where the strings are not all being pressed down and from playing to hard, is you must keep moving your fingers around on the fret and then moving your HAND around, until you can press down ALL of the strings.
And in order to not play to hard where your pressing down to hard, you must ease up on the strings where it’s not to hard but just hard enough where you’re pressing down on all the strings. Kinda like have the Goldilocks touch… not to hard and not to easy. But just right.
I did this by lots of practicing. And it wasn’t until I relaxed my pressure a bit that I got it. I just laid back and chilled. Changed my way of practicing and loosened up, that I finally got it.
The way I figured out how to press down on all the strings when playing barre chords was I just kept moving my fingers around and moving my hand. And then I kept pressing down on the guitar with different pressures until I finally applied the right amount of pressure.
I did this by lots of practicing. And it wasn’t until I relaxed my pressure a bit that I got it. I just laid back and chilled. Changed my way of practicing and loosened up, that I finally got it.
Then I said no wonder musicians are always relaxed and having fun when they are playing. The are just playing their chords real easy with the right amount of pressure as they are playing their chords. All this also works not only with barre chords but also open chords as well.
So again….. not too hard and not too easy….When it comes to playing chords to hard, to where the strings break AND when it comes to pressing down on chords. Have the Goldilocks touch.
So again….. not too hard and not too easy….When it comes to playing chords to hard, to where the strings break AND when it comes to pressing down on chords. Have the Goldilocks touch.
Don’t make this mistake # 2:
Not practicing a technique long enough on guitar until you get it
I don’t know how many times I’ve done this where I would start practicing a technique and would almost perfect it, and then moving on to another technique before I even learned the last technique, I was working on.
What I mean by techniques is, bends, tapping, pull offs, hammer ons, vibrato, harmonics, fingerpicking or fingerstyle or Travis picking, hybrid picking, etc.
And what I also mean by techniques is the style of a guitar player, like for example, playing in the style of Van Halen. Or playing in the style of Jimi Hendrix. Or Eric Clapton or Nickleback or Greta Van Fleet, etc.
I learned that if I don’t pick a technique I want to learn real bad, at the time, that I won’t even learn it sometimes.
What I mean by that is, if you’re not real excited about learning a technique on the guitar real bad and you’re not real interested in learning it, there’s good chance you won’t do it. There’s a good chance you won’t practice it and learn it and then play it.
Let’s say you keep hearing musicians playing Travis picking on the guitar and that you love the way it sounds, and you keep on hearing every one talking about it. So it peaks your interest, real, real, bad, to learn it. There’s a great chance you will learn that technique.
Eddie Van Halen said he would watch other rock stars guitar techniques before he became good and would want to go home and play them. Not to gross you out or anything but he said, “I would learn techniques sometimes sitting on the toilet.” Because that’s how bad he wanted to learn it and that’s how inspired he was to play it.
That’s the secret to learning any technique you want to learn is to want to learn it real bad, so bad you’ll do anything to learn it.
You’ll have this bug bite you where you’ll want to learn it real bad, by your love of the sound of it. Because it sounds so good to you or it looks so fat to you, the way the technique looks to you when your favorite rock star does it on stage, in front of thousands of people and such.
Another great way to learn how to do ANY technique is to concentrate on that technique and that technique ONLY! Until you learn it, even if it takes months to learn that one technique.
So you go to a guitar teacher, you go to YouTube, you go to guitar instruction books to learn how to do this ONE technique not two techniques but ONE technique, UNTIL you get it. Until you can play that technique.
Another great way to learn how to do ANY technique is to concentrate on that technique and that technique ONLY! Until you learn it, even if it takes months to learn that one technique. So you go to a guitar teacher, you go to YouTube, you go to guitar instruction books to learn how to do this ONE technique not two techniques but ONE technique, UNTIL you get it. Until you can play that technique.
It’s like shooting your weapon over and over on ONE area of your target and in that area ONLY, which is the bulls eye. In order to learn ONE technique on guitar. And don’t stop shooting, don’t stop practicing, until you get it. Until you are able to play it.
This will work if you do it this way. You will concentrate on this technique only. Now don’t make the mistake of trying to learn it at full speed when you can’t even play it at a slower speed. Which is what happens when you are first learning a song, you are always real slow at it at first.
If you do it correctly at a slow speed when you’re first learning a song, then you will learn it at the right speed, at the normal speed, in time.
The mistake is playing a technique at the right speed according to the song you are playing but you are NOT playing the technique correctly, it is not right, so the technique doesn’t sound right.
Frustration sets in and you want to throw your guitar out the window. At this time you will have to back up and learn it from the start of the technique and then take it on, one step at a time, little by little. And then work on getting the speed of the technique just a little bit faster and then a little more faster, until you get it to the right speed.
It’s like shooting your weapon over and over on ONE area of your target and in that area ONLY, which is the bulls eye. In order to learn ONE technique on guitar. And don’t stop shooting, don’t stop practicing, until you get it. Until you are able to play it.
Don’t make this mistake # 3:
Thinking you will be playing like your favorite rock stars in a few weeks
Think you’ll be playing like your favorite rock stars in a few weeks like Greta Van Fleet or Bad Wolves or Jimi Hendrix? Think again. It’s the fastest way to chunking your guitar out your window real quick and real fast because you’ll not able to match them note for notes, like you think you deserve.
But this will be your downfall, your mistake, if you don’t become realistic about how long it will take to learn guitar. Once you do that, you will be able to do what it takes to be able to become as good them, when you put in the work like them. Which is learning the basics of the guitar first and then learning everything about the guitar, ONE bite at a time.
What do they say?… How do you eat a elephant?…… One bite at a time. In order to become great at the guitar, your going to have to learn all kinds of things, to one day, have your share of the glory of playing the guitar real good.
How do people climb mountains? One step at a time, little by little and patience. And before you know it, they’re at the top, looking down at the world, yelling, “Look at me! I’m at the top!” Apply this to guitar and you’ll be on your way up.
Look at me! I’m at the top!
You’re going to treat it as if you’re going to school and you need that knowledge and experience and not only experience but HANDS on experience.
Just like in college it takes time to learn anything. They teach it one day at a time, one session at a time. Day by day and then before you know it, years have gone by and they have learned their craft.
Same way for you, son, if you want to learn guitar, be like the schools, learn it one day at a time, one session at a time, learning your craft, which is guitar. And before you know it, years have passed. You will have become great, if you learned and practiced just like them.
Thinking you can be great real quick is one mistake you can not afford to make, if you want to be great.
How do people climb mountains? One step at a time, little by little and patience. And before you know it, they’re at the top, looking down at the world, yelling, “Look at me! I’m at the top!” Apply this to guitar and you’ll be on your way up.
Don’t make this mistake # 4:
Inconsistent guitar practice
In order to keep your muscle memory in your fingers for your guitar, you should at least practice the guitar on a consistent basis, that way you won’t get rusty on the guitar.
All of what you learned on the guitar will be met with not being able to excel as quick as you would. If you are only playing it here and there, like once in a week and then two weeks after that. And missing opportunities where you could of been playing it on a daily basis. Or at least where you give it a run of just about everyday.
It’s always better to do something on the guitar than not doing anything at all, in my book.
If you can’t practice it everyday day, don’t panic. Just doubleback and play it as often as you can. Remember it’s better to play it sometimes, than no time at all.
If you need a guitar to practice with, or play, check out these in my article, I wrote.
Don’t make the mistake of not making time to play it everyday, if you can.
You put on your shoes everyday, so you can play the guitar everyday.
If you think you can’t play the guitar everyday, at least try to play it for 20 minutes everyday.
Or if you can’t and all you have is 5 minutes, then go for it and practice your guitar. It’s always better to do something on the guitar than not doing anything at all, in my book.
Don’t make this mistake # 5:
Learning to much on the guitar at one setting
I don’t know how I’m going to learn all this in one shot, in one setting. That’s what I said in some of my classes, in my marital arts classes.
No I didn’t realize it at the time but the mistake that everyone there made was in trying to tell me too much fight tactics in one session, all within 2 hours. They were telling me like 10 different defense fighting moves, at one class setting.
I was busy trying to learn one thing of what my martial arts teacher was telling me and then through out the class others would tell me more fighting tactics.
I would walk away from that class trying to remember everything of what everyone told me. Because I couldn’t remember everything because they crammed me with to much info., at one shot.
After awhile I realize it was a mistake of them and me to keep learning to much in one setting. So as I wised up, I begin to tell everyone one in my class that I’m not going to learn like 10 different things in one shot. I’m just going to learn one move or two moves, per class, per session, per day.
An amazing thing happened, I finally learned some fight moves and remembered them because I didn’t take on too much at a time.
Same way on the guitar, if you try to take on to much things on the guitar in one shot, at one time, all in one day, then you’ll not remember everything you we’re trying to learn because it’s to much, to soon.
Same way on the guitar, if you try to take on to much things on the guitar in one shot, at one time, all in one day, then you’ll not remember everything you we’re trying to learn because it’s to much, to soon.
Learn one thing on the guitar per practice, within a hour or so. You will be able to retain what you are learning on the guitar doing this.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can take on to much to soon, all at once.
Related Questions
Is it hard to play guitar? Generally it is not hard to learn if you have fun doing it and take it on one step at a time and little by little. You will amass a lot of skill if you learn enough things on the guitar. Once you get to the point and play it because you practiced it, it becomes more fun.
Can you teach yourself to sing? Anyone that can speak can learn to sing but a number of people will know how to sing better. A great way to teach yourself to sing is to listen to songs you love and sing to those songs. This will cause you to get better at singing.
Is it possible to learn guitar online? Yes, it is possible to learn to play guitar online. The reason why is because you have access to YouTube, guitar websites and ebooks, all of which will give you access to guitar instructions that will give you lessons to learn.
Photo credits:
2008-11-25 02:18 Weatherman90 2849×2384× (951395 bytes) ANGUS YOUNG Angus Young live with AC/DC on November 23, 2008 in St. Paul, MN PHOTO BY MATT BECKER www.melodicrockconcerts.com matt@melodicrockconcerts.com photo attribution and credit to Weatherman90 at English Wikipedia:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Van Halen playing guitar on stage Brian Lynch, Attribution photo credit Black Eagle:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Tommy Vext holding up hands in the air with microphone in the other, with t-shirt that says BAD WOLVES, Tommy Vext with Five Finger Death Punch photo courtesy of Alfred Nitsch: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
