The 3 P’s of learning to play guitar
Practice
It is essential to have a practice plan. Make your goals very specific to ensure you reach them.
Don’t just say that you want to learn a song but break it down into smaller parts.
Take a look at some specific goals for your guitar playing:
” Today I will learn the chords of the intro of the song”
“I will learn the strumming pattern of two chords”
“I will learn the chord progression in the verse of the song”
“I will play a G Major scale over one octave”
You can then measure the success of your practice session. By having a plan laid out at the beginning, you will be much more focussed and get closer to achieving your goals as a guitar player.
Persistence
I read recently a quote (I’m not sure who said it) “a river cuts through rock not because of it’s power but because of it’s persistence”.
There will be times when you feel like giving up. No matter how good of guitar player you are , we all run up against musical and guitar playing challenges that are difficult.
You have to develop persistence to keep going when it gets tough.
Patience
You have to be patient and trust that it you are sticking to practice plan and persisting that you will be making progress.
#TIP You should record your playing on your smartphone and forget about it. When you move onto something more challenging that your are having problems with, take a look at your video.
I bet you will be pleasantly surprised at your progress from the time of the video until when you watch back again.
It is a good way to reinforce that you are actually making progress for yourself and it hopefully will inspire you to push through with what you are trying to play now.
