The Ups and Downs of Learning Guitar

For the most part, learning to play guitar is thrilling and fun. However, every guitarist can have the so-called ups and downs in their learning and play. Sometimes your play may be totally breathtaking and you feel up, while other times you can make tons of mistakes and feel down. In this article, we will explain the reason to these “downs” and give advice on how to avoid them.

There are three major ingredients for a perfect play: motivation, patience, and mood. So, if you find yourself in the “down” state, try to adjust these three.

1. Motivation: The main point is to have a strong motivation. Remember why we decided to learn to play guitar. Do you have a favorite song that you want to master? Do you want to impress your friends or family? Do you want to play in a band? Try to remember your motivation. You can even write it down on a sheet of paper, or find an image that would symbolize your ultimate goal, and hang it on the wall in front of you.

2. Perseverance and patience: Many guitarists want to accomplish everything at once, but it does not work this way. You need to stock up with patience and persevere.

3. Mood: If you sat down to play the guitar with a bad mood; it will not work too well, so do your best to improve your mood.

If you have good motivation, a lot of patience, and play in a good mood, you will have all that is needed to succeed and reach another “up” period. The “up” is when you play much better than before. It is when you play some melody the way that only professionals could distinguish your play from that of the original performer.

What else can be done to lift your spirits? Read biographies of the great guitarists and listen to beautiful guitar music. Another good way is “comparison” – try to remember how you were before, and you’ll see that you have achieved tremendous results. You can become much better than now if you keep being positive, stay motivated, and persevere.

Finally, remember to practice each day in order to master guitar. It often happens that a guitarist loses their mood and concentration, such as after a vacation or the holidays. This can lead to making a lot of mistakes, losing the speed of play, and losing plasticity in the fingers. If you abandon your guitar for a couple of weeks, you may soon see the above “symptoms”. The best remedy is daily practice. Playing the guitar every day can boost your progress by 50% compared to playing it 3 times a week.

You don’t have to play for hours. It’s enough to have 30 minutes of daily practice. You can allocate more time on the weekends. The main thing is to take a new step every day, even if it will only be 5 new chords. If you miss a day, try to recover the next day. Also, avoid bad mood. Try to improve your mood first, and only then take your guitar.