People Quit The Guitar Because Of The Following Reasons, And All These Reasons Have Solutions Below If You Want To Play
1 Sore Fingers
2 Their Guitar Is Setup Wrong
3 Frustration At Their Progress
4 Frustration At Their Sound
5 No Direction
6 No Inspiration
7 Self Criticism,
8 Outside Criticism
9 Cant Relax
10 Not Learning The Music They Want,
11 Not Having Fun While Learning
12 Not Practicing
13 Learning From A Teaching Source That Is Sub Optimal
14 Their Guitar Is Always Packed Away
15 They Think They Are Too Old
1 Learn How To Overcome Finger Soreness
An amazing number of people quit the guitar because their fingers get sore . I honestly underestimated and overlooked the details of this phenomenon for years even when I was teaching . This led me to write a whole detailed article on see below . There are ways around soreness , many myths and way more methods to manage this barrier than you think .
Solution
Read This Article
“How To Overcome Finger Pain When Playing The Guitar Best Tips”
full article here
https://goodguitarsense.com/index.php/2020/02/26/642/
The main considerations of finger soreness when playing the guitar are to :
1 Evaluate Your Finger Tip Softness In Relation To What You Do Daily, So You Are Aware Of The Level Of Fingertip Hardness You Are Starting With
2 Realize Extreme Callous Building Is A Myth
3 Make Sure Your Guitar Action Is Setup Correctly
4 Make Sure You Have The Best String Gauge For Your Playing
5 Different Types Of Guitars Are Easier To Play Than Others
6 Fret Only As Hard As You Need To To Get The Chords Or Notes Clear
7 Regulate Fretting Hand Pressure With Smart Practice Routine To Reduce Soreness
8 Avoid Fingertip Bruising At All Cost
9 Cut Fretting Hand Nails To Correct Length
10 Don’t Chew Your Fingertips And Nails
11 Avoid Soaking In Water Before Playing
read this full article here “How To Overcome Finger Pain When Playing The Guitar Best Tips” http://”How To Overcome Finger Pain When Playing The Guitar Best Tips” full article here
2 Their Guitar is Setup Wrong
Solution
Get some advice , as a beginner its hard to tell where your guitar is at!
Play other peoples guitars , get an idea on what a good guitar is . Ask an experienced player to look at your guitar to see if it is set up correctly for playing .What they are checking for is that your guitar string height action is where it should be to play comfortably. Any seasoned player will know right away if your guitar is setup correctly for learning and playing.
A lot of good players are really handy at setting guitar action themselves, others are not, but most will know where to send you. This will typically cost between$15 and $50 to fix. Try your local music store or ring the nearest guitar luthier (qualified guitar repairer technician ).
There’s only a tiny difference and its hard to tell, that’s why you need someone to check it out for you .
In these two pictures guitar pic 1 is typical of a guitar that is not set up correctly at the nut. This is a common cause of finger pain . The distance between between strings and fretboard is too high , this will cause cutting into the fingers with the strings , because the player will be pressing too hard to get the strings clear …. = PAIN .
The other aspect of guitar setup to consider is the distance of the strings to the fret board towards the bridge end of the guitar , again here are two photos, one correct, and one not correct. There is a relation between distance all the way along the neck that makes it best to play and it’s good idea to get an experienced guitar tech or player to advise you on what to do. Trust me its easy to mess up when you don’t know what you are doing. Get some advice on the guitar you are playing.
More details and pics on this here :https://goodguitarsense.com/index.php/2020/02/26/642/
3 Don’t Get Frustrated At Your Progress
Playing Guitar Seems Harder Than Most People Think At The Start …But Don’t WorryLearning the guitar is not instant, it is not an app. It takes time
Frustration cannot be any sort of ongoing part of learning any instrument. Remember this and you will be less likely to quit.
If you are getting frustrated, it obviously means something is wrong,
Its Either/Or A Faulty Combination Of :
1 Mind Approach
2 Technique
3 Equipment Guitar Setup Wrong
4 Impatience
Solution
Push Through The Barrier Of “Gee I Dont Seem To Be Making Very Many Nice Sounds” This wont take very long if you stick with it .
Focus On Beginning To Eventually Make Nice Sound’s With Basic Chords,
Focus On Your Progress Of What Is Sounding Good Rather Than The Imperfections In Your Playing
Practice patience through being relaxed
4 Learn To Like The Sounds You Are Making Right From The Start
People often get frustrated when starting the guitar, because it can take some time to make anything that sounds musical to begin with.
Guitar is different to a lot of instruments to play initially . If you press a piano key you can get a nice sounding note right away. Not so with guitar, there is more specific effort involved. Hand pressure has to be correct, fingers at the right angle, in the right position on the fret board, etc etc .
This is a double edged sword , and works in your favor later when you do get some basic skills , because it can be a a really expressive instrument because of the extra technique needed .
Solution
Be Patient, Learn To Like The sounds You Make Even At The Start. Every clear chord is a victory and something to be enjoyed . Focus on letting yourself enjoy the good parts as you learn., rather than waiting until you can play a full song. You would be astounded at how many people do this!
Learn The Right Techniques from a good source To Make Your Guitar Playing Sound The Way It Should.
5 Have A Direction With Your Learning
Sometimes people learn an instrument aimlessly, and have no idea what type of music or songs they want to learn . Sometimes they don’t even care . I think it is good to care about this . It will help give you direction .
Solution
Know where you are headed and having some idea of the music and style you are wanting to play is important . If you have no idea then the teacher is likely to show you what methods and songs they think you should be playing . Or they might ignore you and show you their direction for you instead. Make sure you can identify some guitar styles and songs /riffs you wish to play. Have this on hand to show your teacher or use this in your search for internet songs .
6 Find Inspiration In Learning New Things
Solution
Look for inspiration in , new songs , in your own playing. Listening and connect to the good of what you are doing. Feel your own good energy while you play. Focus on the parts of your playing that sound good and build on this within yourself . This is focus. This also relates to self criticism that I spoke of earlier.Feeling good about your own progress will inspire you . All these points of this article interrelate to continuing and not quitting .
7 Don’t Criticize Yourself Harshly
These next two points that relate to self and outside criticism are biggies . Criticism is an embedded fear deep in the subconscious of most adults and is a huge mind block of literally hundreds of people I observed when I was teaching.The harsh scolding voice of self criticism is a thing you need to banish, and practice banishing from your learning, if you want to progress.
You can use these methods in your guitar learning and then apply them to whatever other new activity in your life that you want to learn . It works
Solution
When you catch yourself being critical , you need to nip this voice in the bud at that very moment by replacing the criticism with an encouraging constructive dialogue to yourself.
You literally have stop pause and reprogram yourself. This works extremely well. But it takes time and is part of your instrument learning training.
lets say it again” Quietening the voice of criticism in your mind takes time takes time and is part of your instrument learning training”.
Yes this is a practice technique !You can even speak the words aloud to help your mind to change its thinking. Just be careful ,if people see you talking to yourself all the time you may end up in a special place in a special jacket.
Words have energy and speaking words that change a positive to a negative thought can be a great way to reprogram, it works but it takes time .
Self criticism is huge is something a lot of people will have work on over and over and over but it will be one of the most important things to keep an eye on with your learning and playing. There is also lots of great advice out there from professionals to help you reset your mind.
You play guitar with your mind first. Most adults are extremely critical of themselves. Not having a harsh criticizing voice, or being in control of that voice coming from yourself, will definitely help you not to quit.
A major part of your practice will always be don’t be too critical on yourself with your progress. Always encourage yourself. Remember you are your main teacher. I found out that encouragement always had to be the main ingredient for music teaching to work. Which was surprising.
What does that tell you about the human condition?
8 Block Getting Unnecessary Criticism By Others
Constructive criticism is OK and people can mean really well sometimes, but this is not what we are talking about here.If you are starting an instrument , you should be encouraged period. What I’m talking about here is the narkey unnecessary stuff. Same deal as above , but this time the criticism comes from outside . More often than not it’s from people close. And it is the harsh sneery tones that really affect people to the point of giving up. This is not how we are built to learn We learn all new tasks by failing stumbling and relearning. Do we need someone on the sidelines s telling us we are not very good and offering no encouragement. This is what some people do though.The things that people say can be off handed, double edged, or purely narcissistic.
Human beings are very sensitive to criticism. Every type of person ,every culture. Often it can be a one off comment from someone close that can stop people from taking a road in life that might really benefit them. With the learning of an instrument it can stop the process dead in it’s tracks…the good old power of suggestion! Now lets turn this around.
Solution
If someone tells you that you aren’t that good on guitar, know that their opinion is irrelevant. Even better, tell them its irrelevant. Be arrogant in your own determination to learn the guitar, and don’t let any “energy vampire’s” comments stop you from continuing. Express this to them in any way you want, or disregard their criticism and stop playing guitar in front of them all together in the future.
It doesn’t matter what guitar playing level you are at. If it is constructive criticism, it is OK when is it comes from the right place, and the tone and intent is helpful. If it is not constructive, do not stand for it or listen to it in the future . Replace their criticism with encouragement to yourself. Remove this activity from their space.
Do not tolerate narcissistic toned people and do not let their worthless jaded opinion affect the fact you want to play this instrument. They are putting you down to make themselves feel better.
My Learning Experience
When I was fifteen one of my best friends told me one day with a sneer “You can’t sing, you haven’t got a good voice.” , no his name wasn’t Simon….This was one of the many put downs from this mate, with his criticism of my music, I decided then and there to stop hanging around him , because music was something I really wanted to pursue in my life, no matter what, and I couldn’t listen to his constant cynicism and putdowns anymore. Don’ listen to narcissistic comments from others especially those close to you.
With my music at that age I was pretty bullheaded , and I understand as you get older it can be harder, because I have been affected more as an adult with this type of behavior than I seemed to have been as a teenager.
Adults are extremely self conscious when it comes to learning the guitar.
Let me say this, talent is no substitute for persistence, I have seen over and over persistent individuals overtake more naturally talented players again and again. Be persistent my friend. Don’t listen to the narcs, they don’t count for anything. Don’t let stop them you doing anything you want to do, especially loving playing music.
You can deflect it. Shields up, push on.
9 Learn To Relax
Learn to relax while playing the guitar by switching off all tech, phones TVs and choose a time to practice when you will have the least amount of distractions. Practice getting into the most effortless state of concentration you can.
When you feel any sort of tension, overt muscle tightness or anxiety, nip it in the bud take a deep breath do some stretches and relax .
Stress is not a great way to practice anything well. Proper preparation for relaxation is taking care of all the above points. Try playing in a park or by a river . Outdoors is my favorite place to play acoustic. Outdoor gigs are my favorite as well.
10 Learn From Someone That Will Show You What You Want To Play
If you are learning the guitar and your teacher refuses to show you some styles of playing or songs you want to learn , you need to question your teaching source. Ask to be shown something that related to your musical taste early on in being taught , if this doesn’t happen….
Solution
Get a different teacher . If the teacher consistently ignores any request to teach you something, anything you want to learn ,…even from the beginning , you need to get another teacher. When I was teaching music , depending on the student, I would be looking for riffs bits of music, songs to teach that would light up the students interest to play. This was a key part of my teaching, it is essential to have this in the mix when you learn. You tube can work well for this there a a million song tutorials on how to play specific songs, use these and get the good guidance from people you respect.
Learn the fundamentals and right techniques from someone that’s knows them.
Find a guitar learning method that has been proven to work, taught by someone that can play and teach well themselves .
11 Keep The Learning Process Fun
The fun police can often turn up when things aren’t perfect .Well guess what, no ones guitar playing is anywhere near perfect at the beginning .
Solution
Make yourself enjoy learning by embracing the victory of learning anything new . Allow yourself to have fun . Treat it like a game not a task .
Keep it fun by finding methods that work for you . Take note of tip no# 10, make sure you have a mix of songs or riffs you want to learn to keep it fun .
12 Pick Your Guitar Up Every Day
A lot of people want to learn the guitar but never pick it up.
If the amount of time you put into guitar is the same as Wednesday night tennis occasionally, then you will be the equivalent of that tennis player on guitar. And that’s perfectly fine if this is all you want , so long as you enjoy it ! But if you want to get better…..
Solution
This is a no brainer . Pick your guitar up, just play. Have your guitar on a stand in your lounge room looking at you every day It will be saying play me play me …..every day. Pick it up! And with the right tuition you will get good , it will give back to you .
13 Learning From A Teaching Source That Is Optimal
There is so much information on the internet these days , everyone is an expert. Who ever you choose to learn from , whether it be the net or in person , make sure you like their playing and the sound of what they are playing , and make sure they have teaching experience . There are so many people trying to reinvent the wheel . There are things you need to focus on and things you don’t. A good teacher knows this and can save you time while showing you how to learn while you enjoy the whole process.
Better still have multiple sources for different purposes . Learn off people that have good energy.
There are a lot of teachers out there with not much experience . Have a look at your potential teachers playing , performances and sound, , ask yourself if they are the teacher for you ?
14 Don’t Pack Your Guitar Away
If your guitar is packed away it is out of sight out of mind and out of mind. Keep it easy to get to .
15 They Think They Are Too Old To Start Learning
This is so common and such a shame , but I do think think things are changing . Older people are having a go . Playing guitar can be incredibly good for the joints of your fingers and especially good for the mind and the soul.
Enjoy Your Playing Mark
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