How Not To Learn Guitar

I’ve been searching around the web for ways to improve my guitar playing and found many people out there who suggested pretty good ways to improve my playing but it was really difficult to find the things a guitar player comes across during his or her career of playing the stringed instrument. I’ve been playing for two years without any instructor and I can say that it’s really difficult to master the instrument without any professional guidance. I myself am searching for one. So the first suggestion on how to not learn a guitar would be…
don’t learn without any professional guidance. It saves you the time, speeds up the learning process with the direct feedback you get from the instructor and most importantly sets a discipline on the way you learn so that you don’t go haywire about what to learn next and how to go about it. So for the people who have just started on their own I would seriously suggest an instructor.

But the many few like me who don’t have the time and the money to invest in a tutor and prefer to learn from the internet, here are some tips on how to improve which is completely based on my experience. Personal experiences may change and guitar playing techniques and practicing techniques differ from person to person but you can get a general guideline on how to go about on your daily practice.

The most and most and most important thing about practicing this complicatedly simple instrument is to practice SLOWLY!
NEVER try anything fast. Let it be the notes, the licks, the chords, the scales, the slides, the bends, the hammer-ons and pull-offs, do everything slowly. It’s the motto to master this instrument. Play Slow.
Playing fast gives rise to errors and bad learning where you tend to ignore these errors and go on with the playing. If this becomes a habit, it becomes a habit hard to lose. It’s the way your brain works. There’s something called muscle memory. It’s the way your brain remembers the positions of your fingers. It’s like riding a bicycle, when you first start off you concentrate on the pedals, the handle, and the balance and you would always prefer a clear road to ride. You learn to pedal slowly; putting your legs down each time you lose the balance but always try to complete the extra rotation the next time you start. This way you gain better control and finally you are blazing through even the busiest streets where the concentration is only on the road and not on the pedal, the handle and even the balance because, everything feels automatic. That’s how your brain remembers things. So by starting slow and doing it again and again slowly, the brain remembers the finger positions and then you can play the chords and notes much better. The more slowly you do the more better you get but don’t start too slow or you will be bored even before you start. A metronome (discussed next) can help in this situation. Playing slowly helps you to hit the right strings in the right spots and the brain remembers these spots and helps you the next time you play them. So start slow and gradually increase your step and one day you will be able to play fast even with your eyes closed.

If you have perfectly understood the playing slow part and are implementing well in your guitar training the rest of the things are just extra help to make you play better, smoother and faster.

The next is, never say no to a metronome. A metronome is your best friend.

There are many, including me, who used to practice without a metronome thinking that timing and perfection would automatically come one day but trust me, using a metronome increases the rate of getting better drastically. It helps not only to keep time but gives a sense of urgency or a type of a short deadline where you need to be in a particular position on the fret board and that too perfectly. In turn it helps to keep all your attention in the note you are playing and the note you are going to play next. So the next time you sit for your practice session be sure to have pick up the metronome.

The next is just something probably everyone knows and does. Never practice in a room where there are people surrounding you or even a single person sitting next to you. You might say that’s obvious but the point I am making here is not that the person next to you will disturb you but you won’t have your full concentration on the part you are practicing. It is completely important to have your full concentration on the chord or note you are playing. Having such concentration helps your brain to remember better and execute better. So have all your attention in on your finger position, the chord shape, the next chord or note and in no time everything will come automatically.

15 minutes of slow, disciplined, perfect and dedicated playing every day is way better than hours of random fretting. So having complete control on the way you play helps you gain much better control on more advanced playing. The greatest time and energy of practicing should be dedicated to the basics. Never ever try to jump and go to the next session until you master the first one. Never try to play the advanced techniques until you have mastered the basics. A person having his basics completely right and on the spot will go on to become a better guitarist than others, probably a great one. So have your basics right and practice the right way and you could master this instrument in no time.