My biggest mistakes while learning guitar (learn from my mistakes)

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Thanks for starting this Alex! One of my biggest weaknesses in my playing has been my tendency to ignore learning 'Classic' Guitar songs/solos. This tends to make my job as a Guitar Tutor harder at times, as students will want to learn these things. I find I spend most of my time with Improv concepts, which although is fun & interesting to me, it isn't useful at a party, or in a paid gig This is something I've been working to improve my knowledge on this year by learning the popular solos that people want to learn (Sweet Child 'O' mine, Highway to hell, Wish You Were Here etc)

Dude same, I don't know most of those classic songs, they just don't do it for me. I can see how it can make it hard as a teacher lol. Improv concepts are definitely more useful overall

On the flipside of that though - one of the things I wish I'd done earlier in my Guitar playing was to commit to learning & using Theory properly. I was a religious 'ears' guy and I was just straight up lazy & close minded about any Fretboard knowledge - This made college jazz Guitar classes a nightmare. But the minute It clicked that Theory was just creating a reference for everything I could already hear, my Guitar opened up and made so much more sense, but I only really got to grips of it after college, when I had time to experiment and understand it. It's made me a complete 'Learn Theory' preacher now though, just because I know how much Guitarists tend to over-complicate it online to make themselves look lofty and intelligent- when it's actually pretty straightforward!

I agree completely, I was the same way. But at the same time, I think for *some* people, if you push them to learn that kind of stuff to early it can turn them off from guitar and music. A lot of us gotta find our way a little first and then come into theory. It's never too late!

Another crucial thing I wish I'd done earlier is to not concentrate so much on playing fast/playing things that were out of my reach at the time. I still remember trying to play some of Syn's solos at age 16 and throwing my guitar down because my forearm was seized up - once again I didn't care about looking into things properly and patiently working on my technique, and it held me back for years!

It's definitely better to learn things slow and thorough. A lot of people just wanna go fast even if it doesn't sound good or they arent playing it right, which was definitely me for a few years. But sometimes learning something too fast or our of my league early on pushed me to get better and made me more confident to keep learning intimidating things.

 

[Chris Johnston]

Dude same, I don't know most of those classic songs, they just don't do it for me. I can see how it can make it hard as a teacher lol. Improv concepts are definitely more useful overall


I agree completely, I was the same way. But at the same time, I think for *some* people, if you push them to learn that kind of stuff to early it can turn them off from guitar and music. A lot of us gotta find our way a little first and then come into theory. It's never too late!


It's definitely better to learn things slow and thorough. A lot of people just wanna go fast even if it doesn't sound good or they arent playing it right, which was definitely me for a few years. But sometimes learning something too fast or our of my league early on pushed me to get better and made me more confident to keep learning intimidating things.

I could teach improv until I pass out haha, but laboring over strumming patterns & fret numbers really switches my brain off sometimes. It's all personal preference though!

Yeah to your point on not pushing people to learn Theory, I agree totally. I tend to only introduce it to students that I can tell will be ready for it and see the point, for the same reasons you mentioned, it can really put people off learning if introduced too early.

100% agree with this also- it was when I started slowing down that my playing cleaned up and I was actually able to 'shred' better and cleaner without feeling like I'd just did bicep day at the gym . And definitely! I try to always learn what scares me, or if I'm scrolling instagram and I see someone half my age hitting out with some Neo Soul madness, I always make myself learn at least one lick.