Stuck on Learning What and Where to Play
Guitar Noises #36: October 30, 2024
Are you practicing guitar to become a better musician? Or are you just spinning your wheels, wasting time? Practicing because you know you should but with no goal will only lead you in circles - always returning you to where you started, no better off.
Beginners and intermediates who don’t know what to practice should focus on two main areas. First, learn to play as many songs as you can because every song has something to teach you. Second, solidify your guitar fundamentals.
The song-learning approach is fun. Songs are why most of us picked up the guitar in the first place. They also keep us going because there will always be another song to learn, and there’s no shortage of videos showing the easy or correct way to play a song.
However, there is a downside when all you do is learn to play songs, especially when you rely on guitar tabs and tutorials. You’re dependent on copying and memorizing what someone is showing you. You are focusing on what and where to play. Someone is telling you to “put this finger here and do this.“ It’s a mechanical approach that relies on recalling every move in order. Sooner or later, you’ll run out of memory.
There is limited room for growth because you aren’t learning concepts that can be used in other songs and styles. If you don’t constantly practice the songs you learned this way, you’ll get sloppier and eventually forget how to play them.
Once you’ve got a basic repertoire of songs, it’s time to transfer more of your attention to the fundamentals of guitar.
Instead of sticking to the what and where to play approach, you can start thinking about the how and why reasons for the music being the way it is. When you study and practice fundamentals, you educate yourself in things that are harder to forget because you’ll use them every time you play guitar.
What are the fundamentals?
The fundamentals are not all music theory items you must learn by rote memorization. They are physical things you can and should practice daily. Once you’ve figured out your essential chords, can play in time and can identify notes on the fretboard, it’s time to get serious with your guitar toolbox.
It doesn’t matter whether you want to play metal or country, write original songs or do covers, jam with friends, or play along to a looper. All decent guitar players share a basic level of knowledge. There’s no mystery about what fundamentals you should learn and practice. We’re talking about scales, triads and arpeggios. Together, these tools will help you understand and use the full range of the guitar. There’s no real shortcut to learning them other than starting sooner rather than later.
This may seem like an oversimplification, but I’m breaking it down this way because the easiest way to learn everything is to do it one step at a time.
The good news is it’s not as much stuff as you think. It’s also not as complicated as you think. Everything you need to know to play guitar well fits together nicely if you learn it systematically. The key is to practice the new things as you learn them consistently. It will make learning and playing songs breezier. It will also make it easier to follow and improve through online courses and tutorials.
If I can get one idea across in this newsletter, learning to play songs by copying and memorizing them relies on what and where to play. You can stuck at that stage for a long time. Your way out is to pay more attention to the how and why of playing guitar. Playing music means you want to think like a musician and do what a musician does. Get beneath the surface of things if you can. Learning the fundamentals is work that pays off.
There are many practical ways of learning and improving your fundamentals. They aren’t things you quickly learn and put aside when you know what you’re doing. You’ll use these fundamentals every time you play guitar for the rest of your life.
There are many practical ways of learning and improving your fundamentals. They aren’t things you quickly learn and put aside when you know what you’re doing. You’ll use these fundamentals every time you play guitar for the rest of your life.
I’ll describe how to learn and practice them in the following newsletter.
25 Years and Counting
Guitar Noise has been teaching guitar online since 1999. Next month, the site will be twenty-five years old!
If you haven’t been there in a while, it remains a trusted source of lessons for self-taught guitarists who want to move beyond the beginner plateau. Have another look at www.guitarnoise.com.