Beginner Guitar Player Dead Ends

Just wanted to make a short post about what I see in beginner guitar players. Specifically beginner guitar player dead ends which prevent them from moving forward. 

This is not what beginner guitar players think. Over even what experienced guitar players often think. I’ll explain. 

Beginners hit these roadblocks or dead ends because they don’t know they exist or aren’t seeing themselves falling into this trap. 

Experienced guitar players somehow didn’t get caught in this trap, so they don’t realize it exists. When a beginner is talking with an experienced player and is stuck at the dead end, the experienced player who is not experienced in this problem directs them wrong. This leads to the beginner getting even more discouraged and quitting. 

Even many guitar teachers do this quite often. So, if you’ve had a teacher and it still didn’t work out, it might not be the end of the road for you. You just need a guitar teacher who can help you get turned around and find the right path. 

What is the dead end already and how do I avoid it? That will reveal itself. Keep reading…

What Lead You Down The Road With A Dead End?

Expectations and beliefs! 

I work with loads of beginners and it is very clear that when most people start, they don’t really understand what they are getting into. Guitar is hard, especially in the beginning. If it were easy, almost no one would fail to do it. But many do. 

I make sure whenever I’m working with a new student, they understand it is hard for everybody who ever did it. Not to scare them off, but to make it clear that it will require effort and dedication over time. And that I believe in them to be able to do it, if we go about learning in the right way. 

Additionally, beginner guitar players feel like they should not do certain things until they reach a specific milestone of progress. What is this milestone? I have no idea. Depends on the person. For real!

Many think they must have all their chords perfect before playing a song. This is the biggest one I’ve seen that causes the most issues. Just play with crap sounding chords. They will get better over time. I will show you how. (FYI, I am skipping g a lot of important information, but there isn’t time for that here.)

Many think they have to memorize all the chords first. Good luck with that. There are thousands and you should NOT try to memorize them all. Just get 5-8 memorized as fast as you can. You only need 3 – 4(G, D, Em, C) to play a good number of songs. So start there and build up more over time. 

There are other things that come up time and time again and some that I don’t see as often. Either way, it is always the same thing. The beginner doesn’t think they should do Y until X is accomplished or accomplished perfectly.

It’s all quite arbitrary. People just have ideas about how things work or should work and there is no basis in these beliefs. 

How To Get Turned Around? 

I do this myself in many areas of life. It’s all normal.

First, except you will suck at guitar for a little while and just enjoy the challenge. 

Second, let’s accept we may have taken a wrong turn. It doesn’t mean we are failures. Quite the opposite. When you pursue a new thing, you have to make mistakes so you can understand it better. Just don’t stay there. 

Third, start believing you can do it and just keep at it and trying to play real music. Even try writing real music. Do not wait if that’s what you want to do. 

Fourth, get help. Contact Supertonic Guitar and we will get you moving forward and guide you out of the dead end road to one that will take you much further than you even imagined you could go.