Foundations of Guitar
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The critical inner voice is an annoyance. If it annoys you, then you have a right to annoy it right back.
The list that follows comprises six extremely potent ways of challenging the critical inner voice. I hope it provides you with some ammunition to engage this annoying little rat with confidence, and eventually turn it into an ally.
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The critical inner voice is the nagging, negative, debilitating little squeak that appears when we are learning and in the mood for experiencing something new. Examples:
If you have this voice in your head, chances are that it's wreaking havoc on your enjoyment of guitar. Obviously, we can't let that little dork of a voice win, so we're going to make it obey us and stop being the disgusting little know-it-all that it thinks it is.
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Not too many people understand exactly how much fun it is to learn guitar slowly.
There's no rush, no need for urgency. A lot of people are wrapped up in the hope that they will one day experience the magical moment when they can play guitar and can label themselves "good" at it. They rush to experience that feeling, and it doesn't end well.
I've practiced and studied guitar for more than twenty five years, and I've still not experienced a complete enlightenment with it. Moreover, the process of learning guitar is so enjoyable for me that I don't worry about outcomes anymore. I might get a moment or two of elation from time-to-time, but these moments are always fleeting and short-lived...
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If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you'll know by now that I'm not a fan of the word "good." Why? It's a judgement. Judgements require an immense amount of energy to maintain. I personally feel that judgements get in the way of learning guitar. To me, the process of becoming familiar with how to play guitar is far more important than becoming good.
That said, I think it's fair to address your question of how long it will take to be good at guitar. There's no point in you doing this unless you have an end point to shoot for. If your end goal isn't defined, if you can't define what "good" is, how will you know when you're there? Let's throw some ideas around.
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When I am asked the question, "How long does it take to learn guitar?", my out loud answer is, "Anywhere from one day to one year."
My inside-the-head answer, however, is, "That depends."
There is one factor that weighs more heavily than all the others when it comes to how fast we learn guitar: How many guitar-playing friends and professionals do you know personally? The higher the number of people you know, the faster you'll learn guitar. How does this work?
The more people you know, the better the chances that they will start to want to play music with you. That's a pressure that you want. The more guitarists you know, the more likely you'll have support when you need it. The more guitarists that you know, the more you'll want to hang around and play music with them.
Let's say you agree with this idea but don't know where to start finding guitar-playing friends. That's easy: Find a guitar teacher first.
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What exactly do judgements do for us? Motivate us to do "better" next time? Inspire us not to fail? To help us work harder at not-sucking at guitar?
I'm not convinced that tethering ourselves to judgements is the best pressure we need to learn guitar.
The problem with judgements like "good" or "bad" is that they require us to be more mentally active than we need to be. It's like having to think about every single muscle that we need to walk around without trusting our legs to do the job for us.
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When someone has an adventure, there's an aspect of mystery and magic to it. We love stories. We love crazy adventures. If we didn't we'd hate reading fiction, and we'd never would have enjoyed watching The Lord of the Rings.
In recalling an adventure, a person could describe his or her experience as momentous, nothing that could have been expected, and totally memorable. The vagueness, the unexpected joys and sorrows that adventures present are so meaningful to those who have undertaken them...
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The top guitar goal that I recommend is this: Enjoy the process of learning guitar in order to enrich your life with music.
Notice that this goal is free from judgement, comparison, achievement, deadline, or even a sense of urgency. This is definitely on purpose. If guitar is a hobby for you, this goal will help you learn it in a very satisfying manner without it taking over your life.
Let's break it into two chunks, and get into why this goal is so helpful.
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Having the right goal can help you learn guitar in a way that is smooth, enjoyable, and delightfully surprising. I call the top reason your top guitar goal. Having the wrong type of reason will make learning hellish for you.
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Comparison-based guitar goals are goals that depend upon being favorably compared to a better guitarist.
In order to achieve any comparison-based guitar goal, we must be specifically viewed by all other people as being better at guitar than the guitarist we are comparing ourselves with.
Ouch!
The rest of this post will go over some very common comparison-based goals, how beginners are negatively by having them, and how to rewrite them to be more useful for enjoyment of guitar in the long run.
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