How long does it take to learn guitar? /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Musician by Marianella Foto, CC0 Public Domain

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 makes a good guitarist good, and a bad guitarist bad? /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Man, back view, guitar by dafni_19870, CC0 Public Domain

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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Favoring Adventures over Guitar Goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Guitar by bogitw, CC0 Public Domain

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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What should be my top guitar goal? /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Airness by Dave, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

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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Comparison-Based Guitar Goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Cat Guitar Case by The Pixelman, CC0 Public Domain

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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Judgement-Based Guitar Goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Carlos Montoya sitting on floor with four guitars by Walter Albertin, Public domain

Do you like to be judged on how well you do on your hobbies? Do you like to be graded on things you do to pass the time? If you’re like most people, the answer is no.

Then, why do so many beginners make the mistake of making extremely judgemental guitar goals for themselves? Why do so many of them want to "be good at guitar?" That won't end well.

No doubt, ridding ourselves of judgements is paramount to making guitar more fun in the long run. Lucky for you, the rest of this post will help you get rid of them forever. Let's kill it judgements altogether.

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Deadline-Based Guitar Goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Sea, Sunset, Beach by Jukazek04, CC0 Public Domain

Deadline-based guitar goals imply that if you don't finish your goal by your deadline, you have failed and wasted your precious time. This is bad news for learning guitar.

Deadline based guitar goals make learning super difficult, and it's worth your time to get rid of them altogether. Thankfully, the rest of this post will help you do just that.

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Achievement-Based Guitar Goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Play Guitar, Guitar, Music by Condesign, CC0 Public Domain

When most of us think about setting goals, we think about setting achievement-based goals. These are goals like, "I want to learn how to play five songs."

Achievement-based goals are clearly defined and they can help us measure our success, but it depends on how emotionally attached we are to achieving them: The more we need to complete the goal, the harder a struggle to learn guitar we will have.

This post goes over some very common achievement-based guitar goals that beginners make for themselves, and how to make them stronger. Let's hit it. 

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The trouble with urgent top guitar goals /  by The School of Feedback Guitar

Banjo musician by Public Domain Archive, CC0 Public Domain

The big reason why you picked up a guitar is important: It's your top guitar goal. I find it very odd that most beginners haven't articulated their top guitar goal, considering the implications.

If this top guitar goal is riddled with the worst infectious disease of learning, if it's completely surrounded with the biggest enemy to practicing guitar, you are in for a world of hurt. 

What is this disease I speak of? Urgency.

This post was written to shine a clarifying light on urgency. I want to help you get rid of it forever. Let's jump in.

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