Nashville Guitar Guru | Guitar Lessons in Nashville, TN
Dave Isaacs, Nashville guitar guru and master teacher
The Perpetual Beginner’s Guide To Practicing is a free e-book about the process of practicing: how to structure your time, choose what to work on, and maximize both your enjoyment and your progress.
If you joined the NGG email list recently, you’ve already received this as a thank you. But if you haven’t, you can download it here.
Whether you take guitar lessons or are learning on your own, there is one skill you absolutely must learn. And I think a lot of people, including many guitar teachers, are missing this point.
Most people want to learn guitar so they can play their favorite songs. That’s wonderful and important, because loving the music you’re learning to play is highly motivating. And the sooner you can feel like you’re really playing songs, the more likely you are to keep on playing. I introduce songs in my lessons right from the beginning, but choose them based on the vocabulary and skill they require. Just like with anything else, success is a whole lot more likely when you start simple and build from there.
After a while, the average student/hobbyist has built up a vocabulary of chords and a repertoire of songs they can (mostly) play. Sometimes this is enough of a start to allow you to keep learning on your own. After all, one of the great things about learning guitar is that a handful of basics goes a really long way. Five chord formations is enough to allow you to play hundreds of songs, and upping that number to twelve gives you basic access to thousands more.
This would suggest that the sequence of learning should go like this:
1. Learn the basics
2. Learn songs to see how the basics are applied
3. Apply that knowledge to learning new songs
The problem is that so many people miss number three. It’s easy to get stuck on number two – these chords, in this order, with this rhythm. That’s enough to play most songs in a basic form, enough to sing to. But at some point, your focus needs to shift from the basics of the song to the process of learning itself.
Most people go to a teacher when they’re looking for guidance on what to practice. But learning HOW to practice is the most valuable lesson for the long term. Not just how much time to spend on each thing you do, but how to identify, break down, and resolve problems and challenges.
I really do mean “exactly”. Is a finger missing consistently? Which one? What does your hand need to do that it isn’t? Why not?
Resolving these questions takes a solid understanding of the mechanics of guitar playing, and of how your hands and mind absorb information. Once that’s in place, every problem has a solution, because you understand how to teach yourself. This is what all pros learn how to do. When you start to do this at even a basic level, your lesson time can devoted to really growing your skills instead of learning things you could probably handle on your own with some dedicated effort. Best of all, it’s a skill set that you’ll use for your whole musical life, and keep you growing in the process.
For more on how to be your own teacher when you practice, check out this short e-book, The Perpetual Beginner’s Guide to Effective Practicing.
Give the gift that every guitar player needs – guitar lessons! Whether you want to buy guitar lessons as a gift, save money by pre-purchasing lessons for yourself, or commit to a fun New Year’s Resolution aimed at improving your guitar skills, we have a special holiday offer that may be right for you.
The driving idea behind “The Perpetual Beginner” is that everyone can learn to play well, but that many people struggle and don’t fully understand the reasons why.
This can lead to frustration, stagnation, and a nagging sense that you just “don’t have it”. But whether you have “it” or not, you can play better than you do today when you approach your work with the right mindset and a conscious practice method.
The Perpetual Beginner Project is a collaborative look at how this happens for all of us: the process of identifying challenges, finding solutions, and doing the work to make it happen. Underlying all of this is the need to feed the love, to stimulate the desire and excitement that made you want to play in the first place.
To participate in the PB Project, start documenting your progress on video. I’ve started a Facebook group also called The Perpetual Beginner to give us a platform to post these videos and have conversations about them. Most of all, the idea is to put the ideas in the book into action: recognizing mental, technical, and psychic “blocks”, and finding a way past them.
I’ll be posting practice videos of my own as well. My goal is to share my own process in real time as I work through the music, demonstrating how I go about solving problems and (hopefully) showing clear improvement as I do. As much as I may have learned about music over the years, there will always be new things to explore and old things to improve. My hope is that by sharing these things with each other and having conversations about them, we will all be both inspired and elevated as we continue the never-ending process of becoming a better musician.
When you start working with a new teacher, the first few lessons are often a preliminary feeling-out process. It can take some time to get a complete sense of how they work, how knowledgeable they are, and whether their approach speaks to you.
I always make a real effort to make a connection in the first lesson: to find out what the student is really interested in and needs most, and show them something that can make an immediate difference. To some degree, that’s the job description in a nutshell. You should expect a teacher to want to know your specific goals, or to help you set them based on your musical interests and current skills. But what about what a teacher should expect from you? What can you do to help them guide you down a successful path?
The obvious answer is, practice. But there’s more to it than that. Here are five points that will really help you get the most out of your investment in formal lessons.
What kind of music do you enjoy most? What would you really like to be able to do? If you haven’t thought about these things, you should. Everyone puts the most effort into the things they enjoy most, so help your teacher find what those things are.
Ideally, everything you learn should help prepare you for the next thing you’re about to learn. Learning a song should also teach you something bigger, whether it’s a specific technique or a musical pattern that will also be used in other songs. Recognize that a good teacher uses songs as illustrations of a specific approach or concept. When you view the music this way, you’ll get a lot more out of the effort you put in than just memorizing a new song.
Simply put, the difference between people who get better and people who don’t is in how much they play. The more time you spend practicing and playing, the faster you’re likely to improve. If you’re a busy person and find it hard to find time to practice, find small windows throughout the day to play for just a few minutes. Even if you can only pick up the guitar for a moment, do it.
Detailed and focused practice is very powerful, and you should spend some time every day working very slowly on something you find challenging. Slow practice is mentally challenging, and it can feel less satisfying when a song becomes an exercise. But that detailed work is what allows you to solve problems. Think of “practice” as time spent on things you can’t do yet, and “play” as time spent on things you can. One builds your skills, the other feeds the love. Both are essential.
Many people don’t set a high enough standard when they practice. You need to do more than just memorize fingerings: you need to know the music and be able to execute it cleanly. So if you’re buzzing, missing notes consistently, or tripping over your fingers, you’re probably going too fast and letting mistakes go uncorrected.
At the same time, though, there’s a difference between judging a performance and judging your potential. Self-talk matters: it’s ok and understandable to get frustrated, but don’t let a challenging song convince you that you don’t have what it takes to learn. Recognize that learning to play is a process that takes time to unfold, and do your best to be patient enough to enjoy the journey.
We’ve all heard the old adage “no pain, no gain”. It might be the right mindset for the gym. But when it comes to playing music, pushing through pain can cause chronic problems. If you’re serious about learning to play well, it’s important to be able to distinguish between normal “growing pains” and something that might be more serious.
Your susceptibility to pain and strain depends on a number of things, but it starts with how much you play. Some people get lost in their playing and look up to find two or three hours have gone by. That’s fantastic for developing your skills, and that kind of devotion to the instrument is a must if you really want to play well.
But playing music is physical, and often involves intricate and highly controlled muscle movement. These muscles are made for facility, not stamina. It takes time to build up the coordination and strength to be able to play for long stretches. This is one of the reasons why an organized practice routine is so important, in that it lets you plan your “workout” the same way you might at the gym. The difference is, you really don’t want to be sore the next day.
Here are some of the common places people feel pain from playing, and how to manage it. Keep in mind that my experience is anecdotal, and I’m not offering medical advice. If a problem persists or you have any question about the seriousness of what you’re feeling, ask a doctor.
Most beginners find that their hands get tired or even sore. For a complete beginner or someone who hasn’t played in a long time, pain in the fingertips can be an issue. Building up calluses on the fretting hand takes time and the fingertips can become very sensitive. Even if your calluses are well-developed, periods of more intense playing can leave you with sore fingers. This is a common issue but not a serious one, and it gets better over time.
A perfect player with ideal technique on a perfect instrument would never apply any pressure with the fret hand thumb. But regular people do, and beginners and near-beginners tend to push much too hard. This can make the thumb sore at the first joint or at the base, depending on the proportion and shape of your hand.
For most people, adjusting the position of the thumb will relieve some of the pressure. Your hand position should naturally create leverage against the neck; this is usually best achieved with a level, relaxed wrist and curled fingers. But because both hands and guitar necks come in different shapes and sizes, there are always variables.
You can almost always make an adjustment to your hand position that will produce more leverage. Start with a level wrist, palm up, and bring your hand to the strings. Let your thumb fall wherever it feels natural. Feel the strings with your fingertips and move the hand around a little to feel how the weight of your hand and arm help hold the string against the fingerboard. If you feel any strain, go with it…allow the tension to release and see what happens. The thumb might lightly rest against the back of the neck, or it might wrap over the top. Trust your body’s feedback and find the position that feels most relaxed and balanced.
If you’re really working hard no matter what you do, your guitar might need an adjustment. Heavier strings and higher action produce a bigger sound, but if you need to really grip to hold them down you should switch to lighter strings or lower the action (height of the strings relative to the fingerboard). Your guitar should be set up to be as playable as possible, while still giving you the sound you want.
Keep in mind as well that your picking hand approach has a huge impact on the tone. If heavier strings are too much work but lighter strings feel too thin, lighten your attack. Minimizing work and effort from the picking hand helps lighten the fret hand as well.
If you have minimized fret hand effort and set up your guitar and still have pain in the joint or at the base of the thumb (especially when you’re not playing), it might be a sign of a more serious issue you should look into.
Pain in the wrist or forearm is potentially more serious. Gripping with the fret hand can make the muscles in the wrist and forearm compress as well, and over time this compression can lead to chronic tension and pain. Many people work too hard when strumming or picking, and overwork the muscles of that arm as well. This can lead to chronic inflammation and, in the worst cases, tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome.
If you feel pain in the wrists or forearms when you practice, stop. Take a good look at your hand position to see if you can minimize the effort. If you overdo it and get sore, anti-inflammatory meds like Advil can help. A cold pack or heating pad can really help, just like you would use on any other sore muscle. Some people respond better to one than the other; your body will tell you what works best for you. If pain doesn’t improve after a few days, or becomes chronic, you may want to see a professional. See a doctor if you feel you need to; you may need physical therapy or in worst cases, corrective surgery. There are many other treatment modalities that have proven to be helpful. Massage therapy, Active Release Technique (a form of hands-on physical therapy), acupuncture, and chiropractic can all be beneficial.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to deal with any of these problems, or need to fully revamp your technique. It’s not easy to alter the way you play: both good and bad habits become fixed as the movements lock into muscle memory. But whether you’re dealing with a problem now or looking to prevent one, muscles can be trained to develop new ways of working.
1. Have your instrument set up to be as playable as possible.
2. Evaluate your technique and cultivate a relaxed, efficient hand position.
3. Be aware of posture. Guitarists tend to slouch, which exacerbates all these problems. Fighting it is a life sentence.
4. Take frequent breaks when you practice, or split your practice sessions up across your day.
5. Stretches and warmups can really help, but only if you do them right. It’s easy to overdo it, so pay attention to your body.
