Learning guitar alone makes it very hard to become a great player. This happens because you don’t know if your practice habits are effective and have to guess your way through.
It’s common for guitarists who learn on their own to form bad habits that hold their playing back. The following are some habits that you need to form to avoid falling into the same trap:
Good Habit #1: Focusing The Correct Things At The Correct Time
Tons of guitarists fall into the bad habit of playing through the same lick over and over when they can’t play it right. They think that eventually it will become easy and their mistakes will correct themselves. They end up wasting a lot of practice time without getting much results. It is much more effective to isolate the notes that are giving you problems. It’s not necessary to repeat everything when some parts are already mastered. When you focus only on the things that are giving you problems, you quickly identify the key mistakes that must be worked on. This saves you time during your practice and helps you get better faster.
Good Habit #2: Don’t Make Things More Difficult Than They Should To Be
Guitarists who learn on their own form habits that make guitar playing more difficult than it needs to be. Over time, these bad habits get ingrained into their playing and make it harder to break them later on. This makes it a struggle for you when you learn a better way to play but must go back and correct what you're used to doing. Common examples of this could be: using the wrong fingers to fret, only using alternate picking, muting string noise only with your palm and not your thumb, and more. When you learn guitar using effective habits, it is easier to get better and you don’t have to waste time going back to fix it.
Good Habit #3: Asking The Right Questions
Self-taught guitar players generally ask the wrong questions about how to improve their playing. This takes them down the wrong road and holds them back from getting fast results. Guitar players who improve fast ask high quality questions that help them achieve their musical goals in the most effective way possible.
Become a better guitarist fast while learning how to improve these habits by reading this guitar practicing article.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a professional recording artist, composer, and expert guitar instructor. He teaches and trains guitarists how to become great musicians in his online rock guitar lessons. Visit tomhess.net to receive additional free guitar playing resources and to read more guitar articles.