There’s a catch-22 for self-taught guitarists. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on the littlest thing. You’re completely free in your choices. But with complete freedom and unlimited choices it can be incredibly hard to make up your mind about what to do next and then stick with it.
The self-taught musician is often missing out on guidance. I wish when I was starting out on guitar a more experienced player would have sat me down and told me what to do. Just someone to say, “Hey kid, do all these things in this order first. Get them totally right before moving on to this. And then you’re ready to do whatever you want.” Getting 75% of the way there is when something starts to feel really difficult. And that’s usually when the self-taught guitarist convinces themselves it’s time to move on to something else. Without a teacher you need a voice in your head telling you to finish what you started before moving on. I suppose we have to train ourselves to develop that voice and then learn to listen to it. The last 10% of anything always feels like the hardest part.
Good stuff again.
There’s a catch-22 for self-taught guitarists. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on the littlest thing. You’re completely free in your choices. But with complete freedom and unlimited choices it can be incredibly hard to make up your mind about what to do next and then stick with it.
The self-taught musician is often missing out on guidance. I wish when I was starting out on guitar a more experienced player would have sat me down and told me what to do. Just someone to say, “Hey kid, do all these things in this order first. Get them totally right before moving on to this. And then you’re ready to do whatever you want.” Getting 75% of the way there is when something starts to feel really difficult. And that’s usually when the self-taught guitarist convinces themselves it’s time to move on to something else. Without a teacher you need a voice in your head telling you to finish what you started before moving on. I suppose we have to train ourselves to develop that voice and then learn to listen to it. The last 10% of anything always feels like the hardest part.