Today, I’m taking you to a place you may not be ready to deal with… Your own playing. 

Hey my guitar playing Friend!

Today I’m going to talk about:

Getting real success on the guitar by “getting real”

Who is this for?

This for anyone who feels like they aren’t where they need to be on the guitar… beginner through advanced.

I don’t care if you’ve been playing for 2 weeks or 20 years, we all have things that need some attention in our playing.

In other words… everyone’s playing could benefit from a little truth!

Here’s why this is important

Success on the guitar, and really getting success with anything is something that eludes a lot of us. That’s because how we feel isn’t exactly how things actually are. It can be scary to watch yourself or listen to yourself. But that is what people… the audience (or your future audience) is going to do.

It’s the nature of the game.

So, shining that light on your playing and seeing some things that need some work. is tough. And 9 times out of 10, to me those things are what are holding players back from real progress

Here’s how this works

So I’m going to ask you today to take a leap of faith. I want you to experience growth. To get some of this “happy” that other players are experiencing.

You are here because you want to get better. The problem is that, upfront, there is an uncomfortable cost that has to be paid.

• You need to become your own audience.
• You need some truth.
• The truth hurts sometimes
• Turn our fears into motivation.
• Until you know what’s real, your going nowhere

Without a plan, it’s all Luck

And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want or have the time to wait around for luck to take place. I want to get better on my terms.

What do I mean about getting real

Basically anyone or anything that expects something that just isn’t realistic, saying ‘get real’ means to tell them to stop being unrealistic. (Urban Dictionary)

So what does that mean for us as guitar players

1. Mostly it means that either we feel like we are better than we are.
2. Or, We don’t realize that we are missing something in our playing that needs to be addressed.

What is the first step?

Before we take this hard look at our playing, I think it’s important to choose a direction.

1. Figure out what you want to be doing

There are many different types of players. Here are a few of the most common ones:

1. The wants to do it all
2. The just want to have fun
3. The Has no idea what they want. .
4. The focused player

In all three I’ve seen the frustration when you don’t progress the way you would like.

Making a decision to what type of player you want to be, and owning it, at least for a while, is the first step.

it could be a rhythm player in a certain style you love, or a lead player in a like a metal band, or to be a singer songwriter.

Whatever it is, and you know the things you wish you could do and do well, needs to be said. Or written down. This is going to be our direction.

2. Get familiar with the players who are successful in that style.

This is the easiest part of “getting real”. In fact, if you are that passionate about your direction, I’m sure you are well versed in the playing of the greats of that style.

But, take a listen to them again, and take some notes as to what they are doing to play that style.

for example:

scale choices, chord voicings, playing at extreme tempos etc….

3. It’s time to analyze your own playing

This is where things start to get tough.

Make an effort to listen to any recordings you have and write down some notes.

Pay attention to how you sound.

Ask someone you respect what is the one thing you need to work on.

Listen to what other people say about your playing and take a hard look.

4. Compare your playing

5. Determine your new goal

How do you get there? 

6. Action steps

Spend the next few months focusing on rounding out your playing.

IF it’s all you do to fill in these gaps, it may be the best thing you’ve ever done on your instrument. 

7. Getting real about life

How life pertains to your guitar practice.

And once we have all of this together, we’ve got real and we know what our problems are and what we need to do to move forward, it’s time to put the icing on the cake. You need a dedicated space that is distraction free and optimized for stress free learning. So in this simple pdf checklist i have that you can get at playguitaracademy.com/practice by clicking below. Down load it for free, print it out, take it right to where you practice read it , look around and get real about your surroundings. make sure that where you practice isn’t holding you back.

Question:

What are the things that you need to “get real” about?

Join the discussion below!