The Guitar Tug Of War Inside YOU - And Are You Winning?

Do You feel You Want To Learn to Progress on Guitar, and yet find that there's something holding You Back ?

Here is Part One of The Top 7 reasons Why You might Not Yet Feel Ready and What You can do about them to help You win the Tug Of War.

1) You Don't Have The Time?

2) You doubt You have the ability ?

3) You doubt You have the Talent ?

4) You have tried learning before and the Guitar is gathering dust ?

5) You don't feel You can get past where You are right Now On the Guitar ?

6) You don't feel You have the motivation to progress ?

7) You play to a reasonably good level, You should be better than You already are and You shouldn't be thinking about Lessons?

1) You Don't Have The Time?

For You Playing Guitar would be all well and good - it's just that You don't have the time; there's already competing demands on Your limited Time  - You have to give at work/ in your career, and then ofcourse there's Your family to think of  - it always seems like You have to be giving giving giving - and Yet if all You ever do is give, what happens if You find yourself almost close to running on empty - what happens if You find Yourself giving so much that it feels like there's no more left to give, that You are always coming second.

By putting Yourself first, and giving YOU a gift is a great way to re-charge, and if learning Guitar happens to be one of those things You keep promising Yourself - then surely giving Yourself the all important Sanctuary Time of Learning Guitar, putting Yourself first for a change,  and being able to relax while playing for Your own Pleasure might just be the type of thinking that can help You overcome this Tug of War - By You giving to YOU, something that means a lot, like learning guitar, can mean that You almost replenish Yourself and can continue giving whether at Work or to Your family, Your community or your other interests.

The danger is if You don't make time for You, You could if not carefull get close to burn -out!

2) You doubt You have the ability ?

You may have some level of doubt for any type of interest, activity or hobby, including learning a Musical instrument, like the Guitar - perhaps You have already tried learning, or know others who have tried and not been successful at learning to play Guitar - perhaps that is where the doubt comes from - trying books, videos, Guitar teachers even. The one question You need to consider if You or someone else has tried books, videos, other teachers is this : Did these books, videos or other teachers show You any proof that their methods work.

If the answer is No they didn't show any proof - well then its not Your fault - You were just using the wrong books, videos and/ or teachers -  ones that couldn't actuallly show You any proof that they work.

And if that's true for YOU, then its not Your ability that You should doubt - instead you should be skeptical about the book, the video, the teacher, the learning method - until You can see and hear Proof that what the book or teacher claims to be able to teach is true.

Instead You should consider turning Your doubt about You into being skeptical.

3) You doubt You have the Talent ?

In the Book "Talent is Over-rated" - the author talks about "You guessed it" - how Talent is overrated in any activity including developing Skills to Play Guitar.

Something that is far more important than "Talent" is Your level of desire; how much do You really want to Play Guitar the way You have always wanted to play? Is this something You want to just Play for Your own Pleasure, or with family and friends.

In other words having enough good reasons, that are meaningfull and powerfull to You - are way more important than talent in learning guitar.

4) You have tried learning before and the Guitar is gathering dust ?

The danger with this one is that it's likely if You have tried before, You now feel that you lack the ability or talent to learn - and yet its likely that the method, book, video or even teacher You tried to have teach You could not demonstrate proof that their way works - how much does the book, video know about your goals of how You want to Play guitar - and without knowing this - how could You possibly learn?

In Part Two Next Time You'll read about the final 3 main reasons that might be stopping You be the Guitar Player You Want To Be - before revealing the one surprising key factor that can help You overcome this Inner Tug of war.

Til Next Time

Andre

Andres Guitar Academy - Helping YOU Win The Inner Guitar Tug Of War!

The real Power of YOUR Music to YOU – the Transformative Art

Unusual Guitar Journeys : Teaching Guitar To The Teacher

Just wanting to know where You are in your playing is one thing, but when the student is the teacher You might think that a having another Teacher as a student is not likelly – surely the Teacher, even if they don’t teachguitar,  knows enough about how to get the right information and also can work out how to apply the information in the right way in order to progress their playing and become the Guitar Player they want to be.

Surely if anyone can figure out the Guitar Playing puzzle, for themselves, then that person has to be a Teacher – even a teacher of a different subject will have all the right skills to figutre out everything they need to know, and be able to apply it to their own playing Right/

Well not according to Teacher Rob Hobday… who explains in his own words, why as a Teacher he felt the need for some assistance and facilitiation in his Guitar Journey… and what he really thinks about trying to do it all by yourself..

“… You can’t do it all on Your own,You need some guidance , some facilitation  I’m a teacher myself…”  Teacher Rob Hobday talking in the video above about his Guitar Journey

Maybe You even got to a great start - finally starting to learn to play Guitar, to become The Guitar Player that You always wanted to be, or getting back into the Guitar after some time away from Playing - that is what January and new years resolutions are all about - and yet here You are a month later and what has happened

Are You still as motivated and excited to Play ?

Is Your Guitar close to hand - or hidden in a corner now gathering dust - or worse still under the bed/ settee out of sight and out of mind?

Its all too easy to get motivated and excited and yet, like so many people seem to do with Gym memberships - they just become something that You stop doing.

Which of these Reasons Apply to You No playing

1. Life Got in the Way ?

All too easy for everyday busy life to seem to stop You from doing what You really want and need to do, which can include Playing Guitar. There can seem to be so many competing demands - whether its work/ career, our studies, making time for family and for friends and all other activites.

However This is NOT The reason You're not right now taking action towards playing Guitar How You Want To Play - this may seem counter-intuitive - even if You think these are the reasons - just hang on in, continue reading - and You'll find they are not.

2. You tried Guitar and Got Stuck ?

Maybe you tried online videos, books and perhaps other teachers and couldn't make sense of what the videos and books tried to explain to You, what these teachers tried to explain.

This can make You feel like perhaps You are not cut out for Guitar - that you are more of a music fan, more a music listener than a player - or If You do play You might feel that You have to be stuck where You are in Your playing and just won't ever be able to play beyond how You already play.

Even if all of this sounds perfectly reasonable, resonates with You - again, as strange and unusual as this sounds these are NOT the reasons - this might be a symptom of the reason, but its not - nearly at the reason, and yet there's one more possibility..

3. You were going to start on Guitar, but it just never happened.

So You're probably wondering well what are the reasons .

Well the answer is You did not have enough reasons to continue - and that has to be true - if You were still motivated enough - and had identified the Powerfull reasons why You wanted to either start playing guitar, or take your playing further - then You would be doing that - You certainly wouldn't still be reading this.

And if its that You really really were going to play Guitar, but weren't motivated enough - then its Not Your Fault. One of the reasons I have been privileged to have success with so many students is from taking the time to really understand where they were in their playing, but also where they wanted to be - to understand their frustrations and to get to know in detail, in depth what and how You want to really Play.

The sad truth is that most Guitar students, to start with at least, will spend more time thinking about and planning their holiday than they do their Guitar Playing - the result - You will be really excited and motivated about going on a holiday - because You have planned for it.

And in case You're wondering but Guitar is a bit of fun - so well why aren't you playing how you want to play? How come You're not yet getting that sense that Your playing is moving forward How You want it to?

While it's Not Your fault if this is the case, it is Your responsibility - many successfull students have found that working with a teacher to help at least define some goals is the number one motivating thing that they can do to take their playing forward - especially when You see and hear how You are moving towards these goals - nothing beats You having that  sense of achievement, sense of fulfilment, sense of success in your Playing - the best freeling ever!

Young Jamie’s Guitar Dream Comes True – First Time On Stage Electric Guitar and other debuts together with Shaun

Jazz at Workshop and Student Shows From Arnol

Student Spotlight Kelly Acoustic, Electric Guitar and even writing and performing her own Original Song

Coventry's Largest Music Store ExpressMusic’s Ollie and also Aiden helping at the Student Show

Hi There,

Already getting ready for the next event which will be a MasterClass in May - now is a good time to have a look back the recent Blues Immersion workshop. This was a opportunity to really play for a long time if You wanted to, went down really well with students – sometimes it can be difficult to find 2 hours to be able to play guitar – and at the Blues Immersion work shop – whether they were plugged in, or even acoustic – students just kept playing Guitar – making it a real fun and completely immersive experience.

Here’s a video from the weekend workshop showing students playing rhythm guitar – up on stage and even as weird as it sounds playing off stage while sitting down as You’ll see..

And as well as rhythm guitar – the first part of the workshop – Students also got the chance to play and even improvise their own solo ideas – here are some playing On Jailhouse Rock – Blues Brothers style…

Beyond Simple Tabs, Beyond Blindly Copying somebody Playing

When You learn to speak You start your learning by copying – usually your parents or guardians; and when You learn to write – again You start the process by copying letters and words down.

However with learning to speak and learning to write – everyone develops their own style – their own way of speaking and writing – even though that might be influenced by others.

When it comes to music and guitar – very few people actually take up the instrument, and of those that play guitar its all too easy to get caught up in the trap of just playing and copying simple TABs, just copying songs and playing chords that are written down.

Ultimately just copying tabs, just copying music is not very satisfying – the same way just copying how other people speak and write is not satisfying either – when it comes to communication – whether that’s using spoken language, written language or even Musical language – because really music is a form of language, it has tremendous power to move listeners emotionally – becasue music too is a language,  then it makes perfect sense that our deepest musical fulfilment does not come just from copying others music, from copying TABs – but rather it comes from making our own music – whether that is some type of improvisation or perhaps arrangement of some song, or even going one stage further and composing our own songs,our own music,our own ideas.

Being just a MusicalPhotocopy of someone else’smusicalideas ultimately is never satisfying – playing simple Tabs and copying playing can be a good start in Music – however to really begin to move towards your Musical Potentail, You have to Musically go Beyond Simple Tabs and Blindly Copying Playing – and the sense of achievement, and satisfaction that comes from that… well to get an idea here’s what Rock Student Fedj had to say….

Hi There,

Its all too easy to get caught up in the stresses and strains of everyday life isn’t it?

Those competing demands on our time – whether that’s work/career, other things, activities and people even.

It can almost sometimes seem like You’re always giving giving giving – and yet what happens if You all of a sudden find that with all this giving You become dangerously close to almost running on empty?

If You are the one that’s always providing – always putting other people, other situations first – then its all too easy for that to feel like You’re out of balance.

For people in this very busy hectic time – You can feel like the need to regain balance is really important; I know for many students that experiencing the joy of learning Guitar can help them do that – in other words it becomes a way for You to give to yourself – and the more You begin to start to pay attention and give to yourself, the more You find that you feel replenished and can continue to give to all the people and places in your life that you need to give to – whether that’s your family, your friends, Your work/ your career.

Quite literally Your Guitar time can be Like your personal “Sanctuary Time” – your time to re-charge.

This is far more important than playing on stage, or playing at a workshop –  and far more satisfying than just listening to music on your ipod – because its You Playing Music YOUR Way!

And anything else like playing at a workshop is just a bonus – great if that happens – although perfectly okay if not. Although its having exactly this “open to possiblity” mindset – which starts with giving to yourself that can open all kinds of musical doors – including playing even at workshops with like minded People.

Can Guitar really be a Sanctuary for YOU from day to day life  - Yes it can, and that’s the main thing, giving permission to give to yourself which in turn will allow You to continue giving in all the situations that You know You need to give – and playing at a workshop – well that would be just the icing on the cake!

Til Next Time

Andre

Andres Guitar Academy – Where Guitar Time is YOU Time Sanctuary Time!