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Most beginning guitar players experience some of the same problems and making some of the same mistakes over and over again while learning how to play the guitar. I am writing this article to help you steer clear of the mistakes. These are basic errors that most all beginning guitar players naturally make. However these errors can cause major problems as you progress if they become habits in your guitar playing. Nine out of ten guitar players have these bad habits! The importance of building a good foundation to play from will not only make you a better guitar player, but also help you to accelerate your guitar playing in the future. Avoid These Common Errors The main errors that most beginning guitar players make when learning how to play guitar are: 1: Playing too fast and too soon. Do not rush your guitar playing or your learning. If you try to go too fast too soon it can cause serious problems as you advance. Bad guitar playing and errors will become a bad habit. Practice slow and play the guitar as perfect as you can. Make sure you are holding notes in the correct place on the fret bar. Make sure you are strumming the exact cadence. Listen to the sound and eliminate string buzz or dampening caused by your fingers being in the wrong place. Try to play so the sound in perfect. You are programming your brain and fingers to do their job in the correct manner. Practice this way until you can do it subconsciously. Make it a good habit. Your speed will come naturally as you progress. Don' force it. Scientist and Sociologist are saying now that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. However if you practice incorrectly you will become an expert at being a bad guitar player. So practice everything slow and perfect. Do this, and your guitar playing will be to a higher standard than nine out of ten of your peers. You will in many cases even play better that those who have played guitar for many years! 2: Playing Too Tense Too much tension in the body or the hand can negatively affect you guitar playing. Top professional guitar players make guitar playing look easy and effortless? They do this by being totally relaxed while they play. Being relaxed goes hand in hand with the first error. If you have not practiced your guitar playing until you can effortlessly make the chords, notes, and strums of the music you’re playing you will have tension. While you learn how to play guitar, and as you practice, do your best to be relaxed as possible at all times. Hell it is supposed to be fun right. If you practice correctly it will be. Tension anywhere in the body while you play will hurt your guitar playing ability. Any "excess" tension in your fingers, hands, arms, elbows, wrists, shoulders, neck, chest, stomach, thighs, or legs deter you from learning how to play guitar in the correct manner. If you practice the right things the right way you will achieve amazing results, even practicing only 10 or 20 minutes a day. 3: Practice is for practicing skills not for trying out new ideas of trying to sound like someone on YouTube. Make your practice time SERIOUS. Be specific and deliberate. Make a study plan practice chord transition, scales, or music passages over and over until you have it memorized not only in your brain but in your muscle memory. Teaching your body and brain new motor and muscle-memory skills is done very slowly, with great care and meticulous attention to detail. Don't practice fast. During practice time develop muscle-memory and train your mind and body to play the guitar in the most beneficial way. Play time is where you learn how to play guitar by putting into practice what you study during your practice time. It's where you to steal licks from YouTube and chords and solos off records. It's where you hunch over your CD player or computer with your guitar trying to hear and learn that tricky chord or lick. It’s when you have fun. But, do not forsake what you practiced. While learning to play a guitar lick off of YouTube or a cd use the same slow method of playing every note slowly until you have them all and the sound is perfect then slowly increase the speed once you can do it in your sleep. Better to do this... Once you learn a lick, sit down in your chair in the proper position and play that lick over and over at a slow speed while focusing on being as relaxed as possible and with absolute minimal finger movement. Program that lick, your physical movements and relaxation "perfectly" into your brain. Only when it becomes 2nd nature to you, and you "own" that lick, should you start speeding up. Play time is fun, and a necessary part of learning how to play the guitar better. Do as much as you can. But, don't mistake it for real practice time. Don't play with bad habits either. JR
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