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January 17, 2007
How to Get Past the Beginning
The beginning of anything is often the hardest part of it. This applies especially to the guitar. Unlike the piano, making a good sounding chord may cause pain in the beginning. You may never get past this stage - unless you persist.
Within a few weeks of steady playing, your fingers toughen up a little - it stops hurting so much to press down on the strings with your fretting hand. The bad news is, unless you play your guitar during those painful weeks, the pain will never diminish, thus you will never become a guitar player.
I often hear myself saying that playing the guitar is one of the easiest things to get moderately proficient in - providing you get past the initial fingertip pain - and one of the hardest instruments to perfect or "finish". Students very frequently ask me, "How long does it take to learn to play? [the guitar]" and I must answer this way: as long as it takes you.
If you're learning to play the guitar so that you can check it off on your list of accomplishments and move on, six months to two years. To perfect your playing and master this challenging, versatile, expressive, and polyphonic instrument, an instrument for which scarcity of notes is virtue and constraint of expression is hard won, it will take as long as it takes you.
Here's what to remember when you are practicing.
There are three kinds of playing: practice, rehearsal, and performance.
Practice is what you do to improve your technique and learn your material.
Rehearsal can only happen when you know your material personally and are doing it from beginning to end without stopping. OR when you are working with your band to perfect material and integrate your instrumental and/or vocal parts, song by song.
Performance is when you play for your family, friends, church group, or worship service. It's when you play a short show or concert - to six friends or Symphony Hall.
Too many people think that once they can play a song through without stopping, they have perfected the song. Playing the song through without stopping is stage one.
Perfection comes when the song plays itself, and you, the performer, are listening and being entertained. If you can do that, with even only one song, you have moved past being a beginner.
By Thom Tollerson
Posted by Thom at January 17, 2007 2:57 PM
Comments
Well written. Bravo.
Ron
Posted by: Ron at September 10, 2007 11:59 PM