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3 Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Big Results From Taking Guitar
Lessons

by Tom Hess

Have you ever tried taking guitar lessons and ended up quitting in
frustration, because you felt you weren't making enough progress? Or
perhaps you have considered taking guitar lessons but because someone
you know had a disappointing experience with a guitar teacher, you
began to doubt if lessons are worth investing your time and money. This
perception prevents you from getting all that you want from your guitar
lessons.



There can be many reasons why people quit guitar lessons. Sometimes it
is because the teacher failed to inspire you, or because the lessons
weren't focused enough on your specific musical goals, or because
the
teacher was only mediocre and didn't know how to help you achieve a
specific result. (To avoid this problem download this free guide about
how to choose a guitar teacher
<http://www.tomhess.net/HowToChooseAGuitarTeacher.aspx> ) However,
another (often misunderstood)
reason might be that your own approach to guitar lessons wasn't as
effective as it needed to be in order for you to make real progress.



After teaching tens of thousands of music lessons to all types of
guitarists
and also mentoring guitar teachers around the world on how to teach
more effectively, I began to notice similar and consistent patterns used
by
most students for learning to play guitar.



I also noticed that the specific approach the students applied to
studying
with a teacher had a direct influence on their progress. Very often 2
different people can get very different results by studying with the
same
guitar teacher, because the ways in which the students approached the
learning process in general are very different. For example, one student
believed that he knew better than the teacher did about how to reach his
musical goals and resisted some of the instruction his teacher was
giving
him. It later became very clear to him that he did not know better.
Click
on the link to hear his story about how he failed to improve his guitar
skills <http://tomhess.net/GetGuitarLessonsMistake.aspx> . The other
student soaked up everything his teacher was instructing
him to do and quickly became a world class guitar virtuoso.



I have found there are 3 types of students who become easily frustrated
with their guitar lessons. As you read the rest of this article, be
honest
and ask yourself if any of these 3 descriptions sound like you.
I'll be the
first to admit that at one point I had the characteristics of each of
the
"ineffective student behaviors" presented below. Looking back
many
years later, I now understand that one of the reasons why it took me as
long as it did to master the guitar (more than 20 years), was due to my
own inefficient approaches to learning when I began the journey.



The "Teach me something new today" student type.



You may think it is common sense that guitar lessons should consist
mainly of presenting new content, and expect that the guitar
teacher's
primary job is to show you things that are "new" to you.
However, if we
examine this approach a bit deeper, you will see that focusing
"only" on
seeking out new information will not bring big results long term.



First of all, too much new content quickly leads to overwhelm and burn
out (and does not allow enough time to apply the information you are
learning). This feeling of overwhelm is what causes you to become
frustrated and quit lessons (or worse yet, quit guitar). Second, simply
"learning new things" does not lead to mastery. I have had
many
students come to me being able to do some cool things on guitar. For
example, they may have good technique, or a good understanding of how
music works, or have good ears. But more often than not, their ability
to
APPLY and INTEGRATE what they "know" to playing music was very
poor. At this point, "learning more new things" is not going to
help these
students to significantly advance their guitar playing. Simply being
"aware" of a concept is not enough. You don't truly
"know" something
until you can apply and integrate it with your other musical skills
fluently.



This type of training in applying and integrating what you know is
probably the single most valuable thing you get out of music lessons and
is one area of musical development that is almost universally lacking in
many guitarists. This results in massive frustration and disappointment
that many guitar players often experience (but often do not realize WHY
they are frustrated).



When you take lessons for the first time, you may think that it is great
that your teacher shows you something new in each lesson. But if your
teacher does nothing else than "show you things", then as more
lessons
go by, you will start to notice that you are not really making any
significant progress (because no application and integration is taking
place). Most people will quit lessons at this point, and will continue
to
perpetuate the myth that guitar lessons are ineffective, without really
understanding the real reasons for their lack of progress.



The type of student who is only interested in learning new things,
typically does not stick with guitar lessons for very long. If a guitar
teacher begins to talk about a concept the student may already be
familiar
with, the lesson is perceived to be a waste of time. Because these
students may have heard about this concept from somewhere else, they
believe that they "already know it".



Of course, receiving new information is a part of any comprehensive
lesson plan (and certainly you will learn a lot of new things by taking
lessons), but it is the order in which this information is presented,
and the
way you are trained to USE, APPLY and INTEGRATE that information
that makes guitar lessons with a good teacher so valuable. If learning
"raw data" in a linear fashion (and practicing) was all it took
to become a
great musician, then anyone could buy some books and after studying
them for a few years and practicing on his/her own become a highly
advanced guitarist. Of course most of the time, this doesn't
happen.



The moral of the story here is to remember that you came to your teacher
to learn and grow as a guitar player. In order for this to actually
happen
you will need to have some patience through the process and realize that
sometimes when you `think you know something', you in fact may
not
really know it yet to the point that you can apply it and integrate it
with
your other musical skills.



"The Perfectionist"



The next type of student wants to master every little thing their
teacher
presents in a lesson (or that they discover on their own) before working
on anything else. While on the surface this seems like a good idea, it
is
far from the most efficient approach to becoming a great musician.
Learning music is best done in a non-linear approach, meaning that
multiple things should be worked on simultaneously without stressing out
about totally mastering everything in a linear order. Discover more
about
why the typical linear approach guitar players follow often fails in
this
video about how to master the guitar
<http://www.tomhess.net/LinearVsGeometricApproach.aspx> .



I like to compare learning music to baking a cake. You don't make a
cake by cooking one ingredient at a time and then finally putting them
together when each one is ready. If you baked your cake in this way, it
would take you a long time to finish and more importantly the cake
would not taste as good as when the ingredients are cooked together!



The same goes for musical skills. If you waited until you became a
great
virtuoso master of technique before beginning to work on (mastering)
music theory, then turning to songwriting, and then switching to
improvising, it could take you many decades to finally become really
good and your skills would not likely be integrated together. What I
recommend to you is to follow a non-linear approach (as described in the
video above). When learning a new skill, don't wait until you
completely
master it; only make sure that you have the fundamentals down and begin
immediately to look for contexts to apply it. Then work on integrating
this new skill with everything else that you know how to do/play.
Application and integration are unique skills that must be practiced
separately. This key link will enable you to go from being "the
student"
who is able to "do lots of things" on the guitar, to becoming a
great
player who can use all of his musical skills to achieve complete musical
expression.



This (non-linear) approach will also prevent you from getting out of
balance with your skills and at any level of your musical development,
you will be able to apply and integrate everything you know. It is
important to note that a `non-linear approach' is not an
`illogical'
approach. So if you are looking for a systematic and logical approach to
learning guitar, you should understand that this systematic, geometric
(non-linear) strategy IS in fact the most effective, most efficient and
most logical path possible.



The challenger

This personality type often comes out in a player who has been playing
for a while and has studied with other guitar teachers in the past.
This
student may come into their first lesson full of preconceived ideas
about
what lessons should be like, and dictating to the teacher what and how
to
teach. I should clarify here that I am not talking about asking
questions
when you don't understand something or telling your teacher about
your
goals. There is a big difference between doing that, and trying to
dictate
to the teacher what and how to teach. If the student knew that much
more
about teaching than the teacher, then the student would BE the teacher,
right? If you know how to successfully learn guitar on your own and you
are TRULY happy with your progress without a teacher, then maybe you
don't need guitar lessons. But if you seek help from a qualified
guitar
teacher, this means you realized that whatever you were doing on your
own wasn't working as well as you wanted it to. Therefore, you
should
accept the fact (or at least the high probability) that your guitar
teacher
knows many times more about guitar playing and teaching guitar than
you do and can successfully teach you to play well. (Otherwise, why
would you give the teacher your money?) Of course not all guitar
teachers are the same, and some are much more qualified to teach than
others. If you follow the advice I give in the guide for choosing a
guitar
teacher, you will be sure to find the best teacher for you.



I always tell my students that in order for them to receive the most
benefit
from working with me, it is their job to articulate to me their specific
musical goals and list their musical challenges. Then it is MY job to
come up with the most effective strategy possible to solve their
problems
and get them to their stated goals as quickly as possible. But in order
for
that to happen, they need to have faith in me as a teacher, and commit
themselves to moving forward together through the learning and training
process. My most satisfied and advanced students all followed this
advice.



If your guitar teacher has already created many great musicians, chances
are, he knows what he is doing and will be able to help you as well.
But
his ability to help you will be limited (and the process will take much
longer), if you constantly challenge everything he tells you to do.
Again,
asking questions about something you don't understand is normal, and
is
part of the learning process. But creating the overall lesson plan is
your
teacher's primary responsibility, not yours.



If you recognize yourself as one of the student types described above,
think about your current approach to learning guitar and change your
mindset. On the surface it may seem like a small action to take, but
the
difference this can make to your guitar playing may be greater than you
have ever even imagined before!



Want to know how to choose the right teacher for you? Download the
free guide on how to choose a guitar teacher
<http://www.tomhess.net/HowToChooseAGuitarTeacher.aspx>



====================================================



Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He
teaches guitar players around the world via online guitar lessons
<http://tomhess.net/CorrespondenceGuitarLessons.aspx> , Visit
http://www.tomhess.net <http://tomhess.net/> to get free guitar playing
tips <http://www.tomhess.net/FREEGuitarPlayingTips.aspx> , assessments,
surveys, mini courses and more.





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