The Secrets of What it Really takes to learn, and master the guitar!
Writen by a professional guitarsist whom tours the world in concert as
well as teachees guitarists all over the world.
If you believe you can, you will. If you believe you can’t, you won’t.
No matter what your musical skill level is right now, there are going
to be many significant challenges ahead of you. Your attitudes, and the
ways you deal with musical challenges, will be single greatest factor
in determining how much you will achieve as a musician. If you believe
that you can, and will, overcome your greatest challenges, you will
find a way, or you will seek help from a teacher, trainer, coach or
mentor that will help you through it. If you don’t believe you can
achieve, your done, it’s over, because you won’t.
A true story of self-fulfilling prophecy
OK, a short history lesson here might go a long way, so here it is. In
early 16th century Mexico, existed a great empire called the “Aztecs”.
In fact, it was the most powerful civilization in North America up to
the year 1519. It was in that year when the Spanish conquest began.
Cortez brought with him about 400 men, and with these soldiers, they
defeated virtually the entire Aztec empire. How did Cortez’s men defeat
this great empire with only 400 men? Was it with superior weapons or
superior military tactics? No! The Aztec emperor (and many of his
people) believed in a myth that some day in the future a “god” would
return to Mexico to destroy them. When the Spaniards arrived with their
strange skin color, beards, clothes and weapons, the Aztecs “knew” they
couldn’t win. They believed they could not overcome the power of
Cortez’s tiny army because they thought Cortez was the “god” who was
returning to destroy them. The Aztec empire was destroyed forever by a
false belief (that Cortez was their “god” and that it was impossible
and useless to try to defeat him)! There are many other military
defeats throughout world history caused by other types of false
beliefs. Had the defeated armies and/pr rulers had different beliefs,
the history of the world could have turned out to be quite different.
As you see above, the negative results of false beliefs, and not
believing in oneself, can be devastating for entire civilizations, so
imagine how badly your negative beliefs can hurt your ability to
effectively learn your instrument!
Lets find out where your attitude is likely to be
1. Play something on your instrument that you cannot play perfectly yet.
2. Listen critically to your playing.
3. Identify problems and try to define for yourself what they are.
4. What are your mental thought patterns? What is the voice inside your mind telling you?
Lets say what you played above was a scale at high speed. You noticed
that not all the notes were played cleanly. Now lets look at two types
of thought patterns and attitudes you might have about that:
1. You say to yourself, “These notes are not even, clean and clear….I
can’t get it!… This sounds terrible!….I guess I have to try harder….it
still doesn’t sound good…I just CAN”T do it!….Maybe I just don’t have
what it takes……?”
2. Or you say to yourself, “These notes are not even, clean and
clear….I’m going to record myself playing these scales, so I can listen
while I am focused only on “listening” and not on “playing”….Where do
the worst spots seem to be happening?…..Where are the better notes
located?……Hmmm, I notice the problem seems to be occurring when I
change from string to string or every time I use my ring
finger…..Perhaps, the string changing problem is caused from
inefficient right hand motion and maybe the ring finger is causing
problems because it’s not working independently from the other
fingers…..I’ll ask my teacher about this and he will probably offer
specific exercises I can do to strengthen these weak areas. Then I’ll
be able to play these scales correctly!….”
The results
Obviously the differences between these two opposite attitudes are
huge. More importantly is the difference in “results” one will get from
choosing to approach the same problem with opposite thought patterns
and attitudes. The first attitude offers only self-doubt, pessimism, a
negative self-image and hopelessness. The second offers confidence,
self-reliance, hope, optimism, security and the desire to get through
the difficulty of mastering this technique. Even though working with a
great teacher is the very best way to improve your skills, only your
thought patterns, positive attitude, and the way you deal with
challenges, will make significant improvement actually happen. It’s
that simple!
Why most people fail to ever become musicians.
More than half of people in the United States who begin to play an
instrument will quit in less than one year from the time they begin to
play. Another significant percentage of people will play occasionally,
but will not make much forward progress on their instrument. Why? Well
there are many possible factors, but the biggest two reasons are:
1. They took the first attitude mentioned above.
2. They didn’t learn from a great teacher on a long-term basis.
Inaction: The worst possible thing
Inaction (taking “no” action), when action is necessary, is the worst
possible thing, I can think of, for all areas in life. For most people,
inaction comes easily and naturally. It’s so easy to do “nothing”. It’s
so easy to “not” take guitar lessons. It’s so easy to “not” find a
better teacher, coach and mentor. Hey, I’m not perfect either, there
were plenty of times in my past when I too took the path of least
resistance and did nothing when I really needed to. Those decisions to
do nothing (or to do little) led me to…..
Regrets
A few years ago, I got tired of living with regrets and made some
interesting observations about them. Regret is a poison, a toxic waste
that marinates in your soul. What drives our regrets? Most of our
regrets in life occurred, not from what we have done (or said or
thought), but from we didn’t do. Our failures are not the main cause of
regret and unhappiness, it is passing up our opportunities to grow,
improve and make things better that hurts us most. Think about it.
What will you do?
I teach a private and correspondence music careers class where I teach,
train and coach my students to become professional musicians, music
teachers, etc. The very first (and probably most valuable) thing I do
as my student’s mentor is ask them this question: “What are you
committed to do, RIGHT NOW TODAY, to reach your goals? Even if you are
only able to make a small baby step forward, tell me WHAT WILL YOU DO
RIGHT NOW?!?! This very moment is the first moment of your future. You
create your future by what you do in the present!
So, what will YOU do right now? What thoughts will you allow to fill
your mind? Who will you call or email? How will you spend the rest of
your day? What action will take right now? What will you do in this
“present” moment, which will contribute to your future?
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More articles by Tom Hess are available for free here: http://tomhess.net
My email: hess@mc.net
Copyright 2005 by Tom Hess. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
See Tom Hess on the HolyHell world tour in 2006. Tour dates posted here: http://tomhess.net/news.php?rubric=1
