Why Learning Guitar By Yourself Slows Down Progress
One of the biggest mistakes you can make for your guitar playing progress is to learn on your own without a teacher. Here are the reasons why learning guitar by yourself limits your potential to become a better player:
You reach your musical goals slowly
Jacob Melling of the American Academy of Guitar Mastery suggests that all guitarists work with a great guitar teacher to quickly reach their musical goals. He says, “Taking guitar lessons with a great teacher to become a better guitarist is like adding rocket fuel to your playing… especially when he has helped many other guitarists (who play in your style) reach their goals. You learn the exact path you must follow to achieve what you want, how to practice to quickly reach the end of that path and how to eliminate mistakes that slow you down. Without a guitar teacher to show you these things, you make very slow progress if any and experience much more frustration than necessary.”
We agree with Jacob entirely. Working with a guitar teacher who has experience helping many students like you reach their goals guarantees that you make faster progress reaching your goals. Without a guitar teacher, you just have to guess about what you should be learning to gain the skills you desire. This kind of guesswork is extremely ineffective and rarely provides results.
You develop bad habits in your playing
Without the guidance of an expert guitar teacher, many guitarists learn techniques through exercises or licks they find online. However, these things do not show you how to improve technique effectively. This leads to the development of poor habits that effect your guitar playing as a whole.
You get consistent feedback to prevent these habits from holding back your playing by taking lessons with a teacher. Guitar teachers who are trained, such as the ones who achieve certification through programs such as the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle, are able to fix your playing habits starting from the ground up. This minimizes the amount of time you must spend correcting mistakes so you can continue playing guitar how you like and make faster progress to improve.
Tom Hess, owner of the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle, states that learning guitar alone can add up to many years to the time it takes to achieve big musical goals. This makes it a no-brainer that taking guitar lessons is well worth it in the long run. He states, “Do you want to achieve your guitar playing goals in a matter of months or years? Take lessons with a great guitar teacher and achieve the former, learn by yourself and you’ll it might take you several years’ time.”
How to find a great guitar teacher:
Now that you know why learning guitar on your own slows down your progress, learn how to find a great guitar teacher. Here are the steps you need to take:
1. Search for someone who teaches guitar in the specific style you want to learn in.
2. Once you have found this person, make sure they have already helped many other students get results by finding testimonials or feedback on their website. Additionally, look for any credentials they have that prove their guitar teaching effectiveness. This means certifications they got for guitar teaching (specifically), not just general music degrees.
3. Think clearly about the musical goals you have, then contact this guitar teacher and tell them what you want to achieve. Think about the feedback they give you and make sure they offer to create a strategy for helping you reach your goals when you become a student.
Once you’ve done this, you are ready to begin taking guitar lessons. Enjoy making faster progress on guitar than ever before!