Carry a Pick

I always have a pick in my wallet.

Get a Guitar Stand

Get a guitar stand because one day your guitar, when leaned against something, will fall. When it falls, it will probably not sustain any damage, but it might. If it does, you’ll kick yourself for not having a stand. And if you have a stand but don’t use it, you’ll feel even worse.

And a bruise from a fall is so much less appealing than wear from excessive play.

Inspiration

You can imagine sources of inspiration, I’m sure you have them. You certainly were inspired somehow to play guitar in the first place—unless you were forced to do so. I want to offer a particular source of inspiration we all experience that you might overlook: the inspiration of dull and boring exercises or songs you really have no desire to play.

How can things you don’t want to play inspire you? In general, exercises you’re give by your instructor are for a greater goal than simply mastering the exercise. And performing less interesting material usually happens because, well, someone wants you to play it.

These less-interesting moments are stepping-stones to where you want to be.
I recently requested a student to work especially hard on piece he really didn’t like, that his reward would be something more interesting to play. I felt I had to manipulate him in this way because he was always rushing ahead and doing a sloppy job of pieces he was not yet able to play. By cutting a deal with him, I was able to inspire him with material that, to his mind, was dull and boring.

Life inspires us. Every step is progress. Be inspired by what’s lackluster in your life.

Thumbing Down the Back of the Neck

There’s a human, physical inclination for your thumb to become stuck on the back of the guitar neck as you move from higher to lower positions. You might try lifting the thumb off the neck as you make these downward transitions, you might use your guitar polish on the back of the neck to effectively grease that area, but my basic advice is to do what works for you so your thumb doesn’t hang-up higher on the neck as you move down towards the nut.

If your thumb does get stuck you’re liable to play wrong notes, because you’re no longer in a good position.

A Written Record

Keep a music journal. Put it in a form that appeals to you. If it’s on paper, it can be a record of your practice, or articles you read and like—pasted pictures, even. If it’s electronic, it may include sound files, YouTube videos, whatever.

Keep a written record to support your history, so you know where you’ve been. It may give you an idea where you’re headed.

It may help your teacher track your progress as well, to understand you better, to better assist you.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The old admonishment (and smart answer to the question, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”) is generally taken to mean that you should practice continually. (If you practiced constantly you’d collapse and die.)

Of course it’s good advice.

What’s less known is that you do need to have those times between practice, and that they should come rather frequently. If you’re practicing a half-hour, try practicing 15 minutes, taking a 15 minute break to do something else, then practice the same material over again during a final 15 minute bout. Take a page from studies about studying, which show that reviewing material after a brief break helps push that material from short-term into long-term memory.

Anything with Frets on It

When asked, I tell people I play anything with frets on it. This is true, though I certainly play some fretted instruments better than others. And I’m sure there’s some fretted instruments I’ve never even seen, much less played.

Playing different instruments makes me giggle. It’s like everything’s familiar, but whacky—especially the first time you pick up a ukulele. You don’t even have to know how it’s tuned, just feel your way.

Try it sometime!