I was thinking today about THE most dangerous enemy of musical progressthe
victim mentality. What do I mean by this?

Often we can let our personal circumstances dictate our progress. For example, someone may let their guitar practice slide because they were really busy at work. This person may start making excuses such as “I didn’t have time”. This is victim mentality. It is believing that your musical progress is only possible when external circumstances allow it.

What they are really saying to themselves is that their musical dreams and goals are
not as important as paying a few lousy bills.They are letting their boss’s goals get in the way of their own.

NowI can’t point fingers at anyone. I’ve been guilty of having a victim mentality
plenty of times! Especially when it comes to things like going to the gym But I don’t have a victim mentality when it comes to guitar practice. There is virtually nothing that I will allow to get in the way of my musical progress.

Sohow can you stop yourself from becoming a victim and a loser

1.Stop making excuses. I can guarantee that for every excuse you can make there is someone out there who has overcome that obstacle. Don’t allow yourself to make
excuses. They are the death of your musical dreams.

2. Watch your language. For example, rather than saying “I couldn’t find the time” say “I am acting like a complete and absolute loser and if I continue acting like this I will NEVER achieve my musical goals”. Because that statement is pretty painful to say, you’ll soon stop making excuses!

3. Think of solutions. For excuses that you normally make, think of ways of overcoming those obstacles. For example, if you are constantly using your work as a reason why you can’t practice, ask yourself questions like

“How can I get paid more but work less hours?”.
“How can I get paid while I sleep?”.
“How can I stay home all day and practice?”.

If you ask enough questions like this on a daily basis, you’ll find a solution
eventually.

4. Think of your “Why”. These are the reasons why you want to achieve your musical goals. If your why is strong enough, You will NEVER want to stop practicing for any reason.

5. Think of your role models. Use your role models to motivate and inspire you to
keep on practicing.Every time you start to make an excuse, ask yourself “Would__________make this excuse?” For example, one of my favourite guitarists is Steve Vai. I could NEVER imagine making him excuses for not practicing!

To finish off here’s a quote that you may want to memorize…

“You can either become a great guitarist, or you can make excuses, but you can’t do both”.

Copyright 2005 by Craig Bassett. All Rights Reserved.

Craig Bassett is a professional guitarist, guitar tutor and author living in Auckland, New Zealand.

To get free online guitar lessons, please go to:
www.pentatonic-guitar-lessons.com

Guitar Lessons

So you’ve been debating whether or not to take guitar lessons. So, you think you?d like to learn to play guitar, but you?re put off by the high cost of lessons? Guitar lessons, in some form or another, are a necessity for anyone wanting to learn to play the guitar.

When somebody is playing the guitar, it is assumed that the person has taken some guitar lessons from an instructor or that he has learned to play the instrument all by himself. People who are considered experts in playing the guitar insist that the only distinction that sets a good guitarist apart from a distinguished guitarist is based on how they apply the approach ?feel the beat? to their tune using their instrument. An experienced teacher Some websites are run by other newbies also honing their guitar playing so make sure the tutor is a qualified guitarist.

Private Lessons: This is the best way to learn to play the guitar if you can find the right teacher. Once you’ve got past the basic guitar lessons in these tutors, you might decide the best way to teach yourself is to play your favourite songs by ear. If you’re just starting, it might be best to go for the cheapest, most basic guitar lessons you can.

Instead of giving the guitar player in your life cash to go towards the lessons, you can contact the teacher and pay for the lessons up front, or have them give you a gift certificate. Guitar lessons are a great gift for the guitar player in your life because you can take them no matter which level you are at. Video-based lessons- In my experience, pure video-based lessons are a good ?icing on the cake? to help you learn, but not typically a good foundational guitar lesson program.

The best thing about a guitar lesson ebook is that it does not just contain the lessons that the learner has to know but also has some added features making the learning process easier and more fun. Many ebooks about guitar lessons contain songs that a beginner can use to learn how to play the guitar as easily and as fast as possible. Easy guitar songs initiate proper pacing and rhythm enabling the beginner to learn to play the guitar easier.

Sorting through the many options can be made easier with information dedicated to this topic on various guitar websites, such as this online guitar lessons guide. These online lessons found on the internet can help a person to play the guitar in an instant ? relatively speaking. Don?t think that online guitar instruction is just for the novice, though, because many of the available lessons will teach you, not only the basics, but many advanced techniques as well.

Group Lessons: Learning guitar in a group setting can be less intimidating for the beginning musician. Luckily, there are simple techniques that can help the beginning guitar player to develop these muscle memories and ear training for proper chord changes. The one drawback to online guitar lessons is that you don?t have a teacher right there in the room with you to help you place your fingers on the right strings and show you a specific chord.

Once you get the beat connected to your system, take hold of your guitar, and start hitting those strings. Now you know all about the guitar, it is now time to learn how to hold it correctly before you start to play anything. Generally, once you know the basics on how to look after the guitar, it is good to start off learning the basic chords before trying anything else.

There are two ways for a person to start strumming the guitar. For a person who wants to learn, he may check the internet where he can find new updated learning tools that will help him learn to play the guitar in just a short period of time. By using your ear and a TUNED guitar it is relatively easy to find the correct key of a song and even determine the chords and scale.

Not much music theory in this bit of information, but how do you determine the key of a song with just your ear and a guitar. Now just move this scale anywhere you want on the neck of your guitar, but play the same relative positions on the fretboard. If you do this for 5 minutes every time you pick up the guitar, you’ll be amazed how quickly you’ll fingering will improve.

All beginners will remember the first time they played the guitar for an extended period. A little discipline, regardless of whether you have an inborn talent or not for playing the guitar, can better your chances of becoming a good guitar player. We have a complete selection of lessons on all these issues at our guitar playing web sites.

Well, that was many years ago and when I recently decided to improve my guitar playing skills, I was glad to find some excellent online guitar lessons. Recently, I’ve been exploring some options to improve my guitar playing skills online. Remember, you’re on your own when you take guitar lessons online, but its an excellent way to improve your guitar playing from the comfort of you own home at your own schedule.

I hope you understand the power of the point I?m making, and I hope you will use this idea to improve your guitar playing and break out of any rut you experience.

In order to find the best free online guitar lessons, you may need to try a couple of different web sites, or ask someone that you know has taken lessons before.