The Acoustic Guitar Forum - What Are the Biggest Mistakes In Playing?

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What Are the Biggest Mistakes In Playing?

What are the most common mistakes people make in learning to play or continuing to play? As a flatpick player , I would say...

Using too much left hand force/tension
Not using enough right hand force/tension
Not optimizing set-up
Spending too much time with exercises and not enough playing music
Not progressing thru the basics before attempting complex tunes
Thinking details don't matter
Thinking playing guitar and playing music is the same thing.

Mine is not practicing nearly enough.

My guess would be this one: "Spending too much time with exercises and not enough playing music."

Not enough time playing music. IMO, the great great majority of people that pick up guitar do so for personal enjoyment so they can play some of the songs they are fond of and have no real intentions of becoming true musicians. Scales and theory, as relevant as they are, tend to quench that initial interest for those people.

i think three of my biggest mistakes have been:
- not using a metronome
- mindless practicing in front of the tv.
- playing too fast

Quote:

Originally Posted by mc1 (Post 2892766)

- playing too fast

The one who have played the most notes in his/her life wins ;)

Try to run before you can walk.

Trying to fit lead guitar into a "box" for every tune.

The misconception that being a "good rhythm player" means strumming chords to a beat.

The left hand death grip for sure...

Putting off learning the fundamentals of reading and writing music.

Relying on tabs instead of ears.

Self-pigeonholing

Poor dynamics/always being on "10" in your playing.

Over-estimating your goals... chances are unless your a professional musician putting in professional hours you're not going to play like Tony Rice/Tommy E/etc etc any time soon. Even most pro's who do put in the hours can't play like these guys. If you're predominately an 'in front of TV twiddler' you have to expect less than those sitting focused and using a metronome in a structured piece by piece environment.

My own personal biggest failing is being reasonably proficient enough in one style and thinking I can quickly throw that over to another, failing then falling in to the twiddling in front of the TV syndrome due to frustration. But then I don't rely on it for my living so as long as it's fun and enjoyable I'm ok with that.

Hi HHP...
As a teacher, I think the things you listed would sure be stages one goes through on their way to becoming a better player. But for the record, I don't approach teaching/learning from an avoiding/preventing/correcting mistakes perspective.

People want to learn to play guitar, not work an instrument. Our children learn to talk without knowing how to read or write by mimicking peers and adults for several years before they start school.

In much the same way, guitar beginners can be taught the basics of playing songs, and then steered into the educational side later.

While technically the things you listed might be 'mistakes' I'm not sure how 'big' they are, and they are pretty common (along with a whole other set of things that need to be accumulated in the process). But I'd be the last to publish a list of ''20 Things to avoid on the way to learning to play the guitar'' - that just doesn't sound like fun at all!

This doesn't mean basics are unimportant, but they should not dominate the landscape. Glad I didn't learn to golf that way.

Steps I take with beginner students involve getting a proper setup with a weight of strings matched to their stage of development. At the beginning, being able to play easily is more important than working on tone, so lighter strings and a close setup are often helpful.

I also teach them proper posture (a never ending task).

Then building the chord vocabulary and learning 5 major scales in first position are going to reap huge dividends down the line, so I would teach them scales in C, A, G, E and D and all the associated chords for each major key.

Some simple etudes can be helpful in just learning/knowing the fingerboard for the first 4-5 frets, and learning common chord progressions is helpful too.

I find song-based teaching more helpful than just chord knowledge, scales, and etudes, so beginners need to have some basic songs to sing/play as well. If they sing (even poorly), it makes this stage of the process so much easier.

I always asked who are their favorite singer/players and had them bring in a song or two (we often pull up examples on YouTube) and we learn the chords. To get them to play along, I'd play the progression and let them record it on their phone, camera or other basic audio/video recorder.

Then they can use it at home as a practice tool.

I don't teach classical music, so I watch for a phase as they develop where they need to learn to count and I'll loan them a metronome for a month and they can take it home. After that, I'm not much for metronomes, as they tend to sterilize music.

I'm not trying to turn out precision mechanics, but organic musicians, so though I want players to know and understand how to count, how to stay at tempo, and play along with others.

I don't find metronomes do much but frustrate people. So I use them sparingly to get players up and running, and find that after that within a year or so, active players learn to hold tempos without a lot of outside help.

I teach them to hear/envision a key phrase from the song they are going to do in their head before they start and to base the tempo they play at on that.

OK that's enough for now…

Quote:

Originally Posted by mc1 (Post 2892766)

i think three of my biggest mistakes have been:
- not using a metronome
- mindless practicing in front of the tv.
- playing too fast

+3...........

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sticky_fingers (Post 2892794)

The one who have played the most notes in his/her life wins ;)

one must practice slowly, then more slowly, and finally slowly.
- saint-saens

this one is a winner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycmHSG_gqVw
.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljguitar (Post 2892816)

That's a very positive post from a music teacher. Bravo. If more people adopted such a relaxed and organic approach there would be more students who stick at it I think.

I do agree that if problematic counting is an issue a metronome is required but I completely agree that too much is very sterile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljguitar (Post 2892816)

Then building the chord vocabulary and learning 5 major scales in first position are going to reap huge dividends down the line, so I would teach them scales in C, A, G, E and D and all the associated chords for each major key.

Forgive me if this is obvious, but which scales? Do you mean pentatonic? Thx.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tanque Verde (Post 2892843)

Forgive me if this is obvious, but which scales? Do you mean pentatonic? Thx.

Hi TV...
No, just simple major scales. In scale degree 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, or do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do

Pentatonic scales leave out the half steps 3-4 and 7-8 so a Pentatonic scale is only scale degrees 1-2-3-5-6 in the major sense, and 6-1-2-3-5 in the minor. They are usually taught to get lead players up and running with no 'wrong' notes, but I see lead parts and melodies produced with pentatonic scales as pretty limited without 1/2 steps.

All our common chords in Western music are based on and derived from the major scales. And the 5 guitar keys which we love to play in 1st position (cowboy chords) are in key of C, A, G, E and D.

The across the neck scales up the neck in 3-4 positions can come later, but incorporating and focusing on open strings is unique to guitars and mandolins (and banjos) and are where we derive hammers and pull-offs and faster runs with less effort.

So learning the 5 basic scales in conjunction with their associated chords and progressions puts players miles ahead in the jamming world, and learning songs by listening and figuring songs out without tab or chord charts.