Guitar: Can You Learn To Play Guitar Without Goals?

By: Peter Edvinsson

In many articles on the net on learning to play guitar you will
find many article authors stressing the importance of setting
goals. Well, it would be interesting to find out if you can
learn to play guitar without goals. Let us investigate the
matter!

I have many memories of my first attemps to play the guitar.
Like many boys I had many interests like reading, playing piano,
singing, listening to music, athletics, chess, stamp collecting,
painting and other things at different times. Playing guitar was
just one of them.

I remember that I had my own way of practicing guitar playing. I
always had my guitar on my bed waiting for me. I sat down on my
bed many times everyday playing for a while and then starting to
do other things.

Sometimes I felt inspired to play guitar for an hour or two and
other times just for a minute. Did I have goals or not?

I know that I was developing as a guitarist quite fast and I
think it must have been something in my way of playing and
practicing guitar that was good.

I believe that some of the reasons for my progress during those
early days of my learn to play guitar career were:

1. I felt no pressure to become an accomplished guitarist. I
just felt the joy of sitting down with my guitar trying to find
out the treasuries in the land of music.

2. My father was a guitar teacher giving me lessons at times and
I always heard him play guitar in our home. Other guitarists
visited our home many times and these visits inspired me a lot.

3. I never felt a pressure to play fast and thereby building
tensions by playing too fast. This is one of the big mistakes
beginning guitarist and even accomplished guitarists sometimes
make.

4. As I mentioned previously I did a lot of other things besides
playing guitar and I guess all these things I was involved in
kept my mind quite healthy and helped me retain my joy when I
learned to play guitar.

I guess in a sense I had goals that was not so apparent to me
that directed me towards somewhere even if I was quite content
being on the road of progress towards guitar land.

Can you learn something from my early guitar experiences? At
least you can learn the following:

1. When learning to play guitar always remember to enjoy the act
of playing without thinking too much on what you can or cannot
do as a guitarist.

2. Try to associate with good musicians and guitarists that
inspire you to play musically and that give you the motivation
to learn to play new things on your guitar.

3. Beware of playing too fast on your guitar. There is a risk of
building up muscle tensions and thereby actually reducing your
ability to play fast. A remedy for this and a way to tame
yourself is to use a metronome at a low tempo to reduce your
speed to a level where you can play your guitar in a relaxed
manner.

4. To become an interesting guitarist and musician you might
benefit from being involved in other activities like listening
to good music, having another hobby, reading good books,
assiciate with other people and more.

Do you have to have goals to become a good guitarist? Well, even
if you don't have learn to play guitar goals in the ordinary
sense you can help yourself to play everyday by having easy
access to your guitar.

I had my guitar on my bed. Maybe you want to have your guitar in
your favorite armchair. I guess you understand the principle....

About the author:
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit
his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and
learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.co
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