The trick to getting past beginner guitar? Pick a path!
Why do 90% of beginner guitarists quit within their first year? Is playing guitar too challenging of a skill to learn? Is it physically so demanding that players can’t make it through practice sessions? Do you need to spend lots of money to improve?
For the majority of people, these are not the main stumbling blocks.
“89% of new guitarists feel unhappy with their playing, long before skill becomes the real barrier.”
There has never been a better time to start learning guitar than right now. YouTube is filled with thousands of tutorials on how to play songs, strengthen your skills and learn new techniques. Yet people are still dissatisfied with their own playing from the very beginning. We surveyed hundreds of guitarists, ranging from absolute beginners to advanced players with over 50 years experience, and the common thread through them all? They were all overwhelmingly dissatisfied with where they were on their musical journey. This was most prevalent amongst the self identified beginners, which probably doesn’t surprise anyone, right? We pick up a new passion project and we’re bound to be unhappy with the results for a long time.
But to be unhappy and consider yourself a beginner whilst you have played for over 5 years? That is a really painful moment..
Twelve percent of our survey respondents considered themselves at beginner level after playing for over 5 years and all stated that they were unhappy with their playing level. We call those in this zone, ‘Frozen Beginners’. Their progress has stalled, not because they do not have the desire to improve but because they do not have the directions to get there.
"I am very frustrated with my growth as a musician for the time I've put in."
Those who had progressed further than beginner level at guitar in less than 5 years were much happier. Sixty percent of those that identified as an intermediate or higher player were happy with their progress. Compare this to only 11% of the beginner guitarists who were content with their playing.
Getting better at guitar is a clear path to happiness! Unfortunately, it isn’t obvious how best to do that. There are a few techniques that help::
Pick a specific skill to focus on and see improvement (finger picking for example)
Brush up on theory to round out your understanding of music (The Circle of Fifths is a great place to start)
Join a band to help push you out of your comfort zone with deadlines and peer pressure
All of these will help make you a better guitarist but they lead back to one fundamental issue, which is lack of direction. If you know what to do next then you’re already making progress. The number 1 issue for people unhappy with their playing was a lack of actionable direction:
"I don't know how to practice and just jump around a lot."
"I have such a strong desire to learn to play guitar, but I have no idea if I'm going in the right direction, or what comes next."
"I'm not sure how to get better at reading music and actually playing what I see."
"I lack discipline to do regular deliberate practice — it’s frustrating, as time is not an issue."
"I can break through the stubborn ceiling if I figure out my technique and chord literacy, but I feel stuck."
When people are putting in the time (the second most common issue was a lack of time) to structured play, they see themselves improve.
Hearing these issues lead us to the conclusion that providing a structured approach to learning guitar was needed to help beginners move along the learning curve and beyond the “frozen beginner”.
Introducing Beginner Guitar Pathways - A book which provides 10 unique pathways to learning guitar from beginner all the way to intermediate.
Noisy Clan has helped thousands of musicians move their play forward with our clear illustrations, simple explanations and unique patented tools. We have identified different guitar personas, which branch from the core skills everyone learning guitar should master. Whether you want to write songs, play in groups or play at home expanding your pedal collection, this book has lessons aimed directly at you. We know that these 10 different paths do not cover the full spectrum of guitar but they are a great starting block to working out the path that is right for you. Beginner Guitar Pathways brings direction to an ocean of choice.
We are excited about this book, it took us over a year to write and combines 20 years of guitar experience and design thinking. We have tested it on guitarists, gone through multiple iterations, revised and improved and created a learning framework of supporting material that can thaw out even the most frozen guitarist. The world would be a better place with more people playing more music, which is why we wrote this book and we hope you enjoy it.
To get one of the first copies, make sure you sign up to pre-order :
https://noisyclan.com/pages/beginner-guitar-book
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