Guitar Skills Suck? Try This

If your guitar skills are not where you'd like them to be, stick around because I'm going to reveal to you one key change that you can make that can absolutely take your guitar skills to levels that you never thought possible. Hey there, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today. So I have been teaching guitar for a long time now. I originally started back in 2006. I started teaching in the back of a music store, and since then I've taught a ton of in-person lessons. And for the past few years, I've been teaching online through my online courses, through Zoom lessons, through free content like the one that you're watching right now. And The thing about it is, is after you've been doing something for as long as I've been doing it, you start to see a couple of patterns that emerge. I could go into a ton of different areas that people struggle with and that people need to work on and all of that good stuff, but if there's one single thing that I see from people who come to me for lessons and, you know, maybe they've been playing for a couple of years, maybe even a couple of decades, and they're just kind of stuck, they're frustrated with their skill level, especially taking into consideration how long that they've been playing. And if there's one thing that I've noticed is that for almost all of them, they just haven't developed a focused, deliberate practice routine that they have stuck to for a long enough period of time. I know that sounds simple, but it's true. I have just seen this over and over and over again. Now, I also like to use myself as a case study. There have been different periods in my life. I mean, there was a period in my life from probably about, uh, 14 to 24 or 25 where you couldn't get me to stop practicing guitar. And then there was a period after that where, you know, for a couple of different reasons that I won't get into here in this video, um, but I just— I stopped doing deliberate practice. I just wasn't doing it. But then, um, you know, about, uh, 8 or 9 years ago, I had made some changes in my life and I got back into really practicing guitar a lot. And I know I've seen it with myself and I have seen it with my students, is that when I commit to a focused, deliberate practice routine and I stick to that over time, I make some crazy changes in my playing, some significant growth. And what I'm seeing from most people who are frustrated and stuck with their current level of skill on the guitar is they haven't developed that practice routine, that focused practice routine that they've stuck to for a long enough period of time. So I am going to show you how to change that. I'm going to show you how to come up with your own little practice routine, and I am going to show you how to turn that into a habit that you make stick for a long period of time. The first thing that I want to talk about is the main idea from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Now, you may have read this book, you may have seen some podcasts with him. This is a really, really famous book kind of in the self-development development space, if you will. But the main idea behind this book is that small, consistent changes in behavior, even if seemingly insignificant, can compound over time to create significant and lasting improvements in your life. Simply put, little small improvements and changes in behavior done every day over time can produce some real, real, real growth in any area of your life. But today we're talking about the guitar. And you know, on this channel I mostly do bluegrass and country guitar, but it's true of any style of playing that you're working on. And this is the biggest thing that I see with students who are stuck or frustrated with their current level of ability, is they just haven't stuck to this stuff for a long enough period of time. Now I want to talk about another idea contained in the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. The main idea in this book is that in our increasingly noisy, busy, and tragically distracted world, doing activities that are cognitively or even physically demanding in a state of distraction-free focus is the key to producing quality work that lasts. Now, Deep Work is geared toward people that Cal Newport calls knowledge workers. It's people who are, you know, maybe computer programmers or software developers, you know, that, that are engaged in these very cognitively demanding tasks. However, I really do believe this book is required reading for musicians because another idea that he talks about in Deep Work that is adjacent to the main idea is the idea of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice aims to isolate areas that need improvement and then to stretch you past your comfort zone to induce growth. Simply put, it's distraction-free focus and distraction-free practice. So here are a couple of things that are not deliberate practice. Okay, number 1: picking up your guitar and just noodling. That's not deliberate practice. Number 2: um, playing the guitar while you're watching TV. That's not deliberate practice. Number 3: jamming with your buddies while drinking beer. it's not deliberate practice. Number 4: smoking a bunch of weed and going on extended Grateful Dead jams. It's not deliberate practice. Fun as all of those things are, and I'm not saying not to do those things, but they're not deliberate practice. And friends, I am telling you that deliberate, focused practice is the thing that is going to make you better. So I want to invite you to check out this video right here. I'm really proud of this lesson because in it I reveal a kind of skeleton form, sort of plug-and-play, swipe-file type of practice routine that you can inject yourself into, and it shows you how you can come up with your own deliberate, focused practice routine. I'll have you go through and do some technique drills. We'll really focus on a solo or a tune that you want to get down, and then I'll show you how to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone to really induce growth and really induce improvement. And you absolutely can do that with just 30 minutes a day. But now that we're working on our focused practice routine, we've got to condition that to make it a habit. Now here's the thing: how long does it take to make something a habit? Some studies will say a week, some studies will say 250 days. So let's go with this, let's say 60 days. I really do believe that 60 days is plenty of time to condition something to become a habit. So what I want you to do is commit to a 60-day practice challenge. You do not have to spend 6 hours a day practicing. You can do it with as little as 30 minutes a day. But for the 60 days, I want you to do everything in your power, muster as much willpower as you can, to not miss a day of practice. Now, if something comes up and you have to miss a day or two, don't freak out, but do everything within your ability to stick to practicing every single day for 60 days. Does not have to be 4 and 5 hours a day. You can do it with just 30 minutes a day. But if you will take that skeleton form practice routine— and again, I will link to that video down in the video description to this one— watch that video, come up with your own practice routine, and then stick to that for 60 days. Do everything in your power to stick to that for 60 days. From there, that becomes a habit, and from there you can really, really, really make some profound changes and some profound improvements in your guitar playing. Simple as this idea may seem, I'm telling you that after 20 years of teaching guitar, this is the number one thing that I see with people who aren't improving as much as they want to improve. And I've also used myself as a case study as well. Whenever I block things out and I just commit to doing a simple, focused practice routine every day, my playing goes to new levels. And if it will work for me, it will work for you too. So just to recap, we need a deliberate, focused practice routine that forces us to work on the areas that need working on and that also is gonna push you outside of your comfort zone to induce growth. But we need to make that practice routine a habit. That way we stick to it over a long enough period of time to give ourselves the fighting chance to develop the skills that we know that we're capable of developing. And I really do think that the way that you do that is you can come up with your own practice routine. And again, check out this video right here that I will also link to down in the video description to to get some ideas on how to come up with your own focused practice routine. And then, come hell or high water, stick to that for 60 days. That is about the amount of time that you're going to need to really make that into a habit. And once that focused practice becomes a habit and you stick to this, you're going to make some amazing strides. In your guitar playing. And I also believe that you'll take your playing to levels that you never thought possible. And I don't care if you're 17 or 75, these ideas don't care how old you are. You will improve, and you will improve significantly. But you have to have focused practice, and it has to become a habit. That way you can stick to it for a long enough period of time. I believe in this with with all of my heart. I've seen it work for my students, I've seen it work for myself, and it's the number one thing that I see that's lacking in students who aren't progressing as much as they would like to. So check out these videos right here to go a little bit deeper on some of the ideas I was talking about today. As always, thanks for hanging out, and I will see you next time.