#105 - 5 WORST Beginner Guitar Mistakes

That last point concerning teachers and guidance really hit home - when I was a teenager I had acoustic guitar lessons for 7 years (yes, seven) until I stopped because I wasn't having fun, because none of what our teacher had us play was anything that I listened to. The reason why I got started on acoustic in the first place was because my parents thought that that was the best way to get the fundamentals down - but I still can't really read sheet music and I only have that dangerous half-knowledge about what note is where on the fret board. I only recently picked the guitar up again when Ghost released their new album and I went "Hey that sounds cool, and like I could do that if I really tried". Bought a cheap-ish practice amp and some picks and here I am, trying to keep up with the beginner alternate picking exercises xD

TurboToast

hi , all great wideos, hope you do some rythmic and time sigantures also with different rhythms one day , and how to use methronome, great work love all videos

Jani Figueroa

This is SUPER HELPFUL for me, Bobby! Thanks for sharing!!!

Arvid, I am with you sort of, I am very torn on this. I feel like I want to be able to play properly with proper technique before I dive into theory. However, a few months ago though I started getting into theory and taking some online courses and in just a few days I totally started to see why people say theory is important. When you learn how scales connect to each other, all of a sudden everything starts making sense and you can easily play all over the fretboard. I only worked on it for a few days and went back to my technique practice but once I get my technique down I am going to dive right back into it. It is tough as a beginner to want to start working on it until you feel like you can play properly, so I totally understand where you’re coming from but I do think Bernth is correct but it’s just hard to stay motivated practicing theory. The most recent lessons I learned that changed everything (and Bernth Has videos on just about all of this) for me were proper hand placement (knowing how the fingers should hit the strings, what angle) , pick slanting knowing how to use it, moving your arm up and down to change strings instead of your wrist, how to properly hold the pick, how to relieve the tension. The thing that made everything start working for me is practicing slow. Doing all exercices at 50 BPM and make sure they are perfect. I guarantee that will change everything for people. You hear it mentioned all the time but no one does it and I can tell you now it’s life-changing. I totally struggled with tension, every time I would try to play fast I would tense up. As soon as I started practicing slow, the tension went away. This is because your brain is memorizing what you’re doing when you play slow then when you speed it up you don’t have to think about it it’s automatic. I can play scales now at speeds I never dreamed of and I don’t even think about it it just happens. I could never do that until I started practicing slow. Just go slow with a metronome at 50 bpm and slowly speed it up by 5 Bpm. The second you start feeling tension, back down the tempo by 5bpm and play until there’s no tension and slowly increase again. If I had known this years ago I would’ve taken years off the time it took to play well.

Bobby McKee

But the advantage of the lockdown, finally after 30+ years got the guts to dig into “modes” ... a new world opened and I can manage now most on the spot ‘improvisations’ ... highly recommended ! Shred on 🤘🎸

Same here... damn pinky 😉

I too suffer from flying pinky syndrome

brian atherton

*gg* When I restarted last year to learn properly I knew nothing about theory. Today I understand pentatonic (CAGED), know my basic modes and the 3NPS shapes thereof. So YOU have already begun " ....mich weichzukochen"... as we say. Alles wird gut :-)

Arvid Richter

I will continue to do my best to convince all students to focus on (at least basic) theory, although it's a tough battle for me sometimes :) All technical mastery is useless if there is no understanding of actually applying it and you will get tired and frustrated with playing the same licks all the time, just moving scale boxes and mechanical patterns around. Other times you have ideas in your head or want to replicate an exciting sound/color but have no idea how to do so. At least that was the result of only drilling technique for me, I'm happy and liberated by the music theory studies and want my students to feel the same way when they are playing/improvising (depending on their goals and vision of course). I love technique and it will always be a huge part of my teaching but let's also focus on putting it to good use on here :)

Bernd Brodträger

Thank you. Nice video. I'll disagree on the theory in parts. I wish I was at a point in my playing where technique has reached a level of wanting to care about theory to the extend you recommend. But as Bobby writes. A great percentage of learning to play the guitar for me is eventually figuring out a way that works for me. Which is time consuming. What I must do however is to try an make a practice plan for my practice sessions.

Arvid Richter

Thanks so much for sharing that Bobby, that's some great and important input!

Bernd Brodträger

Nice video Bernth! I recently in the last four months started doing exactly the things you’re talking about in the video. I do very specific practicing routines focusing on alternate picking, speed picking, sweeping etc. and it has made a huge difference. The one mistake though that I did not know of that has helped me tremendously is when changing strings, making sure to move my arm up and down instead of my wrist to change strings. Before I was changing the angle of my wrist to reach the lower strings and of course hitting the strings at a different angle which would screw me up. I never saw many videos of people explaining why or how to do that and really just figured it out by watching videos of people very closely. Once I figure that out, things changed quickly for me.

Bobby McKee

me too ... pfff .. I had to hit me on the head ... so stupid

guido bossyns

Guilty on all charges 😀

Raf Aarts