3 Reasons Why Most People Quit Learning How To Play Guitar
by Maurice Richard
Learning how to play guitar is one of the coolest things in the world and is on almost every bucket list.
It’s amazing how many people dream of learning how to play guitar. Even more amazing is how many try and quit.
You would think that with so many ways to learn how to play that there would be a lot more people succeeding and becoming good guitar players.
But that is not the case and based on my own data most people that come to me have tried and quit and are frustrated with the methods they have tried.
Here are 3 reasons why most people quit learning to play guitar and how you can avoid them.
- They Get Overwhelmed
Most people that I have come across that have tried to learn how to play guitar admit that it is harder than they expected.
It is definitely not easy at the very start when you are just learning all of the basics.
The next thing most people do is they try to teach themselves how to play. I know I did. Since we do not know what we can handle we tend to try and learn things that are harder than we can handle.
That makes the path to learning even more difficult. When you try to learn something that is beyond your abilities it gets frustrating because progress is slow or non-existent.
At this point most people assume this is too much to learn and that it is too hard for them and quit. Sometimes forever.
- They Get Bored
This is very common as well and I hear this from many people I talk to.
If you have ever tried to learn from books or DVDs and even online, you will find a lot of those materials to be slow and boring.
At the beginning you have high expectations from these sources of course. The initial excitement usually lasts a little while as you learn a bunch of new things that sounds relatively good.
As time goes on, you start to realize that you never seem to learn how to play real music. You learn the next chord or the next notes, you play them, you practice them, but you can’t play anything yet.
Playing the same chords and single note melodies are cool but they get old after a while if you can’t apply them to actual music you want to play.
I don’t blame you because I tried many of these methods. I was bored too. There is definitely a better way.
- It Becomes No Fun
When you first begin on the journey to learning guitar, you are excited. You are prepared to finally do something cool you likely have desired for a long time.
If you tried the methods mentioned already like books, DVDs, online, that enthusiasm likely started to wane after a few chapters or videos.
That’s what happened to me with every new method I tried to learn with. When things are too hard for you or they are too repetitive and boring, you do not make any progress.
I don’t know about you, but when you do not make consistent progress at something it is not fun. And if it is not fun you are not very likely going to continue working through it.
Most people can persist for a while, I did, some for a long while, but at some point no fun, means you quit.
What You Can Do So You Do Not Quit Guitar?
There is no failsafe method that will guarantee your success learning to play the guitar. However, you can increase your chances at success greatly by choosing the best method available. What’s that?
By far, the best way to learn how to play guitar is to take lessons with an in-person teacher. There really is no comparison to other methods out there because it is the one that offers the more personal touch.
Not all guitar teachers are the same however so you have to be careful. You do not want to hire someone who uses the methods that lead to the problems listed above.
What you want is to find a trained teacher. Someone who has been taught how to teach and specifically how to teach guitar.
They will know what to teach you and help you become successful.
About The Author:
Maurice Richard is a professional guitar teacher that operates out of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has been a member of an elite guitar teaching mentorship program since 2007 and has taught many people how to learn and succeed on the guitar.