Make sure you are practicing efficiently. Do you really know how to practice the guitar? Are you focused on setting daily and weekly objectives and then practicing in such a way that you will be working towards those goals?
I prefer to be wise like the Buddha, and take the Middle Path. This is the one I have chosen, and I will describe it for you.
The greatest source of inspiration has been my own personal experiences in life and within myself. The desire to express that was (and still is) a constant burning desire and powerful force that thrusts my desire to improve forward. Know what truly inspires you, seek it out, surround yourself with it and soak and soak there.
If self expression is the pinnacle of art (or if you at least agree it is very important) and if you desire (and attempt) to express yourself in art (music), you are an artist. In the past, I would not have used the label “Artist” to describe anyone that was not already great at creating genuine art. I typically reserved the words, art, artist and musician for only the highest levels of excellence. But as a teacher of music composition, songwriting, and self expression I have changed my use of these terms for the benefit of all students.
They started to feel like that song by Al Yankovich, “Everything You Know Is Wrong”. They realize that even though they may have been playing for 25 years, there are certain really fundamental things they have never known, and if they did know them from the beginning, everything would have gone differently for them in their growth as guitarists.
I remember when I first learned them. It was the “tough” school, the school of hard knocks. The school of “here is where to put your fingers, I know it feels impossible, you’re not getting most of the notes out, but if you stay with it long enough, you’ll be able to do it.”
To be GREAT means I have to be BETTER than everybody else. We already touched on this one above, but it is worth mentioning again here. What matters is reaching YOUR goals, not someone else’s goals. Who cares if you are or are not better than someone else? This is not the olympics. Music is the art of expression (or for some people, the science of entertainment).
Now I know I have to work on something very fundamental. I have to work on the behavior of my third finger, and change the way it reacts to it’s neighbor being used, the second finger. If I can get down to the matter with that degree of specificity, that degree of clarity and focus, I am in a position to cause major Vertical Growth. If I can change the way that finger is behaving in that situation, I will see many playing problems I am having in other pieces of music begin to “melt”, and eventually disappear.
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