Music is inexhaustible; you can’t ever know it all or play it all. There’s always something new we can learn or refine or discover. I have been playing for over 25 years and I love playing guitar more than I ever have. My appreciation for the instrument has increased over time, not decreased. I highly respect the guitar. Choose a teacher that can inspire you and excite you with their passion for the guitar and is patient in guiding you because he realizes the depth of this instrument. A guitar teacher that welcomes questions no matter how many times they are asked.
Just think about some of the musicians we consider to be geniuses like Mozart or Jimi Hendrix. If you could talk to them, they would probably tell you they were just starting to learn how to play and had so much more they would have experimented with musically. I’ve read where Jimi Hendrix was going to start studying music composition so he could create orchestrated arrangements. Ultimately, your guitar playing is a tool for expression, no more or no less. When trained how to bring that out on the instrument separates you from other players. You need to be trained not only what to play, like a minor pentatonic scale but how to play it. Many can play the scale shape but few can make real music from it. When you listen to Stevie Ray or Hendrix, it’s what’s inside of him that he’s expressing through his guitar that you love. The whole range of human emotion can be portrayed through the guitar. Anger, sadness, bliss, happiness, humor, and on and on. Our thinking about the guitar should not be to put time limits like I’m going to play like such and such in a year. Find a great teacher and let him lay out a plan for you so that your short range goals and long range goals are in sync. You should have a vision together and you should see progress.
Trying a whole new style of playing will ignite a new passion in music for you. I remember years back feeling stagnant and needing something new and would never have chosen Reggae but ended up having so much fun learning the rhythms and happy, fun sounding solos to play over that refueled my passion for playing.
A passionate, inspiring, knowledgeable guitar teacher can make the difference between success or failure on the guitar. As a beginner, the first 90 days are critical and can determine your future for the instrument, make sure there is a plan in place. I know some that take lessons for a year or more and still are not able to change chords quickly and easily. At the end of 90 days, you should look back and say, “Wow, I can’t believe how far I’ve come in just 3 months.” Just think about after 6 months or 1 year or more. The time to start is now.
