Hey there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success.
Today we're going to talk about a subject that quite frankly is
dear to my heart. How to learn guitar for older beginners.
And even though I've been playing guitar for years I considered it one of the
biggest benefits to my life to be able to go out and learn new things
except that it's scary and go for it anyway
and this is something I really want to be able to help others with.
Let's do it.
One of the first things is to make sure you got a guitar
that's going to sound good when you play it right. Now I've had many students who
came in with a guitar that didn't really work right either they
got it from a friend or at a flea market or online somewhere
and it just didn't sound good no matter what we do with it.
The thing is you're bound to get discouraged if you've
been practicing and you play something and it doesn't sound good even if your
fingers are in the right place you're going to get discouraged and
you're going to want to quit then you're dead in the water.
Get the guitar that works. It doesn't have to be super expensive
but don't go for something that's just cheap thinking that you'll get something
better when you deserve it. It doesn't really work that way.
You're going to get to deserve it so to speak. You're going to get to a place
where you can play and enjoy it by having an instrument that supports
you. For a lot of students that's somewhere in the 200 to 300$
range for a new guitar and maybe less if you
can find a used one. The trick is though finding a used one
that does work right and knowing that. Sometimes you got to
get help from a professional or somebody else who knows
how to play the guitar. So you got your guitar, you probably know you're gonna
practice. Well here's the thing. It's not always that easy to get yourself to
practice and one of the ways you can support
yourself there is to make a space to practice
and set it up so that it's comfortable. I mean you know you got your stuff there
your guitar, your maybe your picks, your guitar tuner,
a nice chair whatever it takes for you. I like to have a music stand and a
little footstool as well that may or may not be
what you need but the key is that you feel comfortable and when you sit there
you feel ready to practice and that's part of the trick is that you got a
space that's supporting you the practice. You sit there. Your mind goes into
practice gear and that takes a lot of the friction
away from “Oh should I practice now or but you know I
have to set up or I have to get my guitar out and tune it up and find my
tuner”. No that's going to put a damper on your
practice. So while we're talking about your
environment your practice space here's something that a lot of people don't
think about and gets them in the long run. Think
about the people you're living with. If every time you go to practice
you're interrupting somebody watching TV or bothering somebody
you're gonna be shy to practice especially if they start grumbling about
it. First of all try and get their support.
People care about you. They want you to do things that are good for yourself.
Explain to them that “I really want to do this“ and
and enlist their support and listen to encouragement. You might even ask them to
“Hey, could you could you like nudge me if you don't see
me practicing” or something of that effect depending on
your relationship of course. And talk to them about what's you know “I'm gonna be
practicing. What's a good time can we work out
something every day. I'll do it here and I don't want to bother your
TV or whatever else you're doing“. That way you've got their
support and encouragement instead of feeling like you're just intriguing on
them which in turn is going to backfire on
you. And if you're willing you can take it up a notch by getting
support from let's say like-minded friends.
What I do when I want to be successful at something is I'll go to a friend that
I know that can relate to what I'm doing. Either
they're that type of person that wants to help people grow or they're
doing something similar. They know why I would want to do that.
I'll say “Hey Bill, I want to learn to do this
and I know you've supported me in the past. Can you check in with me once a
week and see if I'm practicing or I'm keeping my
practice schedule?” This is an area that's often overlooked and does
backfire on people. Look to see how the relationships in
your life can be used to support you in something you
want to do as opposed to kind of fighting against it. The next tip
is something I have a lot of personal experience with. As we
get older it really pays to pay attention to your
body and what you're doing so that it works
for you. Now what I mean by that is first of all
your hands. You're going to get sore more easily
than when you were younger at least that's the way it is for me and what I
hear from my other students as well. So start your practice sessions with
stretching. I like to do a couple of stretches that I found very helpful for
my fingers. See, I've had a lot of friends that have
actually been put out of business at least for a while from problems with
their fingers so I know that that was something I needed
to pay attention to. And I'll find myself if I don't warm up
everything just feels hard and not fun
and what I mention warm up. There are other ways to warm up besides
stretching. After stretching you want to do an exercise before you get into
whatever you want to practice in other words
a basic warm-up exercise. I have several on my blog and I always recommend
students to start with the simplest one first. But by warming up it makes
practice easier and more fun and feels like you
accomplish more. It also helps protect your body
so that you're not sore or get out of commission for a while and have an
excuse not to practice. The other area I have a lot of
experience with is my back because sitting down playing guitar for
a long time definitely caught up to me. I'll tell you now there's no
absolute way to prevent from getting a store back but it helps if you
keep your posture upright when you're practicing. Yeah, you got to look down at
your guitar but just don't stay that way. Look down and then sit back up. Look down
and sit up. Practice for short sessions and then get
up and move around. I like to stretch. I do some stretches
and sit down practice more. Practice for shorter sessions. It'll help
as opposed to long drawn-out sessions and then you're
sore and you want to practice for several days.
If you pay attention you'll figure out what's right for you. The key here is to
pay attention and to keep coming back and paying
attention. Maybe you need some reminder to say “Hey Hon,
could you remind me if you see me slumping down” that's worked for me a
little bit. I don't know how many times I've heard
“Oh I'll sit here and fumble around with
books and random YouTube videos until I get good enough and then I'll
get some real instruction”. No. You need it most when you're first
starting out. This is when you need something step by
step with an instructor who knows how to explain
things and can help you gain some sense of confidence
and some basic skills that you can grow on. I'm not knocking YouTube videos and
I've used lots of books as well but this is not the same as a guided
step-by-step instruction program and I don't care if it's online or in
person. Nowadays online is great if you have a good instructor
that knows how to put materials in an orderly systematic fashion
and explain things in a clear organized way. Don't undervalue yourself
and your desire to play music and you're doing that
when you don't get the instruction that would really support you
and deep inside you know this. I knew it. I knew it when I was
fumbling around just learning little tips and tricks from friends and
saying “I really want to learn guitar but not doing anything concrete to get a
systematic program going”. And nowadays lessons are more available than ever.
Yeah, it's pretty expensive one-on-one in person
and there's some problems with that too. I
interviewed a lot of instructors from my music school and I can tell you a lot of
them aren't really very good at instructing.
They just play guitar good and they want to make some money
but you can make good decisions. You're an adult. You can be responsible for
finding somebody that has the experience, that has the material,
that seems organized, that can understand and
express things not just put 3 words together but
whole sentences and and express things in a way that you can
understand and answer your questions and the same with online programs. You
can tell when some are just throwing a lot of stuff at you to try to
keep you interested and get your monthly payment. And then there are others that
give you a good systematic program that answer your questions in
some form or fashion and provide the materials that will
support your learning. Now with that said, I want
to encourage you to be patient. Even the best instructor
or the best online program cannot jump you from nowhere to playing
your favorite song and I see students all the time get
frustrated because they want to play something fancy and they're not there
that's basically just like kicking yourself in the head. Oh,
did I do that? We're adults, right? We've learned over the years that
instant gratification isn't always what it's cracked up to be.
Slow and steady is what you need here to win the race.
Now the next tip might be a little hard to solve for some people.
I get it's considered sometimes a little woo-woo
but believe me it's not. In this case, it's very practical.
I'm talking about paying attention to your attitude and your mental chatter.
What you're saying to yourself all the time. Now first of all all,
older beginners including myself still go through this thing “Oh I should have
started sooner”. “Oh I don't know if I can do this and maybe
I'm too old” and they're usually accompanied by feelings of inadequacy
because it looks like you're behind the ball if you're just comparing agents
that some of those young people are ripping through the guitar. But here's
the deal, you gotta just let it go and that's the
deal when you're learning something new whether you're old or young.
You gotta let go, just let yourself be a beginner. You can rationalize as if it
works for you “Hey I'm doing something now and I've
spent my time earlier doing other things that were
important to me and now this is what I'm doing.
But when push comes to shove if you can develop an attitude of
you know when you hear this negative stuff in your head just let it go
and move on. You'll be a lot happier for it at the same time
you gotta acknowledge it's a little scary learning something new. I mean
you're bound to start wondering “Oh can I really do this?”.
Heck, I still go through this and I've learned so many different things.
That's part of being a beginner and it's okay to just feel
awkward and even a little silly at times. Ultimately you got to develop some kind
of faith that if other people have done this “I
can do it too” and you don't have to know how it'll all
turn out eventually. Matter of fact, you can't. There are things that you're going
to learn that you didn't know you were going to learn.
And there are things you thought you could do in this period of time that you
can't and there are things you'll be able to do that
you never imagined you'd be able to do. It's an adventure
and you can't know how everything's going to work out and eventually if you
did it wouldn't be an adventure. And finally you've got to find ways to
have fun and feel good about your your guitar playing and your learning
adventure. No I'm not talking about the kind of fun
I'm happy kind of fun I'm talking about a sense of
inner enjoyment or a sense of satisfaction.
I've done something. I'm doing something for myself.
I couldn't do this a week ago and look it's working. You want to set small goals
that are achievable not wait until you can play some
elaborate songs still in heaven back in my day
and if you don't get there it's a failure. No,
that's not gonna work. When you're first learning, you gotta go through a bunch of
simple stuff. And as a matter of fact you should
because that's how you get some of the basic technique that'll
support you later on. If you skip over that stuff
even if you can play more complicated songs you're probably not gonna ever
play them well. You're gonna play them sloppy and with
bad technique. Do the basic stuff and do it with gusto. Do it
with enjoyment. Get yourself into it. One way
that's kind of fun to make music with some of the basic stuff is
play along with play along tracks that way you're not only get to hear it.
It's kind of a fuller more musical experience but you're developing a
rhythm which a lot of guitar players kinda
suck. I think it's fun sometimes just to track if I've completed one little
section or if you can make a checklist for yourself
and say “I'm gonna practice this for a week and you did it and check it off”.
It's a little bit of satisfaction. What I do in my Real Guitar Success program is
I give you a section with ways to check
them off so you can see when you've accomplished it then a little
congratulations at the end. You did it! But you can do that for
yourself. Look for ways that you can make some enjoyment at the
level that you're at not wait until you get somewhere that
you're not. If you can find a way to connect with others that's a help.
I'm not talking about somebody who's so much better than you and intimidates you
but you know people somewhere in your same range so you can kind of
share struggles and show what you've done and they show you
what they've done. Nowadays I can work online too.
I use a forum on my Real Guitar Success program so students can
kind of connect with each other and show what each other's doing. The bottom line
is keep looking for ways to find a sense of fulfillment in the
little accomplishments and little by little they'll turn into
bigger accomplishments. So that's it for today. I really
appreciate you being here. Believe me. We are in this together. If
you like what I'm doing press that like button subscribe to my
channel and leave me a comment just anything. Let me
know you're out there. This is day 25 of my 30 days
of guitar coaching. I'll be back tomorrow with day 26 ..
26 I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.
Bye for now.