Protip: Remember Your “Why” When Learning Guitar

This article is just meant to be a letter to my fellow guitar rookies.

Learning guitar can certainly feel overwhelming. The beginning phase is such a heavy slope and everything seems difficult, but even after you get past that hill, there’s still countless things to learn and master.

But here’s the thing….you don’t have to master everything.

In fact, every notable great guitarist was only really great at one or two things. Blues improv, shredding, funky rhythm, math rock tapping, flamenco strumming, classical guitar, etc. They had some kind of skill they were really good at, or they specialized in some kinda genre or style.

I know it may feel like there’s a lot of pressure to learn and master everything. Maybe you’re more interested in just playing pop rhythm but your rock friend says ‘you have to learn to solo if you want to be good’. Maybe you’re trying to find more information on R&B, but everything online is about rock. Maybe you even invested in a teacher, and he’s teaching you something you really don’t care for. Sadly, it happens.

But listen, if you really want to reach your goal, you need to figure out your “what” and “why” and stick to it. You need to know “what” you want to learn, and “why” you want to learn that.

For me, once I got more into chords and strumming, I really came to love rhythm and that was “what” I wanted to master. As for my “why”, since I was in middle school, I had a dream of playing with a band on stage, and I was eager to cross that off my bucket list.

Now, within 3 years of playing guitar (over a 5 year span, I took lots of breaks), the rookie band I started not only got to do an acoustic set at an actual anime convention, but we have our first real gig tomorrow!

It’s crazy to think the dream is finally coming to life after 15 years and 3 band attempts, but it’s also not surprising because that’s what I was working towards from the beginning. That was what I wanted most. I never cared about being the next big guitar hero, nor to write songs and be famous, nor to be a solo musician…I just wanted to play with a band on stage…any stage. That was the dream.

While I certainly explored other genres and techniques, it did end up being a waste of time because I didn’t really have a reason to practice them or work on them. Rhythm was enough to take me where I wanted to go. That was my main focus.

Now, lead is certainly cool and all, don’t get me wrong. For my first year, that was my main focus, so I do have a foundation in it. But I also never gave rhythm a fair chance because, like many, it seems boring. Just playing 3-4 chords in a cycle throughout a song? LAMEEE. But as I got to learn more about the types of chords and especially the limitless progressions out there, I started to fall more and more for it.

I love keeping a beat. I love being able to play from beginning to end for any song. I love that I can use these skills to play any genre. I love leading my team since chords is how they know where they are. I love being able to apply these skills on both electric and acoustic guitar. I love being able to play with a band, to accompany a singer, or just play on my own. Lead just…doesn’t appeal to me as much anymore.

Now, when people try to pressure me into learning other things, like when I did a few online lessons with some teachers earlier this year, while I make it clear I want to play rhythm, they just always go back to lead. They probably think I’m just lying to myself, that ‘lead is too hard so I’m just settling for rhythm’, but no, rhythm is what I enjoy. It’s that simple. They can’t pressure me into wasting my time elsewhere

So, how about you? What do you enjoy playing the most? What do you dream about the most? What skills do you seek to master? What would you like to be known for?

But most importantly, why are you playing the guitar?

If you’re a beginner, everything you learn is going to take so, so much time, but you only have so much time to practice everyday. So please, focus on what drives you the most. You can still make some time for other skills, but don’t stretch yourself so thin that you get no where with anything.

Just like with anything, the more you focus on a specific thing, the faster you will achieve results. Focus on learning Spanish instead of learning 5 languages simultaneously. Build up one business first instead of trying to build 7 at the same time. Just finish renovating that kitchen instead of trying to fix renovate the whole house in one go.

Just focus on one thing for now. Build that up, achieve your main goal, then you can always spread your wings and explore other categories.

Focus on your passions and your goals. Focus on your “what” and “why”.

It’s that simple.