When students attend their first guitar lesson most are eagerly expecting a bunch of exercises that will set them on the path to success. The truth is while exercises are definitely important your first lesson should include a large dose of understanding about what makes a successful guitarist. Anyone can do exercises yet only a…

The X-Factor is sometimes misunderstood as inborn natural talent. You either have it or you don’t. We have no doubt all heard someone at sometime say that such and such has the X-Factor as if they always had it. The X-factor in actual fact is usually the result of years of study and practice and…

In recent years there have been quite a few books written on the subject of how random events control our destiny. Books like ‘Outliers‘ and  ‘Blink‘ by Malcolm Gladwell can leave one feeling like a victim if taken too seriously. Gladwell describes how your birthday may have played a big role in whether you went…

The number one challenge for many guitar students seems to be finding enough time to practice. Actually time today is perhaps everyone’s biggest challenge. Where did all the time go? The typical  reply when asked about practice might be “I had a super busy week last week with a million things to do but hoping…

All guitar students have challenges but what makes the difference in the end is their dedication to practice. Some students may have poor rhythm where others might be unable to clearly distinguish pitch or a thousand other factors. No one guitarist is strong in all areas and therefore need to practice to over come their…

I recall some years ago seeing the phrase ‘What you measure you can multiply’.  At first I was confused. After all I can measure my height but I can’t multiply it. As I read on I realized the author was referring to self improvement such as a physical skill, fitness, finance etc. Even once I…

The following is an extract from an interview with Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine and he makes a very interesting point. See my comments below. Interviewer: When you started playing, did your parents ever make you practice? Valentine: My parents made me start taking piano lessons when I was 8 and I hated it and they made me…

In my early years teaching guitar I worked along side a piano teacher. We both had roughly the same number of students but there was an obvious difference. Almost all of her students were improving at a good steady rate whereas my students were inconsistent. At first it wasn’t so obvious but after a year…

Continuing on from the previous blogAre piano students just better students? the second lesson I gained from the piano teacher experience was to observe and question every situation especially where someone is getting results. In this case the answer was not obvious at first but I realised the power and influence of the teacher is…

I will often say that persistence is perhaps the most important trait required by a successful guitar student but lets take it one step further by understanding how you become persistent. After all persistence is obvious in hindsight. When we look at successful people in anything it is all too easy to say they were…