Setting and Managing Goals for Beginning Guitar Players Video Transcription
All right, what's up? In today's video, we're going to talk about setting goals and setting expectations for yourself as a new player. So, new year. Happy New Year. If this is the first video of ours you're watching, welcome. Today, we're going to take the opportunity to do a quick video here on just setting goals and managing goals as a new player.
What Do You Want to Accomplish on the Guitar?
I know when I was teaching private lessons, one of the first things we would cover in any of my lessons was what to expect and how to set a goal for what it is you want to accomplish.
What type of player do you want to be?
What are the types of tones that you have in your head?
What got you inspired to pick up the instrument in the first place?
How Much Time Do You Have To Accomplish It?
One of the things that was typically brought up in my private students was something like:
All right, half the school year's gone, there's going to be a talent show in the spring, I want to play it. Or my senior recital's coming up, I want to play it.
Given that it's 2022 now, not so sure how much that's still happening with the pandemic, but, you know, I think that's going to be a constant goal for any of the other generations, years, or people that are coming up after this.
I would say for these scenarios, or even if you want to play during your summer vacations, summer getaway, or play for the family on July 4th, those types of performance goals have distinct deadlines. Having a date that you need hit something by can be really, really nice because then you can actually map it backward, which is what I recommend you do anyway.
And give yourself more time than you think you would need when you're mapping your goal backward from a specific deadline. So, if you're going to do a talent show, you have to figure out, all right, I want to play this song, where am I at as a guitar player? If you're just picking up a guitar right now in January, and you want to play a show in June, hats off to you, you're ambitious. I like that.
Go for it. But you're going to have to put the work in.
There's no easy way around that. So if you're going to do a Bob Dylan tune, that's going to be a lot easier because it is sitting and strumming. But there are techniques that are involved in that type of playing: strumming, getting your right hand/left hand synchronized, and then having the rhythms and the chord changes down so well that you're able to sing on top of your playing.
And that's just what people normally think of. Then on top of that, you have the whole performance piece of it. You know, the crowd's not a static thing. You're going to see somebody get up and walk away in the corner. People are going to be talking to themselves. You're going to have to not only be able to sing and play, but you're going to have to be able to sing and play so well that you're not distracted by the audience when they move or when something happens. Which it inevitably will in a live scenario. So, keep all that in mind.
Practicing for Live Situations
Now, one of the things that a lot of teachers won't tell you, especially if they're academic is to practice in from of the TV. I might catch crap from Chris for this, but that's fine! I did this when I was first starting out and when I was thinking about gigging for the first time.
I mean, I did the work without the TV to get everything synchronized and up to speed. But to really put distractions in front of me and to get the song to a point where I could perform without being totally distracted by other things happening, playing in front of the TV was a big help.
You put on a basketball game, you put on History channel or, you know, whatever it is you choose, a YouTube video, whatever, and just run through the song 5, 6, 7, 10 times, and make sure that all that extra sound, all the extra visuals doesn't prevent you from executing that song perfectly.
Practicing to Learn a Specific Song or a Specific Player’s Style
If you're picking up the guitar because you like a particular guitar player a lot…that's how I got started. That's how most of us got started. Now if you're going from zero and you want to play like Eddie Van Halen, or you want to play like John Petrucci, Tosin Abasi, that's going to be a long road.
For me, it was Kirk Hammett. I wanted to be Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica, and then, of course, Zakk Wylde, Dimebag [Darrell of Pantera], you know, all those old-school metal guys. And just like the previous example of learning a song for a specific performance date, you need to map out what are the actual techniques that you need to learn.
So even if it was for Eddie Van Halen or any of those classic rock metal, even some of the newer, advanced metal guys like Lee McKinney, Jason Richardson, any of those guys, pick a technique to start with. First off, my recommendation is to get your right hand/left hand synchronizing, get that finger independence, especially for the modern metal stuff you're going to be soloing. Get some scales under your hands and then pick a particular song, one song that sounds simple.
Now, one of the problems with sounding simple is that they're usually not. The simple ones tend to be harder than usual but just pick one song. Whatever one it is that inspires you to play, find the tabs either online, you know, Ultimate-Tabs, Songsterr, I mean, going to the publishers like Cherry Lane, Hal Leonard, finding those transcriptions and then just going part by part by part.
There are some good books that were put together way back when that do a deep dive into a particular player's style. That was something that I used when I was looking at the Metallica influence and getting those solos down.
Totally worth your while. Again, whatever it is that will motivate you to practice and whatever it is will get you to march forward. So, as long as you can map your progress, having that specific deadline, being able to measure things like:
Hey, you know what, my right hand, left hand are more synchronized. I can actually play through these scales now.
Hey, I learned that one lick that really gets me going with a particular song.
So like, my example, the opening rhythm for "Fade to Black" or the intro solo to "One," those were the goals that I put in front of me when I first picked up the guitar. And it took me all summer long. I had to build up the calluses, had to change the bandages on my fingers, and then kept playing. It was an all-the-time thing to try to get to that one point where I could play those.
So, again, map your progress, just like, you know, any other new year's resolution, or any new hobby, or any new habit.
It's going to be what inspires you to play, what gets you going. And just keep going. You know, mark those wins, grab the resources you need, and get it done. If you're considering something like the Fender Play app, we did a review of that quick, whichever side it ends up being, we'll put the link in there. The link will be down in the description as well, check that out. Drop any comments, questions you might have.
Any questions related to setting goals or getting started, let us know. I am more than happy to help make more videos for whatever's helpful. Take care.