Category: Practice

Learning Classical Guitar And The Mental Approach You Need For Success

Nicole Neal2 Comments

I was reading an article on LinkedIn recently that resonated quite strongly with me and reflects my own thoughts around succeeding/ acquiring of skill (something that I’ve discussed with former students of mine too).

Those thoughts are that skills, and particularly skills such as learning and playing the classical guitar, are very much influenced by your mindset and approach to learning. I personally believe that old adage that you achieve pretty much anything if you set your mind to it.

Do You Have A Fixed Mindset or A Growth Mindset?

Folks with a “fixed mindset” (who might say things like “I am a musical person” or “I am not a musical person” or “I have always found this difficult and will continue to do so”), those that think that talent, brains, intelligence, natural gifts, call it what you will, are the answer to learning to play classical guitar (for example), can be their own worst enemy! Folks with a fixed mindset, thinking perhaps that they’re not good at something, like it’s something that’s set in stone, and the ones more likely to give in or give up at the first sign of challenge and difficulty.

Do you have this kind of mindset when learning a new piece? When developing an element of your technique? That’s preventing you from picking up the guitar even?

I seriously believe that a “growth’ mindset is vital when learning the guitar and progressing on the instrument (as it is with any instrument or skill). A growth mindset is acknowledging and appreciating that you’re probably not going to be that flash at something the first time you try it and possibly even for quite a while thereafter. A growth mindset acknowledges, however, that changes and improvements do occur over time – they may be large or they may be incremental, but undoubtedly they will occur. They don’t occur of their own accord though.

I’ve said this many times to past students, and I’ve said similar things many times previously on this blog too – the key to achieving mastery of the classical guitar (or at least getting a reasonable way into that journey) is focussed effort. Yes, talent can help, but it’s really the efforts that you put in, and the knowledge that you’ll improve, change and develop over time as a result of those efforts, that will set you on the path for success on the classical guitar.

For me when I first picked up the classical guitar I came to it with a background playing piano and clarinet, and having trained in classical dance for nearly 10 years. I was immersed in a musical world from a young age, so my “talent” (which was really just repetitive and consistent training and immersion over many years from a very young age – although that sounds rather brutal to put it in those terms!) carried me for a time. After the complete hiatus for a few years I had from playing in my late teens and early twenties, picking up the guitar again and wanting to really take things as far as I possibly could with the instrument, that’s where the “growth” attitude really came into its own.

I understood that a great deal of work lay ahead of me and came to enjoy that fact and the journey I was on. And I still do – my journey is still very much continuing. Part of this was also learning to be accepting of my technique at a given point and being in the moment, but knowing that I still needed to push and continue my hard work and focussed efforts to ensure the path ahead of me continued as I wanted. I was playing my path into view, if you like.

So do you have a growth mindset in your approach to learning classical guitar? Do you take technical challenges on? Do you ponder on how you can develop or overcome a particular challenge? Do you feel inspired listening to others? Do you appreciate that, given time and continued effort, you can play pretty much anything your heart desires?! I like to think it’s true 😉

And this is the article I was reading that sparked this blog post: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140609121847-20017018-the-one-mental-approach-you-need-to-succeed

When Can I Say I Play Guitar?

Nicole Neal2 Comments

This is one of those questions that pops up from time to time, folks wanting to know when it is that they can say they play the guitar, that they’re a guitarist, that they’re a musician or some other variant thereof.

The quick answer is really whenever you choose to! This is your journey and how you interpret is up to.John Price Guitar

I think there’s a bit more of an interesting discussion around the questions however.

From my point of view, I don’t think their can ever really be a single, definable point in time or point in a learning trajectory that you can say “I am a guitarist” or “I play the guitar”. I think the answer to the question “when can I say I play the guitar?” also depends a lot on your approach to learning and development in general.

I can’t really recall a point where I went from saying “I’m learning the guitar” to “I play the guitar”, although I think it would have happened relatively soon after starting lessons and getting a few little tunes under the fingers. For me, thinking about it, it was probably a point where I realised that I could play a handful of tunes reasonably well and that it was definitely something I wanted to continue persuing.

And that’s not to say that the two statements (“I’m learning the guitar” and “I play guitar”) are exclusive of one another – far from it! There is always more to learn, there are always things to improve on, there are always ways to develop, change and explore and always people you can learn from. To this day, although I probably wouldn’t actively say “I’m learning the guitar” if somebody asked me if I play an instrument, I most definitely hold the the attitude and approach of continual learning and development.

I’ve often said to students and peers that if you’re following the rewarding path of really studying classical guitar, striving towards mastery, the learning doesn’t necessarily get easier, but the pieces get do more challenging! It’s almost like you’re in a permanent state of learning (including not just a little brain strain at time!) and growth. A funny thing really because in spite of feeling this way (and I can vouch I did when I stated learning La Maja de Goya a few weeks back!), if you flick back to something you were playing say a year or so ago you may surprise yourself. If you’ve been playing for a few years and flick back to something you were playing say three, four, five years ago you may really surprise yourself – something you found a real challenge back then will probably be a walk in the park these days. So whilst you may feel like you’re permanently in a state of learning (which is a good thing in my opinion), your mastery is slowly creeping up on you……

So don’t forget to just stop and take stock from time to time and realise how far up the mountain you really have climbed. That may help you answer the question of “when can I say I play guitar?” for yourself.