Hey Friend,
How many hurricanes did you churn up last week, LOL?
For those of you that DON’T remember, I talked little about Chaos theory/the butterfly effect…
Ya know, a single flap of a butterfly’s wings could cause a typhoon on the other side of the earth…
Anyhoo…
How do you get better at guitar?
Practice.
Dirty old, unglamorous work.
Keep whipping up those tornados by playing your guitar.
And do something every day. That’s the how.
Pretty freakin’ simple, right. I mean, why do we humans feel the need to complicate everything?!
Okay, but if you decide to follow this advice, here’s a question for you: WHY do you get better?
It’s all because of muscle memory. You create a habit and keep doing until it is natural.
Brushing your teeth was not a habit - you had to create it. I can almost guarantee if you’re reading this, you have the habit of brushing your teeth - you don’t even have to think about it anymore - - it's just something you do.
Let’s say you humor me and you’re going to practice your guitar every day.
The mental decision was an easy one to make, right?
Now to create the habit of practicing every day, you only need to do one thing consistently.
Show up.
That’s it. Just make sure you sit down with your guitar every day (ideally at the same time and in the same place, but as I often say, “Any port in a storm…").
Pick it up, hold it, handle it, play it. Just do SOMETHING with it every day.
The consistency of handling the guitar every day will train your body to expect it. Then your body will want it… Crave it...
It will get to the point where your body DEMANDS you sit down and have guitar time.
It’s like any other habit.
We are very compulsive creatures, particularly when the result of indulging in the virtue (or vice) is pleasant.
When the habit doesn’t come easy, or it requires you put in some consistent work, or it’s hard (boo hoo!), or the payoff is too far off in the future, it’s easy to slack on it.
We can get lazy if we don’t see some results early on. And we LOVE to make excuses.
But you have plenty of examples in your own life where you beat laziness and challenge.
For example, most of us can walk. We can even run if we’re pushed. And dancing… well, that’s an entirely different realm!
But not a single one of us came out of the womb with the ability to crawl, let alone dance a jig. All we could do was lay there.
Granted, learning to walk was a means to an end. There was no way we could get our hands on that fascinating whirligig across the room if we didn’t first figure out how to ambulate!
So I put it to you today.
For the rest of the week, do yourself a solid and pick up your guitar at least once every day.
Even if you only have two seconds to grab it, feel the wood and weight in your hands.
At least let your hands feel the contours, the heft, the energy. Then put it back down.
You can give yourself that, right?
Peace~
Dave
P.S. Do it. Just do it.
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