Hey guys,
What do you do when you’ve fallen down?
You get back up and “drive on,” as we used to say in the military.
Did you have to think about it? Probably not…
You just pick yourself up, dust off, and get back to doing what you were doing.
Maybe have a laugh at your clumsy self…
Make sure nothing's broken…
But then you get on with it, whatever “it” is.
Would you agree a "trip and fall” is a sort of failure? You “failed” to maintain your vertical status?
We usually take little stumbles like that with a grain of salt. But what about the when the “fall” is mental, not physical?
Why do we let a bad day at work, or a missed deadline, or a crappy performance, mentally kick our butts? Make us second-guess what to do?
Maybe it’s a series of events that hack away at our confidence, that eventually leaves us questioning our ability to do anything well… or right.
Maybe it’s something outside our control that sucker-punches us in the guts and knocks the wind out.
Whatever it is, it feels like failure… a failure you can’t quite seem to recover from.
It’s sapped away any confidence you had, and now you’re not quite sure what to do. (You know what I’m talking about… when everything you try feels like it’s destined to fail, and now you’re out of ideas).
So what DO you do?
???
That’s kind of where I’ve been lately.
At a crossroads in a lot of things, feeling like I’m failing at just about everything.
Fortunately, I’m too stupid to stay down for long. I can’t walk away, and I can’t keep doing what’s not working.
So here’s what I AM doing…
When in doubt, general wisdom says to go back to the basics - the fundamentals. Get back to the things that provide the foundation for everything you do.
For guitar players, that’s reviewing scales, practicing and learning chords, drilling the fret board. Along the way, songs are a natural result of getting your fingers to obey your commands.
That’s where the basics come in. Through a regimen of practice, you develop the critical muscle memory that allows your hands to consistently produce good tones and accuracy.
I think this is best place for me to focus - making sure the folks that show up at Learn To Play Rock Guitar develop those basic building blocks so that they can succeed in whatever direction they want to go.
All professional guitarists started with the same raw materials - a desire to learn guitar, two hands (with some extraordinary exceptions), time and discipline to actually sit down and work.
Interestingly enough, professionals also know to revisit the fundamentals on a regular basis - that’s how they maintain their chops.
Moving forward, this is where I can give the most help, and what I think I'm best at.
So if you’re looking for more advanced technical guitar training, I’m going to have to refer you elsewhere. (A great online resource is Guitar Tricks, which is what I use).
For anyone who wants to build their music and guitar playing foundation, from Day 1 beginner to an intermediate player, we’ll rock it out together!
And if you decide this isn’t for you, just click the unsubscribe link below. No worries, you're always welcome back - we’re still friends... 😉
Catch you next time...
Peace~
Dave
All pros know that it’s the fundamentals that help keep them sharp. That should be more than enough evidence how important the basics are - for all guitar players.
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