The Long and Winding Road to Improvement on the Guitar

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." ~ Confucius

How do you keep motivated with playing guitar? Sure, it's easy to play for a short period of time, but what really makes someone committed to learning guitar?

From my experience, I've definitely struggled over the years with various starts and stops. Sometimes, I wouldn't know what I wanted to play on the guitar or how even how to go about learning a song or topic. Other times, I lacked confidence in my abilities and doubted myself - both with playing guitar and singing. Even with writing this blog post!

Overall, I think it's so important to make sure to have fun, play songs you enjoy, and not take yourself so seriously when learning a new instrument. I have come to understand that learning, in general, is a journey and it most likely will be "long and winding road" when playing guitar.

At this stage, I prefer to select music and lyrics that have meaning to me and use relatively easy chords. There is beauty in simplicity, and I find that some of the most inspiring songs surprisingly use only a small number of chords over and over again.

If you find yourself doubting your abilities on the guitar, think about what caused your interest in the first place. Take some time every day to play songs you enjoy, and focus on easier songs that are attainable for your current level of playing. Create a small playlist of songs you can complete all the way through and share your performances with supportive friends and family! I think this can help give you confidence, satisfaction and motivation to continue to improve!

Do you have any tips for staying with it? How did you get through times where you wanted to give up and stop playing guitar? Please share your thoughts with us below!