Bad Guitar Habits as a Beginner

There are some things you should avoid if you want to get better at playing the guitar and these are what you need to know.

Not jamming with other people: Music is collaborative and unless you can play along with someone, your path is a short one.
Overdoing scales: People learn how to play scales up and down by doing hundreds of repetitions. Bad idea. Learn to play properly a few times and then use those scales in creative ways.

Not recording practices: Studios are a totally different ballgame. You need to be articulate in playing your music with minimal effects and hard settings. The worst comes out in the recording. Practice playing to a metronome and record yourself to see how well you sound. Record improvisations learned material even compose by recording harmonies and backing tracks.

Not learning new things: It is imperative for your overall skill’s growth that you practice new things often. The process in which you are finding out a way to play something new adds to your creative ideas and physical ability.

Concluding that skill is not your cup of tea: In every musician’s life there is a slow growth at the beginning and then the growth stabilizes with occasional exponential boosts. Then comes a time when your skill level drops even though you practiced. This is because of muscle fatigue or lack of new inputs, boredom, etc. The best thing is to move on for a while and return to practicing those few things in a week or two. Many people don’t wait for this and give up that technique.

Continue practicing what you can already do properly for a long time: We practice to improve. If you are good at something, don’t waste time on a practice routine for that skill. Do something else and occasionally ‘verify’ that you can still play it properly. Once you learn something properly, it’ll stay with very little practice. Use your time in learning new things.

Good habits to build instead

• Tune every time you pick up the guitar. An out-of-tune guitar trains your ear wrongly.
• Change chords on time, even if the chord isn’t perfect yet. Keeping the rhythm matters more than a clean chord at first.
• Use a metronome for strumming as well as for scales.
• Learn whole songs, not just intros and riffs. Our guitar chords give you the full song with the chords over the lyrics.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common beginner guitar mistake?

Stopping the rhythm to fix every chord change. Keep strumming in time and let the chord shapes catch up.

How often should I practise guitar?

A little every day: 15 to 30 minutes of focused practice is better than one long session a week.

Why do my fingertips hurt?

It is normal in the first weeks. Practise in short sessions; your fingertips harden within two to three weeks.