30 MISTAKES GUITAR PLAYERS MAKE

1. PLAYING AN OUT-OF-TUNE GUITAR
Many beginner guitar players fail to get in the habit of tuning their guitars before playing. Not tuning your guitar properly will have you thinking it’s your fault the chords and notes don’t sound right, when in fact it is your instrument that’s not properly tuned. Playing a guitar that doesn’t sound as it should will eventually lead you to giving up playing guitar altogether.
SOLUTION: Develop the habit of always tuning before playing. It only takes a few seconds and will also help you to better develop your ear and ability to recognize when strings are out of tune. If you opt not to tune by ear, then use any one of the many digital devices available for free.

2. UNDERESTIMATING CORRECT TECHNIQUE IMPORTANCE
A very common mistakes guitarist players make is overlooking the importance of proper technique. Lots of beginners tend to focus mainly on learning chords, songs and lead riffs and solos without paying enough attention to their hand and thumb positionings and wrist angles. Neglecting these techniques can lead to poor and difficult-to-reverse habits, physical discomfort and inability to play certain parts effectively.
SOLUTION: Make it a priority to learn and practice proper finger placement, hand and thumb positioning, as well as posture. To make sure you get on the right track consider taking lessons from an experienced and qualified teacher.

3. SKIPPING WARM-UP EXERCISES
Another mistake guitarists often make is skipping guitar warm-up exercises. Before diving into intense guitar playing it is important to warm up your fingers and muscles first. These simple exercises will help you avoid cramping, increase your flexibility, improve finger dexterity, and most importasntly, prevent any injuries.
SOLUTION: Invest at least 5-10 minutes before each practice (or regular playing) session to warm up with exercises like finger stretches, chromatic scale patterns, or chord transitions. Remember to warm-up your strumming hand, wrist and arm as well with various strum patterns.

4. AVOIDING FUNDAMENTAL MUSIC THEORY
Many guitarists fail to appreciate the value of knowing basic music theory and how it can make playing the guitar much easier. Some find the mere notion of learning ‘music theory’ intimidating and boring. What’s wonderful about the guitar is that you don’t need to learn a lot of theory to be able to play. However, learning the fundamentals of music theory will make understanding what it is you’re doing much easier, more fun, and result in your becoming a better guitarist and more confident musician.
SOLUTION: Try to learn at least some basic music theory such as the chromatic scale, a few major scales (do re mi), keys, intervals, common chord progressions, and time signatures. This basic knowledge will help you to improvise, write your own music, and have a deeper understanding of your instrument.

5. PRACTICE SESSIONS ARE TOO LONG
Thinking you have to practice for long sessions like an hour can be daunting and enough to turn you off from playing and progressing on the guitar altogether. An hour of practice on a daily basis is a lot of practice and few people have that much time to devote to playing guitar.
SOLUTION: Try practicing for shorter sessions like 5-10 minutes. Literally every minute of practice you put in will help you progress. A little practice actually goes a long way, provided you do it on a regular basis. The hardest part is just getting the guitar on your lap. Instead of thinking you have to practice for long sessions, just tell yourself you’re going to play one song. You’ll often find yourself wanting to play more than one song once you get started.

6. IRREGULAR PRACTICING
Consistent practice is key if you wish to progress quickly as a guitar player. If you practice just once a week, by the time you get to your next practice session you’ll have probably forgotten most of what you worked on the last time. Progressing as a guitar player is all about consistent repetition. A common error is not establishing (and sticking to) a regular practice schedule.

SOLUTION: Try to set a specific time aside of at least 4 times a week to practice, even if it is just for short periods of say 5-10 minutes a day. Consistency will help you maintain plus build upon what you have already learned.

7. POOR QUALITY PRACTICING
Quality practice is much more important than quantity. Make sure the material you are practicing is being played correctly. The last thing you want to do is practice playing a song or part of a song incorrectly over and over again. Fact is, it’s often more difficult to reverse playing a song or part incorrectly than to learn something properly from the outset.

SOLUTION: Make sure you are being taught properly whether it’s from an online source (chord/lyric/tab app, video tutorial, in-person teacher.)

8. LACK OF EAR TRAINING
Ear training is a life-long endeavor and how well you hear will determine how well you play. You can never train your ability to hear music properly enough. Playing guitar (or any musical instrument) isn’t only about learning how to play chords, strumming and scales etc. It is also about constantly developing your musical ear and sharpening it so that you can identify keys, major/minor/7^th chords, work out chord progressions, melodies and improvise.

SOLUTION: Whenever you’re listening to music try to become an active listener and not simply a passive listener. Ear training exercises, such as identifying major/minor and seventh chords, intervals and chord progressions can dramtically improve your overall musicianship.

9. FOCUSING ON SPEED ONLY
Being able to play fast solos and riffs may certainly impress listeners. However, focusing solely on speed may also impede your overall musical performance skills. Many guitar players tend to sacrifice phrasing, dynamics, timing, and accuracy in order to play fast and wow listeners.

SOLUTION: Pay more attention to developing a better sense of rhythm, cleaner technique and the ability to play with feeling. Your capacity to play faster will come naturally with time and additional practice.

10. DELAY CHANGING STRINGS
Over time and with regular playing your guitar strings will gradually lose their brightness and responsiveness so much so that it will impact your guitar’s tone and playability. Neglecting to change your strings regularly is a common error guitar players make. The problem is strings lose their tone ever so gradually, which makes it hard to notice when they’re sounding dull.

SOLUTION: Depending on how much and how hard you play, make sure to change your strings when your current ones sound dull, or worse, begin corroding. Consider changing your strings after playing regularly for a few months or so. Also, make sure to wash your hands before playing. Failing to do this will cause your strings to become dirty and lose their brighness that much sooner.

11. WRONG CHORDING THUMB POSITION
Holding a guitar for the first time is certainly awkward and the proper way to hold it is not obvious. Proper thumb positioning will definitely impact your hand’s ability to play some chords effectively. Indeed many beginner guitar players incorrectly have their thumb reaching over the top of the neck and others have their thumb pointing to the left in parallel to the guitar neck.

SOLUTION: If you’re right-handed, your left-hand thumb should be positioned in the middle of the back of the neck and pointing up. Left-handed guitarists should do the same with their right-hand thumb. Also, as a beginner, get in the habit of checking your thumb position regularly because it can be easy to develop a poor habit which will be difficult to reverse when required to play a particular piece of music.

12. NOT LEARNING HOW TO PLAY IN TIME
Developing a strong sense of rhythm is essential for every guitar player. Regardless of how good your other playing skills are, not keeping proper time will ensure you never sound good. Some folks have trouble hearing and playing along with a beat while others don’t even think about it when playing. If you’re playing by yourself (solo) and not with other musicians or an audience, then failing to keep time won’t be as important an issue. But if you wish to play with one or more musicians, keeping time is fundamental. Without it, everything else falls apart.

SOLUTION: Make the effort to play along with either a metronome, backing tracks or regular song recodings. There are also plenty of tools and tutorials available online to help you develop your timing. Doing this regularly when practicing will help better develop your rhythm sense so that keeping time becomes second nature and a matter of feel.

13. RUSHING
Many guitarists tend to play too fast when trying to learn a new song, scale or riff etc. For instance, when beginners try to learn new chords they fail to take the time required to learn the chords properly and the result is very sloppy plaing. This

SOLUTION: When trying to learn a new chord, scale or song, remind yourself to begin slowly and only increase your playing speed once you’ve managed to apply the proper technique. How good a guitarist you will become in the future depends entirely on how effectively you practice now and not how fast you play.

14. FAIL TO GET A PROFESSIONAL GUITAR SETUP
Having a professional guitar setup will make playing your instrument noticeably easier and more enjoyable to play. You’ll also be able to play for longer periods before getting tired. A poorly setup guitar will require a lot more effort on your part to get good sounding chords and notes.

SOLUTION: Bring your guitar to a guitar shop or guitar technician and ask them to quickly assess whether or not you really need a new setup. Many will provide this quick assessment for free. A professional guitar setup typically includes lowering the string action (the distance between the strings and fretboard), filing frets, adjusting the bridge, and more. Though new guitars are set up at the factory before being shipped, this initial factory setup will be easily affected by shipping and environmental changes such as heat and humidity.

15. PLAYING WITH TOO MUCH FORCE
Beginner guitarists often use too much force when pressing the strings to the fretboard because they think that pressing down on the strings should be physically hard. This mistake is common among all kinds of musicians. Fact is, the physical act of playing guitar ought to feel relatively easy. Placing your fingers on the strings and strumming should not feel like a high-intensity exercise.

SOLUTION: Always remember that whenever you play any note or chord on guitar, you should place your finger right behind the fretwire. Do not press down right on the fretwire, but just slightly behind it. This is the position that requires the least amount of pressure to produce a nice, clean note or chord. Instead of applying more pressure, simply adjust your finger positions so that you can produce better sound and less buzzing more easily and effortlessly.

16. PRACTICING WITH TOO MANY EFFECTS
Practicing your guitar-playing with too many effects can often cover up mistakes you may be making, resulting in your developing sloppy technique. Setting your reverb, distortion and delay, for examples, too high and for too long will prevent you from hearing things clearly. That’s not to say you shouldn’t use these effects. You should. But not all the time and not set to max.

SOLUTION: Whatever piece of music you are practicing, try to mix up. Practice for a few minutes with your effects on and then with the effects reduced or turned off entirely. Doing so will enable you to more accurately evaluate your playing technique by reducing the many sounds covering up your errors.

17. NOT PRACTICING CONSISTENTLY
Being able to play a musical instrument comes down in large part to developing the muscle memory in your fingers and arms (strumming). Just like many other physical activities like sports, improving your complex motor skills is absolutely necessary so that the movements required of you eventually feel effortless and automatic. This can best be achieved through regular repetition.

SOLUTION: Instead of practicing once a week for a few hours, which in itself can be daunting and unmotivating, try to practice for 15-20 minutes five days a week. Doing so will help you develop your muscle memory more efficiently and your playing will improve quicker. Repetition is a key factor in  muscle memory development.

18. TRYING TO LEARN TOO MUCH AT ONE TIME
Another mistake many beginner guitarists make is trying to accomplish too many things at once. Highly motivated students in a hurry to learn new things often have a tendency to do this. Remember, it’s better for you to get good at playing one or two things (songs, scales, riffs etc) really well than play a hundred things poorly.

SOLUTION: Try to avoid taking on too much too soon. Learning to play a musical instrument is all about baby steps. For example, if you’re trying to learn a new song, become better at your chord changes before attempting to strum simultaneously. This is especially important with more complicated strumming patterns.

19. BEING TOO PREOCCUPIED WITH PERFECTION
Playing music is an artform and not a science, especially when it comes to playing popular music. Unless you’re in a classical music competition and required to play perfectly, generally speaking, music playing should be relaxed and more about feel than excellence. Also, playing the same piece of music the same way over and over again will only result in a sterile, souless sound.

SOLUTION: When performing, your goal should be to move your audience emotionally. So focus more on playing with feeling and communicating on an emotional level instead of aimking for perfection. Some of the most successful recordings are filled with flaws, yet they still manage move listeners nonetheless.

20. LIMITING YOUR MUSICAL TASTES
Everyone has different tastes in music and some enjoy venturing into other genres. Each musical genre can teach us new things and add additional colors to our music listening and guitar-playing world. If you’re intent on continuing your music-learning journey beyond your current genre(s), listening to different styles outside your comfort zone is a valuable path to take.

SOLUTION: Think of every musical genre as another dialect of the language of music. When you begin exploring new music genres you’ll probably be surprised with how other music can indeed speak to you.

21. TOO DISTRACTED WITH GEAR
Having a lot of gear can easily distract us from what is actually important, and that is, playing the guitar. Nonetheless, as guitarists, we’re always thinking about our next purchase be it another guitar, new effects pedal, or different type of amp etc. True. New gear will often inspire us to play guitar more and that’s great! But it can also wind up wasting a lot of our actual playing time.

SOLUTION: New gear is exciting. But don’t let it distract you from mastering the art of guitar playing. A new pedal might sound awesome, but it will not lead to cleaner fretting, for example. If you’re a beginner guitarist, keep things simple and focused.

22. NOT LEARNING HOW TO TUNE BY EAR
The better you hear, the better you’ll play. It’s that simple. But with today’s vast array of electronic tuners, they just make tuning much easier and quicker. That’s not to say you should never use them. We all do. But many guitarists become too dependant on them and are screwed when the battery dies.

SOLUTION: Always be training your musical ear. There are many ways to improve you’re listening skills and one of the best ways is by tuning your guitar by ear using the old school fifth fret method and/or harmonics. Knowing how to do this will also boost your confidence as a musician.

23. THINKING ALL CHORD SHEETS & TABS ARE CREATED EQUAL
Lucky for us there are tons of great free resources available online today. Some are better than others and some are just simply wrong and even dertimental to our guitar learning. For example, anyone can go online and search for the chord chart or tabs for a song they wish to learn. It’s important to understand that many of these websites are open source, meaning anyone and everyone can post what they believe to be the correct way to play a song or lead guitar part.

SOLUTION: If what you’re being told to play just doesn’t sound right, check out other versions. In the end, trust your own ears. You’ll probably know when something just doesn’t sound right.

24. PLAYING ONLY WHAT YOU ARE TOLD TO PLAY
If you are taking guitar lessons, your instructor may suggest what he or she thinks you should play, and that’s cool. But not if you don’t actually like the material at hand. Practing guitar ought to be first and foremaost. Afterall, what’s the point in learning something if you won’t fell like practicing it? Pretty soon you’ll stop playing altogether.

SOLUTION: if you’re finding yourself losing motivation because you don’t actually like the songs or exercises being taught, focus on what YOU really want to play. It’s probably the same music you enjoy listening to.

25. TOO DEPENDANT ON VISUAL CHORDING
When we begin learning to play chords it’s necessary to look at our chording hand in order to correctly position our fingers. By repeating our finger placements our muscle memory begins to develop, so much so that we need no longer look at our chording hand. Unfortunately, many guitar players get in the habit of looking at their hand and have a hard time breaking this dependency.

SOLUTION: When your muscle memory has developed enough so that you need no longer look at your chording hand, begin weaning yourself away from this habit so that playing your chords becomes automatic and is one less thing to think about when playing guitar.

26. TOO DEPENDANT ON CHORD SHEETS
When playing guitar and reading a chord sheet, this process becomes a visual as well an aural function. The problem with this is that we become too dependent on the written page and less on the actual sounds we’re trying to produce. We also fail to fully enjoy the sounds we’re actually producing.

SOLUTION: Try to memorize a song’s chord progression and lyrics if you’re trying to sing along. This may be challenging at first but you;ll derive considerably more pleasure from playing music when doing so becomes an aural exercise and not a visual one  Music, afterall,  is about sound.

27. FAIL TO PREPARE
If you’re planning on performing for an audience, even a small one like friends around a campfire, rehearsing is absolutely necessary. Afterall, you don’t want to embarrass yourself. The same goes for a recording session, even the most casual. Preparation is key. Fail to plan? Then plan to fail.

SOLUTION: Establish how many songs you are going to perform and the order in which you will perform them. Your first song should be easy to play and sing so that you can get comfortable with your set up (microphones, monitors, lighting etc.) and playing in front of an audience.

28. NOT DETERMINED ENOUGH FROM OUTSET
An estimated ninety percent of would-be guitar players fail to continue playing within 12 months. While this statistic can be daunting, it provides you with the realistic fact of what it takes to learn to play guitar and any other musical instrument for that matter. And that is determination. A half-hearted approach simply won’t work, especially in the beginning.

SOLUTION: If you’re going to continue on your guitar-playing journey, make certain you have the motivation to help you overcome the obstacles ahead. Also, remember that even a little bit of practice on a consistent basis goes a long way. So if you feel you don’t posses the determination to soldier on, keep things simple and take your time.

29. BORED
Virtually every musician runs the risk of becoming bored with playing their instrument, be it guitar or otherwise. This generally comes from playing the same material over and over again. While you may become more proficient with a playing piece of music, you may also become bored to the point of losing the enthusiasm to play guitar that you initally had.

SOLUTION: Always be on the lookout for new songs, riffs and/or scales etc. to learn. This will keep things fresh and challenging. If you’re not being challenged, you run the risk of stagnating to the point of giving up playing guitar altogether. Also, find other musicians to jam with or set new goals like performing or recording.

30. BELIEVE ALL VIDEO TUTORIALS ARE CREATED EQUAL
The good news is: there are countless digital resources available to guitar students including video tutorials, chord sheets, tabs, games etc. The bad news is: as a beginner guitarist, you don’t know what you don’t know. With regards to online video tutorials teaching you how to play songs for example, how do you know if you’re being taught most effectively and efficiently?

SOLUTION: When searching online for a tutorial teaching a specific song, make sure you check out at least three videos teaching the same song. If they all appear to teach it the same way, you probably found a few to rely on. If, on the other hand, they differ, go with the one that sounds most accurate to you. In the end, trust your own ears.