Guitar Lovers Are In It For Life!

What is it about the guitar that makes so many people have a lifelong obsession with all things guitar? I am fascinated by the fact that I have met so many people who tried to learn guitar in their teens, gave it up for one reason or another, picked it up in their, 30’s, dropped it again, picked it up 15 years later, etc. etc. all the way into their 80’s! They can't quit for good because they are guitar lovers for life!

When they did drop guitar it was out of sheer frustration due to getting nowhere. But as time went by, they just had to try again. They would take a chance on another teacher. Then the same syndrome started again - a new song every week that would end up on the pile of other songs they couldn’t play. They assumed they had no talent. Some were actually told that by their teachers.

Most interesting to me is the “Guitar Acquisition Syndrome” - I’m having trouble learning guitar -  I know, I need a new guitar,  that will help! I was once in a lesson where I was showing a student how to nail something he was struggling to play. He thanked me and  said “Normally, I would have just gone out and bought another guitar”!

That explained the wall behind him that was full of very expensive guitars he couldn’t play!

A Lifelong Addiction

I knew from an early age I was in it for the long haul. My love for the guitar was so intense that there was no question of doing anything else with my life. I needed to be a guitar player. It seems a lot of people feel that need. It also seems that for those that feel it, it never goes away.

People who feel this need are willing to make extraordinary sacrifices to satisfy it. When they make that sacrifice of time, effort and money, and come up empty handed, they are not happy.

I cannot tell you how many times, I have heard a student say with great anger and regret “Why didn’t anyone ever show me that before”, after  I show them how to finally do something they have not been able to do for decades.

Just the other day, I spent an entire lesson teaching a very senior student exactly how to place their fingers to do the F bar chord. As he looked in amazement at his fingers finally doing this chord with all the notes coming out, he said bitterly “I’ve been trying to do that for 40 years”!

I always have a mixed reaction, I’m glad to see them get what they have been searching for, and I feel their pain for all the wasted years.

Guitar Lifers

GuitarPrinciples attracts people with this intense love for guitar, a love that does not allow them to quit trying. I call them “Lifers”.

 After they discover Guitar Principles, they realize a few things. First, they realize that the years of failure and frustration were not their fault. Second, they realize that the road is wide open before them. They have found a system for learning guitar based on the scientific principle of how muscles learn movements. They see themselves getting better every day, and they know they can now become as good on the guitar as they are willing to work for.

Now their love for the guitar can be the fuel for continuous work and continuous improvement, rather than the source of frustration .

Now, they realize that it is possible to attain a professional level of skill with the guitar, and they are going for it. That, after all, is our mission statement, “to enable anyone who wants to play the guitar to do so, and anyone who plays to reach their next level”. We mean that, and we mean “to play, and to play well!”.

“The Principles” has uncovered the radical roots of the process by which people learn to play the guitar, and it makes that process available to anyone who wants it. 

I Love My Students

Like a gardener whose greatest joy is to see their flowers bloom to their fullest, my fulfillment is overseeing the growth of the fabulous group of people who entrust their guitar growth to me. I love seeing them become the guitarists they have always wanted to be.

I admire them for the intensity of their effort. It is one thing to say “I want to be a guitar player”, and quite another to actually do the work that makes it possible.

There are many people who “dabble” at guitar. They love to collect guitar, practice guitar, uh, not so much. That is fine for them, and great for guitar manufacturers! There are few who put their life energy into the actual study, and become worthy to make music on the guitar.

I serve those few.

The Guitar Principles Difference

All the guitar methods you have ever seen are simply “content aggregators”.  Some guitar player gathers together a whole lot of chords, scales, song, licks, whatever, and sells them to you. They want you to believe that merely having all this content, and watching somebody play it, you are going to be able to do it too!

The pile of guitar methods most students have, full of music they can’t really play, is proof of the uselessness of this approach to learning guitar.  Merely showing you what to play does nothing for your fingers.  I call it the “show and tell approach to guitar”.

In the beginning, you need to know how to play the guitar, not what to play on the guitar.  You need to know how your fingers must touch the strings, and how they must be taught movements they have never done before.

 After you know how to teach your fingers, you will be able to teach them anything you wish. This is what Guitar Principles training does.

Looking For Lifers

If you are a Lifer on guitar, if you know that you always want the guitar in your life, and would like to get better and better all the time, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of the unique training Guitar Principles offers.

There are various ways you can begin to get Guitar Principles Training.