Guitar Essentials: Accelerated Learning Methods for Guitar

Picture this...

Ten guitarists get together to talk "shop".

After talking for about 15 minutes, the topic comes up about playing skills (chops).

Out of the 10 guitarists, 8 are good solid players.

2 are exceptional players.

One of the 8 asks the other 2:

"Why is it that you two have been playing as long as the rest of us, yet you can absolutely play circles around us?"

My buddy Paul and I looked at each other with a "hmm" look.

"I don't know" I said looking at my good friend.

My first thought was that we must practice harder and longer than the other players. As I was about to ask the question, Paul beat me to it. He asked the others: "How long do you practice each day?"

I was sure that we were practicing at least double the amount of time as the others.

But the answer was not what I was expecting...

On average, they were practicing the same amount of time as Paul and I were!

Okay, that totally blew my answer out of the water.

At this point I was starting to get really curious.

What could it be? I thought for a while longer, and when nothing else came to mind I just blurted out: "How do you practice?"

The first answer came in from Mike.

Next Brian answered, and then the others one by one.

A pattern quickly emerged.

Although Paul and I practiced slightly different things, we still covered the same areas every practice session and followed a very specific practice system.

Even though they were practicing as much as we were, the other guitarists were not practicing the same things as we were. Also, they didn't really have a system for practicing. They would practice a bit of this and a bit of that.

This was a real eye-opener for all of us.

Standing in front of me was clear evidence that shows it's not how long you practice, or how long you've been playing that really matters, it's how you practice and what you practice.

I urge you to let this sink in for a minute...

The most important factors that determine how fast you'll advance on the guitar is not the total time you practice, but what you practice and how you practice.

If you take a random approach to practicing you will get random results.

Imagine going to the gym and doing some bench presses. Then you hit the pool and do some laps. Next you do biceps curls, hit the steam-room, do a full-out sprint, hit the treadmill and then....

First of all, you'll be lucky to get out of the gym alive. Second, by taking such a random (and dangerous) approach you minimize any benefits you would get from the workout.

The same is true of music: IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO PRACTICE, YOU ARE SABOTAGING YOUR RESULTS.

I was really eager to put this concept to the test. Since I was teaching 40-50 guitar students a week, I decided that I would see what results my students got.

That evening I started to teach my guitar students the system.

It's funny. Up until that point I had never thought I needed to teach this because I just assumed that everyone was taking a similar approach to practicing.

Every student that used the system got good results and some got great results. Some students mastered most or all of the material I had given them in their previous lesson.

Other students mastered everything, and had gone on to do much more.

It was great. I could hear consistent improvement in their playing each week. This worked with beginners, intermediate and advanced players.

There were those students that didn't follow the practice system. Their progress was slow at best. Sometimes they would hardly remember what was covered in the previous lesson. I would go over the practice formula again and ask if they would just give it a try. Some never would. Others would give it a shot. When they did try the formula, we could both hear improvements in their playing.

There's a great proverb that says: "A teacher can open a door, but it's up to you to enter."

So here is the one "catch" to the system: you have to use it! It's really that simple. If you don't use it, you won't get the results.

All of my books, ebooks and courses have been created to specifically teach you how to apply the Formula for guitar success.

You can choose to apply the Formula to one area of your playing such as guitar technique, guitar shred, guitar scales, guitar chords, or guitar theory. Or you can take a more global approach and apply it to every aspect of your playing. The choice is yours.

I've taught music for 25 years, taken years of private guitar lessons, earned my degree in music, authored more than 50 books and reference charts (just do a book search on Amazon with the keywords "Don J. MacLean" and you'll see some of my books), played with too many bands to remember, and taught numerous master classes and workshops.

Remember, you don't have to waste years of your practice time trying to discover these secrets on your own. I've already done all the hard work for you.

There is no more need for you to practice in a trial and error fashion. I've already discovered what works and laid it all out for you in my step-by-step courses. You just need to follow the system. It doesn't get any easier than this.

Reading music is not required!

So why not visit the resources I recommend below and start to transform your guitar playing right now?

What you do for your guitar playing today will determine how great you will be tomorrow.

To your guitar success,

Don J. MacLean