When someone talks about Guitar Greatness, what do they really mean? Do they mean the ability to play any song instantly after hearing it, having incredible technique or being a superb composer?

The real answer is none of these, because people seem to reckon that having the ‘abilities’ I talk about above instantly makes them a fantastic guitar player. The real secret to ‘Guitar Greatness’ is attitude while you are playing, having your own signature style and putting that, your personal guitar style, into everything you play, even covers.

I was recently watching a video of the late Stevie Ray Vaughn. He was playing a cover of the Jimmi Hendrix classic ‘Voodoo Child’. Even though Stevie could have just played the song the exact same way that Jimi Hendrix played it, he made it different by adding his own signature guitar style into the song.

How did he do that? By just letting it come to him. If you haven’t been playing guitar for a long period of time you may find this hard to grasp onto, but when you have really achieved ‘Guitar Greatness’, you should be able to sit down with any musician, start jamming and pour your emotions out through your playing.

That’s exactly what Stevie Ray Vaughn did, and that is why he was and is so well-known and called a legend.
People reckon that the guitar is an instrument that anyone can master, but it takes someone with a mixture of determination, musical sense, perseverance and roughness. If you don’t have those qualities the excellent news is that you can make them. You make these by simply playing your guitar as much as possible, making your own sound while also learning the styles of the greats that played before you.

One more crucial aspect of achieving ‘Guitar Greatness’ is having respect for any style, you don’t have to like it, but you have to respect anything that is played on the guitar, no matter if it is Flamenco, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Metal whatever. The secret is that you do not have to have incredible technique to master the guitar, Hendrix didn’t, but he made up for it with attitude!

Excellent luck finding your own signature guitar style.

If you believe you can, you will.  If you believe you can’t, you won’t.

No matter what your musical skill level is right now, there are going to be many significant challenges ahead of you. Your attitudes, and the ways you deal with musical challenges, will be single greatest factor in determining how much you will achieve as a musician. If you believe that you can, and will, overcome your greatest challenges, you will find a way, or you will seek help from a teacher, trainer, coach or mentor that will help you through it. If you don’t believe you can achieve, your done, it’s over, because you won’t.

A right tale of self-fulfilling prophecy

OK, a small history lesson here might go a long way, so here it is. In early 16th century Mexico, existed a fantastic empire called the “Aztecs”. In fact, it was the most powerful civilization in North America up to the year 1519. It was in that year when the Spanish conquest started. Cortez brought with him about 400 men, and with these soldiers, they defeated virtually the entire Aztec empire. How did Cortez’s men defeat this fantastic empire with only 400 men? Was it with superior weapons or superior military tactics? No! The Aztec emperor (and many of his people) believed in a myth that some day in the future a “god” would return to Mexico to ruin them. When the Spaniards arrived with their weird skin color, beards, clothes and weapons, the Aztecs “knew” they couldn’t win. They believed they could not overcome the power of Cortez’s tiny army because they thought Cortez was the “god” who was returning to ruin them. The Aztec empire was ruined forever by a fake belief (that Cortez was their “god” and that it was impossible and useless to try to defeat him)! There are many other military defeats throughout world history caused by other types of fake beliefs. Had the defeated armies and/or rulers had different beliefs, the history of the world could have turned out to be quite different.

As you see above, the negative results of fake beliefs, and not believing in oneself, can be devastating for entire civilizations, so imagine how terribly your negative beliefs can hurt your ability to effectively learn your instrument!

Let’s find out where your attitude is likely to be

1. Play something on your guitar that you cannot play perfectly yet.
2. Listen critically to your guitar playing.
3. Identify problems and try to define for yourself what they are.
4. What are your mental thought patterns? What is the voice inside your mind telling you?

Let’s say what you played above was a scale at high speed. You noticed that not all the notes were played cleanly. Now let’s look at two types of thought patterns and attitudes you might have about that:

1. You say to yourself, “These notes are not even, clean and clear….I can’t get it!… This sounds terrible!….I guess I have to try harder….it still doesn’t sound excellent…I just CAN’T do it!….Maybe I just don’t have what it takes……?”
2. Or you say to yourself, “These notes are not even, clean and clear….I’m going to record myself playing these scales, so I can listen while I am focused only on “listening” and not on “playing”….Where do the worst spots seem to be happening?…..Where are the better notes located?……Hmmm, I notice the problem seems to be occurring when I change from string to string or every time I use my ring finger…..Perhaps, the string changing problem is caused from inefficient right hand motion and maybe the ring finger is causing problems because it’s not working independently from the other fingers…..I’ll question my guitar teacher about this and he will probably offer specific exercises I can do to strengthen these weak areas. Then I’ll be able to play these scales correctly!….”

The results

Obviously the differences between these two opposite attitudes are huge. More importantly is the difference in “results” one will get from choosing to approach the same problem with opposite thought patterns and attitudes. The first attitude offers only self-doubt, pessimism, a negative self-image and hopelessness. The second offers confidence, self-reliance, hope, optimism, security and the desire to get through the difficulty of mastering this technique. Even though working with a fantastic guitar teacher is the very best way to improve your skills, only your thought patterns, positive attitude, and the way you deal with challenges, will make significant improvement really happen. It’s that simple!

Why most people fail to ever become musicians

More than half of people in the United States who start to play guitar will quit in less than one year from the time they start to play. Another significant percentage of people will play occasionally, but will not make much forward progress on their instrument. Why? Well there are many possible factors, but the largest two reasons are:

1. They took the first attitude mentioned above.
2. They didn’t learn from a fantastic guitar teacher on a long-term basis.

Inaction: The worst possible thing

Inaction (taking “no” action), when action is necessary, is the worst possible thing, I can reckon of, for all areas in life. For most people, inaction comes easily and naturally. It’s so simple to do “nothing”. It’s so simple to “not” take guitar lessons. It’s so simple to “not” find a better guitar teacher, coach and mentor. Hey, I’m not perfect either, there were plenty of times in my past when I too took the path of least resistance and did nothing when I really needed to. Those decisions to do nothing (or to do small) led me to…..

Regrets

A few years ago, I got tired of living with regrets and made some fascinating observations about them. Regret is a poison, a toxic waste that marinates in your soul. What drives our regrets? Most of our regrets in life occurred, not from what we have done (or said or thought), but from we didn’t do. Our failures are not the main cause of regret and unhappiness, it is passing up our opportunities to grow, improve and make things better that hurts us most. Reckon about it.

What will you do?

In my program about building a <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://tomhess.net/MusicCareer.aspx”>music career</a>, the very first (and probably most valuable) thing I do as my student’s mentor is question them this question: “What are you committed to do, RIGHT NOW TODAY, to reach your goals?” Even if you are only able to make a small baby step forward, tell me WHAT WILL YOU DO RIGHT NOW?!?! This very moment is the first moment of your future. You make your future by what you do in the present!

So, what will YOU do right now? What thoughts will you allow to fill your mind? Who will you call or email? How will you spend the rest of your day? What action will take right now? What will you do in this “present” moment, which will contribute to your future?