I have spent just about all of my life playing, learning, living, and loving the guitar in all its forms. In that time, I have seen, tried, or encountered just about every possible way to learn or teach the instrument that’s out there. I started out as a kid taking lessons in a music store like so many of us do and went through many different levels of teachers in both private and class situations, culminating in college-level theory classes and private lessons. After that, I became a teacher and REALLY started learning.
Through all of this, I kept seeing students and teachers both doing something that, to me, seemed like a glaring mistake, or at least an error in approach. That error was to place more importance on learning techniques and theory than on learning and playing songs. What? Did the teacher just say not to learn theory or practice technique? NO! That’s not what I said. Theory and technique are important, of course, but why do we learn them? We learn them to have the ability to play and create songs and compositions. To over-value them is to obscure the purpose of being a musician. No one learns an instrument because of a burning desire to play scales with a metronome. We learn instruments to have the musical experience, to play songs both alone and with others. Sometimes, students and teachers get caught up in the rush of learning and wanting to learn, to spend time tackling the difficult bits in an effort to earn their musical black belt, so to speak. This becomes a problem when complexity becomes more important than musicality and emotional content. No amount of learning is off limits, but the goal is to take what we learn and play music with it, not just do exercises obsessively.
What does this mean to you and me? It means that, when you want to learn a new technique, find a song that uses it and learn that song. Keep everything in context. Your knowledge and chops are there to serve your songs and not the other way around. When you learn techniques in the context of songs, you absorb the musicality they were used with and not just the physical motions. Do use your metronome and read your theory book, but spend more time with actual music. The goal is to find a balance between knowledge and skill that allows your music to emerge. If all that matters to you is playing fast, sports are probably better suited to your personality than music.
Guitar lessons and gentleman’s clubs are both good insights into human psychology. When I encounter someone making this error in approach, I often encounter someone with something to prove or who thinks that it is possible to be the ‘best’ guitarist in the world. It’s great to have an axe to grind in the practice room for motivation, but we are not competitive athletes; we are creative artists. What we do is subjective and there can be no ‘best,’ only those you like or dislike. Keep this in mind as you progress through your musical journey and you will not, as the old saying goes, miss the forest because of the trees. The greats in our game use technique, musicality, and vision to make their music happen and you should, too. If anything, over-value creativity. That will take you farther than fast fingers ever will.
