7 Major Beginner Guitar Mistakes (You Need To Know)

In this post we’ll be talking about 7 of the major mistakes that people make as a beginning guitar players and how you can avoid them! Lastly, we’ll cover the #1 tip for getting what you want out of the guitar and finding success as beginner. 

1) Not Tuning Regularly

The first thing on this list of major mistakes that beginning guitar players tend to make is simply not tuning their guitars regularly. 

Unless you have some fairly advanced custom electronics built into your guitar, then chances are your guitar will not tune itself! Tuning your guitar isn't a ‘set-and-forget’ type of thing. Guitars can be quite temperamental when it comes to tuning. Not only will guitars respond to how you actually play them but they're going to respond to things like being moved around in the case, how cold it is overnight, how hot it is during the day, as well as how old the strings are and how the guitar has been set up and maintained. 

Without wanting to blind anyone with science or get overly technical here, if your guitar isn't in tune, then what you're playing won't be in tune! So train yourself to hear when your guitar is not in tune and don't become used to the sound of an ‘out of tune’ guitar. 

2) Not Practicing Consistently

The second thing on this list has to do with not practicing consistently enough. Less is not more when it comes to practicing the guitar. 

Be smart with your time. Work out how much time you are prepared to put into your guitar playing each week and then spread that time out over the week. Don't just try and do a 2 or 3 hour session on the weekend, chip away at it during the week (10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour per day or whatever you've allotted for practicing) and you're going to find that your playing will come along a lot quicker. We're trying to train our brain to working with our hands and we're trying to train our hands to working with each other, and that takes consistency over time. 

3) Not Playing in Time

The next thing on this list has to do with not being aware of timing as a guitar player. Playing 'with feel' and playing 'out of time' are two very different things. 

Having a good sense of rhythm and timing is one of the main things which separates someone who sounds like they're a beginner from someone who sounds confident and competent in what they're doing. It is natural to race through the parts of a song that you’re familiar with and then slow down and stumble through the parts that you don't know so well. Therefore, learn to practice at tempos where you can play the whole thing consistently. 

Get in the habit of making use of things like a metronome or jam tracks when you practice. Additionally, if you have some simple audio software like GarageBand, it is very easy to make your own custom loops to practice to. Timing is crucial. Be aware of when you're speeding up or slowing down and train yourself to play consistently. 

4) Playing Too Fast
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Number four on our list has to do with trying to play too fast... just kick it back a notch Turbo! We see these guitar masters shred up and down the guitar neck but what we don't see is the amount of time, effort and patience it took to get to that point.  

Speed is not about just trying to play harder and faster, it's a byproduct of two key things and those things are ‘accuracy’ and ‘economy’. Accuracy has to do with obviously playing our notes cleanly, clearly and intentionally, while economy has to do with minimizing our movements to really hone our technique. Our hands don't need to flap about wildly when we're essentially only needing to do quite small movements on the guitar. So slow your playing down, learn how to play cleanly and clearly and don't get yourself into the bad habit of just trying to rush through everything. What’s the point of playing a little faster if it sounds a lot worse? 

5) Playing Too Tight

​Number five on the list is about tightening up when we're playing the guitar. This is something that can affect both beginners and also more experienced guitar players also.

The only real tension that we want to be feeling on the guitar is the tension of our guitar strings. Learn to notice the signs of excess tension. Sometimes you see players start crouching over their guitar a bit more, they might even hold their breath through some passages, they might start clamping down with their left hand or cramping up with their right arm, losing all sense of rhythm and flow.

Unnecessary tension is really counterproductive to what we're trying to achieve. It's going to kill our timing as guitar players and it's not going to support good technique. This is why you see fantastic guitar players who are playing at a high level of complexity but don't even really look like they're trying all that hard. So learn to recognize how your body is responding to what you're playing and learn to know when you need to just put the guitar down, walk it off, take a break and come back to it.

6) Playing Without Understanding

Number six on the list has to do with not really having an understanding of what we're actually doing as guitar players. 'Theory' is not a dirty word! 

Some players seem to think that music theory is either just too complex to understand or that it will somehow get in the way of their own creativity. This is just not true. Saying “I'm going to learn some chords and some scales, but I'm not going to learn theory...” doesn’t really makes sense. As soon as you start learning chords and scales (how they sound, how they fit together and the different ways you can use them) you're already starting to engage in what theory is. 

Music theory is essentially just the language that we wrap music in. It's the way we understand what we're doing and are able to communicate that information to other people. This doesn't mean you need to go up to the nearest mountain top and meditate until you achieve pure theoretical enlightenment. Even just knowing some of the basics will really help you in your playing. Understanding about key centers, about how central the major scale is, about how we build and use chords and scales etc. are all things that will really help you put all of the pieces together.

7) Playing Without Direction
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Lastly, the #1 tip for finding success as a beginner guitar player and achieving your own goals and objectives is about actually having ‘goals’ and ‘objectives’ in the first place. 

So many people decide to play guitar and then after a few months it's in the corner gathering dust again because at some point they've just lost track, they have no goal or plan of attack. Having clear goals and objectives is about understanding both what inspires you and also what you actually want out of a guitar. Ask yourself the question, "Why did I want to play guitar in the first place and what are the things which help me engage with the instrument?" Maybe it's your favorite songs or a particular album. It might be engaging and chatting with other people that are equally as passionate about guitar playing and music as you are. (Perhaps it could even be subscribing to regular content that'll help you ‘play smarter’ as a guitar player for example - insert shameless plug here). Whatever it is, surround yourself with positive things which are going to facilitate your own inspiration. 

Understand what you actually want out of the guitar. Do you want to use it to be the next guitar ninja or are you just looking to learn your favorite tracks to be able to play around the house? Be clear about where you are heading. If you decide you're going get a teacher, make sure they're on the same page as you are. You need to ensure you're actually getting what you're paying for in your lessons. Alternatively, if you're teaching yourself being able to clearly know what you want out of your playing, we will help you sort through all of the information that's available to you. So be clear about your goals and objectives. Understand that playing guitar is a long-term commitment and be realistic about what you want.

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