Learning A New Technique: Exciting Or Scary? | tonebase Tips
In this week’s post, Francisco Chaves reflects on the struggles of learning new techniques and the importance of allowing yourself to be a “beginner” in order to take your skills to the next level on your instrument.
This post was inspired by Francisco’s experience working through Artyom Dervoed’s 30-Day Technique Course which teaches you the ten fundamental exercises that have made Artyom the virtuoso he is today. Access the full course today by signing up for tonebase Premium, and use the following coupon code at checkout to get a month for free! ➡️ ARTYOM-COURSE-655A
Is learning a new technique exciting or scary?
Short answer: It’s both.
Long answer: Well…
If like me, you also signed up for the fantastic technique course that Artyom Dervoed recently did for tonebase, you might have had the following reaction:
“Wow, I’m going to learn something new! I’m so excited!”
Then, while going through the course and learning the various exercises, you began to think:
“Damn, this is hard… I thought I knew how to play the guitar…”
This happens over and over again. We might be feeling super good about our playing but then when we try to improve by learning a new technique or fingering, we feel again like beginners.
That is completely normal and it happens to all of us.
Remember the first time you played a C Major chord, and you thought it was so hard? That was simply because you never had done it before. Now it is easy!
The truth is, easy and hard are abstract and relative concepts. What today is hard after weeks or months of practice becomes easy.
It may sound a bit cruel, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret:
You will always be a “beginner.”
If you do not occasionally feel like a “beginner” at something, then you are not improving your craft. It is as simple as that.
What happens is after practicing various new techniques for a certain amount of time, we start to become better. We start to gain confidence. We think: “I’m good now.”
Then comes a new lesson with a new technique and you think: “I’m such a failure… How could I ever think I was good?”
The cycle repeats over and over again.
One day, you might even start dreading that feeling so much that you just stop trying to improve because you don’t want to start feeling like a beginner again.
I still remember a specific lesson of mine when Dejan Ivanovic, my former guitar teacher, made me change my right hand position to achieve faster speed and a better sound.
It was a tedious process. For months, I couldn’t even play quarter notes at a steady tempo because of the drastic technique change.
I had previously played guitar for 8 years, and suddenly, I was again a beginner. However, I trusted him and kept going. I practiced hard, and after a few months, I could see drastic improvement in my technique.
This is normal when learning a skill. You need to go through a trying period of “adaptation.” However, after practicing diligently, things will start to fall into place.
You don’t need to take my word for it. Give Artyom’s 30-Day Technique Course a try and notice this transformation for yourself!
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