IT STARTS WITH OBSESSION:
Your obsession for music, (and for playing the guitar) is no less important in your practice routine than learning all of your scales and arpeggios. 

In fact, your level of obsession might even be more important because it promotes the development of your best belief system for practicing guitar.

In this post, (and its accompanying video), I will show you the value of how by not paying attention to the strength of your limiting beliefs and philosophies it will in-turn help you to create more options. 

I'll also cover areas and philosophies that could be preventing you from making the most out of; your study time, the way that you're composing, and how you do transcription.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

10x BETTER:
We’re kicking off our 10x Better Series by discussing a few powerful ways that you can change your playing and your practice habits to help make a serious move toward better; commitment to your musical studies, and to become better focused on the music that you’re playing, (both as you practice and as you’re performing). 

We will also discuss how to improve your musical memory in a way that will help you to be able to more rapidly memorize lines and get the music that you’re performing into your mind at a much deeper level. 

That includes getting your eyes away from sheet-music, (that you may be relying on – sometimes a little too much) and having the music become more burned into your memory. All this will go a long way to help you create a better and a more automatic musical performance. 

Let’s start into this, BUT just before we do, I want to ask you to please comment below as you go through this post. Let others know about the things that have helped you the most in becoming a better guitar player and a better all around musician!

MUSICAL OBSESSION:
One of the first things that you need to focus on is getting yourself to develop an Obsession for both learning about music and for playing the guitar. 

This might sound like it’s really obvious, but the bottom line is that; most students rarely have a really high focus on wanting to improve their skills up to a serious level. 

Say the following statement out loud to yourself; 

“I want to become the best guitar player that I can possibly be.” 

When a musician has a persistent preoccupation with either the idea or with the feeling of being absolutely compelled and motivated to the point of obsession, they learn to naturally develop an avoidance to things that will cause them to miss their goals.

Musicians can either; go down the wrong path, or have bad results, or negative results, or have their time wasted away with pointless activities. All of these things will become a long-term issue when it comes to improving playing skills. 

Think of it this way, if you want to develop a serious playing and practicing approach, start by developing an obsession for music and for the guitar. 

You’ll find that obsession will improve your focus ten-fold and your playing skills will form much faster than as if music and guitar were only something that you considered to be, "kind of" fun or just, "sort of" interesting.

Coming up next, I’m going to discuss the benefits of finding a balance between options and commitment.

But first, I want to tell you about a special promotional offer that I have for a collection of some of the most valuable handouts that I have here at my studio, it’s my; Handouts Collection eBook.

CONSIDER MORE OPTIONS:
There’s a powerful balance that exists for musicians who are able to find options when they are studying anything that involves music or their instrument, (especially when it comes to performance). 

A dedicated music student, (with the ability to analyze their options), can scrutinize a musical task and compartmentalize the task so that they remain relaxed and never feel rushed.

PRO-TIP:   Know how to create the opportunity for more time, and understand the need to practice and develop music through finding a balance for withholding commitment to less important things, (like maybe sitting around watching TV or playing video games).

Use the time you've just gained (as a way) to instead:

• practice more music 
• compose more of your own music
• become better at learning about music
• invest in the study of guitar

The cool thing is that this idea (of creating options and assessing commitment levels) doesn’t end only at how you’re thinking about your time and your dedication for music. 

It also relates to composing new music, (or the overall idea of how we spend our time when writing songs). 

When we compose music we tend to always do better in our compositions if we can establish a balance between our writing time, (that’s the time we’re spending on composing), and balancing that with our transposing time, (the time we spend learning other people’s music). 

The thing that happens when we learn to create balance between these two is that our ideas for; song structure, keys, chords, modulation, song parts, dynamics, and rhythm (all this stuff), never stagnates. We are always being introduced to new music.

Our sense for music is always expanding, so if we have a balance between the time that we spend writing music, and the time we spend learning the music of others, both of these areas start to benefit us equally and they will help us move even closer to becoming the best musicians that we could possibly be.

ALLOW TIME FOR MUSIC TO SINK IN:
The final point that I want to get in is a topic that most musicians will tend to avoid. But, I believe that it actually gets avoided accidentally. 

And, what it is that I’m talking about is how a lot of musicians will not give themselves the space and the time to be able to let the music that they’re studying settle into their unconscious mind. 

Instead, far too many musicians will push themselves to learn a song part by playing it over and over without any “breaks” and without getting up and stretching their legs, clearing their mind, and doing what we’ll just call taking a pause from the repetitive work of going through the music being studied. 

Playing any 'one' thing for too long, (20 min. or longer), including a song riff, a lick, an exercise, or a guitar solo (running it through over and over again), can sometimes do more bad for you than good for you when it comes to memorization and deep learning. 

It is important to understand that when we avoid taking any time off from practicing, (to clear our mind, and allow information to take hold), our playing can get stressed. That stress will more often than not tend to make our playing and our studying even worse.

But, when we walk away from what we’re doing we allow our mind to go on pause and collect our thoughts at an unconscious level. 

Taking a scheduled break (away from further repetitive practice), will actually benefits us far more than sitting and forcing ourselves to continue studying.

Next time that you sit down to learn a song - take a pause after 7-10 min. and get up and walk away from what you’re working on. If you just get up and take a break and walk away, what it will do for you is it keep your mind fresh. 

The period away doesn't need to be very long, (2-3 min. would be fine), but the benefit of the break will actually allow what you’re studying to settle-in at a much deeper level. 

And, the best part is that when you return you’re going to play far better than you were playing before!