You might have heard many people say that it takes 10,000 hours of “work” to master a skill…
I suppose there is likely a lot of truth to that if you were… a surgeon, for example, where actually doing your skill is not for fun but must always be done at a masterful level.
But does that apply to guitar playing? No, not really. In fact, not even a little.
I’m sure I’ve got way more than 10,000 hours on a guitar and I’ll be the first to admit that I have a lot of technique and know a lot about music. But I promise that as a blues lover you don’t want to hear the sounds that come from that technique and musicality (most of it really doesn’t sound very “musical” after a certain point.)
You could say it’s a law of diminishing returns. The gains you make after a certain point may or may not be all that useful on a daily basis.
And I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve taught over the years that were out playing their first “gig” in a tiny fraction of 10,000 hours on their guitar.
They learn the 4 chords they need to play the little song they wrote and before you know it they are playing to a packed house over at Grandma’s.
But most importantly, they are having a great time doing it.
I found a GREAT video from a “Ted Talk” that shows you just how important the first 20 hours of the journey really are:
I like this one because of one main thing: you have to define “success” in your own terms.
Playing guitar and learning guitar is a journey – and not one to be missed. I can promise you that no matter where you are now, there is something more to learn.
And I can also promise you that you can be playing the blues, and having a great time, in far less than 10,000 hours (probably in less than 10% of that number.)
If you don’t believe me, you can try out any of my blues guitar courses for yourself. They are all guaranteed for a full year… plenty of time to prove just how far you can get in a short amount of time.
Now you may have heard of a guy named Tim Ferriss… he is the author of “The 4 Hour Work Week” and is well known for being a sort of “serial learner” and diving in to many different areas one after the other.
Check out this video where he probably articulates the lack of necessity for mastery better than I can.
Now please don’t misunderstand me… I’m not saying you should not strive to improve and that if at first you don’t succeed you should lower your sights.
Rather, I’m saying you need to define what success looks like to you. A lot of us will say “I want to master the guitar,” but don’t have any idea of what that actually means.
So decide for yourself. It might mean you get up on a blues jam and get through it without falling on your face.
For some it might mean doing a whole night of solo acoustic stuff.
For some people it simply means playing something on the front porch with friends and having your spouse say, “hey, that sounds great.”
It’s probably different for nearly everyone, but it’s an important thing to decide on before you get too carried away with trying to “master” it.
And when you’ve thought of what “success” looks like to you… leave it in the comments below. Your idea of success may very well spur on someone else to define what it also means to them.
90 replies to "Mastery Is Overrated…"
I don’t think it’s about how much you know as it is how much you can do with what you know and good luck doesn’t hurt either
This is where colorful costumes, platform boots, makeup, wigs, lighting and bubble-a machines come in so useful to up and comers.
Unfortunately the culture of consumption defines success in monetary terms: how many albums sold, how many Spotify hits, how many YouTube followers.
Those who are truly groundbreakers and who have had an opportunity to show case their talents, like a Jimi Hendrix or a George Benson or Ry Cooder or John Mayer through dint of hard work deserve that recognition and in doing so are then transformed into the objective criteria of success against which one’s own ‘abilities’ are measured can become a purvasive psycological block to the reasons we play in the first place. For fun and enjoyment.
‘I’ll never be as good as….’ lessened the beauty of the journey for me until I started to listen to other voices which impressed upon me that while I will never be Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrex would never be me, and that finding my own voice, style and technique were all the products of each component of who I was as a person, and my adabtibility to the demands of the song and the instrument.
Once I understood that Truth, once I had integrated those ideas into what I wanted to accomplish, step by step, then the joys of personal successes have become an never ending river of creativity and musical and personal discoveries.
Good teachers like Griff and his courses are theys to getting there.
Pura vida, pura musicales!
Excellent advice Griff! I agree, in fact I know it’s possible to teach someone to play something (really easy of course like the first two chords of “Horse With No Name”) on guitar and they’ll be doing it just a few minutes (not very well, but doing it). On the other hand, I’ll bet you did practice over 10,000 hours to master teaching guitar, because it shows in the results!
Knowing what to practice is more important than how much you practice. Practice often is also important. I end each of my practice sessions by playing a tune recording it and then listening back critically.
Such an excellent video about learning Griff. I always try to put 20 minutes to now after hearing these videos 45 minutes. I usually get up to an hour or more after work. I love learning and being good at playing the blues. Success to me is to be able play in front of people and have them enjoy what I’m playing . Thank you .
Alexander
Maybe the best 20 minutes of procrastination I’ve come across.
Much truth to the “fear” aspect. Nobody wants to suck at guitar.
I’m going to refocus and see where I am in 20 hours. I’ll get back to you in a month.
By the way, could you do a lesson on the “song”? 😉
You know, Griff, I can see these four principles in your courses. As I went through KBSME, I thought some of the licks were kinda lame. Then I struggled with some of them. But I kept at it, step by step. When I got to the “put it all together” part, it dawned on me that those lame little licks I had learned gave me the skills I needed to accomplish this great task that I didn’t really think I could complete. Now, I, a rank beginner not too long ago and still barely a novice, can play a decent blues solo in any slow blues or shuffle in the key of A!
Success to me will be the ability to move the music in my head through my fingers to the fretboard and into the air. Getting to that point is the first leg of a longer journey, one I hope to continue for a long time. There is no destination.
Great message! Been working on an old jazz piece for the past few days for maybe a half hour at a time, then a few songs I’ve played a number of times, finishing off my practice session by going over the Jazz thing a few more times. Interesting offshoot is – all my “regular” stuff sounds better and is easier to play properly after running through the Jazz tune, and it in turn is easier to play after playing the rest and coming back to it! Wish I’d had someone to steer me in this direction years ago. But, because it’s a never ending learning curve, I’m grateful to have discovered this simple truth now. Thanks, Griff!
Quite some time ago, I realized that my guitar studies and playing were all about the journey itself. THERE IS NO DESTINATION!!!!!!!!
As one comment read, ” the better I get, the more there is to learn”
So, enjoy the ride!!
September, 2011: Signed up for Griff’s e-mails
Today: Received e-mail message number 1042!!!
Spending an average of 15 minutes “learning” the message, I have spent about 260 hours over the past 6 years JUST on the e-mails ALONE!
I think I’m getting really good at reading Griff’s e-mails!
Me too.. I am behind the learning curve trying to “master” blues guitar. As BB King noted, you know you mastered it when the ladies in audience sling shot their panties at you on stage. I am still waiting for that accolade.. LOL
ROTFLMFAO
Master the guitar that for me will never happen. I love 5-6 different types of music. From country to classical, especially blues,learning to me never gets old. I’m continuing to find out that the more I learn the less l know, this motivates me and keeps me excited about the future I love it. To all guitarist we belong to a unique group of musicians striving for Perfection!!!keep strumming!!!!!
Thank’s Griff,at the risk of sounding self-serving – first of all i play for, ME ..i find that if i am happy ,those around me generally are as well.Same thing for our bicycle shop.If others enjoy my playing well then, that really IS a bonus! Keep up the great work.It is a ton more fun playing for me, than when we made $50.00 a night (4-pc.) to make money to get through our kids two open heart surgeries.But glad i had the skill set to do it .Looking forward to starting on my copy of your- “Playing on the porch” great title by the way ! now that winter IS here & the holidays are over, waiting patiently for spring in the bike biz,by playing my guitar & taking time out for ME ! -LOVE IT !p.s. Bought our 8-yr. old Grandaughter an electric bass guitar for Christmas,her tape wound strings should be here Wed., after she complained Respectfully,Kim.
Great blog. And something that I’m acutely aware of, not having unlimited hours to spend on guitar work, it’s the quality of the hours that you spend, not always the number. Not saying that you wouldn’t improve spending five hours a day practising. But if it is aimless, with no structure, then it’s not maxing the use of that time. A good two hours, with a plan of what you want to achieve, may well server you better.
Well I really liked studying it. This post offered by you is very effective for proper planning.
Enjoy the ride!
A good prescription. Watch once daily. This is much needed encouragement and inspiration for any endeavor, not only guitar. Thanks again Griff.
Great video’s Griff – very inspiring.
I have been struggling with lesson 10 BGU (Texas Shuffle) for a while now, and finding left hand damping so counter intuitive. In the end I found that I had to just say stop, and slowly deconstruct the skill in a way that worked for me, and practice that alone before I could even think of playing along which the track. I really like this idea of focussed practice and deconstructing skills. The slow way is often the quickest way.
As for the 10,000 hours rule. It always sounded much too arbitrary to make any real sense – the sort of thing that only an academic in the rarefied atmosphere of a university could come with. I accept that an athletes peak performance is restricted by age, but in just about any other field whether you spend 10 hours or 100,000 hours you can never stop learning. I will climb down from my soapbox now!
Great post, Griff! Thanks!
Great stuff,Griff. Thanks. I wish I’d known this way of thinking when I younger. The striving for more perfection than necessary can be frustrating. It’s great way to think about our objectives or desired skills.
I had the same problem as John Allison (tenor man from earlier blog) with playing on tunes in favored guitar keys.I found if I thought of the key of F# as Gb or C# as Db things go easier for me.
Now, does anyone have a “work-around” for too short a pinky finger? Bet you never heard that before, did you Griff?:)
God bless and Merry Christmas to you and the rest of you pickers/bloggers.
Fearless Freddy
This is a great post, and, for me at least very topical because I’ve been thinking about just this topic for a while now. I’ve been noodling around on guitar for thirty odd years but never really settled into a defined practice regime. For one thing, when you don’t know anything where do you start? How do you know what’s important to learn and what isn’t? Thirty years ago the means available to teach oneself the guitar were nothing like they are today. Like just about everybody else I picked up a book or two which didn’t really help much. I learned a fair bit from other players but it was very piecemeal…a it here, a lick there. I had no idea how to put it all together.
When I decided to get back into guitar a couple years ago I found the pendulum had swung all the way to the other side: now there were so many resources available that it became overwhelming…at first.
The trick, I found, was to find one resource that’s logically arranged and easy to follow and stick with it.
After getting the basic theory under my belt I felt like I was finally in a position to ‘drive the car’ so to speak. Which is where the whole issue of ‘mastery’ comes in. Yes I could spend weeks or months trying to learn super fast legato licks, but that isn’t even the style i want to play so why bother. Learning something just because it’s there to be learned doesn’t make much sense to me.
I took a few days, really thought about what sort of sounds I want to make on my guitar and then created a practice schedule that will allow me to reach my goal. Having that focus makes all the difference, because if I’ve learned anything at all it’s that there really are no shortcuts. I can probably sit down and learn a particular blues-rock lick in an hour or so, but in order to master that lick, to be able to call it up when and where I need it and have it sound the way I want to is where the hours and hours of repetition comes in. So, in a long-winded way what I’m trying to say is that the key is not to master everything, the key is to focus on what you really want to do and then invest the thousand or ten thousand hours wisely.
To figure out what guitar playing “success” looks like to me, I had to think about an “ideal” guitar player – yeah, Griff certainly fits the model. Ideally, being able to site read and play anything would be a “master” guitar player. Someone who can play Blues, Jazz, Rock, Metal, Pop, Classical, Country, etc. EVERYTHING – by opening up the sheet music and playing it. Improv skills are also required. I always think of studio guys and orchestra players who can play whatever is requested of them. Amazing skills!
Now, for me, at my “advanced age,” that’s probably not gonna happen (can’t see my self shredding to some heavy metal sheet music!). However, if I can master 3 or 4 “hits” from different genres – Blues (e.g. SRV’s Pride & Joy, BBs Thrill…), Jazz (any of the standards), and Classical (any old Opus would do!), I would be very satisfied.
Hey Griff, Manny here, Practise is everything and yes it take’s time, I started so many year’s ago playing guitar and yet im not that fast with lick’s, but I can follow every track of blues in improvising with my own lick’s. But now with your lesson’s Im doing better I understand the guitar chords and know where and how to use the same positions when I need them. Oh when you ask your wife or anyone (did that sounded good?) and they say yeah or I don’t know, believe me your almost there. Or better yet you do sound good. Thank’s
About four years ago I got it in my head that I wanted to play somewhere. I hadn’t played by myself ever, and I hadn’t played in a regular band since I was 16, or about half a century ago.
I put together some simple equipment and began to sing and play modest little one-hour classic rock song shows around my neighborhood. When I started I could basically only play the simple chords to go with the song. No lead at all. I’d never been able to play a lick of lead when I was younger either.
Something clicked when I saw your “how to play a lead solo with just 4 notes” and I used that simple little key to add in some lead. Today I’m not a blues guitar master, but I am able to add a lot of flavor to my songs thanks to Griff’s help. I’m a better and guitar player at 67 than I ever was before, so anybody who thinks they’re getting too old to learn to play guitar, or to perform is really denying themselves the chance for really life-enriching experiences.
But my further point is that had I not had a burning desire to go out and perform, I wouldn’t be any better now than I was 50 years ago, and I would never have learned the first lick of lead. You have to have something to motivate you enough to make you put in the time and focus to get to your goal.
I don’t think there’s a stronger motivating force than to have performing in public as your ultimate goal. And I can assure you the goal is worth every second of time and effort you put into getting there. You can touch people’s lives with your music in a positive and powerful way. It’s really an incredible experience, far beyond the enjoyment of being able to perform songs and have them sound good.
Steve I agree 100% with you. My former guitar teacher, Mark Wydra, a well-regarded session bluesman from Chicago made a point of his students doing open mics. Excellent advice!
These are very informative videos! Thanks for sharing them! It puts the 10,000 hour rule in a much better perspective!
reading all these reply’s will put a serious dent in your practice time!! at 74 i’m not only still doing it,(giggin’ that is) and love every minute,i still wish i was ten times better on guitar. every GRIFF edition has something to make playing a little more different/better/ interesting for you and those who listen. i’ll still be playin’ when they nail the lid down to the strains of ”THE SKY IS CRYIN”, or ”TORE DOWN” in the hope that i can be allowed into the BIG BLUES JAM IN THE SKY.
GRIFF’S THE MAN!!
Very motivational but in real life? I took me about 300 hours to go down a scale in 16th notes at a 112 tempo and that’s not even fast and I’m still working at it because I know it sounds bad. I personally prefer James Altucher’s philosophy; it takes 1,000 hours to be good enough that somebody who’s not expert will think that you’re an expert. It makes sense. 1,000 hours is ca 1 hour a day for 3 years. It looks more reasonable than 20 and more accessible than 10,000. I learned free style swimming about 9 years ago. It took me effectively 3 years and people at the fitness started to ask me to teach them. But compared to a competition swimmer I’d totally suck and you forget about learning to swim free style for any meaningful distance in 20 hours, that’s not possible, same with guitar. But after 9 years, I’m still learning new techniques and tricks; i.e. it took me two more years to learn breathing on my weak side.
Great advice and motivation. The only downside is that their methods appear to make your hair fall out.
Cheers Griff
I play for enjoyment but I like to learn songs as they are on the recording
I’m working on my sight reading and music theory so going on the 10.000 hours x 3 means I best get back to it
Hey Griff, your aim may be to improve my rudimentary blues guitar skills, but you may be surprised at a side effect because your advice here has improved my tenor sax practice – yes really. My little jazz group is performing ‘Hackensack’ by Thelonious Monk this week and as you can guess from the composer’s name alone it’s a sob to get your chops round on tenor. So practising slow in tempo has really paid dividends. Thanks again because a lot of your advice is transferable to other instruments just because you blow instead of twang doesn’t mean you can’t follow the advice. The only problem is the way a lot of blues tunes are in E or A , and these are notoriously difficult keys on the Tenor sax because it’s a transposing instrument eg E transposes to F# on ts. Lots of side keys. Aaaggghh!
After reading thru above responses I can now relate to some of the issues as I am 68 and doing the arthritis thing. I play everyday and enjoy just playing and listening to the songs I play, if someone doesn’t like it, then don’t listen. It does relax me and I enjoy playing. Don’t think I would ever try to play on stage with a band, got started to late on learning guitar. I will never quit playing or learning new songs or chords becaus it keeps me happy.
Jerry Hughes
Ft. Walton Beach, Florida
Good for you, I hope it helps keep you limber. WE own a bike shop in WI so maybe a little E-assist bike would help keep you moving ? I’m 62 foxriversports.net let me know if we can help a fellow player -YOU ARE ! I’m 62 -got out of jury duty to play once ! l-o-l .Respectfully,Kim
When I got my guitar, I also got a uke and an autoharp (to allow for family music in the future). I’ve been going through the theory course and just got acoustic blues unleashed which is an incredible course. I cruise the internet looking for other lessons and genres too. I was doing some housecleaning a week ago and moved the uke in its bag to dust and thought I’d open it up. When I first got it, it along with my guitar seemed incredibly complicated to try and play. I took it out, opened a uke chord web site and started playing the first song on the list and whamo! I was totally amazed! Easy peasy! Played about a dozen more and looked at the autoharp bag. (another instrument I hadn’t touched in a year.) Strummed it and new instantly it was out of tune even though brand new. Tuned it, started strumming and viola! Music came out of it! My lessons with the guitar had crossed the instrument barrier and improved my capability with these other two instruments. I can play a song on the guitar, then play it on the uke, and play it on the autoharp with equal ability! I’m still amazed!
And I don’t sit and pound myself in practice every day. I do between 10 and twenty minutes of actual “practice,” but strum songs I’m learning and songs I know on my “gitfiddle”off and on all throughout the day. Just goes to show you how skills developed on one instrument can improve skills on another. Thanks Griff, for helping to bring this about! You are the MAN!
for me it’s progress and not perfection. the joy is in the simple progress on a daily basis. And if someone says it sounds great, well that’s just icing on the cake!! 🙂
I’m terrible and feel like playing a guitar is like goin fishing it calms and soothes the soul I’m new can’t put two notes together butt I know watt I want born in Memphis ,Tennessee. raised in north miss. 10 miles from the delta so I know in my heart watt the blues is and I want to put it in the air through my guitars I’m so easily distracted but I am also determined to just play a few blues to soothe the soul back portch front portch in the shed where ever winn people hear a good sound it makes them happy a smile comes upon thier face even little children I will learn thanks griff forever a friend
Griff I can relate to both of the videos. I’ve always been the type of person who could get pretty good at almost anything quickly. My problem has always been finding that one ultimate thing truly worth spending the hundreds and thousands of extra hours to become one of the best in the world at whatever that thing might be.
Like everybody, my life doesn’t allow unlimited time to try to master a hobby, but I have an innate need to be studying and pursuing a challenge and all my life I’ve sort of returned to the guitar as that challenge.
I’ve been playing since I was a teen. I was the rhythm guitar player and I sang and played chords. Never played any lead. Never thought I could. I did make a few halfhearted efforts to learn the Pentatonic scale, but just knowing the scale and being able to plod up and down Figure 1 got me nowhere.
I think the light bulb went on for me when I saw Griff’s 4-note blues lead teaser on the internet. I began to play through those 4 notes and used that as a basic lead lick to expand on. My progress has been very rapid, despite the fact I’m in my mid-60’s.
Thanks to Griff and his easy-to-understand approach, I can now walk on to any stage where blues is being played and be able to play a decent solo, not only without fear, but with the pure soul-nurturing joy of participating in the creation of really good music. There’s nothing else that compares to that feeling.
One thing that was a natural result of finally “getting it” was I started putting more time into it because I was seeing measurable improvement just about every time I picked up my guitar and started practicing lead licks. My advice is whatever you want to do with guitar playing, keep plugging away and don’t let yourself get bogged down because improvement can be slow. The enjoyment you’ll get ~ and will be able to share with others ~ is well worth the time and effort to reach the level you want to be at.
For me “guitar” success is playing well enough to really enjoy doing it. To put it another way, if I’m having fun doing it, then I am successful! A major fun factor is being able to jam with other musicians. First being able to join in without “messing up” the songs, and evolving to making a unique contribution to the songs at some point. Griff, your guidance has helped me toward that success! Thanks for sharing with all of us!!!
There was a time in my youth when I measured success at guitar against Jimi, EC, and Jimmy Page. I thought if I just found that magic formula that I could do it. One of the things that made a difference was I had choices; school, college, and a regular middle class life. My heroes not only had God given talent, that was all they had. They were born to poverty or broken homes and never fit in, so they had no choice. It was succeed or die for them.
Success is a very long journey that is to be enjoyed. Always leave room to improve and have something new to learn.
Hi Griff,
Again great ideas. My idea of success would be to learn to play the Lead Guitar or melody of 20 songs that fit my favourite list which includes the BGU ones like Sweet Home Chicago, Pride & Joy and more, and few Rock n Roll songs, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly etc, a few on the Porch styles. Then increase this to 40 songs for the next 20 + 20 hours. Once I get to a standard Gig number of songs between 30-40, then I might try to jam with some bands including some Blues bands of one or two songs without any “Fear”.
To get to the Success level, I must learn the Notes on my fret board as per Griff and the progression of the Chords so that I have the musical structure to build on.
I am already playing sounds that I am composing by experimenting but I need to be able to play other artists songs to elaborate and to gain confidence.
I have only been learning Electric Guitar now for about 2 years since Jan 2013 so about another 12 months I should have the confidence to jam with a band and I am starting with one early next year 2015. So if I can do it others should be able to who have more experience than me. Keep trying and hope we may all jam one day of the BGU forum.
Thanks Griff for keeping us all inspired.
Michael -Sydney Australia.
My definition is kind of wierd. It’s a feeling. I’ve had the feeling at times, but my definition of success is to have that feeling on a consistent basis. It’s hard to describe but it’s when your fingers feel like they are spider walking all over the fretboard without ever really leaving it, but feeling like they are permanently attached; and the strings feel sort of like soft mushy rubber bands being moved around. It’s wierd but whenever I’ve had that feeling in the past it accompanied a feeling of mastery and control, of being one with the guitar and playing in a zone without even thinking about it. My hands and fingers seemed to move themselves.
I like this guy Ted almost as much as I like this guy Griff…I was a professional musician many years ago-horns & vocals, mostly. Learned to play guitar out of self-defense. (Can’t sing while playing a horn, walking around singing might get you committed; but if you have a guitar, it’s LEGIT!) Learned early on that you can make a lot of music w/a handful of chords, and if you can learn to finger pick a few patterns, it transforms what you are able to do exponentially. Add Griff’s teaching skills & style & you’ve got a mix that can keep you occupied & entertained far longer than 20 hours! Thanx for the input-Helps all of us increase our output.
I was inspired by this video! I want to learn the classical version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D! I am going to devote 45 minutes a day and dream of playing the whole song in about a month’s time. I have dream and it will come true because I make it happen!
I have read all the comments about what defines personal success for different people. Truly amazing!
Gina,
I recently taught myself a guitar version of this song. I found the tab at Ultimate Guitar Tabs. It’s based on the Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Canon. It’s an easy song to learn and sound pretty good, though I did have to rewrite some of the tab.
To define what success is is hard. The best I can do is define it as a feeling. When I was a kid I played baseball. I went through all the stages – not good, pretty good & finally good. I won’t get into what good is & all that but I remember that in that final stage of that development I was no longer trying to perform in some way as to be “good”, I was simply living in that moment & the acquired skills were internalized & I was going with flow & improvising (if you will) & meeting each challenge as it came without the difficult processes that the beginner goes through. I was simply acting & reacting to the situations in a way that I’ll define as proficient & pleasing. That feeling of being one with the guitar is what I’m looking for. I don’t care anymore about commercial success or accolades but I miss that feeling of being in tune with something.
For me success is defined as happiness. The bible tells us to be happy and trust in god. He gives us what we need and not necessarily that which we won’t. As what we won’t may be bad for us. Life is short. The rich and famous are some of the most miserable souls I have ever met. Money and attention is their god, they end up choking on it. Merry Christmas folks
Thanks griff,seems like you were reading my mind.about a week ago I started to study your guitar theory made useful course,at first glance it looked mind boggling,and I thought to myself I`am never going to learn theory.so looking at these videos today I have some hope. thanks again for all that you do for us your students.
When I was single and in my thirties, I picked up a cheap guitar and learned some chords and sang, and success to me at that time was to be able to play for my friends and have them enjoy it. I succeeded, but never quite as much as I wanted to. Life went on and I had to put the guitar down for a few decades. Now I just turned 70. A couple of years ago I started playing the electric guitar, and a year ago I bought BGU. Success has taken on a new definition; I want to be able to play songs like “Stairway to Heaven”, and “Scarborough Fair” and “Shadow of Your Smile” and make my guitar sing for me. I find that I have more technical knowledge of music theory and chords than most people I know who play guitar very well, but there is another aspect to guitar playing where I am extremely weak, and that is mastery of my fingers, on both hands. At 70, I will never have the flexibility and agility I had in my 30s, but I believe I will be able to achieve my goal eventually. The 20 hour rule does not apply in this case. Knowledge and technique are separate, and twenty hours (or maybe even 1000 hours) is not likely to be enough to overcome nerve degradation, numbness, and arthritis, but I will still do my best. It is still my goal to have my friends and family appreciate my playing, but now my playing has to stand alone, without my voice to sing lead.
I have the same situation with age and arthritis and like you I’m going to do the best that I can and have a good time doing it.
Been getting Griff’s e-mails for some time now, never seems like a car salesman, never in your face and always explains everything completely. Also have been playing for many years. As with everything in life you get nothing for free, the more you put into your guitar playing, the more you will enjoy the music that you are hopefully making. Get out and play with other musicians, fall on your face, learn from it and work harder to improve your style. Playing with others forces you to improve, they expect you to know the music your playing. When it all comes together, the band is cookin, people are dancing, and the venue owner is happy it’s worth ever hour. Play what sounds good, theory will come with understanding.
I found these videos inspirational. Fear of failure or feeling stupid have kept me at a beginner level of guitar playing for 40 years. In that time I have devoted hundreds of hours of inconsistent, unfocused practice or fiddling about.
Today I’m going to dig into one of Griff’s programs for 20 regular, focused hours. I’ll see you in about three weeks or a month. Wish me luck!
-ed
Now I see my error… I’ve spent far more than 20 hours with my Tele knock-off and BGU lessons when I shoulda been working with a simple ukuele! Just joking… the time I’ve spent with Griff and his videos have been fun and while I’m short of the 10,000 hour goal I’ve not only learned enough to be able to comp with my mates… I can sing along and my strumming makes even me sound good. Can’t ask for anything more than that, can you? All thanks, in a big part, to the teaching of ol’ Griff.
Thanks, man……..
Ed, I am exactly the same way. I fear of failure has always held me back. On Saturday, I walked into a music shop, determined to find an adequate acoustic guitar, so that I could start “to play on the porch” (a nice little course by Griff which I picked up last week).
Of course, I walk in, there’s a guy about my age strumming a few chords on a nice Guitar and it sounds infinitely better than anything I’ve been able to play in the 30 years I’ve been messing around. Of course, I froze, walked around the shop looked at a couple of AMPS and lefts, tail between the legs.
Please, tell me how you get on, I need inspiration.
Love the video, I have been playing for years on and off and I think that you have arrived when you become comfortable enough with your playing that creativity takes over and you start playing your own stuff and start arranging songs the way you want them to sound instead of trying to play note for note. you never stop learning and adding to that knowledge base that you create from so you can refresh your playing with good instruction from a good teacher. Thanks Griff.
Completely agree with this. I knew that I had “arrived” the moment I started creating my own arrangements of cover songs to reflect the flow, tempo and feel that I wanted to emote from a song. And it didn’t take 10,000 hours. The balance of the time for mastery develops new skills and ideas to add and perfect.
Griff i agree with you. All through life we will find people who will just inevitably be able to do something better than us even if both persons have the same amount of hours in. Some people’s skill level will be higher than what yours is even if your hours on the guitar far exceed theirs. In the end its all about having fun, pushing yourself to always get better and make some music. Again Griff thanks for the encouraging emails to get us through the lows in our learning process.
Always interesting when a standard of doing something is observed to prevent people from just doing what they love and experience it as you go. 10,000 hours to do something, to make it to the top of the field, to have us reach for a goal and the list goes on. I wonder if we free ourselves and let our natural and academic musician or what ever we are doing come together and just be there to be the best we can. It is like when the questions comes up about the greatest guitarist or golfer or whatever, Hendrix gave us some great words when he was told that he was the greatest guitarist of all time, he told us, “He is the greatest guitarist sitting in this chair.” So 10K or 20 hour, can you play like a machine or can you let yourself express a voice that shares a message to move people since you are the best guitarist you can be, let me feel your story and with experience that story will share more with me since life will give it depth.
Here is something to feel and think about, imagine in todays world, each of us take the time to share our love of music with a young person, buy them a cheap guitar to start out with, teach them a few chords and then come together and just jam. Imagine the ability to make a change with something you love because we take the time to bring our natural, academic and human connection needs together while we are able to grow within areas far more important than what 10,000 hours of anything can do.
Then I’ll take this thought one more level, then we have Griff bring to life, A Friend that Jams together sessions to begin to understand how just experiencing the journey of something we love can enrich our own life’s.
Play the moment!!!!!
Nice Ray. And I’m stealing that phrase (like a good lick): Play the moment. I like that.
Somewhere between 20 and 10,000.
Well I love getting Griffs emails, got most of them saved for a rainy day.
But can someone tell me why I constantly get mail trying to sell me BGU.
I purchased this course quite a while ago, and despite replying to say I
Have already done so, it looks as if I am completely ignored. A minor point
Perhaps but it seems these emails are auto generated or sent out randomly.
Anyone else had this problem or does Griff think I need a spare BGU.
that 10,000 hours of practice goes about 20 years when you play all the time. i had my fame in 1968 when i was in a band under contract with the old A&M Records. we had a single out on the top 40. it was 32. then along came Kim Fowley. who took me personally and recored my songs and promoted me. well i got stabbed in the back, but kept playing professionaly tell i was 25. then i got into aviation. now i have artritist and no energy to practice. every once in a while i’ll pick up my guitar and open one of Griffs videos and just learn it all over again. my music days at 62 are very lonely. no one to jam with. jam tracks get old after a while. so i play when i feel the need to write down some cords and some words and try and make a new song.
Very encouraging, which is your greatest gift to all of us wh want to learn. So, I’m thing if I can just learn and play a shuffle rhythm I’ll beat happier person. So here I go …… Back to the beginning. Thank you.
Jim
Dear Griff,
While I agree with you in general I disagree that this has anything to do with the usually misquoted and misapplied 10,000 hour rule. The rule applies to situations where “success” is specifically defined as being able to compete or perform at an elite level–we’re talking classical guitar recitals at Carnegie Hall type of elite. Also, the 10,000 hour rule does not say if anyone, regardless of talent, practices an instrument or other skill for 10,00 hours they will achieve this definition of success. It states that this much practice is required to achieve this level of expertise, in addition to factors such as innate talent, motivation, peer pressure, etc.
When properly understood, you cannot dismiss the 10,000 hour rule as “baloney”. Anyone who defines success in their own subjective way can attain that in far less than 20 hours. I remember from my guitar teaching days having students who were delighted when they could change from one chord to another and sing “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More”. They had achieved their self-defined success on the guitar in less than one day. But Segovia they’re not.
I think 20 hours to learn something seams right but add Griffs 20 minutes a day minimum equals 60 days or less seems more like my speed. Of coarse depending on how good I think I want to be.
….I hate it when that comedy routine about being able to play so many songs with
four chords is used by smart alecs to suggest to people that ‘this is all you need’.
20 hrs to learn 4 chords is excessive but if your desire is to make every song sound exactly the same on a uke then go ahead…but please not while I’m around.
The 10’000 hours thing arose from valid research and has nothing whatsoever to do with ordinary people learning to do anything. If you are talking about expert performance (e.g. concert pianist) the research is valid and arose from a consideration of nature v. nurture using some famous examples.
Sure we are all capable of learning many things to satisfy ourselves and to pass the time but this has nothing to do with expert performance.
The 10’000 hrs is the average amount of time needed by dedicated enthusiasts learning in a very specific way to achieve excellence.
Anybody interested in this should read Ericsson’s book ‘The Road to Excellence-The
The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences,Sports and Games’.
Do not rely on anyone taking about ‘the 10’000 hrs’ who hasn’t read Ericsson and also Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’.
It was wonderful to see your intelligent response to that video. The guy – who has of course written a book about this, which is just a mixture of reasonable principles with down-to-earth (and even obvious) common sense – started off by just misrepresenting the 10K hours principle, worked his way round to finally doing it justice, and then just used it as an excuse for a clever but superficial joke routine. This has little to do with the concept of actually turning yourself into a musician. The present world loves quick-fix easy-learning shortcuts – which is why the real experts are still so rare of course. Griff’s own courses are worth well more than 20 hours of study, and that will not turn anybody into a good performer by itself, it’s just the first part of the process. Why are people so impressed by the professional performance of a song or instrumental? Because they haven’t seen the hundreds and hundreds of hours put in by the (real) musician before they turned up for this one occasion. It’s dead easy to churn out a song and either not do it particularly well or to make the occasional slip that you can often get away with. You either want to try and be the real thing or you can’t be bothered. If you think twenty hours is enough, you can’t be bothered. If you use twenty hours as a launching pad, OK, fair enough – but you’re not in orbit yet. Fun is one thing, skill is one thing, mastery is something special, and none of them should be put down – just seen in perspective.
Thanks Griff. You send us such interesting stuff. You have a knack for combining practical and intellectual information. Very good. Matt.
This discussion needs to bring in IQ. My conclusion this discussion would be that the average IQ (100) would require 10,000 hours to learn something well. I would also conclude that the higher the IQ, the lower the time required to learn something well. Also, as we age, the ability to really remember something new diminishes. It takes us older guys more time to “hard wire” something into our brains. Just my thoughts. Flame suit is on.
Excellent, Griff. I’m a huge fan of the TED Talks and, of course, your lessons. Your inclusion of the talk was perfect. It suited me perfectly since I love so many different styles of playing and so many different genres. After 62 years, I know I’ll never be great, but I’m happy to be good enough that no one throws pots and pans at me…lol. And I’m incredibly happy to be able to keep learning from great teachers like you. thank you, Sir!!!
Thanks Griff. Encouraging and motivating.
As someone who has spent most of his life partially learning all kinds of things in many different areas these two videos are very affirming to me. I picked up guitar as a very young left handed kid abandoned went to music lessons where the teacher didn’t recognize that I was left-handed and tried to teach me to play right- handed he failed and so did I. I taught myself to play right-handed (miserably I might add). But I still play its been about 55 years now that I’ve been playing. I take lessons on blues lead guitar and have all your videos. One of these days I might actually become a decent player. Bottom line is I’m still having a great time being the worst musician in my family.
I have a Masters Degree in Special Education, my wife has Masters Degree in “English Language Learnng” (meaning that she teaches non-English speakers how to speak English) She plays Piano.
My daughter has BA in Music and plays Piano, Violin, Clarinet and Sax. Her husband plays Piano, Drums, Clarinet and Sax.
My Son has a BA, & MA, in Psychology, a J.D. From Yale and is now in his second year of a 5 year PHD program in Psychology. He also plays Piano, and Trombone.
Thanks for the great videos!
There is a lot to say on this subject matter but as you stated it is within one’s own mind how that person wants the journey to go. I want to be good in many facets of guitar because there is so much different music I like and more than anything I do not want to play in a band where they play lots of music I don’t like. Yesterday I watched Barney Kessel play “The Shadow Of Your Smile” brilliantly done with jazz chords that I absolutely love, then I heard Credence Clearwater do “Suzie Q” with that simple but spellbinding riff that they do throughout the song, a riff I love doing. So I have a bucket list of songs I want to do, and things I want to learn so I will probably keep learning til’ the day I die. We have a musician who comes to this area named Buckethead, who packs the place where ever he plays, and he plays alone on the stage for three or four hours and to me that is the ultimate, being able to hold a crowd of people with your music, all by yourself, so mastery is not a bad thing either.
Hi Griff,
Nice offering ,10,000hrs I should be a master after over 50years playing but not, I played lead /rhythm in bands in the 60’s and learned more in that time than any other. now my technique is ok but my playing is sloppy and unpredictable, my concentration and my memory is hopeless.
I pick up a guitar most days but find practice is becoming more chore like and playing along with other music I find a lot of stuff is beyond my ability and leave it rather than dig in and get it, as I should do.
But I will continue to do it as long as I am able, and have fun most of the time. keep up the amazing work you are doing, If we had your sort of material in the 60’s things would have been much better for newbie’s , (thanks to Bert Weedon and The Shadows for getting me started).
Yes, I agree, 20hrs works for me, and I believe at my age, total mastery is not possible or important.
I bought the acoustic BGU because I wanted a method to learn where the notes are on the neck and Griff”s Teaching style appealed to me.
I figured that blues was a good base line to get a handle on reading music so I can apply the reading of music to learning other types of tunes.
My goal is to be able to entertain myself and not annoy the people within hearing distance.
Great stuff-as I’ve gotten older I fully realize that my intensity to be among the best destroyed my ability to truly enjoy my small successes. Griff you are spot on-I now challenge myself to “smile down” my lack of confidence when playing for others so we hopefully can all enjoy a little music! Rock on Griff totally dig what you’re about
I think that mastery could be overated . I listened to a friend play guitar after learning some basics that I knew. Yes he could play well but was limited to only perfecting a tune or two . Now that could bore me to quit . Learning small pieces of tunes that You want to learn I think is best . Then of course add more and more of the same tune and end up learning the whole tune. Do not try to cram the whole thing at once . Learning a entire tune in little time can be done if it is kept simple stupid. Like I sat down the other day and said lets do it simple . Okay A to D to E . ONE FOUR FIVE . Doesnt matter how You mix it up but there is alot of music there. Try the cords in barred form yes you have to know them! I think You will notice something . Learn more cord shapes as well . I personally have alot of time to pratice my craft up to fourty hours a week . I have by far passed the ten thousand mark a very long time ago. I am always learning every time I play I seem to do some thing I have never dreamed of hearing my self play . As you may know that You will almost never play the same tune the same twice . A special note to the poeple in pawn star country Vic finkle sold his 1961 fender strat to Rick Harrison for $55.000 He wrote the James Bond theme and many others . If I was Vic I could never part with that ax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ah thats Vic Flick opps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting. Thanks. The guy never did pick up that 6 string, however. 🙂
Watched your playing vids last night, good job. That Ted talk was good, saw that before just as i began playing two years back. Still can’t match his 20 hour feat! Still plugging away though. You stuff helps!
Thanks!
As a 67 year old just learning to play the guitar I can’t tell you how relieved I am to know that my “window” for learning has now been significantly readjusted. Thank goodness. 5 years or 10,000 hours would have been daunting and perhaps unattainable. Now, with a focused approach and a conscious deconstruction of the key elements of a guitar, in this case, learning 4 or 5 chords, I should be sitting on that front porch singing and playing songs to my wife sooner, rather than later.
Joy is not in the destination but rather in the journey. It took me far too many years to accept that truism and so it is with the guitar. It is never “mastered” as there is always something, many things yet to learn and perhaps it is yet another arena where the more we know, the more we realize there is to learn – an ever expanding journey. Enjoy the ride and don’t fret the destination. Pause from time to time to reflect on where you’ve been. Take satisfaction from the growth.
Well said. I think trying to meet my standard of really good is actually holding me back and certainly preventing me from having fun. I honestly hadn’t thought about defining what that means. I watch the people I regard as masters and instead of being inspired I sometimes feel embarrassed to say I even own a guitar. I need to change that. I think having fun is certainly “good” enough. Frankly, sometimes having fun for me is just learning a few licks off of some bodies song.
Lots to think about here.
Thanks for that Griff. When I first heard about the 10,000 hours plus, I worked out how many years that could take and to my despair I figured out I won’t make it. But now I will battle on, phew what a relief!!!!
Why does the old saying, jack of all trades master of none come to me? I truly believe in most cases a person given opportunity can become good at most anything. Like many other have stated, most of us will probably never play in a band, but I for one impress myself each day with the skills I have learned from you. Thank you so much for the many great lessons.
ps. If I ever have the chance to come back to LA. I will do my utmost to see you and your band live.
keep m comin
Great article, thanks.
Thanks Griff, I know where you are coming from on this. At the outset of starting BGU I knew that all I wanted to do was to sit at home and get some nice sounds from my guitar. On the way I have found lots of interesting stuff that I didn’t expect and your teaching style makes it difficult not to get involved with this at some level. I will never play in a band and I will never be good at musical theory, but I will get many hours of enjoyment from playing my guitar. You are a great teacher!
thanks once again griff. besides being an outstanding guitarist,you are a unique and outstanding teacher.cudos,as always.