I’ve observed hundreds of guitarists over the years from all different skill levels, and the ones who are making a lot of progress often share a lot of the same traits - they have a plan when they sit down to practice, they know the people to go to when they’re facing a hurdle in their playing, and they’re endlessly curious about guitar and music in general.
But outside of all of that, there’s one habit I’ve seen that all of my favorite guitarists have - they practice active listening. Whether it be someone like Guthrie Govan, Greg Koch, or even Paul Gilbert, they're all chameleons based on what type of song is in front of them. They didn't get to be this way by accident.
I remember taking a lesson from Dave Weiner (ex-Steve Vai) and I asked him how a guy like Guthrie got so good at seemingly every different style he attacked. Dave mentioned that he believed someone like Guthrie was soaking up all the vocabulary of multiple genres from a young age.
You can easily take on this mindset when listening to music, and it’ll have all sorts of benefits. You can pick and choose what’s interesting to you, you can make those ideas your own, and inherently you won’t sound like other people, because you’re making an “audio collage” of your favorite ideas.
But it goes farther than that - the curious part I mentioned. Rather than just copy your favorite licks, try and understand why they work. Why do I like the sound of that chord progression, that technique, that amp tone?
If you develop that curious mindset, you’ll never be done learning guitar, and to me, that’s extremely exciting.
Work on active listening this week. Listen to guitar in a couple of different genres, see what you like, and then go to the drawing board to see why those concepts are the way they are.