When You Don’t Want To

When you don’t want to play guitar, everything can be an excuse. I’m having too much trouble learning that riff. I’ll never be as good as my favorite guitar players. I don’t have the right gear yet. And the famous, I’ll just play tomorrow.

Sure, you could leave your guitar in its case — but what if you didn’t?

All of those excuses also have equal responses. You can learn any piece of music, if you start off slow. You don’t have to be as good as your favorite guitar players. Just pick and choose little bits and pieces from all of them, and make your own style. Gear is great, but it’s not essential in your quest to become a better guitar player. And, rather than picking up your guitar tomorrow, what about today?

Guitar can get you through tough times, give you the opportunity to meet amazing people, and see the world if you play out. It’s therapeutic and will test your mind. Think about all the incredible things we have to do at once to be able to play any instrument proficiently.

Being able to play music puts you ahead of so many other people who’d rather use excuses instead of putting in the work to get good.

It can help confidence, help in school, and most importantly, it can make you happy. There’s nothing better than the euphoric feeling you’ll get after having put hours into learning something, only to finally be able to play it accurately and up to speed.

Now, more than ever you have the opportunity to get a quality guitar, and some recording equipment for cheaper than it has ever been in the last couple of decades. This gives you the ability to create, and capture your ideas. You can string ideas together, collaborate with friends after sending them your riffs, and so much more.

You might be struggling with a certain technique, chord, or song right now. All it takes is a little bit of time each day, and you will see progress. Knowing what you want to practice when you sit down each day is essential in helping you move forward.

Just think about it. In 100 days from now you could be an entirely different player. Use today as day one, and go from there!

Want even more inspiration?

I hope this post fired you up a little bit. If you want even more concrete ways of what to do when you don’t want to play guitar, check out this post. And if that isn’t enough, check out this post which gives you 16 ways to get better at guitar right now. You’re bound to find something you can incorporate into your playing today. Happy picking!