8 Steps To MAke Learning The Guitar Faster And Easier!
By Bob Murnahan
Do you remember what got you hooked on learning the guitar? For me it was the sight of my first guitar under the Christmas tree. I was 8 years old. It was one of those life defining moments. Something that stops you in your tracks and changes the way you think forever. That was 40 years ago. I have been playing the guitar from that point forward and teaching others to play the guitar for 28 of those years. In that time I have constantly been searching for the keys to make learning the guitar easier and faster. I have had several teachers, some bad, some good and some great, purchased dozens of books and videos on learning the guitar, and scrutinized my favorite players in an attempt to discover the “secret” to learning the guitar. I found the most powerful techniques not in the world of guitar but in psychology, specifically in a technology called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP provides a set of tools to model the abilities of successful people and then teach those same abilities to others. One of the key traits of all people of high achievement is that they know what they want. They have very clear goals. NLP has developed a process called the well formed outcome. It’s like goal setting on steroids. Working through the 8 steps of the well formed outcome will provide you with a very clear road map to get you from where you are to where you want to be. In this report you will learn the well formed outcome as it applies to learning the guitar. Read this report and things will mysteriously shift in your brain. You will chart a course that will be incredibly powerful in helping you to learn the guitar. I’ve had many of these defining moments but I missed most of them on my first reading or learning experience. Some of these were mere sentences and I brushed past them in a hurry. Only later when I and delved into the depth of the learning, did I understand the power and intensity of it all. We tend to dismiss things that are too simple as being too simple. This report is tiny--but extremely powerful when you apply the lessons inside. I urge you to read this report but more importantly to use it. Set your own well formed outcomes and experience the benefits for yourself. It will make learning the guitar faster and easier. What are you waiting for? Get going. Do it now! To your guitar playing success, Bob Murnahan © 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
The Well Formed Outcome I would like to share with you the concept of the well formed outcome. The well formed outcome enables you create effective goals that motivate you and pull you into the future.The well formed outcome enables us to identify what we want and organize our actions into definite and positive steps to make our desires and hopes real. The well formed outcome can be applied in all areas of your life, not just guitar playing. All set? Here we go, step by step through the well formed outcome.
Step 1. What do you want? Sounds kind of obvious, does it not? Yet most people don’t have clearly defined goals when it comes to playing the guitar. When the mind has a defined target, it can focus until it reaches its intended target. If you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it. NLP has discovered that the way you think about a goal makes a big difference. You can think about a goal in a way that makes it almost impossible to achieve, or you can think of that same goal in a way makes it easier to reach. The following steps are provided to make sure that you are thinking of your goal in ways that make it easier to achieve. Step 1a. Make sure your outcome is stated in positive terms. Specifically describe what you do want. For example, “ I want to play solid rhythm guitar to accompany myself when I sing”. A different outcome might be, “I want to learn how to play and improvise on a 12 bar blues.” Step 1b. State what you can do (what lies within your area of control) to help you reach your goal. If your goal involves having Eric Clapton show you how to play, that is not under your control. What is the one thing you could do today to help you reach your outcome. You could decide to buy a book and learn one new lick, or transcribe a lick off of a cd by one of your favorite guitarists. State things that you can initiate and maintain. Step 1c. State in sensory based words. Don’t just say I want to play blues like Eric Clapton. What will you and or others see, hear and feel when you have your outcome. For example, I see myself playing in a 4 piece band. I am moving and playing with confidence. I see myself executing a classic blues lick ending with a bend into the perfect note. See what your body would look like and how your fingers would be moving. Be as specific as possible. This gives your brain info about what to do. © 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
Imagine that future you. Experience what it feels like to be playing like you want to play. Imagine the feel of the strings against your fingers. The sensations in your muscles and body as you play. The joy that comes from creating the sounds you want to hear. Now become aware of what you will be hearing. The sound of your guitar coming from your amp. Will it be a clean tone or a dirty tone, or are you playing acoustic guitar with no amp at all? Really get into how you will sound. The more specific you can be, the more real your goal becomes and will draw you into creating that future. Step 1d. State in appropriate chunk size. If your outcome seems large and overwhelming, chunk the outcomes down to bits and pieces that are doable. Pick specific small steps that you can achieve on a regular basis. These small successes will keep you moving forward to the big goal. Step 1e. What will reaching the goal do for you? Sometimes your outcome makes sense when considered separately, but in the big picture it won’t really take you where you want to go. For example: You spend time every day learning how to read music because you think it’s necessary in learning to play the guitar. But what you really want is to be able to play around the campfire at night. Your time could be better spent mastering some basic chord progressions and learning some basic fingerpicking and strumming techniques.
Step 2. How will you know when you have it? Some people have no way of knowing if they have reached their goals. If you have no way to measure your goals then you never get to experience the satisfaction of achieving them. And that lack of satisfaction can lead to a loss in motivation. You need an evidence procedure in place to determine whether your day to day actions are taking you closer to your outcome. Step 2a. Does the evidence relate closely to the goal? Make sure your evidence provides you with good, realistic feedback about whether you are reaching your goal. Let’s again say that my goal is to play like Eric Clapton and my evidence that I am reaching that goal is when my friends tell me I sound great. Now that’s all fine and dandy but my friends might just tell me that because they don’t want to hurt my feelings. More appropriate evidence would be something measurable. For example: using a metronome when practicing the blues scale to track speed, memorizing one new lick per week and being able to play along with Clapton note for note with a CD or becoming aware of the feeling in your hands and noticing that the playing is coming easier. © 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
Step 3. Where, when and with whom do you want it? It’s very important to think about where you do and don’t want your goal. Again, if your goal is to play like Eric Clapton, do want to play like Eric Clapton all of the time. Playing a gig at the church social may not be the best time to break into Crossroads! Over time you might be more interested in developing your own style as opposed to copying you favorite guitarist. Think about some of the sensory based descriptions from step 1c. Are there some specific cues there that might let you know that it’s time to put your new skills on exhibit. If one aspect of your goal is to be playing with confidence and you don’t yet have the skills to do that, you may want to use a different feeling like curiosity, or knowing I can use my mistakes to improve my skills. Again, be specific. What will you see, hear, or feel that will let you know that it is time to have your goal.
Step 4. How will your goal affect other aspects of your life? Make sure you take the time to consider the positive and negative consequences of reaching your goal. You might ask yourself questions like, “ How might this affect important people in my life if I get it?” Are you going to have to give up something else that you value in order to attain this goal? If you start with an unrealistic goal just asking this simple and important question, “What will this goal get for me?” In doing so you can often discover the goal of the goal so to speak. This can lead to having more basic and worthwhile goals, and to moving towards them more directly. Knowing what you really want can help you have much more flexibility in obtaining it more easily.
Step 5. What has stopped you from having your goal already? What has stopped you from becoming the player you want to be? Is it the time involved? Does the television take up valuable practice time? Maybe it’s a belief like “learning the guitar is harder than I thought.” Take a look at what has stopped you in the past and see what steps you can take to overcome these limitations. © 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
Step 6. Find your existing resources. What resources do you have that can propel you towards your goal? Do you have all the learning materials you need? A good teacher? Is your guitar suitable for learning? A guitar that is not set up properly or that is difficult to play on can be very discouraging. Maybe you have lots of motivation and desire. Organization can be another valuable resource. Take inventory of all the resources that you already have at your disposal. Knowing how much you already have provides a sense of accomplishment and a solid basis for learning the additional skills you need.
Step 7. What additional resources do you need? What additional resources do you need to meet your goals? Maybe it’s one of the things listed above or maybe it’s something else. Do you need a music stand? If so, put it on the list. Perhaps you need to find other players to jam with and learn from. Take the time now to list any additional resources you might need.
Step 8. Make a plan. How are you going to get there? Answer this to the best of your ability. Do you need to find a good teacher? How about organizing a lesson plan? Any equipment you need? How about a metronome? Figure out now the first step that you are going to take in order to achieve your goals. Make sure this first step is specific and achievable. What can you do now to move in the direction of your goal and what feedback will let you know are moving in that direction? If you take the time to work through the well formed outcome presented in this report you will experience accelerated learning. Use the well formed outcome to set long and short-term goals. Use it to set daily, weekly, monthly and one year goals. Even longer ones if you desire. The short-term goals allow you to have frequent successes. Those frequent successes will keep you motivated to achieve your long term goals. I am very interested in any feedback or comments you have concerning this or any other matters on your mind. Please drop me a line at
[email protected]. To your guitar playing success. Bob Murnahan © 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
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© 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
About the author Hi, my name is Bob Murnahan. I got my first guitar as a Christmas present at the age of 8. It’s been 40 years since I got that first guitar. I still play every day, I perform on a regular basis and I teach guitar lessons to 40 students a week. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living doing something I truly love. Playing the guitar. I attended The Ohio State University where I majored in jazz studies and also received two great years of classical guitar instruction. As a member of the OSU Jazz Ensemble I had an opportunity to tour Europe which included gigs at The North Sea and Montreaux Jazz festivals. A few other career highlights include: • Playing in the orchestra during productions of Grease and Jesus Christ Superstar. • A stint in Las Vegas at the Four Queens Hotel. • Being signed to the Sisapa Record Label as a member of the jazz fusion group Rager. We recorded 2 cd’s, toured across the country and received national airplay. • Conducted music store clinics as a representative of Peavey Guitars. Some of my favorite guitarists and influences include Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Chet Atkins, Albert Lee and Eddie Van Halen. This is definitely the short list. There are many others. I am a big fan of good guitar, regardless of the style. Thanks for checking out this report. If you have any feedback or questions please contact me at
[email protected]. No matter is too small. To your guitar playing success, Bob Murnahan
© 2007 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved 47 Disney Lane, Sedona Az 86336
