9 Mistakes Guitarists Should Avoid

To play classical guitar well, you need to know:

* how to hold and touch the guitar - form and positioning

* how to move your fingers and hands - efficient, clean, and fluid

* how to learn pieces - reading music, understanding what you see, ingraining, polishing

* how to craft the music so it is beautiful - swells and fades, rhythm, touch

* how to practice so all these skills improve over time and don't go away

At the root of beautiful playing is a solid technique (aka “the way your hands move”). You may have beautiful music in your head, but if your hands can't play it, it won't come out of the guitar.

But bad technique puts a limit on your playing. Speed, tone quality, and control can suffer.

Good technique gets stronger and more instinctive with every practice. It forms the bedrock foundation for your music.

And you may want to understand music so you learn it more easily and it makes more sense. This can help you avoid the excess frustration and dismay that comes with shoddy practice and prolonged confusion.

But playing the notes is not enough. Like an actor bring words to life, we breathe life into our pieces.

And we can do this in an organized way, day in and day out, reliably. Great musicians can play wonderfully in any mood. They do not rely on emotions. Instead, they create music that affects our emotions. This is a trained skill, not an inborn talent.

Playing classical guitar is a long-term study. It's something we do in our homes as part of our days. We play for ourselves, for the quality it adds to life. We may enjoy playing guitar for others, but most of the time we are alone with our work.

There are methods and formulas for great practice. We can use our time well so that see more progress.

We can fix the problems and erase the mistakes. And we can enjoy conquering the plentiful challenges that classical guitar music offers.

If you plan to play classical guitar for any length of time, it is worth it to get help. It's not something we can do on our own, like folk music.

If you would like to hear me (Allen Mathews) playing, visit my other youtube channel:

Or check out these other YouTube videos:

[kacywilliams]

Yep. Guilty of at least one of those. Thanks for posting!

[girlgeniusnyc]

Thank you! Because of your videos, I am avoiding many of these mistakes!

[kerryfromaj]

This is a great channel to help me with my electric guitar playing. I play psychobilly, punk, harcore, Hill Country blues, rock.
I switched some time ago to classical guitar position with neck high and when sitting left leg.
I practice and play mostly standing up now.
Thanks for all the factual calm help here.

[ericreesor]

Right on with stressing the absolute central importance of comfort and ergonomics for students to develop great fingerstyle technique! Please also mention why using a foot stool can all too easily become damaging to some guitarists over the long term. I had to give up the foot stool and cannot play well without a knee lift any longer. I regret that I taught students to use one in the past. I truly think that even though Tarrega was an exponent of it, it is far better to not use one and instead use a lift and keep the knees and legs even. This goes back a long way as the use of Tripodium by Aguado for playing standing certainly indicated that seated one should certainly not distort the spine and using a foot stool certainly does this over time and create stenosis and arthritis in the lower lumbar regions as it has with myself. All my best in your teachings you are certainly on the right track with teaching students to avoid strain in the hands, arms and neck! That was exactly what I taught in the past, stability of the arms hand and guitar comes first indeed and anything that causes strain and discomfort must be avoided or at least be aware of while playing the instrument or any instrument for that matter!🎼

[jaycee]

My recurrent mistake is to set the music stand too low. As I read the music I end up bowing my head which causes me to lean forward bending my spine. This does not seem to be good at all. Many people have commented about using the footstool. I have given it up because it causes me lower back pain. This can be a significant problem with older guitarists like me but I would suggest that younger guitarists take heed now to avoid serious problems later even if they find it currently OK. I now have a support to hold the guitar in a better position than I ever managed with the footstool.

[djchaiwallah]

5 lessons into guitar and grateful for this video haha

[HumbleIdeas]

Hi. Question. I believe the correct position for guitar would be such that the fretboard and sound hole faces outwards squarely. However this means I cannot see clearly my fingers working out the notes of the music. So naturally I have to tilt back the entire guitar several degrees to catch sight of the fingerings. Alternatively I have to stretch my head forward to see the fingerings and this causes tension ... How can this dilemma be managed?

[charlottesimonin]

Helpful to experience the vibration of the low E against your body.

[johntruitt]

I have never seen a Ramirez guitar with a sound port before. Did you have this done to the guitar, or was it made that way?

[ionageman]

I could never maintain finger nails the way traditional players do .. am I playing classical with a pick, or is that considered flat picking ? for many years I found it impossible to describe my playing because though I was playing notes rather than chords, people would say it wasn’t classical style .

[aqpntr]

what is at the nut of your low e string?

[CeresKLee]

Portrait mode is for oboes and clarinets. Use landscape mode for guitar!