So you've been at this guitar playing thing for a few months or maybe even years now, but you don't seem to be making any progress. It's not uncommon for beginners to hit a plateau pretty early in their playing. So I've put together a few common mistakes that people make in their playing so you know what to avoid:
1) You did not warm up: Warming up is fundamental. Every jogger knows that if they don't warm up before they train they increase their chance of injury. It's the same with the guitar. Carpel Tunnel is common amongst long time guitar players. Don't be a statistic. Take two to five minutes before every practice session to stretch out the fingers and run through those basic four finger exercises we all hate to do. In the long run, your hands will thank you for it and you will make much faster progress
2) You do not have a practice routine: Every professional in every field has a basic routine they go through, everyday that revolves around the most fundamental aspects of their craft. For the guitar this is pretty straight forward. Run through a few basic scale patterns, play some sequences off of them if you know them. Then move on to some chords and basic progressions. Every song ever written has a basic format to it. They all follow the same basic rules of how chords fit together. Do you know these rules? Learn them and run through these most common progressions in at least the most common keys every day. Also add a few outside less played keys as well since this will stretch your ability.
Another common mistake in this area is people spend too much time working on these basics and not enough on learning actual music. Don't get bogged down trying to perfect each scale pattern or chord progress in one day. Just spend a few minutes running through the basics and get on to the real practice of learning music. You will have tomorrow to work out any kinks in the basics and you will find yourself improving over time with them.
3) You never learned to play by ear: This is so fundamental I don't think I should have to say too much on it. Music is a hearing art. If you cannot hear and repeat a piece of music you have a very serious flaw in your playing. Start simple, take something like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and sing the melody to yourself. Then try and pick it out on your guitar. If you spend about 10 minutes or so on this every day, I can promise you, you will be shocked at the amount of improvement you're playing with experience in a few months time. It really will be night and day.
So there you have it. The three most common mistakes I see in most all my students. The best way to get around these mistakes and to build strong foundation for musical success is to follow a proven guitar learning course. There are a number of these available. My favorite for in home learning has to be Jamorama. They will take you through each of these steps and show you the best way to learn guitar
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