What Is Guitar Mastery Coaching?
Occasionally I get abusive emails from people. They think that I'm some kind of ego maniac. (It's probably because I'm always talking about mastery and guitar mastery!). And they usually demand that I prove myself to be a "guitar master". I always get a kick out of this hate mail for a few reasons…
- I've never said anywhere on ANY of my websites that I think I'm a "guitar master". I think I might have said that I consider myself to be "pretty good" or "good". But that's definitely not saying that I think I'm the next Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny or Jimi Hendrix!
- They are always some anonymous chicken-shit who won't even use their real name.
- I find it extremely funny that they think that I would care about what they think about me.
- It shows a complete and total misunderstanding of what I mean by mastery, guitar mastery and guitar mastery coaching.
So let's set the record straight…
What Is Mastery?
My definition of mastery is this…
Being able to do something to a level that you are happy with, without having to think.
And you have already achieved mastery over many things…
- Can tie your shoe laces without thinking?
- Can you use a knife and fork without thinking?
- Can you say the word "dog" without thinking?
If you answered "Yes", then you have mastered those skills. (Assuming you can do them to a level that you are happy with!). At some stage you had to learn these skills. And at first you couldn't do it. But with practice and repetition you mastered those skills.
It's exactly the same with guitar…
When you can do a specific guitar skill, to your desired level, without thinking, then you have mastered that skill.
What do I mean by specific skills? Examples of specific skills might include things like playing…
- A guitar lick.
- A chord change or chord progression.
- A four bar segment of a song that you are learning.
- A scale fingering.
- A strumming pattern.
You get the idea. They are very specific skills. And you master those skills only when you can do it without thinking. Which is why so many people struggle with learning the guitar…they almost NEVER master the skills! They learn that skill in a half-assed way. And what this almost aways mean is that they reach a certain level of playing and stay there. They stop progressing.
What Is Guitar Mastery?
Guitar Mastery is simply being able to play how you want to play without having to think.
It's not necessarily about being a Mega-Shred-3-Octave-Arpeggio-Sweep-Picking-Guitar-Virtuoso-God. It's about playing how YOU personally want to play. And being able to do it without thinking. That's all.
I think that guitar mastery is achieved by two factors…
- Having a clear vision of how you want to ideally play.
- Being able to play like your vision without having to think.
Obviously, guitar mastery is probably not something that you can achieve in a lifetime. Why? Because usually as you improve your playing, you raise the bar higher. In other words, you change the vision of how you would like to ideally play. As you get better, your standards are raised. And that's probably why players like Steve Vai are so other-worldly good!
What Is Guitar Mastery Coaching?
It is the process of doing the following three things…
Finding out how a student ideally wants to be able to play.
Working out what specific guitar skills need to be mastered to achieve that level of playing.
Helping that student master those specific guitar skills.