Ask yourself what you will do when you obtain the skills you want

What do you want to do with what you learn? Perhaps you want to make an album or join a band and play at some local venues. Start planning for it now and use what you currently have. This ties into setting goals but is not to be underestimated. Knowing how you want to use your talent is important. Create a vision and use goals to act on it. Whether you want to play for others, or to the wall in your bedroom, the choice is yours. From a pretty early age I had decided that one day I will start India’s best and biggest music school ever which would cater to far corners of my country and which would make music learning accessible to one and all. That’s because during my formative years as a guitarist there were not many opportunities for me to learn and study music. And that weighed down heavily on my psyche. I desperately wanted to study music from a professional academy which has a plethora of teachers of varied backgrounds and styles. And today when I run the country’s largest chain of music academies with 20 branches, 4200 students, and 45 world class teachers from far corners of the world, you know that this wouldn’t have been possible without having a goal at the first place!

Teach someone how to play guitar

To teach is to learn. If the only chord you know how to play is an F chord, show someone that. Why? Because it reaffirms what you know and solidifies your knowledge. I can tell you from personal experience that I have learned more through teaching than I ever learned through being taught. It forces you out of your comfort zone and when questions are asked, you need to know the answer. I’m a firm believer that anyone can teach someone something if they want to. Give it a shot and see the results for yourself. Don’t forget to call me and tell me the results.

Believe in your ability

You can do anything you put your mind to and if you choose to play guitar well, fat fingers, long fingers or not, you can! Don’t listen to what others say and be true to yourself. This can be hard seeing as we live in a critical society that doesn’t realize how much words can hurt. Keep at it and surround yourself with supportive people. More of a life lesson than a guitar lesson, but as far as I’m concerned music is intertwined with daily living. Right from the very beginning I was told that I am a good for nothing, that I suck at studies, I suck at sports and extracurricular activities, that i am dull, that I was not intelligent enough to withstand the future, I was kicked out of the class more often than not while in school for not being intelligent enough to answer the teachers questions, when I started playing guitars I was told by my peers (who used to play guitars already) that I don’t have it in me, that it requires natural and extraordinary talent which I don’t possess. But I always had faith in my abilities and today those very people who predicted my future prefer to stay miles away from me as the tightest slap has already been delivered to them a long time back!

You are incomparable

In case you haven’t picked up the hint yet, you are the ultimate guitarist. That’s what I firmly believe in and I say this to every student of Guitar Hall as I believe it from my heart. There is no one like you and there will never be anyone who even comes remotely close to being like you. Integrate who you are into your music and you will never have a shortage of material. Your music will soon form into your own unique tone and style.

Learn what worked for others

Whether you research your favorite guitarist or talk to your guitar teacher, ask others what worked for them. I don’t claim to know all the answers but when everyone puts their heads together, some really neat ideas start to flow. Networking allows you to give and receive at the same time. As I have written before, I was not exposed to a lot of learning opportunities from seasoned teachers when I started out but I learned all the techniques checking out others doing it. And during that time (90’s) there were no internet and Youtube videos at the click of a button like today. I learnt finger tapping checking out countless Van Halen, Randy Rhoads tab books and magazines I used to buy second hand and listening to the tapes over and over again, legatos and speed picking checking out Guitar World articles and listening to Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert. Bends listening to Eric Johnson. So you get my point!

Crush your weakness

We all know where we lack the most in the guitar realm. For me it was speed picking, but today speed picking constitutes a major part of my playing armory for which I’ve always been complimented. Why? That’s not because I acquired a boon from a fairy one fine night. I spent countless nights working over that aspect of guitar playing taking tips from the best guitarists in the process, who specialize in speed picking. Keep attacking your weak points and you’ll soon see improvement. The secret is never stop seeing problems, work on it and you continually get better over time. You’ll never be stuck without something to do. Take out a sheet of paper and write them down. This seems kiddish writing down small things like schoolboy in your rough book. But No bloke, it worked for me and many a great guitarists.

Then find the resources you need to help you destroy them. It’s not unlike a war, but in the end you always win. I assure you that you will win in the end!I won and I am sure even you would!

Don’t believe what others told you.

You may be surprised to hear that a lot of the advice distributed by half guitarists couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are myths and tokens of cheap advice that get passed along and guitarists like yourself use them only to be like the losers from whom you heard those crap. Try as hard as you like, but you’ll end up realizing that what meets you at the end of the road is failure. To avoid that, let’s look at some of the most common bullshit floating around:

All good players can play all styles

While great in theory; it doesn’t work out in practice. Throughout my playing and teaching career, I have consistently worked on various genres of music trying to become a more versatile guitarist. However, no where will you ever hear me, or any other genuine teacher, say that you should be able to master all genres of music. I have so many students across all of my centers in Mumbai and Pune who come up to me saying “Sir I want to master Jazz, Rock, Heavy Metal and Classical guitars”!
The fact is that it takes a lifetime to master one style. Some take up two genres that mix well together, such as blues and rock, but those genres are the exceptions. You will never hear a neoclassical shred guitarist play country. Many jazz musicians take decades to perfect their craft and even then they still see areas that need improvement.
If you want to be a great guitarist, take the genre and style that you’re passionate about and focus on it. Don’t get distracted with other music. Your guitar heroes are heroes because they mastered a genre. Very few will ever play outside of their specialty and that’s just the reality. After 17 years of playing guitars I am still learning and growing in my genre and I know I have not attained even 25 % of it! So as I said it would take a lifetime to master it!

You either have “it” or you don’t

Biggest bull I have ever heard! I believe all of you have it in yourself and that’s just the fact! It just depends on how much you love guitars and till what extent you are prepared to grind yourself. Let’s face it, some understand music more easily than others.Inspite of being a dull student academically in school, I surprisingly understood music 10 times quicker than my peers. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be as good as the ones who understand music more easily. Everyone can play guitar, it just depends on the effort and time you want to put in. There are dozens of specialties within music and no one knows all of them from the time they are born. Everything has to be developed and acquired like a martial artist acquires their skill. Perfect pitch is developed, as is technique and originality. While things may come easier to others, remember that we all have our own struggles within music and that we are in it together.

To sound good, you need the best gear

The best gear is nice, and yes, you do sound better. But give any genuine guitarist an ordinary guitar and just see what kind of amazing tone and feel he manages to get out of that crap. That’s because your instrument is only as good as you are. It’s unnecessary for those who aren’t interested in professional music or are just starting out to purchase expensive gear in the hope that it would make their playing better. Myself owning a series of Guitar Shops across Mumbai and other Cities of Maharashtra, I regularly see beginners asking me “Sir, I want to purchase that expensive guitar you have on display because I have heard you get results more faster by playing those” Beginners love to see the guitar processors at our stores and say, “I want the Rs. 20,000 one.” I have seen this happening for years but the truth is that a guitar and processor of that caliber is useless to someone who can’t play it. I always tell all those beginners to learn on something modest and work their way up. The same applies to all of you too. Not only will the experience be more rewarding, it’s also nicer on the instrument ! In the end, as I told, the guitar is only as good as the person who plays it. I have heard cheap and ordinary guitars sound amazing when played by someone who knew what guitar playing is all about. I have also heard the best guitar and rig sounding extremely pathetic being played by a wannabe guitarist who thought he is already a guitar god! My Guitar Hall teachers always amaze me by the amazing sound and clarity they manage to get even while playing our cheap spare guitars we keep in our academies for rough use. The same applies to you. For those who can afford Rs.25000 guitars, my advice is going for it by all means. Though for the rest of us like you and me, I say save your money and work towards being the ultimate guitarist rather. Today I can buy the most expensive and exclusive guitar in the world and since I myself own the largest chain of guitar shops in India I can pick up just about any guitar in the world from my own store itself! But I still choose to become the ultimate guitarist first and improve myself rather and till this date prefer using my good ol’ 7- String Kramer which I have refurbished and have been using for the past 10 years! I will buy that expensive and exclusive guitar when I think I deserve it. I still don’t think I do!
Now just think carefully about what I say, if you sound good on an ordinary cheap guitar, just imagine how much better will you sound on something that can really produce a good tone?!Fair enough? Reach that level first when you think buying that expensive guitar would make a difference to your playing.

You need to be the most talented to succeed

Very often, as I have already discussed before, we tend to compare ourselves to others. But Listen Carefully Now! The ultimate guitarist is YOU meeting your GOALS and making PROGRESS. There will always be others who sound better in certain areas but who cares? A genuine guitarist does not compare their playing to others Be the person you want to be in music and music will just flow, believe me. Success is measured on how much progress you have made as compared to where you were before and how much progress you are making on a personal level, not how many CD’s you sell or how many sold out concerts you have done. The famous musicians in today’s bollywood or the International Rock circuit often find themselves stressed out, wishing they weren’t so pressured by record labels and a hectic concert schedule. They want to be in your shoes where they have the choice to do what they want to do. I myself miss those days when without a single worry in the world I used to play my guitar and listen to music day and night.