There are no shortcuts to learning guitar—just thousands of hours of dedicated practice. But certain insights, learned early, can save you years of frustration and accelerate your progress dramatically.

This year at NAMM I caught up with dozens of professional guitarists and musicians to ask one question: “What do you wish you’d known or done sooner when learning guitar?”

Here’s what they said:

1. Internalize Licks, Don’t Just Memorize (Samurai Guitarist)

“I spent a lot of time learning solos note-for-note. What I didn’t do was then take that information and try to make it my own—take the licks and try to work them into different ways and think about them differently so they get to the point where they’re in your musical subconscious. Had I done that, I would have been 10 times the guitar player.”

Action step: After learning a solo, extract 3-5 licks. Practice them in different keys, modify the rhythms, and use them in your improvisations until they emerge naturally in your playing.

2. The Public Doesn’t Care About Your Technique (Jake Lizzio)

“The only people that care how good you are, are other guitar players. The general public doesn’t care how good you are—they want to hear you sing, they want to hear you play your guitar. I look at Bob Dylan, I look at Kurt Cobain—all these guys weren’t the best at their instrument, but people love them. So don’t worry if you’re not the fastest, don’t worry if you can’t play the cleanest—just worry if you’re making music that people care about.”

What matters more: Songwriting, emotional connection, serving the song, and developing your unique voice.

3. Stand Grounded When Playing (Adam Neely)

“I should have learned to stand still when playing while standing. Stand grounded and play—it really focuses all of your body into what you’re doing. Stand grounded and it will massively improve your rhythm and massively improve your playing.”

Try this: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, your weight evenly distributed and your knees slightly bent. Practice simple progressions while staying physically grounded and notice how your rhythm tightens.

4. Music Is the Art of Listening (Rotem Sivan)

“Music is the art of listening, so working on our ears and being able to listen to what’s happening with other people is what’s up.”

Exercise: Develop your musical ear by trying to work out songs and create your own arrangements of pieces. Don’t always rely on tabs and chord diagrams.

5. Push Through Initial Discomfort (Tyler Larson)

“Pain is gain. Your fingers hurt? Keep playing. It feels better. The more pain you have at the start, the better.”

Take away: Building calluses is uncomfortable at the beginning, but if you push through that pain (without going too far and getting hurt!) then you will soon build resistance and be able to practice for longer periods of time.

6. Learn Chords Before Solos (Warren Huart)

“I should have spent more time learning chords and arpeggios and less time just trying to be a noodling soloist. Joe Pass in his guitar style book somewhere in there says: ‘Why do guitar players spend 90% of their life learning to solo when they actually spend 90% of their life playing rhythm?’ So I think I should have spent more time on chords and arpeggios at first, then got into soloing.”

Remember this: Although it’s a lot of fun to practice and play solos, don’t forget to work on your rhythm playing and develop your vocabulary of chords and different voicings. Playing rhythm is where you will spend most of your time as a guitarist.

7. Master Dynamics and Feel (Marco Cirillo)

“I think probably—I wish I knew more about playing with dynamics. Sometimes we focus too much about playing the right notes and I think it’s more about tone, dynamics, and feel.”

Volume variation, attack variation and sustain control all alter the way your playing sounds. Perfect notes with poor dynamics sound sterile. Imperfect notes with great feel sound alive.

Practice: Play the same phrase 10 different ways and focus on how attack and dynamics convey emotion.

8. Listen First, Theory Second (Lee Anderton)

“I wish someone had said to me: listen to the music. You could not learn the scales and work out the key—listen to the music.”

Your ear should lead, with theory following to explain and organize what you’re already hearing and playing.

9. Have Patience (Peter Honore)

“For me it’s have patience. Patience. Just it’ll come when it’s ready, you know.”

Reframe comparison: Focus on your progress compared to your past self, not others. Enjoy the process of practice and improvement, rather than rushing to get to a particular goal

10. Be Yourself, Not a Copy (Corey Congilio)

“The one thing I wish to learn sooner was to try to be myself and have the goal to learn how to play like myself as opposed to copying other people. You can copy people at the start, but then have the goal be you.”

Try this: When you learn new songs or licks, break them down and try to adapt and build upon them. Put your own twist on the material and work to start developing your own musical voice.

11. Practice Fast in Short Bursts (Roy Ziv)

“I realized that if you want to play faster you got to practice at a much higher speed, kind of in short bursts. I didn’t know that at first— but then my speed shot up. I feel like if I started that when I first started, that would have been way better.”

Practice this: When you are working on your technique, practice short bursts in which you play 10-20% faster than the target tempo you’re aiming for. Take a break and then go again – or play at the target tempo, which should feel easier!

12. Use a Metronome (Brandon D’Eon)

“Play with a metronome—which I am always yelling about on YouTube. The reason for that is because when I just started and I was trying to play faster lines I could never do it, and I could never figure out why. Then I realized it was because I didn’t actually understand the subdivisions of rhythm correctly. That’s why I always yell about it so much—so play with the metronome.”

What the metronome teaches: Subdivision accuracy, placement relative to the beat, consistency, and internal pulse development.

13. Think Like a Drummer (Joey Landreth)

“I imagine a drum kit in my head when thinking about time. When I do that, when I think like kick-snare-kick-kick-snare, my time’s way better. But when I don’t think it, it’s bad.”

Exercise: Listen to a song focusing only on drums. Don’t play—just internalize the groove. Then play the guitar part while hearing those drums in your mind.

14. Sleep On Your Practice (Grace Terzian)

“Don’t try to learn something all in one day. When you sleep, it helps you memorize it better.”

The science: Motor skill consolidation happens during sleep, not during practice. Practice for 30-45 minutes, sleep on it, and review the material the next day (you’ll be better).

Distributed practice over days outperforms marathon sessions every time.

15. Try Alternate Tunings (Guillaume Chenin)

“Standard tuning made no sense to me. I should have gone to another tuning much much sooner because I never managed to go around the music theory thing because of the E standard. The second I went to open tunings, it just made a whole lot more sense to me.”

Common alternate tunings:

• DADGAD: Celtic and folk music
• Open D and open E: Blues and slide
• Open G: Keith Richards’ tuning of choice
• Drop D: Rock and metal

16. Learn Songs by Ear (Jens Larsen)

“I wish that I learned to play songs by ear a lot earlier because I learned classical guitar first, so everything was written out—it was sheet music—and I didn’t really have to figure out how things sounded. Once I started to try to learn the songs that I just listened to, then I learned so much in such a short time. It’s such a great way to learn.”

What ear training develops: Interval recognition, chord identification, rhythmic accuracy, melodic memory, and harmonic understanding.

Start simple: Lean children’s songs or easy pop tunes by ear. Gradually increase complexity as your ear develops.

17. Learn Bass Guitar (Rhett Shull)

“I instantly became a better guitar player when I started playing bass—like immediately—because it taught me how to listen to the drummer more than I was when I was just playing guitar, and it taught me that being a guitar player, you are part of the rhythm section. You’re not playing on top of the rhythm section.”

What bass teaches guitarists: The importance of root notes, how to lock in with drums, the power of simplicity, groove over flash, and your role in the rhythm section.

18. Don’t Worry What Others Think (Rob Chapman)

“It doesn’t matter what other people think. It’s all about the love of playing music and enjoying writing and creating. It’s therapeutic for your heart, your soul, for your spirit. That’s the most important thing—don’t worry about what other people think.”

Reframe your relationship:

• From: “Am I good enough?” → To: “Do I enjoy this?”
• From: “What will others think?” → To: “What do I want to express?”

19. You Don’t Need Theory to Write (Agufish)

“You don’t need to know theory in order to start writing—like ‘oh I need to know scales and I need to know what note goes with what note.’ Don’t deny yourself the joy of the instrument just because you think you’re supposed to be learning something a certain way.”

The truth: Creativity comes before theory. Your first songs will be simple—that’s fine. Playing what sounds good IS music theory in action.

Start now: Strum two chords and sing, record yourself improvising, write a simple melody.

20. Gear Doesn’t Really Matter (Ryan “Fluff” Bruce)

“Gear doesn’t really matter—it’s your creativity.”

Reality check: The world of guitar gear is wonderful and you should buy gear that inspires you to play more, but nothing can replace practice.

21. Learn the Fretboard (Guitar Zero 2 Hero)

“The notes on the fretboard—I wish I’d learned them sooner. Start slow and do little bits at a time. Don’t try to eat the whole elephant.”

Benefits: Learning the notes on the fretboard allows you to create a variety of different chords, move across the fretboard with freedom, and more easily bring to life the musical ideas you have in your head.

22. Learn More Theory (Kirk Fletcher)

“One of the things that I wish I had learned sooner about the guitar was just a little more music theory and a little more reading notes—just learning more about harmony and things like that.”

Benefits of theory: Better communication with other musicians, faster learning of new material, deeper understanding of why things work, ability to read charts and lead sheets, and expanded harmonic vocabulary.

Where to start: Study intervals and how they sound, understand chord construction (triads, 7th chords, extensions), and learn common chord progressions in multiple keys.

23. Use Less Gain (Kris Barocsi)

“As soon as I started going back with the gain, with the overdrive, a whole new world opened up. The more the gain the better it is—is not really necessarily a thing.”

What lower gain teaches: Cleaner technique (mistakes are obvious), better dynamics, tone comes from fingers not just settings, and phrasing becomes more important.

Exercise: Start practicing without overdrive or distortion. Notice which weaknesses appear in your playing and work on those issues.

24. Master Simple Songs Completely (Roomie)

“You got to practice very slow. I learned very fast when I started, because I wanted to play songs. I didn’t really work on like ‘am I muting the strings right, is every string pushing perfectly?’ So I can play guitar, I can play very hard songs very poorly. I wish it was the opposite—I wish I could play easy songs well.”

The trap: Rushing to difficult material before mastering fundamentals creates players who can technically navigate complex music but sound bad doing it.

Quality markers: Every note rings clearly, no unintended noise, consistent rhythm, musical phrasing, effortless execution.

A simple song played beautifully is more impressive than a complex song played sloppily.

25. Learn Your Scales (Mary Spender)

The quote: “I wish I’d learned my scales. I never did and I’m not sure I still have, but I wish I had.”

Why scales matter: Scales provide a roadmap of the fretboard, give you vocabulary for soloing, help you understand chord construction, connect positions across the neck, and form the foundation for improvisation.

Where to start: Master the minor pentatonic scale in one position first (it’s used everywhere in rock, blues, and pop), then move out to all 5 shapes before moving on to learn the major scale. Connect these patterns across the entire fretboard gradually.

The key insight: Don’t just run scales up and down mechanically. Learn the scale, then immediately apply it musically—play melodies, create phrases, and improvise over songs.

Common Themes: What the Pros Agree On

Looking across all of these lessons from professional guitarists and musicians, several powerful themes emerge. These aren’t random tips—they reveal fundamental truths about musical development that apply across all styles and skill levels.

1. Listening Over Playing

Multiple players emphasized listening, serving the song, and being part of the musical conversation rather than dominating it.

Key insights:

• “Music is the art of listening”
• “Being a guitar player, you are part of the rhythm section”
• Learning bass improves guitar playing because it teaches listening to the drummer

What this means: Great musicians are great listeners first. They respond to what’s happening around them rather than just executing pre-planned ideas. This applies whether you’re soloing, comping, or playing rhythm—you’re always in conversation with other musical elements.

The trap: Many guitarists practice in isolation, focusing solely on what their own fingers are doing. This creates technically proficient players who can’t function in musical contexts because they’ve never developed the skill of listening and responding.

How to develop this: Record yourself playing with other musicians (or backing tracks) and listen back. Can you hear the other instruments clearly? Are you leaving space? Are you responding to musical cues? Practice playing less in jam situations—focus one entire song on listening and minimal playing.

2. Rhythm Is Fundamental

Chords, rhythm section awareness, metronome practice, and drummer mentality all point to rhythm as the foundation of great playing.

Key insights:

• “Why do guitar players spend 90% of their life learning to solo when they spend 90% of their life playing rhythm?”
• “Play with a metronome”
• “Imagine a drum kit in your head when thinking about time”
• “Learn chords and arpeggios before solos”

What this means: Rhythm isn’t just a supporting skill—it’s the core of music. Timing, groove, subdivision, and feel matter more than note choice. A simple phrase played with perfect time and feel sounds professional. Complex phrases with poor timing sound amateur.

The trap: Lead guitar looks flashy and gets attention, so beginners gravitate toward it. But without solid rhythm skills, your lead playing will always sound disconnected and unmusical. Most professional guitarists spend far more time playing rhythm than lead.

How to develop this: Use a metronome, practice locking with drum tracks and study rhythm guitar parts as carefully as you study solos. Think like a drummer—internalize the kick and snare patterns.

3. Ear Over Theory

While theory has its place, developing your ear and learning by listening matters more for musical development.

Key insights:

• “Listen to the music—you don’t need to learn all the scales and work out the key”
• “Learn songs by ear”
• Theory should explain what you already hear, not replace hearing

What this means: Your ear is your primary instrument. Theory is a map that explains the territory, but you need to experience the territory first. Musicians with great ears but limited theory knowledge can function professionally. Musicians with extensive theory but poor ears struggle to make real music.

The trap: Some players hide behind theory, using it as a substitute for developing their ear. They can name every chord extension but can’t hear whether they’re playing in tune. Others avoid theory entirely and limit their growth. The balance is key.

How to develop this: Try learning new songs by ear before looking at tabs or sheet music. Sing melodies before playing them. Try to figure out chord progressions just by listening. Use theory to understand what you’ve discovered through listening, not as a prerequisite to playing.

4. Quality Over Quantity

It is better to play simple things well than complex things poorly. Internalizing a few licks at a deep level will do much more for your playing compared with superficially learning many solos.

Key insights:

• “I can play very hard songs very poorly. I wish I could play easy songs well”
• “Internalize licks, don’t just memorize them”
• “Practice very slow”
• “Start slow and work in chunks”

What this means: Musical maturity means valuing execution quality over difficulty level. A simple melody played with beautiful tone, phrasing, and dynamics is more impressive than a complex solo played sloppily. Depth matters more than breadth.

The trap: Social media and YouTube culture rewards flashy technical displays, creating pressure to tackle difficult material before you’re ready. This produces players with superficial knowledge of many techniques but deep mastery of none.

How to develop this: Spend a small section of your practice time working on material slightly below your technical limit. Don’t dismiss it as being too easy, and instead perfect it completely. Every note should ring clearly, with no string noise, perfect timing, and musical phrasing. Record yourself and listen critically. Only move to harder material when simpler material is genuinely mastered.

5. Patience and Process

Many of the pros emphasized the long game: patience, consistent practice, sleep consolidation, incremental progress, and trusting the process.

Key insights:

• “Have patience. It’ll come when it’s ready”
• “Sleep on what you practice”
• “Start slow and work in chunks”
• “Don’t try to eat the whole elephant”

What this means: There are no shortcuts. Guitar mastery takes years of consistent, focused practice. Breakthrough moments come unexpectedly—you can’t force them. Comparing yourself to others is counterproductive because everyone develops at their own pace. Trust that consistent practice yields results, even when progress feels invisible.

The trap: We live in an instant-gratification culture that promises rapid results. YouTube videos claim “learn this in 5 minutes” or “this one trick will transform your playing.” While good teaching can accelerate learning, there’s no substitute for years of deliberate practice. Impatience leads to frustration and quitting.

How to develop this: Set long-term goals (1 year, 3 years, 5 years) instead of just short-term goals. Track progress by comparing yourself to who you were 6 months ago, not to other players. Celebrate small victories. Trust that daily practice—even just 20-30 focused minutes—compounds over time into significant skill development.

6. Expression Over Impression

Playing for love of music, serving songs, being yourself, and connecting emotionally all matter more than technical prowess.

Key insights:

• “The only people that care how good you are are other guitar players”
• “It doesn’t matter what other people think—it’s about the love of playing music”
• “Be yourself, not a copy”
• “You don’t need theory to start writing”

What this means: Music is communication and emotional expression, not a technical competition. The goal is to move people, not impress them. Authenticity and emotional honesty resonate more than technical perfection. Your unique voice matters more than being able to play like your heroes.

The trap: It’s easy to get caught up in the comparison game—who plays faster, cleaner, more complex material. This mindset reduces music to a sport rather than an art form. It also creates anxiety and perfectionism that blocks creative expression.

How to develop this: Ask yourself regularly: “Why do I play guitar?” Reconnect with the love that drew you to music in the first place. Play for yourself, not for validation. Write original material even if it’s simple. Focus on what you want to express rather than what you think will impress others. Remember that musicians like Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain changed music without being technical virtuosos.

Closing Thoughts

Across all these themes, one overarching principle emerges: balance.

• Listen AND play
• Learn rhythm AND lead
• Develop your ear AND study theory
• Master simple things AND challenge yourself with harder material
• Be patient AND practice consistently
• Express yourself AND serve the song

The pros aren’t saying “only do this, never do that.” They’re pointing toward a balanced approach that develops all aspects of musicianship simultaneously. Technical skill without musicality is sterile. Emotion without technique is limited. Theory without ear training is academic. Ear training without theory is inefficient.

The wisdom in these lessons isn’t about finding the one secret trick—it’s about building a complete foundation that supports lifelong musical growth.