We all have felt the dreaded feeling of being “stuck in a rut” when trying to learn guitar. It can feel like weeks, months, or even years since there has been any noticeable progress, and it’s horribly frustrating. If you’re a beginner you may think, “I have been stuck in a rut since day one!” Being constantly concerned about making leaps and bounds on the instrument can make learning the guitar very difficult. We can become unhealthily attached to seeing our skills skyrocket. It takes a bit of relaxing, and a bit of faith, to let go of this attachment. The common saying for this is “loving the plateau,” and it takes a true Zen guitarist to master it.
“Climbing the Mountain” and “Loving the Plateau” or, “Vertical” and “Horizontal” learning.
As a classical guitar student in college, I had a very erratic practice schedule. This schedule had a very distinct pattern: practice, over-practice, injury, no practice. I wasn’t the only one, this seemed to be a very common habit among students. The obsession with learning the most challenging music and pushing my physical abilities was much stronger than my actual abilities. It led to very inconvenient periods where I had no choice but to step back from the instrument. My teacher, while helping me with these practice habits, taught me to “love the plateau.” It was the first time I heard the phrase. This led to a change of mindset focused around routine and mindful practicing. To this day I am still trying to perfect this.
While my classical guitar cautionary tale may be interesting, you may be thinking “How does this apply to me? I play blues guitar and my hands feel fine.” Regardless of what genre of music we play, and to what extent we play it, there is a natural ebb and flow that comes along with progress. The brain needs to absorb the enormous amounts of knowledge it takes in about the instrument. Sometimes this takes more time than we would like.
I talk to all of my students about how I perceive the two stages of learning. There is “Vertical” learning, or “climbing the mountain.” These are the new skills you learn, which over time make you the best guitarist you can be. Then there is “Horizontal” learning, also known as “Loving the Plateau.” The guitarist who learns to balance both vertical and horizontal progress will become more prolific, more musical, and most importantly, more sane.
The first time I learned to “Love the Plateau,” and how it came to a sudden halt.
As a young teenager, I really struggled when it came to teaching myself how to strum chords. There were kids all around me who were playing songs for their friends. I wanted to be just like them. It took me a while, but once as I got the hang of it I was strumming constantly. As long as it had chords, it was worth me strumming it. I was a musical sponge, and my song list was growing rapidly. My skill level had increased in the “vertical” sense, I had climbed higher on the mountain. I stopped trying to learn new techniques and started learning as many songs as I could using these techniques. This was one of the best examples of “horizontal” learning I ever experienced. I was on that plateau and I had no concerns about climbing any higher. I was loving it.
After a couple of months, I decided there was one particular song I wanted to learn. Sounded easy enough, but it ended up putting a huge halt on my horizontal progress. The song was all barre chords, which I had never attempted before. I had seen my friends playing them, but it was simply impossible. In hind sight, I needed to build strength and the action on that guitar was way too high. At the time however, it seemed like there was no looking back. There was no way to get any better at the guitar. I had hit a vertical rock face on the otherwise easy trail of my guitar playing.
Learn guitar skills both “Vertically” and “Horizontally.”
It’s in times like this that we go from taking a beautiful carefree stroll through the woods to shuddering while looking at the shadow the gigantic mountain is casting of us. Be it new techniques, improvisational creativity, or overcoming physical challenges, the psychological effect of realizing how much further you have to go can be paralyzing. In the case of my younger self facing barre chords for the first time, I had no choice but to go back to playing the songs I had considered “easy” at that point. Every couple days, when I was feeling courageous, I would have another go at the song with the barre chords. Before I knew it, barre chords were a new skill. I had reached a new plateau and I loved it just as much as the last one.
This “horizontal” learning is the key to progressing as a guitar player. If you’ve learned a couple new techniques, really spend some time with them. Find as many songs as you can that you can learn with your newfound techniques. You will find that you needed much more practice with them than you realized. In order to progress “vertically” spend a little bit of time each practice session trying to touch upon the new challenge that is giving you problems. Learn to love the challenge just as much as you love the plateau. After all, when you are not thinking about how hard it will be to climb the mountain, it sure is a pretty sight from below.
How to adapt a “Horizontal” learning routine.
The key to becoming successful at “loving the plateau” is having a plateau to love. It is very easy to get into the bad habit of practicing something completely different every day. For example: On day 1, you learn the harmonic minor scale and a couple phrases from your favorite Van Halen solo. On day 2, you practice fingerstyle technique and a couple phrases of a Bach piece. While it’s fun to be curious, having one or two things you routinely do every day is very helpful. If you want to learn the harmonic minor scale, spend every day for at least a month practicing it. Don’t learn it one day and assume you will actually remember it in a couple weeks.
As far as learning new songs using your current skill set goes, actually spend some time writing down your skills on the guitar. Set a timer for 20-30 minutes (or longer). Force yourself to come up with as many skills as possible and you will be surprised with how many you get down. While you are writing this, you may already start thinking of songs or exercises you can be learning to help reinforce these skills. There may be many fundamental things you don’t practice because you feel like you surpassed them years ago. All of these things need reinforcement, and it’s very easy to keep trying to learn bigger and better things instead.
Teaching guitar lessons, my way of practicing fundamentals.
Most days of the week, I spend hours teaching people how to learn guitar. Although many of my students are Intermediate-Advanced, I have lots of beginner students. These students are an incredible resource for my own “horizontal” learning because I spend most of the lesson counting basic rhythms with them. After many years, I realized my sense of rhythm has grown incredibly solid! There are many reasons for this, but I feel teaching beginners certainly has helped. As an aspiring professional musician, I had no idea I would be spending that much time playing songs in beginner method books.
Teaching lessons is my outlet for “horizontal” learning. It may take a little searching, but you too can find your outlet for practicing easier material. It is easy to get bored with easier material because it is not challenging enough. If you strive for absolute perfection with easier material, it becomes just as much of a challenge. Let’s say you learned how to strum “Brown Eyed Girl” when you were 12 and haven’t touched it since. Sit down and try to strum that chord progression while counting out loud with perfect rhythm, perfect form, the perfect dynamic. Can you keep this sense of perfection while singing and playing? Suddenly the challenge has increased, and with it your feeling of satisfaction. When you go back to playing the music that caused you to get stuck in the first place, you will have a new perspective on how to approach it.