---
title: 'How To Actually Get "Good" At Guitar'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=spEwDeCvUwM'
video_id: 'spEwDeCvUwM'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 510
---

# How To Actually Get "Good" At Guitar

> Source: [How To Actually Get "Good" At Guitar](https://youtube.com/watch?v=spEwDeCvUwM)

## Summary

The speaker shares three key strategies that helped them improve at guitar significantly, moving beyond rote memorization to real-world application and creative practice.

### Key Points

- **Remove the pause button** [0:00] — Put yourself in situations where you aren't in control. Play with others (live performances, jams). Alternative: use jam tracks, slow-down tools, and practice-alongs.
- **Jam tracks as a fallback** [1:33] — If you can't play with others, use jam tracks for scales/songs. Slow down songs with apps to play along at reduced speed.
- **Practice-alongs** [2:23] — Pre-recorded or live videos where a teacher guides you through exercises. Example: the 10 guitar workouts on Guitareo (free 30-day trial linked).
- **Focus on creativity, not memorization** [3:27] — Spend most time writing songs or improvising over jams. Learn scale shapes (major, minor pentatonic) and noodle along to songs (e.g., 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room').
- **Use looping** [5:10] — A looper pedal lets you layer chords and riffs, building creative muscle and understanding of harmony.
- **Change practice habits** [5:22] — Avoid long weekend sessions; instead, break practice into 10-20 minute sessions, 2-3 times daily. Science supports distributed practice.
- **Engaged vs. unengaged practice** [6:28] — Engaged: metronome/jam tracks, full attention. Unengaged: noodling while watching TV (builds muscle memory). Both are valuable.

### Conclusion

The three pillars to getting good at guitar are: removing the pause button (playing in real-time with others or tools), prioritizing creativity over memorization, and adopting smart practice habits (short, frequent sessions + a mix of engaged and unengaged practice).

## Transcript

so I was visiting with my parents over
the weekend and we were talking about
music and they asked me what it was that
actually allowed me to get good at
guitar so I gave them my answer and
realized that it would probably make a
pretty good video ultimately I think I'm
able to narrow it down to three things
that I did differently to the many other
players that I knew growing up
[Music]
[Music]
the first thing that I did from very
early on is get rid of the pause button
you need to put yourself in situations
where you aren't in control where you
can't decide when it's time to start and
stop now I was lucky enough to start
playing live music from a really young
young age I think I was around 12 years
old when I had my first gig and I
started off at school then eventually
started playing at a local church and
then played in a bunch of bands where we
mostly did original music the great
thing about scenarios like those are
that I wasn't in control and this forced
me to develop some really important soft
skills things like dealing with making
mistakes on the fly or learning how to
rely on my ear it forces you to problem
solve and find Solutions in the moment
and that's why it's so important to get
out there there and start playing with
other musicians as early as you can now
I realize this just isn't realistic for
a lot of people out there watching this
video so what can you do if you don't
have other musicians to play with the
first thing that I'd recommend is to
make use of Jam tracks so if you're
working on a particular scale rather
than working on it with nothing else
going on no musical context throw on a
Jam track and practice that scale along
to the Jam track another thing you
should look into is getting a tool that
allows you to slow down songs so when
you're learning a song obviously you
can't play it at full speed yet so what
a lot of people do is they sit in
silence and they just work through each
part right well if you have a tool that
allows you to load the song in there
slow it down to a pace it can be super
slow that you can actually play along
it's going to be less forgiving but
you're going to be thaning yourself in
the future I know there's a lot of good
free apps out there that you can check
out now the last and probably most
effective thing you can do are practice
alongs these are usually pre-recorded or
live videos where there's a guitar
teacher sitting in front of you asking
you to play along with everything they
do they're kind of like workouts now I
don't have any of these on my channel
but I did make nine or 10 of them I
think with my friends over at guario a
few months ago they're designed to be
kind of like those old TV workout videos
if you remember them where the
instructor stands in front of you and
walks you through everything you're
supposed to be doing for the entire
exercise typically these are reserved
for paying guitario members but they've
actually given me a link for a 30-day
free trial that you can cancel anytime
so if you want to check it out there'll
be a link up at the top of the
description of this video I'll also put
it in a pinned comment you'll also get
access to everything else on the site as
well so they have a huge song library
and a bunch of courses from guitar
players like Ariel Posen Mark leri
avette Young and Pete Thorne I've
personally known the folks behind
guitario for years and they're really
awesome people who care a lot about
guitar and music education so hit that
link below check out the workouts I did
with them and get your 30 days of access
for free the next thing I did was focus
on creativity over memorization that
means that the majority of the time I
was spending on my guitar I was either a
writing songs or be working on my
improvisation now when it comes to
writing songs for yourself I'm not
saying you need to be writing full songs
necessarily unless that's something that
you want to do but rather instead of
just memorizing a whole bunch of other
guitar riffs that you listen to or like
from other bands sit there and try and
come up with your own ideas these can be
progressions Rifts licks it doesn't
really matter it's just about flexing
that creative muscle for improvisation
that's pretty straightforward it just
means throwing on some Jam tracks or
songs and just noodling along so for me
that started all I knew was a basic
major scale shape and a basic minor
pentatonic scale shape and I just sat
there in my room and I just noodled
around until I found it fit I did this
actually to the song slow dancing in a
burning room by John Mayer by the way
that's like a little anec though that's
how I learned how to improvise and I sat
there and I just
played that's all I
had and I would play along to the song
improvise over and over and over and
over time I realized that I could move
those shapes to other keys to improvise
over other songs and eventually I
learned how to expand outwards I have a
ton of lessons on this by the way if you
want to get into improvisation I'll put
those under reference videos in the
description if something you want to
work on one other thing I'll mention in
this category and this isn't something
that I personally spent a ton of time
doing but if it's something that
interests you I think it's a great way
to work on this creativity side of
things and that is looping so if you
have a Looper pedal uh or you're
planning on getting one learning how to
layer guitar parts play some chords
layer stuff in there is super effective
as well the final thing that I did was I
changed how I practiced a lot of
self-taught guitar players sit there in
front of a screen with the tabs in front
of them and they just work through songs
that they like endlessly and this is
perfectly fine but you're going to
notice you're not making a crazy amount
of actual progress even if you're
spending hours doing it you need to be
working on these other skills and that's
why it's important to have some proper
guidance so whether this is an in-person
teacher right that's great but again if
you're selftaught you might not have one
of those but this can also just mean
having somebody that you like on YouTube
is what I'm trying to do with my channel
where that teacher covers these
important elements of guitar that create
connections between what you're hearing
what you're thinking and what's
happening on the guitar so that means
learning a little bit of theory learning
the basics of improvisation learning how
chords and keys fit together this type
of guidance was something I didn't have
growing up so I had to figure a lot of
this stuff out on my own I know if I had
someone pointing me in the right
direction I would have made a lot more
progress even faster something that I
was really of with my practice was doing
these long binge sessions over the
weekend so I would consolidate all of my
guitar playing for the week into just
one or two days where I just play and
practice for hours and then not touch my
guitar during the week what I started
doing instead was I cut that up and
spread it over the entire week so that
means two or three times a day I would
have 10 15 20 minute little practice
sessions and doing this is actually
backed by science there are lots of
studies out there that say that cutting
up your practice time and doing it in
these more frequent but shorter sessions
is going to give you better results the
last thing about practice that's worth
mentioning is engaged versus unengaged
practice so engaged practice would be
like sitting there with a metronome or a
Jam track and actually paying attention
to every single thing that you're doing
kind of typical practice but it's very
important to make use of unengaged
practice as well and what I mean by this
is taking your guitar putting it in your
lap going sitting in front of the TV on
front of your computer watching YouTube
watching Netflix whatever and just
noodling around and basically all this
is doing is building kind of these
background connections between your
fingers and the instrument it's just
getting you used to it it's building
muscle memory and obviously this isn't
going to be as effective as your more
engaged or focused practice but the more
that you play your guitar the more
progress you're going to see as far as
what's next I'd really recommend
checking out those 10 guitar workouts I
did with guitario I'm really proud of
them and I think they're going to help
you a lot you can access those for free
at the link in the description also I
have a video that dives into the current
practice routine that I used today so if
you want to check that out I'll put a
link up in the middle of the screen for
you thank you so much for watching and
I'll see you in the next one
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]