How Hard Is It to Learn to Play Guitar, or Anything?

As a guitarist and guitar teacher, I’m often asked something along the lines of “How hard is it to learn to play guitar?” It’s a fair question, and like many questions that mirror this one, there isn’t a one size fits all answer. The idea is too large, even though the question is an appropriate one. The really unsatisfying short answer you’ll hear is “It’s as hard as you make it.” Instead, a better question might be “What can I do with the guitar, and how can I get there?”, though that is also asking something too big. What I’ve found actually useful both in my studies and teaching practices is to think of attempting to learn something more metaphorically. No matter what you are attempting to learn, in essence, you are attempting to find your way up a mountain. “Mount Music,” let’s say. How you choose to work your way up the mountain is up to you, and should change depending on your goals, strengths, needs, and where you are in the learning process. The following ideas are a few ways I like to see it.

Take the easy chairlift up the mountain when what you need to do is see the view. What I mean is, for any musical task, such as learning a chord or anything else, there is undoubtedly a lot of quick information you can pull to get you there. Be proactive. A YouTube video, a TAB from the internet, or any resource that will allow you to “summit the mountain” and enjoy the musical thing for what it is: a collection of sounds that makes you feel something. If you’re not concerned with the names of the notes or the theory that supports it, that’s perfectly fine because it does not actually change your view from the top. However, a massively effective means of doing something often shortcuts a lot of deeper understanding, so be careful not to fall into a trap of thinking you know how to actually climb a mountain if you’re mostly accustomed to taking the chairlift.

Take the marked trails when what you need to do is earn the view. What I mean by this is that to know something beyond the surface level, you need to understand, study, and travel the path that most people take to ascend to the peak. It’s not nearly as straight or easy of a path as the chairlift, and usually has numerous pitfalls, yet when you eventually do make it to the top, there’s a different level of pride and respect that comes with the understanding wrought by experience. That kind of understanding helps you summit mountains other than the one you currently find yourself on, and that transfer of knowledge is the magical quality of learning. However, take care not to fall into the assumption that just because you understand something down to its theoretical technical components that you actually have a complete picture. In my experience, this is where really good teachers make the most impact and offer the best guidance. They’ve done it before, and probably a lot more too.

Forge your own path up the mountain when what you wish to do is lead others. What I mean by this is that the process of learning anything past the intermediate level usually involves all of the strategies previously mentioned, and includes novel experimental methods of your own creation. These ideas bring in personal elements that make the thing you are attempting to learn remarkably universal and uniquely individual at the same time. Learning at this stage usually involves the synthesis of many elements of what you know, and also specific goal based challenges and restrictions. I’d argue most of this style of learning starts with the actual recording, on the whiteboard, or on the stage. It’s largely self-guided, introspective, collaborative, and relies enormously on deep thought at some stage of the process. Trying to learn a complex piece of music using only your ear, a pen, and the instrument is a good example of this. Trying to effectively teach someone something is another. Getting the nerve to perform at your first open mic or talent show is another. Whatever the obstacle is specifically for you, when you decide to tackle your personal mountains in a way that literally only you can, it’s transformative.

One final way I’ll offer for you to see the Mount Music metaphor that I find the most

comforting is as that of the lifelong traveler. When you start out on a journey to learn something and really commit to it for the highs and the lows, your timeline for “success” increases substantially, and is largely irrelevant. If you’re bought and sold on “M”usic as your journey, then you’ll come to know the many ways up the mountain, but something fundamentally different happens here that does not in the other scenarios. You’ll never actually reach the summit, and that really isn’t the point anyways. Every single musician I’ve ever met who was at what I felt was an unattainable and terminal level of skill or success or fame have all said more or less the same thing to me: “I’m still on the journey, I don’t think I’m really there yet.”

I am a subscriber to the idea that it is possible to learn something from anyone, though it’s usually easiest to learn from those who actually want to teach you. It’s also easiest when you know something about your personal “Why?” behind the thing you’re curious about learning. It makes the “What?” far more straightforward to approach. It won’t make the strings hurt any less, and it won’t happen without sustained effort, but it does make the long nights of practice and screaming into the void feel as though they have purpose, even when that purpose is not apparent. As someone trying to do anything, sometimes that internal purpose is what makes all the difference in continuing onward.

So to sum it up, learning to play the guitar or anything is exactly as hard as you make it, and that’s a reality I find truly empowering. No matter what you are trying to learn, take it all at your own pace. Choose one small goal at a time, and without judgment, and the journey will feel less daunting at the onset. Enjoy the views, and learn a lot along the way!

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