4 things learning to play guitar and relationships have in common
If you are reading this article, it is very likely that you have, at least once in your life, thought about or actually started learning to play guitar or being in a relationship. If so, keep reading. If you look at them from a certain perspective, both have a lot in common and this article will give you an interesting perspective and hopefully, help you see things from an angle you have never thought about before.
- You build a comfort zone, and then you step out of it
When you start learning how to play the guitar, everything feels shaky and uncertain. You can’t get your fingers to go where they are supposed to, you’re not sure about what you can accomplish and you don’t fully understand how this whole instrument works. Little by little, you get used to changing between chords, strumming, arpeggiating and things become second nature. You don’t even have to pay attention anymore when you play; you could almost play in your sleep.
But after a while, that starts to be boring. You’re stuck in the same routine and you need to step out of it to start enjoying your playing again. It is now time for new challenges, new learnings and new experimentations. The cycle repeats itself: things will feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but soon enough you’ll master them and will be able to play them in your sleep, then move on the next set of discoveries!
- It can give you feelings you have never experienced before
When you pay one of your favorite songs for the first time or write your first tune, the feeling you get can be incomparable to anything you’ve ever experienced before. This is the reason why so many people dedicate their whole life to playing the guitar: they are in a constant quest of that sensation, which brings you a profound sense of peace and connection.
It is only by going all in and accepting the challenges and frustrations along the way that you can get to experience what I have just described above. Which brings me to our next point…
- It can be hard, but it’s worth it
Every guitar player has faced, at some point or another, some sort of plateau or frustration they have had to overcome. The path to mastering the guitar is like any path: sometimes you’ll move forward quickly and easily for months at a time, and sometimes you’ll feel stuck and will not know why. Fortunately, learning from a competent guitar teacher can help ensure you never have to remain frustrated in your journey to becoming the player you want to be. The effort and time investment is worth it!
- It’s all about communicating what you have inside you
The challenge in playing music, just like in love relationships, is to express appropriately a feeling of yours. All music, just like all relationships, is communication. The more you can access the feeling you’re nurturing and connect to it, the easier it will be to share it with others. But that is only the first step: you then have to know how to transmit it efficiently to other people.
Connecting with your feelings is an ability that can be developed without even picking up a guitar. Practicing guitar will be the equivalent of practicing transmitting those feelings beautifully, through appropriate note choice, great rhythms, expressive phrasing and well-designed song structures.
So as you can see, your guitar playing and your romantic life have a lot in common. There are universal principles which apply to both, and when you get better at one of them (being perseverant, expressing your feelings, visualizing the great sensations you want to experience, expanding your comfort zone), it can significantly help you in other areas of your life.
So start applying these principles and see how playing the guitar can do much more for you than just giving you another “hobby” to kill time with!
About the author
Matthieu Delage is the director of the Escuela de Guitarra de Madrid, which is considered as providing some of the best guitar lessons in Madrid. It uses a proven method which has produced significant results for many guitar students.
Matthieu es el director de la Escuela de Guitarra de Madrid, donde se imparten unas de las mejores clases de guitarra en Madrid. Usa un método probado, que ha producido importantes resultados para muchos alumnos.
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