I follow up my last article with this piece on developing your own unique guitar playing style.

Following the steps below will help you develop your own unique playing style on your guitar. Guitar playing is a discipline and a series of exercises and drills you must practice regularly if you want to reach your full potential as a guitarist.

STEP ONE: Determine Your Long-Term Musical Goals

If you are truly serious about becoming a great guitar player then you need to have very clear and defined musical goals for yourself before you even pick up a guitar. There are a few different reasons for this.

• A clear vision of where you want to be someday* A laser focus on exactly how you are going to reach this goal. This is different from saying “I want to be a great guitarist”. This another way of saying “I want to achieve a high level of playing ability”.* Wanting to achieve high level playing ability will only happen if you put in the time and effort. To be better than mediocore is not the same thing as wanting to be great. Extremely high levels of playing ability will only happen by focusing and dedicating enough energy to reach your goals. However, it may help you to see how far you are from where you want to be. This is where the expression “what you can achieve today” can be very helpful. However, it is also important to keep in mind that not everything you want and strive for will be a reality.

STEP TWO: Write Down Your Musical Goals

When you are clear about where you are going and how you want to get there, it is much easier to set specific goals and dreams of what you want to achieve. However, you need to remember that all your goals are dreams. They are not things you can easily Realise. Whatever you might achieve in your guitar playing, remember that you will always be working towards achieving it. No matter how hard or difficult achieving certain goals might be, you should never let yourself get distracted or give up trying to achieve it.

STEP THREE: Set Action steps to Prove You Want/Have Changed Your lumberjack ways

Once you have set clear goals of what you want to achieve, you need to asses and critically think about the action steps that are going to get you towards your goals. Dreaming and hoping will not help yourequentactionat all.

All the great guitar players in music history were focused, sometimes brutal, focused people. Notes, scales, techniques and expressions that sounded really cool didn’t make you become a great musician. Doing and succeeding at playing music was about Continuation, Precision and Focus.

How do you know you have mastered a particular skill or set of skills? When you can play or hear yourself play it without thinking about it, musically and emotionally, at any tempo, in any style, with any articulation or articulation combination. You are beyond that point.

When you stop thinking and you are playing or making music as your expression of what you feel inside, that is when you are Ready to elevate to the next level. All great musicians and athletes rush into action when they feel a sense of Osineosis.

How do you know you have mastered a particular skill or set of skills? When you can play or hear yourself play it without thinking about it, musically and emotionally, at any tempo, in any style, with any articulation or articulation combination. You are beyond that point.

When you stop (singing the Osineosis phrase), and you are playing or making music as your expression of what you feel inside, that is when you are ready to elevate to the next level. All great musicians and athletes rush into action when they feel a sense of Osineosis.

How do you know you have mastered a particular skill or set of skills? When you have mastered the ability to play or hear yourself play it without thinking about it, you have mastered the art of playing guitar or any musical instrument. Pick an instrument and master it. Memorize it. Emulate your favorite musicians and observe their style. If you want to master and learn every aspect of music, that is the ultimate goal, but to get to that level does not mean you have to get stuck in the mud with the mundane practice of playing your favorite song on guitar (worship music). When you engage the energy of being creative and spontaneous with your music, wonderful things begin to happen. However, you must allow room for your creativity to emerge and develop without expecting miracles.

The reason great guitar players have become great is that they have allowed themselves to become creative and spontaneous. To do this requires a very strong and steady desire for improvement, accompanied by a strong and steady commitment to that development. This does not mean we have to be religious about it. It means we must develop an attitude of mind and body that lends itself to musical achievement.