How To Stop Making Mistakes In Your Guitar Playing

To learn how to take your playing to the next level, check out my new course Advanced Musical Expression: www.philgoldenberg.com/courses
If you want to change your playing you need to change how you practice. This practice technique can be used on any instrument to play any genre.
I am an award winning classical guitarist and these are the techniques, tips and tricks that I use in my practice every day.
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[@MarkSD]

Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong.

[@mdasikkhan1610]

Isnt it same thing 😂

[@villain0788]

@@mdasikkhan1610 bruh

[@quannguyen3220]

@@mdasikkhan1610 nah it's different

[@YuriLifeLove]

@@mdasikkhan1610 The difference is, if you get it right it's not a guarantee you'll not get it wrong the next time, if you can't get it wrong then you can't get it wrong...

[@WarDimensionOfficial]

I'm lazy so what I do is I record it untill I got it right, then I don't care if I can play it again the next morning :D

[@russpalmeri]

Very helpful. Thanks

[@austinschaefferkoetter1240]

Thank you sir! Love this technique!

[@tim8602]

** WARNING! ** There be Math in this video!

[@BertugunKanal]

Maths are everywhere

[@guitarteacher6700]

thanks for this video.... really helped me a lot

[@BENGYAORA-]

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU SO MUCH. This video is the only thing I need right now. I'll update on my progress later 🙏

[@markdonnelly6921]

Great advice

[@crazybutter8554]

Wooow such a great tip! I started to progress much much faster following your tip with the timer and then going over and over all the time. Not just learning a song but also getting better at my older songs. I put my timer a little longer though. Thanks a lot man!

[@tgfassina]

Great video and great production. Thank you very much. Respect from Brazil

[@chandrakanthadap9891]

Thanks man. Nice tip.

[@tomb374]

Thanks Phil... Good tip as usual

[@DrJoshGuitar]

This is great advice. I just started doing this more. I am playing my own jazz arrangements, but nevertheless, this approach works. I like to cycle through 3 of these problem areas, spending a minute or two on each.

[@giuseppeminardi7439]

gonna try this

[@caseymotschman4203]

Focusing in rough areas is great, when you went further to add a time limit I was sold!

[@steverlfs]

Thanks! As an old man starting to learn flamenco I make plenty of mistakes. I will try your method. I also like your teaching style- you speak at a good pace and very clearly. I will be headed over to your channel to see what other wonders you have for me!

[@joburgess3006]

Thank you

[@darrenkelfkens8539]

Cool vid great advice

[@JomariGuitarTV]

WOW it works , thanks phil i'm your new subscriber thanks for sharing this technique 🙂

[@tammieschiller397]

This is actually the best video on practice. i do those 5-10 second section practice,but i realized after seeing your video not to go into 'robot' mode, but to play it with feeling, so this will help. thankyou!

[@thalesvieiracarvalho]

Fantastic channel

[@joshdilly7025]

Great advice m8

[@steveb9325]

Thank you Phil. Excellent advice. Scott Tennant has a video where he talks about when you're so busy working on other obligations or responsibilities, how to use whatever time you have. Even five or ten minutes to practice and work out one measure, or a phrase. You will have at least pinpoint a problem and fix it. His students though skepticall tried it and found it helps! Me too+ 😊 thanks again! How bout calling it:"power bar" practice ?. Corny. Nevermind

[@rooroo3199]

Tip: You can replay just a section of youtube videos such as guitar backing tracks and have it constantly replay. So you can practice that piece over and over.

[@BenDiamondGuitarist]

Awesome video! Thanks Phil! I find it rare for me to perform a piece without some sort of slip, so this will help me big time. If I am working on a piece and find multiple areas of trouble (lets say 3), would it be best to spend 2 min on section 1, and then follow into the next (section 2 for 2 min) and then 3? Thanks!

[@DrJoshGuitar]

Thank you for this. If you practice a 2 minute section and your batting average is 50% (or worse) - what should you do? Play it slower in order to increase your average?

[@niktniewiem4785]

Ok the method is good, but how do I ACTUALLY fix the mistakes I make in the section I struggle with? My biggest problem is that I mess up fingering on the left hand all the time and play a wrong fret out of nowhere here and there, but I know the right notes, I remember what I should play, and no matter how SLOW I try to play, I still make a mistake in the same places. In example I can play 30 notes well in slow speed 2 or 3 times in a row, but next time I mess up, and then I mess up all the time, then again I can play few times right and so on. If the part is easy it doesn't really matter how fast or slow I play it (and I can play really fast, my fingers are fast at this point) the mistakes happen anyway. It wouldn't be a problem If I made those mistakes from time to time, but I make them super often to the point I can't really play a song. The worst part is that I can spend HOURS on a 5 second part and still make the same mistakes, like they are programmed into my brain after 1 time I made them. I've tried everything - going suuuuuper slow, playing notes in groups of 2 to better the transition between each note, memorising everything, playing with only one hand at a time, trying to play perfectly correct notes everytime no matter how slow or unrythmic I do it, and so on, but STILL I make mistakes. I have a piece that I learn since almost the beginning of my guitar yourney, and I could recite all the notes in it, I can see them on my guitar neck if I close my eyes, but I still mess it up when playing. Am I hopeless? Mayby I practice completly the wrong way, I don't know what I do wrong and there is absolutely no videos showing how to actually practice a chellenging song.

[@shamicentertainment1262]

I have the exact same problem haha, I'm trying to find an answer. Everyone says practise perfectly but I can't play anything perfectly!! I have improved though maybe I just need more time

[@MiketheNerdRanger]

Contrary to what most teachers say, you can only go so slow before it becomes useless. Maybe going slow isn't help you in this case. Try "chunking" the passage, either just slow enough or at speed. So set a metronome, take a chunk of the beginning of the passage, maybe a few notes, play that, loop it every 4 beats (do this even if you don't have enough notes to fill all four beats. *Start as small as you need to.* ), and once you're comfortable with that part, add another chunk to it, loop it with the added parts (if the chunk you're playing is more than 4 beats, say 5, loop it within 8 beats), and so on, until you can loop through the whole passage. Then try and re-integrate it with the rest of the song until that point. Hope this helps!

[@shamicentertainment1262]

@@MiketheNerdRanger Yeah I was trying to do 1/4 notes at 40bpm, but ended making way more mistakes then just doing the same thing at 60bpm. Fingers kept shaking too much and accidentally touching the strings when it was that slow.

[@artemisg.8057]

I have the same problem There is no song of my repertoire that I don't mess up in some parts Even if I manage to play something without mistakes, the next time I try to play it, I make mistakes again.... 😤😤

[@johnd9357]

You just described my struggle perfectly. I’m making this comment 2 years after yours. I’m REALLY hoping that you’re going to let me know that persistence paid off and it got better. So, how’s it going? Please let us know.

[@troilero5239]

I always heard this method. But somehow when I practice it too much I become used to playing it faster and only faster, then I suck when I try playing it slower...Anyone went through this?

[@Nitroxide1]

You're not the only one, same here. Keep playing it slow then speed it up. When you find yourself making the mistakes just slow it back down. Rinse and repeat. If frustration becomes an issue, take a break. Hope it helps man

[@a.c.4732]

mental block ? ? if I don't think about it , I sail through if It crosses my mind for literally a nano-second , yep , it trips me over ...

[@MiketheNerdRanger]

I thought this was gonna teach me how to not get it wrong in the first place.

[@tullochgorum6323]

An important refinement - for each rep concentrate on improving just *one* element of the passage: for example articulation, tuning, tone, dynamics, rhythm etc. If you try and work on everything at once, you end up unfocused and you waste a lot of time.

[@tomhendrix3892]

Im gonna try this. If im right. I tke a 5-15 sec part of a piece that Im strugling with and practice that for 2 min. Then (based on the 20% to 40% practice tip) I take about 4 to 5 min to practice the whole piece. In this way I will make the practised section a part of the whole. Right?

[@martabateman4241]

Two minutes for a problem area? I have been known to do three bars for two or three hours till I get it right.

[@watchfan6180]

Do you mean time yourself, with a mistake stop, go slow make sure notes ring out etc.. Then speed up again when mechanics are correct?

[@franagustin3094]

I don't understand the second tip

[@ohmwafflet.v.9666]

GETTING OUT OF AUTOPILOT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF GUITAR!! USE THAT CORTEX NOT YOUR BASAL NUCLEI! Changing this changed everything about my practice. good job covering that!

[@magikal8089]

Sectioning

[@lastsunsetguitar5921]

I play hard rock but it seems only videos on this subject are from classical players.

[@meatball4023]

1:15 is answer i am looking for i will practice every part of the song until i reach %95

[@matthewturner1201]

I think I lose concentration literally after about 5 seconds... every 5 seconds 😢

[@HABLA_GUIRRRI]

kindly cut ur room reverb its nasty

[@tomjacobson631]

Don’t tell me….they used to call you goldenbrick. Just to irritate of course.