April 24, 2025 • 11 mins
We explore the critical difference between perfection and progress in guitar playing, examining how perfectionist tendencies can actually stifle our musical growth while a progress-oriented mindset builds confidence and creates more enjoyable experiences.
• Perfection defined as mastering something completely without flaws is often unrealistic and changes as we grow musically
• The trap of perfectionism leads to spending too much time on single elements while missing the bigger musical picture
• Using the example of an A chord to demonstrate the many aspects beginners focus on perfecting
• Learning simple one-chord songs like "Electric Avenue" creates musical experiences even while still developing technique
• Working on multiple aspects simultaneously (chord technique, theory concepts, songs) creates balanced growth
• Progress builds confidence through early wins and recognizable achievements
• Perfection does matter in specific contexts like recording sessions, performances, and auditions
• Finding balance between technical development and musical application creates healthier long-term growth
If you've been struggling with guitar playing and feel it's time to start achieving your goals, head over to Guitar Zoom Academy. I would love to help you out.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
All right, today we're gonna be talking about the
difference between perfectionand progress, and how oftentimes
we can get stuck in the conceptof perfection you know a lot of
us are pretty type A and howthat actually stifles progress,
and so let's go ahead and talkabout this a little bit.
So the first thing we're gonnado is talk about perfection Okay
(00:21):
, defined as mastering somethingcompletely without flaws, which
is oftentimes unreasonable.
Now, we want to get somethingas good as humanly possible, but
the truth is that thatperfection so we can call it
oftentimes will change as wekeep growing as musicians and
(00:42):
humans, and so what we thoughtwas as good as we could do at a
certain time might not be asgood as we can do six months
later or a year later or fiveyears later.
Okay, so what we want to do isthink about progress.
Now, what's the definition ofprogress?
Gradually getting betterthrough consistent practice and
practical application, okay, andthat's what I want you to think
(01:03):
about.
So let's start with the trap ofperfection, and then we're
gonna talk about how progresscould actually be beneficial as
well.
So, trap of perfection spendingtoo much time perfecting a
single idea, be it a chord, alick or an exercise or something
like that.
Okay, chasing perfection canoften lead to frustration and
even burnout with guitar players.
(01:25):
So the misconception that Iwant to talk about today is
thinking that you got to masterone thing before moving to the
next.
So let's think about chords, forinstance.
Okay, so you might be abeginner, you might have been
playing for a while, but let'sjust start at the very beginning
.
So let's say, you're startingto learn how to play guitar and
the first thing that somebodyshows you is an?
(01:46):
A chord, an A major chord.
So you start working on thatchord.
Now there's a whole host ofthings that could improve when
you're learning how to play thatchord your finger placement,
the strength of the fingerspressing on the strings, the
clarity of those notes, makingsure you're not touching the
other strings that you shouldn'tbe touching, like the first and
(02:07):
fifth strings.
When you strum, you're onlystrumming five strings.
You're not hitting the sixthstring, your strumming is even
you know it's smooth, yourtiming is right All of these
different kinds of things thatcould happen in the study of
this A chord.
Now, if we went and tried to beperfect about every single one
(02:28):
of those things, what we're notexperiencing is actually playing
a song.
So let's say I said to you okay,we're learning how to play this
A chord and what I want you todo is continue to work on it.
I want you to continueimproving on it.
I want you to understand theelements that go into practicing
it and again, for lack of abetter term perfecting it,
(02:48):
making it better.
Okay, I can make it faster, Ican make the chord cleaner, I
can make the chord more accurate, I can improve on my strumming,
my timing, my dynamics, all ofthese other things, by
practicing both the chord andthe strumming of that chord.
But what I also want you to dois I want you to learn how to
play the song Electric AvenueOkay, that silly song from the
(03:12):
80s or whatever it was, and thereason is because it only has
one chord.
I can teach you how to play achord and actually get you
playing along with some music,whether it's your favorite song
or not, which I'm sure it is not, but I could get you playing
along with a song.
So you're actually learning tolisten to the music that's
recorded and being played andthen you're responding to that.
(03:35):
So you're making the chord,you're strumming, but you're
also thinking about the timing.
You're listening to the song,you're concentrating for however
long.
The song is three and a halfminutes, whatever it might be.
So, if you think about it, ifall you were doing was focusing
on the perfection of this achord, and how perfect it is and
how perfect it sounds and howhow quickly you can make it, and
(03:58):
all those things are goodthings you wouldn't be focusing
on the strumming and youwouldn't be having an actual
musical experience playing alongwith the song.
Now, what I'm not talking aboutis being lazy.
Now, there's no cure for lazy,all right.
So I'm not telling you.
I don't want you to practiceand I just want you to do
(04:19):
nothing.
And you know, mediocrity isokay and you never have to get
good at anything.
Of course, I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is it's easy toget hyper-focused on one
element, element and then forgetthat there's all of these other
opportunities to learn how toplay a guitar.
And again, this could fit intoany aspect of your life that you
want it to.
(04:39):
So what I try and do is getpeople to understand there's a
balance between the two.
I want you to continue workingon developing that chord or that
lick or that scale or whateverit is you might be doing,
developing that chord or thatlick or that scale or whatever
it is you might be doing.
But in the meantime, there's awhole host of other things that
you could be working on as well,that either are in a different
stream of development, right,where they're not connected at
(05:04):
all.
Maybe you're learning how toplay the A chord on the guitar,
but you're also learning what atriad is in theory, right?
So you're not applying it tothe fretboard, you're just
learning the idea.
Or what is a major scale, orwhat are the notes of music,
right?
What is the chromatic scale?
There's a whole host of thingsthat we could be doing.
So one is a physical elementplaying the A chord and one is a
(05:30):
more of a thought process, andthey could coexist side by side
each other, okay.
Or maybe you're learning how toplay the A chord, but again,
you're also experiencing it inthis real musical situation,
which is Electric Avenue.
So you're developing the chorditself or the strum itself or
(05:51):
whatever these things are, butyou're also putting them
together into this machine, ifyou will, that is now moving,
which is the song learning toplay along with the song, okay.
So that's what I want you tothink about a little bit here is
learning to balance thedifference between perfection
(06:13):
and progress.
Okay, what happens withprogress as well?
As progress tends to buildconfidence, okay, if you can
create early wins in yourplaying, it boosts your
confidence and oftentimes willboost your motivation.
So, as we're learning how toplay Electric Avenue, maybe
everything isn't as good as wewant it to be, but we're
experiencing this thing, thismusical reality that makes us
(06:40):
happy, makes us confident inourselves.
It's something that'srecognizable.
Us happy, makes us confident inourselves.
Right, it's something that'srecognizable.
So, as we're playing it, youknow we're identifying with all
of the elements to play alongwith the song, or somebody's
listening to us play, and we getpositive reinforcement,
whatever that sort of thing is.
Or if we're just focusing onthat one chord, who's to say we
would get any of those thingsfrom just this one experience
(07:03):
that we're having?
Okay, now, when is perfectionimportant?
So what we need to do isidentify situations where
perfection or close to perfectit doesn't necessarily mean
perfection, but close to perfect, especially at that time when
it matters.
Well, if you were in arecording session or a studio
performance, you want to be asready as humanly possible, so
(07:27):
you're not wasting people's timeand people's money.
Another one would certainly belive performance or an audition
or something like that, right?
So, again, whether or not youcould ever be absolutely perfect
, but you can be as close toperfect as you can be for these
situations, so you're notwasting anybody's time.
You're showing up prepared,right, but I always think like
(07:54):
perfection.
The problem is is that and I'veencountered it many times as a
guitar instructor you know wherepeople will get off in the
weeds and they're so concernedabout developing this one thing,
whatever that is again a lickor a riff or a phrase or a chord
or whatever it might be thatthey're forgetting that there's
other elements they could bepracticing at the same time.
So all I'm asking you to do isthink about learning to balance
(08:16):
these worlds.
If you're very type A andyou're very concerned about how
perfect things are, you have toacknowledge the fact that that's
a very difficult thing to.
It's a difficult pedestal toput yourself on, and you have to
be careful how many elements ofperfection you're looking for.
Like, if you're trying toperfect 19 different things, it
(08:38):
can be very daunting, it can bevery overwhelming, where you
know maybe there's somethingabout your playing or an element
that you really wanna continuegetting better at.
Again, I think that's amazing.
That's exactly the way itshould be right.
I'm just saying you don't stopthe machine as a result of that.
You continue developing all ofthese other things and then you
(09:00):
encounter oh, this needs to bebetter, or I need to get faster
at this, or cleaner at this ormore accurate.
Whatever this thing is, whetherit's a large thing or a very
small thing, like your alternatepicking or the movement between
two strings, or a concept likehybrid picking or learning to
play sweeps on your fretboard,or God knows what, it would be
(09:21):
right.
If you're always getting stuckin the mud or the weeds with
these things, it's hard to seethe bigger picture of what
you're actually trying toaccomplish.
Okay, so that's what I want youto be thinking about a little
bit.
Okay, strive for consistentprogress over perfection of
every single thing that you'redoing.
Okay, think about your ownpractice, habits and where you
(09:42):
could loosen your grip onperfection a little bit to try
and make a little bit moreprogress overall.
And you know, if you'd love torespond, I'd love to hear you
talk about your experiences withthis, with perfection and
progress, and where you've seenthem work beneficially for you
and where you've struggled withthings.
I think it'd be great for youto let you know.
(10:04):
A listener know, or a viewerknow, and maybe they can benefit
from that as well.
All right, so take care, staypositive and, uh, I'll talk to
you soon.
Okay, and remember, if you'reinterested, head over to guitar
zoom and check out our guitarzoom Academy.
If you've been struggling withguitar playing and you feel like
it's time for you to reallystart achieving the goals that
you want to achieve, all yougotta do is head over there and
(10:26):
learn more about the Guitar ZoomAcademy.
I would love to help you out.
No-transcript.
All right, today we're gonna be talking about the
difference between perfectionand progress, and how oftentimes
we can get stuck in the conceptof perfection you know a lot of
us are pretty type A and howthat actually stifles progress,
and so let's go ahead and talkabout this a little bit.
So the first thing we're gonnado is talk about perfection Okay
(00:21):
, defined as mastering somethingcompletely without flaws, which
is oftentimes unreasonable.
Now, we want to get somethingas good as humanly possible, but
the truth is that thatperfection so we can call it
oftentimes will change as wekeep growing as musicians and
(00:42):
humans, and so what we thoughtwas as good as we could do at a
certain time might not be asgood as we can do six months
later or a year later or fiveyears later.
Okay, so what we want to do isthink about progress.
Now, what's the definition ofprogress?
Gradually getting betterthrough consistent practice and
practical application, okay, andthat's what I want you to think
(01:03):
about.
So let's start with the trap ofperfection, and then we're
gonna talk about how progresscould actually be beneficial as
well.
So, trap of perfection spendingtoo much time perfecting a
single idea, be it a chord, alick or an exercise or something
like that.
Okay, chasing perfection canoften lead to frustration and
even burnout with guitar players.
(01:25):
So the misconception that Iwant to talk about today is
thinking that you got to masterone thing before moving to the
next.
So let's think about chords, forinstance.
Okay, so you might be abeginner, you might have been
playing for a while, but let'sjust start at the very beginning
.
So let's say, you're startingto learn how to play guitar and
the first thing that somebodyshows you is an?
(01:46):
A chord, an A major chord.
So you start working on thatchord.
Now there's a whole host ofthings that could improve when
you're learning how to play thatchord your finger placement,
the strength of the fingerspressing on the strings, the
clarity of those notes, makingsure you're not touching the
other strings that you shouldn'tbe touching, like the first and
(02:07):
fifth strings.
When you strum, you're onlystrumming five strings.
You're not hitting the sixthstring, your strumming is even
you know it's smooth, yourtiming is right All of these
different kinds of things thatcould happen in the study of
this A chord.
Now, if we went and tried to beperfect about every single one
(02:28):
of those things, what we're notexperiencing is actually playing
a song.
So let's say I said to you okay,we're learning how to play this
A chord and what I want you todo is continue to work on it.
I want you to continueimproving on it.
I want you to understand theelements that go into practicing
it and again, for lack of abetter term perfecting it,
(02:48):
making it better.
Okay, I can make it faster, Ican make the chord cleaner, I
can make the chord more accurate, I can improve on my strumming,
my timing, my dynamics, all ofthese other things, by
practicing both the chord andthe strumming of that chord.
But what I also want you to dois I want you to learn how to
play the song Electric AvenueOkay, that silly song from the
(03:12):
80s or whatever it was, and thereason is because it only has
one chord.
I can teach you how to play achord and actually get you
playing along with some music,whether it's your favorite song
or not, which I'm sure it is not, but I could get you playing
along with a song.
So you're actually learning tolisten to the music that's
recorded and being played andthen you're responding to that.
(03:35):
So you're making the chord,you're strumming, but you're
also thinking about the timing.
You're listening to the song,you're concentrating for however
long.
The song is three and a halfminutes, whatever it might be.
So, if you think about it, ifall you were doing was focusing
on the perfection of this achord, and how perfect it is and
how perfect it sounds and howhow quickly you can make it, and
(03:58):
all those things are goodthings you wouldn't be focusing
on the strumming and youwouldn't be having an actual
musical experience playing alongwith the song.
Now, what I'm not talking aboutis being lazy.
Now, there's no cure for lazy,all right.
So I'm not telling you.
I don't want you to practiceand I just want you to do
(04:19):
nothing.
And you know, mediocrity isokay and you never have to get
good at anything.
Of course, I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is it's easy toget hyper-focused on one
element, element and then forgetthat there's all of these other
opportunities to learn how toplay a guitar.
And again, this could fit intoany aspect of your life that you
want it to.
(04:39):
So what I try and do is getpeople to understand there's a
balance between the two.
I want you to continue workingon developing that chord or that
lick or that scale or whateverit is you might be doing,
developing that chord or thatlick or that scale or whatever
it is you might be doing.
But in the meantime, there's awhole host of other things that
you could be working on as well,that either are in a different
stream of development, right,where they're not connected at
(05:04):
all.
Maybe you're learning how toplay the A chord on the guitar,
but you're also learning what atriad is in theory, right?
So you're not applying it tothe fretboard, you're just
learning the idea.
Or what is a major scale, orwhat are the notes of music,
right?
What is the chromatic scale?
There's a whole host of thingsthat we could be doing.
So one is a physical elementplaying the A chord and one is a
(05:30):
more of a thought process, andthey could coexist side by side
each other, okay.
Or maybe you're learning how toplay the A chord, but again,
you're also experiencing it inthis real musical situation,
which is Electric Avenue.
So you're developing the chorditself or the strum itself or
(05:51):
whatever these things are, butyou're also putting them
together into this machine, ifyou will, that is now moving,
which is the song learning toplay along with the song, okay.
So that's what I want you tothink about a little bit here is
learning to balance thedifference between perfection
(06:13):
and progress.
Okay, what happens withprogress as well?
As progress tends to buildconfidence, okay, if you can
create early wins in yourplaying, it boosts your
confidence and oftentimes willboost your motivation.
So, as we're learning how toplay Electric Avenue, maybe
everything isn't as good as wewant it to be, but we're
experiencing this thing, thismusical reality that makes us
(06:40):
happy, makes us confident inourselves.
It's something that'srecognizable.
Us happy, makes us confident inourselves.
Right, it's something that'srecognizable.
So, as we're playing it, youknow we're identifying with all
of the elements to play alongwith the song, or somebody's
listening to us play, and we getpositive reinforcement,
whatever that sort of thing is.
Or if we're just focusing onthat one chord, who's to say we
would get any of those thingsfrom just this one experience
(07:03):
that we're having?
Okay, now, when is perfectionimportant?
So what we need to do isidentify situations where
perfection or close to perfectit doesn't necessarily mean
perfection, but close to perfect, especially at that time when
it matters.
Well, if you were in arecording session or a studio
performance, you want to be asready as humanly possible, so
(07:27):
you're not wasting people's timeand people's money.
Another one would certainly belive performance or an audition
or something like that, right?
So, again, whether or not youcould ever be absolutely perfect
, but you can be as close toperfect as you can be for these
situations, so you're notwasting anybody's time.
You're showing up prepared,right, but I always think like
(07:54):
perfection.
The problem is is that and I'veencountered it many times as a
guitar instructor you know wherepeople will get off in the
weeds and they're so concernedabout developing this one thing,
whatever that is again a lickor a riff or a phrase or a chord
or whatever it might be thatthey're forgetting that there's
other elements they could bepracticing at the same time.
So all I'm asking you to do isthink about learning to balance
(08:16):
these worlds.
If you're very type A andyou're very concerned about how
perfect things are, you have toacknowledge the fact that that's
a very difficult thing to.
It's a difficult pedestal toput yourself on, and you have to
be careful how many elements ofperfection you're looking for.
Like, if you're trying toperfect 19 different things, it
(08:38):
can be very daunting, it can bevery overwhelming, where you
know maybe there's somethingabout your playing or an element
that you really wanna continuegetting better at.
Again, I think that's amazing.
That's exactly the way itshould be right.
I'm just saying you don't stopthe machine as a result of that.
You continue developing all ofthese other things and then you
(09:00):
encounter oh, this needs to bebetter, or I need to get faster
at this, or cleaner at this ormore accurate.
Whatever this thing is, whetherit's a large thing or a very
small thing, like your alternatepicking or the movement between
two strings, or a concept likehybrid picking or learning to
play sweeps on your fretboard,or God knows what, it would be
(09:21):
right.
If you're always getting stuckin the mud or the weeds with
these things, it's hard to seethe bigger picture of what
you're actually trying toaccomplish.
Okay, so that's what I want youto be thinking about a little
bit.
Okay, strive for consistentprogress over perfection of
every single thing that you'redoing.
Okay, think about your ownpractice, habits and where you
(09:42):
could loosen your grip onperfection a little bit to try
and make a little bit moreprogress overall.
And you know, if you'd love torespond, I'd love to hear you
talk about your experiences withthis, with perfection and
progress, and where you've seenthem work beneficially for you
and where you've struggled withthings.
I think it'd be great for youto let you know.
(10:04):
A listener know, or a viewerknow, and maybe they can benefit
from that as well.
All right, so take care, staypositive and, uh, I'll talk to
you soon.
Okay, and remember, if you'reinterested, head over to guitar
zoom and check out our guitarzoom Academy.
If you've been struggling withguitar playing and you feel like
it's time for you to reallystart achieving the goals that
you want to achieve, all yougotta do is head over there and
(10:26):
learn more about the Guitar ZoomAcademy.
I would love to help you out.
No-transcript.
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