June 5, 2025 • 7 mins
Learning guitar with a support system provides the encouragement, motivation, and clarification needed to overcome common frustrations that lead players to quit. The ability to receive personalized feedback and solutions makes a dramatic difference compared to learning alone from videos that can't adjust to your individual needs.
• YouTube videos can be helpful but lack the interaction needed when you get stuck
• Assessment and support helps identify specific techniques that work for your unique physiology
• The Guitar Zoom Academy offers "open rooms" for real-time feedback and problem-solving
• Everyone has different hand sizes and shapes requiring personalized approaches
• Success often means finding what works for you, not perfectly matching conventional techniques
• Support can come through video clips, live interactions, or group discussions
• Having access to help whenever you need it maintains motivation and progress
Take care, stay positive, and I'll talk to you soon.
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):
Hey, steve Stine from the Guitar Zoom Academy here.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the impact of learning
guitar by yourself versuslearning how to play guitar with
a support system.
Okay, so as an example, let'ssay you know when you're alone
and you're going to try andlearn how to play bar chords, or
you've been trying to learn howto play bar chords, so you look
(00:20):
up, you know, a video onYouTube and you start trying to
learn it.
Or you look up a couple ofdifferent videos and there's a
couple of different methods onhow to do it, and again, that
might work perfectly for you,which is awesome.
But if you find that it's notworking for you because the
videos tell different things orthere's just something still
missing about what you're tryingto do, oftentimes you get stuck
(00:43):
and then that's where you getfrustrated.
So you're like, well, I've beenworking on this forever, but it
doesn't feel like I'm makingprogress.
And I hear this all the timefrom people because even with
guitar courses which we've soldhundreds of thousands of guitar
courses here at Guitar Zoom andguitar courses sometimes work
amazing for people but there aretimes when people will say,
look, I own this guitar courseand I've been trying to go
(01:05):
through this, but I get stuckhere because something about
this doesn't make sense to me.
Okay, or I'm confused onsomething, or I'm not sure how
to apply this thing.
So same thing when you'rewatching a video.
The video is great, and there'sa ton of amazing videos on
YouTube.
The problem is is, if there'ssomething inside that
conversation where you kind ofget stuck and you're like, okay,
(01:27):
well, I don't understand whatto do with this, or why does it
feel wrong to me, like when I'mtrying to play this.
It feels very awkward or almostpainful when I'm trying to put
my arm in this position, orwhatever it might be, and so
it's really important to be ableto have somebody that you can
bounce ideas off of, literallytogether, and say, okay, play
for me, show me what it is thatyou're trying to work on, show
(01:49):
me what that looks like.
Let me hear you.
Okay, here's what I would do isI would give you this advice.
Maybe what you need to try anddo is this or I think you're
missing this, or you need todevelop this thing a little bit
more, or you know, what I wantyou to do is I want you to watch
module three in this guitarcourse, watch that and then,
once it you know, once you'vekind of absorbed that idea, what
(02:11):
I want you to do is come backagain tomorrow and let's talk
about what you watched and seeif we can't develop that a
little bit.
So for me, it's all aboutassessment and support.
Okay, you need to be able totalk to somebody, get assessment
on your playing, get support,get clarity on what it is that
you're doing.
So you might, for instance, youknow, we have in the academy
here we have what's called openrooms where you can actually
(02:33):
have discussions with me andother instructors and we watch
you play, listen to what you'reworking on.
You know, if you if you don'tshow up with your guitar, that's
okay too.
You might just show up and havea question.
Well, I have a question abouthow this works, or what does
this mean?
We get you that clarity thatyou need and then you get right
back to work.
The other thing is is maybe youpost a clip of your playing and
(02:53):
say look, can somebody give mesome insight on what's doing
here, what to do here?
I don't have time to show up toan open room this week because
I'm traveling, but I want tomake you a video clip of what
I'm working on and you let meknow kind of what's going on
there.
So we go back and forth, wecommunicate and make sure that
you're clear, and so I thinkthat's something really, really
important.
(03:14):
We had a student here in theacademy that avoided literally
learning how to play bar chordsfor years in his playing because
he couldn't figure out how toget them to work.
And you know, every time he'dtry and play it, some of the
chord would work and some of itwouldn't, and it was very slow
for him to get there.
So he tried to convince himselfthat he doesn't need bar chords
(03:35):
.
And again, I'm not here toargue whether you do or don't,
I'm just saying in the realworld, oftentimes we still need
bar chords, even though they arefrustrating for most of us.
So we started working with himand started getting him to
understand some different waysof being able to practice, some
little tips and things to tryand make it better.
You know, things like bouncingother things you've probably
(03:56):
heard me talk about and thenunderstanding the reality of
play.
Right, I love to tell thisstory about a football player
that used to take guitar lessonsfrom me.
I live in North Dakota, in Fargo, North Dakota.
We have a college here, NDSU,and I you know this football
player, large human I'm not alarge human.
(04:17):
So we started looking throughchords and we started
recognizing, as he was learninghow to play, that we were.
We were learning how to playthe A chord, just the A major
open chord, and playing withthree fingers was absolutely
impossible for this man becausehis fingers were so huge.
So then we tried two fingersand then we ultimately settled
on using one finger for the Achord, and when he would make
(04:39):
the A chord with that one finger, the first string wouldn't ring
out.
So then here comes the decisionright Is does he quit playing
guitar because he's a tall,large human that plays football
and can't get his first stringto work?
Or do we just say it's okay, soyour first string doesn't work,
(05:01):
your A chord is still an Achord.
So what?
So your A chord is a little bitdifferent than somebody else's
A chord.
Is that a reason to quit?
Well, that's up to you.
For him it was not.
For me it most certainly wasnot Okay.
So we we fix the problem byworking together and finding a
solution that worked for him.
It doesn't mean that it worksfor everybody.
(05:22):
We're all different sizes andshapes and we're all trying to
do different things, but if wework together we can find
solutions that fit the student.
So, for me, the support systemfor me is really just
encouragement, motivation,clarification.
We can do this through clips,video clips.
(05:45):
We can do this through actualinteraction in what we call open
rooms, where we actually talkto each other.
We have live classes where wemeet, we talk about things, we
discuss things together as agroup.
There's all kinds of things thatyou can do, but the point is is
that you're able to do thiswhenever you need it, not just
Thursday at 4 pm for 30 minutes.
(06:07):
It's literally wheneversomething strikes you and you
need to get clarification on it.
So, anyway, hopefully thathelps.
Learning guitar alone versuslearning with a support system
is a vastly different experience.
For people.
To stay, you know, educated, tostay clear and to stay
motivated is just really, reallyimportant Having a goal, having
(06:28):
a game plan, having a, you know, a roadmap to success, all of
those things and then being ableto work together.
So, anyway, take care, staypositive and I'll talk to you
soon, okay.
Hey, steve Stine from the Guitar Zoom Academy here.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the impact of learning
guitar by yourself versuslearning how to play guitar with
a support system.
Okay, so as an example, let'ssay you know when you're alone
and you're going to try andlearn how to play bar chords, or
you've been trying to learn howto play bar chords, so you look
(00:20):
up, you know, a video onYouTube and you start trying to
learn it.
Or you look up a couple ofdifferent videos and there's a
couple of different methods onhow to do it, and again, that
might work perfectly for you,which is awesome.
But if you find that it's notworking for you because the
videos tell different things orthere's just something still
missing about what you're tryingto do, oftentimes you get stuck
(00:43):
and then that's where you getfrustrated.
So you're like, well, I've beenworking on this forever, but it
doesn't feel like I'm makingprogress.
And I hear this all the timefrom people because even with
guitar courses which we've soldhundreds of thousands of guitar
courses here at Guitar Zoom andguitar courses sometimes work
amazing for people but there aretimes when people will say,
look, I own this guitar courseand I've been trying to go
(01:05):
through this, but I get stuckhere because something about
this doesn't make sense to me.
Okay, or I'm confused onsomething, or I'm not sure how
to apply this thing.
So same thing when you'rewatching a video.
The video is great, and there'sa ton of amazing videos on
YouTube.
The problem is is, if there'ssomething inside that
conversation where you kind ofget stuck and you're like, okay,
(01:27):
well, I don't understand whatto do with this, or why does it
feel wrong to me, like when I'mtrying to play this.
It feels very awkward or almostpainful when I'm trying to put
my arm in this position, orwhatever it might be, and so
it's really important to be ableto have somebody that you can
bounce ideas off of, literallytogether, and say, okay, play
for me, show me what it is thatyou're trying to work on, show
(01:49):
me what that looks like.
Let me hear you.
Okay, here's what I would do isI would give you this advice.
Maybe what you need to try anddo is this or I think you're
missing this, or you need todevelop this thing a little bit
more, or you know, what I wantyou to do is I want you to watch
module three in this guitarcourse, watch that and then,
once it you know, once you'vekind of absorbed that idea, what
(02:11):
I want you to do is come backagain tomorrow and let's talk
about what you watched and seeif we can't develop that a
little bit.
So for me, it's all aboutassessment and support.
Okay, you need to be able totalk to somebody, get assessment
on your playing, get support,get clarity on what it is that
you're doing.
So you might, for instance, youknow, we have in the academy
here we have what's called openrooms where you can actually
(02:33):
have discussions with me andother instructors and we watch
you play, listen to what you'reworking on.
You know, if you if you don'tshow up with your guitar, that's
okay too.
You might just show up and havea question.
Well, I have a question abouthow this works, or what does
this mean?
We get you that clarity thatyou need and then you get right
back to work.
The other thing is is maybe youpost a clip of your playing and
(02:53):
say look, can somebody give mesome insight on what's doing
here, what to do here?
I don't have time to show up toan open room this week because
I'm traveling, but I want tomake you a video clip of what
I'm working on and you let meknow kind of what's going on
there.
So we go back and forth, wecommunicate and make sure that
you're clear, and so I thinkthat's something really, really
important.
(03:14):
We had a student here in theacademy that avoided literally
learning how to play bar chordsfor years in his playing because
he couldn't figure out how toget them to work.
And you know, every time he'dtry and play it, some of the
chord would work and some of itwouldn't, and it was very slow
for him to get there.
So he tried to convince himselfthat he doesn't need bar chords
(03:35):
.
And again, I'm not here toargue whether you do or don't,
I'm just saying in the realworld, oftentimes we still need
bar chords, even though they arefrustrating for most of us.
So we started working with himand started getting him to
understand some different waysof being able to practice, some
little tips and things to tryand make it better.
You know, things like bouncingother things you've probably
(03:56):
heard me talk about and thenunderstanding the reality of
play.
Right, I love to tell thisstory about a football player
that used to take guitar lessonsfrom me.
I live in North Dakota, in Fargo, North Dakota.
We have a college here, NDSU,and I you know this football
player, large human I'm not alarge human.
(04:17):
So we started looking throughchords and we started
recognizing, as he was learninghow to play, that we were.
We were learning how to playthe A chord, just the A major
open chord, and playing withthree fingers was absolutely
impossible for this man becausehis fingers were so huge.
So then we tried two fingersand then we ultimately settled
on using one finger for the Achord, and when he would make
(04:39):
the A chord with that one finger, the first string wouldn't ring
out.
So then here comes the decisionright Is does he quit playing
guitar because he's a tall,large human that plays football
and can't get his first stringto work?
Or do we just say it's okay, soyour first string doesn't work,
(05:01):
your A chord is still an Achord.
So what?
So your A chord is a little bitdifferent than somebody else's
A chord.
Is that a reason to quit?
Well, that's up to you.
For him it was not.
For me it most certainly wasnot Okay.
So we we fix the problem byworking together and finding a
solution that worked for him.
It doesn't mean that it worksfor everybody.
(05:22):
We're all different sizes andshapes and we're all trying to
do different things, but if wework together we can find
solutions that fit the student.
So, for me, the support systemfor me is really just
encouragement, motivation,clarification.
We can do this through clips,video clips.
(05:45):
We can do this through actualinteraction in what we call open
rooms, where we actually talkto each other.
We have live classes where wemeet, we talk about things, we
discuss things together as agroup.
There's all kinds of things thatyou can do, but the point is is
that you're able to do thiswhenever you need it, not just
Thursday at 4 pm for 30 minutes.
(06:07):
It's literally wheneversomething strikes you and you
need to get clarification on it.
So, anyway, hopefully thathelps.
Learning guitar alone versuslearning with a support system
is a vastly different experience.
For people.
To stay, you know, educated, tostay clear and to stay
motivated is just really, reallyimportant Having a goal, having
(06:28):
a game plan, having a, you know, a roadmap to success, all of
those things and then being ableto work together.
So, anyway, take care, staypositive and I'll talk to you
soon, okay.
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