Get Addicted to This and Guitar Progress Will be Rapid

You know why some people get so religious about hitting the gym…Simple.

Because they see results in just a couple of weeks if they do things right.

And that, is EXTREMELY rewarding.

They keep going back, getting stronger, shaping their bodies, and loving every minute of it.

This is the SECRET:

They get addicted to the progress.

And this is the KEY:

Gym fanatics become addicted because they insert a feedback loop in their lives. Automatically.

They get feedback by standing in front of the mirror, being able to lift more, and paying attention to things like muscle fatigue.

And this is EXACTLY what you need to do with the guitar.

Without it, your guitar progress will get steamrolled by more stimulating distractions.

You end up wasting time and money, and your guitar starts to gather dust in the corner.

And let’s face it, it’s a lot harder to see progress with the guitar than with lifting weights.

But as always, there is a way…

This short article enables you to leverage human nature and inject a feedback loop into your guitar practice, making your progress faster than ever before.

Ready? Let’s go.

Author: Teemu Suomala

I first grabbed the guitar in 2009. I started this website in January 2020 because I couldn’t do window installation anymore due to my health problems. I love guitars and have played dozens and dozens of different guitars through different amps and pedals over the years, and also, building a website interested me, so I decided to just go for it! I got lucky and managed to get awesome people to help me with my website.

I also got lucky because I have you visiting my website right now. Thank you. I do all this for you guys. If you have any recommendations, tips, or feedback, just leave a comment, I would love to chat with you. I have also been fortunate to produce content for several large guitar websites, such as Songsterr, Musicnotes, GuitarGuitar, and Ultimate Guitar.

I spend my spare time exercising and hanging out with my wife and crazy dog (I guess that went the right way…).

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Problem

Most people are completely. And I really mean COMPLETELY addicted to modern devices.

They’re stimulating, fun, and offer instant gratification.

But what do they rob us of?

Progress. In almost anything meaningful.

It’s all by design, turning us into slaves of constant entertainment rather than masters of real skills.

But we can and should fight back. We don’t want tech giants controlling us, don’t we?

Solution

I have to be honest with you. Fighting back isn’t easy.

But it’s definitely better than the alternative. Zombie plugged into the matrix.

Fighting back is not impossible either.

Fighting back is like choosing the path of a Jedi over the dark side. It requires faith, effort, and consistency.

So let’s get into to recipe…

But remember…

This is like your grandmom’s apple pie recipe. If you start improvising, adding stuff, removing stuff, slacking off, and changing the order, you end up with a mess that no one (not even your mom) enjoys.

Here’s the recipe:

Step 1

Do you know why soldiers who used drugs when coming home from the Vietnam War (source: Atomic Habits), didn’t continue using drugs?

Do you know why people coming from drug rehab, far too often (it’s really sad), fall into the same drug-using patterns?

What’s the difference here?

Enviroment.

Soldiers coming from drug drug-using environment (Vietnam), to a home environment without drugs, in most cases, eliminated the addiction.

Your environment shapes your habits.

Think about this…

If your home is set up for binge-watching TV, guess what you’ll do?

If you have an environment designed for guitar practice, that’s what you end up with.

Practice=Skill.

So create a practice room or space in your home and let the environment push you in the right direction.

The right environment for guitar progress:

• All needed practice equipment.
• Zero distractions. No tv on, no dog, no wife, no phone on. You get the idea.
• A comfortable chair for playing (or play standing, it creates less fatigue in the body than sitting)
• Bonus: pair practice sessions with existing habits like drinking coffee or tea. Or connect practice to existing habits. Example: ” Always practice after your evening walk”.

Do you realize what this does?

For the first time, you stop swimming against the current.

Now you swim leveraging the current and natural habits of human beings. That makes progressing 10x easier and faster.

You can see my practice space here:

Step 2

Do you know what average guitar players do? Because of the modern world and all the distractions…

They see this cool thing, they try playing it.

They see that cool thing and try playing it.

The result?

They know how to kind of play 5 different things.

And to be honest, they kind of suck…

And because they see no real progress…

The guitar starts to gather dust in the corner. And the player sucks even more…

Wasted money, effort, and potential. All too common story.

The good news is…

The solution for eliminating this is extremely simple.

You focus.

You commit.

You nail that thing.

This is like building a puzzle.

You don’t just throw pieces here and there. You find THE RIGHT piece and THE RIGHT place for each piece.

That’s how you end up with something stunning.

And to make this really actionable. Here’s where I would start:

• Detect what your weakest link is. The weakest aspect of your playing. (Many times it’s right/left-hand sync).
• Focus on that. Daily.

Note: This doesn’t mean you do not play anything else. This means that you focus your efforts on 1 thing at a time.

Got it? Good.

But even with all this, if you miss the last step, you won’t create enough addiction to pull you to the guitar greatness.

Drumroll…

Step 3

Let’s close the circle here.

People who get addicted to hitting the gym and get results… do these 3 things.

1. They create or pay for the environment that is created for doing the exercise.
2. They focus on 1 muscle group at a time.

And the 3rd step…

Gym-goers see the progress!

But with guitar, this is not always not so easy.

You can’t stand in front of the mirror and see the results.

We can’t just add more “weights” and be able to do more.

That’s why we guitarists have to do this:

Track progress.

Do exactly this:

After every single practice session, write down the progress you made. The improvements you saw.

Especially the small ones.

Hear this universal truth that changed the trajectory of my life:

Most people never take huge steps in playing (or in life) because they fail to take pride in the small steps that in fact create the huge steps.

Let that sink in!

If you pay attention to and take pride in the small steps, you will take more of them…and this creates huge results!

So write down every tiny progress you make. Return to those in the days when you feel like quitting.

If you do this…

Nothing can stop you. Nothing.

Paradise

Guitar Greatness.

That is what you get.

We just wrestled down the evil forces of modern society that try to hold us back!

And trust me…

When you use the 3 steps detailed above instead of scrolling your phone like a zombie…

The results, confidence, and the feeling coming after that are extremely liberating. A lot better than a quick dopamine hit after scrolling TikTok for 15 minutes.

1 last thing…

Now, if you’re serious about this, if you’re the kind of man who goes after what he wants, I’ve got something else for you.

It’s a way to reverse-engineer the success of guitar legends. Their gear, their techniques, even rare footage of their playing.

Remember, success leaves clues. Are you ready to decode them?

PS. I recommend finding John Petrucci’s profile there…we found videos where he shares his secrets…