Are Your Guitar Goals SMART?

Deciding where you'd like to go on your guitar journey is really important!

Over the years, I have heard from hundreds of students that have lost motivation because they didn’t feel they were getting anywhere. Do you feel like that too? Well, this lesson is all you need then! :)

We'll learn how to set goals that make sense to your guitar journey. We'll break your long-term guitar dreams into actionable, motivating goals so that you achieve your guitar success faster.

💡 This lesson is part of my Beginner Guitar Course - Grade 3! Check the free program here.

But before we get stuck in and learn all about smart guitar goals to optimize your practice time, let me talk a little bit about how we learn to play guitar at JustinGuitar.

Beginner Course - Intermediate Method

I think there are many basic skills that all beginners should learn. And that's how I set up my Beginner Guitar lessons. After that, when reaching the Intermediate stages, the students should decide where and how they want to carry on. That's how my Intermediate Guitar Method works.

In Grade 3, the end of the beginner level, you'll notice that I start to encourage you to adapt your practice routine to fit your needs. Defining your guitar goals will help you decide what to study, what to practice, help keep you focussed on the things that matter and ignore things that are not going to help you get where you want to go.

Practice Smart! :)

Using S.M.A.R.T. goals to organize your guitar journey might really help you out. But what's that even about? S.M.A.R.T. goals are used in many things depending on circumstance - project management, etc. Now let's learn how to apply that concept to our guitar studies in this lesson.

SMART goals help you go further! When setting your goals, that's what you're looking for:

S - Specific

The more specific you can make your goal, the more likely you will plot a great path to get there! Let's say you want to play Jazz - what type of jazz?

M - Motivating

You need to set goals that inspire you to play! That’s a crucial part of the whole goal-setting thing!

💡 Don't you know what to practice? Check out the 6 guitar areas you should be practicing (to play better!)

If something doesn’t inspire you, choose something else to focus on. Choose your battles! :)

A - Achievable

Make sure you’re setting achievable goals. You’re much better off setting smaller goals that you can actually complete than ones that take a long time or might not be reachable. Though it’s fine to have a dream, these SMART goals are the steps toward it - keep them achievable!

R - Relevant

Most goals are stepping stones toward an even bigger goal - if you have a big long-term goal, then bear that in mind when you’re setting your smaller goals. But stay flexible!

T - Trackable

Don't forget to track your progress and make all your goals time-bounded! Tracking your goals is important for watching your progress and defining when you’ve achieved your goal.

Think!

It might sound like a strange thing to suggest, but please spend some time thinking about the things you most enjoy about the guitar. That's an important first step in goal-setting! Some good questions to ask are:

What gives you the most satisfaction when you practice?
What songs do you enjoy playing the most?
What do you escape from when you practice?

Reflecting on these questions can help you refine what you should be working on and help with your goals. Ideally, everything you practice will help you reach your goals or destinations.

But always try to remain flexible and fluid! Music is an art, and there are no rules in art. It’s mostly feelings. And it’s ok for feelings to change.

Big Picture (Long Term - 5 to 10 years)

A rough idea of where you would like to take the guitar is a really great starting point. Doesn’t have to be super specific, and it can change, but having something written down is a good idea.

Some Big Picture goals that might (or might not) apply to you:

Become a rock star and tour the world
Make a living playing guitar
Play regularly in a band
Record an album of original songs
Become a full-time guitar teacher

Some slightly less ambitious ones:

Play a live gig
Play for friends at a party
Teach guitar as a side income
Impress that pretty girl or boy you like
Entertain my kids with music

These are all reasonable goals, some I'd hope most guitarists would want to achieve.

Break It Down!

Once you have a long-term goal in mind, you need to think about the steps you need to achieve that goal! To do that, you should break them down into medium or short-term goals. It depends on how ambitious your long-term goals are!

Work out the things you would need to do to get there. Then, work out what things to practice to get your journey underway. Just try it - everything takes practice - even working out what to practice. :)

Medium-Term Goals (a month to a year)

Here are some medium-term goals you might want to consider:

Improvise on a blues
Get confident with strumming campfire songs
Develop a solo repertoire
Write a song
Play a jazz standard
Improvise confidently using the major scale

And you can break that down even more!

Short term goals (up to a month)

Here are short-term goals that you can achieve as fast as up to a month. :)

Learn a dozen Blues licks and how to use them
Nail a particular strumming or fingerpicking pattern
Learn a solo guitar arrangement for X song
Understand song structure and its application
Learn the basic Jazz chords
Learn Pattern 1 Major scale and improvise within it
Scale patterns at X speed.

Which Method?

Picking a good guitar teacher and methodology is very important to your guitar success! Having a good teacher will make a big difference in your learning journey. A good teacher understands the various paths available to reach your big picture goal. They'll show you the right way to get there, and a great teacher might even show you cool shortcuts. :)

A common mistake is a teacher teaching what they're into instead of what their student needs. This is a mistake I made many, many times when I started teaching. Beware of teachers who do not understand where YOU want to go. It's about what YOU need to do to get there - this is important!

💡 Having concrete goals will help both you and your teacher. And these goals come from you. So take 30 minutes, reflect, dig a little deeper, and find out your guitar goal before setting it.

Need individual guidance? Check out the JustinGuitar Approved Teachers!

Ask Why!

If you're not clear about the purpose of practicing a specific guitar exercise, don't practice it! It's as simple as that. If anyone, including me, suggests practicing anything, question it! When you have an answer that makes sense for your needs - then start working on it.

COMMON GUITAR GOALS

Everyone's goals will be different, but some common big picture kind of goals might be:

To be able to play some easy songs with my mates at a BBQ
To play regular gigs with a band
To make a living from playing guitar
To be the greatest guitar player ever to walk the face of the Earth

Each of these requires completely different paths and different skills. And many guitar journeys will take similar paths. For example, you'll need to learn your minor pentatonic scales if you want to play Blues guitar or Rock. But - it might not be a necessity to a classical guitar player! This is why this decision part is so important - it all depends on you! Help yourself reach your guitar goal by knowing where you're going.

💬 Join the discussion. What does your guitar goal look like? I'd love to know! Log in and leave a comment in the discussion area!

It's a great feeling to realize that you have achieved your goal. It'll help you stay motivated. For many aspiring guitar players, this is the hardest thing to do!

SOME USEFUL GUITAR PHILOSOPHY

The more you know, the more things you realize you don't know. Socrates told a story once and described knowledge as standing in a circle. Inside the circle are things you know. Outside this circle is what you don't know.

The more stuff you learn, the more the circle gets bigger. As it grows, you realize the endless learning possibilities.

Once you get into the habit of forming and achieving goals - you'll find it spreads into your whole life. This is a great thing!

I meet many people that feel they never get anywhere in their life. Mainly because they never set out in a particular direction. Then the problem comes in deciding which direction YOU want to go in. Only YOU can determine that, and it's often the most challenging learning process.

It is simpler to get what you want if you know what it is. The other option is just bumbling around until you stumble on it! You will become better just for having given this some thought! So do it now - grab a pen and write down things you want to do - see if you can define a big goal.

Need individual help? Contact a JustinGuitar Approved Teacher!