According to researchers, playing guitar is excellent for you, your heart and well-being. It’s not just a calming, therapeutic, creative and a happy thing to do but offers a lot of mental health benefits too. And, what do you do if you want to play the guitar better?
Top Surprising Psychology Facts Related to Guitar Playing
Here are top 7 psychological facts that you should be aware of.
Make Mirror Neurons Work For You
There exists a type of brain cells called mirror neurons, because of which we learn a skill by watching another person do it. Knowing this empowers you because now you can imitate the actions of any talented guitarist around and your guitar playing development will be tenfold.
This is a fact and you can benefit greatly by developing your observation and listening skills like top guitarists. So it’s time to start observing and following in the footsteps of renowned guitarists by copying them.
Avoid Multitasking During Your Guitar Practice Sessions
The main disadvantages of multitasking are that tasks take more time, the chances of errors increases and stress levels also greatly increase. It’s time to stop trying to fit in everything you are learning in the guitar into a single practice sitting. And how do you accomplish this?
Begin by using a practice planner that is custom made; advises an expert writing on the subject. This will enable you to focus on a few select key areas during practice. It helps you not to push in too many things into your practice session. Most people are not even aware of just how important a guitar practice planner is for them to make progress in playing it.
Use Exposure Therapy
Mere exposure effect is a phenomenon in psychology by which people tend to prefer things just because they are familiar with them. It’s also called the familiarity principle and can be demonstrated with people, paintings and sounds or music besides other things. So research states that your liking for something will only increase with repetition. In this case, practising the guitar regularly will make you like it more and as the saying goes: practice does make a person perfect in mastering a skill. Therefore, even though guitar learning is not an easy skill, practising it more will make you like it and thereby enhance your playing abilities.
Shut Your Eye For Better Memory
Learning any new skill is about remembering the newly gained information that marks the skill. Memory is thus vital here. So what do you do if you keep forgetting for instance the arrangement of a new song? There’s some help available. In an interesting study, it was found that people taking part in it were able to answer 23% more questions with their eyes closed than they were with their eyes open.
The conclusion was that closing your eyes boosts your memory. The way you can apply this to guitar playing is by closing your eyes the next time you are playing the instrument and breathing to stay calm. You’ll see the memory of the right chords to play will come back to you in a jiffy.
Follow The Consistency Principle
The principle states that all humans desire to be consistent in their thoughts, words and actions. So when you make a promise to yourself, you will yearn to keep it. Using this principle you can note down 5 guitar playing goals on paper and make sure that you practice till you achieve them.
You Might Want More But Can Your Brain Handle It?
The answer is a resounding ‘no’. According to a famous study titled, ‘jam study,’ there is such a thing as too many choices. People prefer to choose from fewer options as compared to a plethora of choices. The lesson to take home here is that you’ll have fewer troubles and struggles if you find just one or two good sources to guide you on your journey to learn guitar.
Practice For 21 Days To Form The Guitar Playing Habit
Aristotle said it ages back that we become what we repeatedly do. So greatness according to him was not an act but a habit. Likewise, if you want to play the guitar better keep practising till it becomes second nature for you to do so.
If you want to get started on your musical journey with a guitar, just check out our course information and book a counselling session with our instructors.
