Dear Guitar Fellows,
I am usually not a fan of new year’s resolutions, but recently someone pointed me to the advice of taking accountability and deadlines in my guitar journey. I found myself glad with most of my guitar learning so far, but the last year could probably have been more effectively spent, so I’ll try to make a few promises to - myself, but aloud, so I can’t really just ignore them…
My resolutions for 2025
post some video or audio almost every month of some cover or original song ( I reserve three jokers, one for summer vacation, one if some possible bad thing happens that will need most of my time and one just because of lazyness ) ).
having learned to solo and improvise by summer. I won’t be super good, given my momentary beginner status in this field, but I would like to gain a considerable amount of ability here.
having written (or at least co-written) a few songs that I’m happy with. Let’s say, more than five I’m happy with until the end of year.
Does someone else feel like taking the step and tell us their goals for the months to come?
And - I’m wishing you all a really good 2025! Lots of guitar, and for each and every bad thing that might come along, at least some other good thing on the other side!
Dominique
Edit: Forgot this important resolution:
Be able to play three christmas songs well until christmas and do a remarkable performance with one of them on next year’s christmas Open Mic!
Or post it on the forum, if not possible to join the open mic.
Actually, I’ve been thinking about my New Year’s resolutions, or rather goals to achieve, too. First and foremost I need to stop buying more gear… I already own a sufficient number of different guitars to choose from for the kind of music I want to play, and a couple of drawers full of effect pedals, modellers, etc. Perhaps now is the time to concentrate on playing; hence comes the second important goal, to keep learning. Although learning new things is getting harder with age (I’ll turn 72 in 2025 ), especially improving one’s technique. However, due to my recent musical interests, I definitely plan on learning or creating new chord progressions for genres such as smooth jazz and R&B/Neo-soul. No rush, though, being retired I’ve got plenty of time to spend on practicing and composing.
And, naturally, I’ll be posting my recordings in compliance with the allowed frequency .
You don’t have to. Like I said, I’m generally no fan of new year’s resolutions, but at exactly this time, for me, it just fits the bill! And it may also be the same for a few other people I thought. But maybe I’m wrong.
I sincerely hope your manual dexterity will be at least stable. I guess guitar playing helps with keeping your fingers in better shape! All the best to you, Mark!
It’s a very popular answer to say “I don’t do resolutions”, but maybe you should set a direction to head in? Pick one small thing that would be a minor improvement to your life that’s easily accomplished
New Year’s resolutions get a bad rap because people set terrible ones that are bound to fail (I’m going to run for an hour every day and never eat cake again) but if you set more intelligent goals then they can work for you.
I mentioned my guitar related goals above, simply to keep showing up and enjoying it and my other goals for the year are basic things like getting outside more often (I work from home a lot so it’s really easy to stay indoors) but I’m setting a low bar of a few times a week for either a walk / run / ride. I’ve set another to read a page of a book every day (knowing full well it will rarely be just a page but the bar is so low it’s always achievable)
This is going to help you to stay motivated. I never aim to perfection (if ever it were achievable ) but just to share the good vibes and self-assess, like for example the aspects of the playing that got improved in that month’s practice. I know there’s a lot of value in playing whole songs from start to finish, but sometimes/often I feel the task too big for me and I just make short recordings.
This is something I don’t do…because I’m really unable to foresee how my skills will develop…but maybe you’ve got your good reasons and you feel you can do that and then being bold is all good!
My Top 1 Goal: being there, in the Music I mean, while I’m playing…which in other words means building my deep connection with my guitars (both Acoustic and Classical). I’m curios to know: does this sound like bold? Or like…well standard, something one gives for granted? Why else should you want to play the Guitar for? Many thanks in advance to all those who’ll let me know
I like your life’s goals Mathieu! And they seem achievable too. That going out for a walk…you just start and feel the mental energy boost!
My goals are not smart…kind of 12 kilos in 12 months…my only lifeline is that I feel quite desperate and really low mood about it and health issues in general and this I hope will help to head towards well-being. Next week I’ll start the gym with my husband and motivating him is my real goal! Wish me goo-luck!
I agree that it’s wise to be cautious about putting a time-frame on goals because it makes failure a possibility, failure to meet an artificial deadline. And yes, you never can tell which songs are the ones that you can’t quite get under your fingers. Sometimes you do have to park them and try again in a few months.
As for your top goal, being there, I think it’s good and valid. The norm these days seems to have become to be doing one thing while thinking about the next (or previous) thing which typically means you’re doing the current thing in a less than optimal way. My yoga practice has taught me a lot about being present, something which I’m working on but really struggle with. There’s definitely times when my guitar has my full attention and many times when it doesn’t (I typically find I’ve lost my place in a song and am playing the wrong chords when this happens)
I suppose putting a timeframe on weight isn’t ideal either, but as long as you don’t obsess over it and can give yourself some credit for whatever you do achieve then it’s not so bad. I hope it works out for you.
Bear in mind that x volume of muscle tissue is heavier than x volume of fat tissue, so if you work out regularly, you won’t just lose the fat and become lighter/slimmer but actually build up muscle according to what sort of exercises you do. If you don’t have previous experience with working out, I’d suggest you talk to a personal trainer first and explain your goals, health status, etc. so that they can recommend you more personalized exercises.
Like many, I’m not a big resolution person. That said, in 2025 I intend to refine my approach to learning guitar. My life has always been very busy and goal-oriented, due to both my work and my (pre-guitar) hobbies. I’ve enjoyed most everything, but it’s an exhausting way to be! I retired a couple of years ago and am surprised at how challenging it is to change how I engage in things. So last year I dropped setting specific guitar goals; I only found disappointment when I didn’t reach them with expected proficiency in the expected time. What a relief that has been! This year, I hope to weave together all the bits I’ve checked off so far in my guitar journey. For example: to think more about theory I’ve learned and to more thoughtfully use my ear when I’m learning songs; to think about how I might improvise over a chord progression. And of course I’ll continue working on refining skills I’ve already explored, while slowly exploring new ones.
I know others find motivation in setting specific goals. Perhaps I’ll get there again once my skills have advanced! If you’ll pardon the metaphor (it’s almost lunchtime ), for now I just want to take the ingredients and tools I currently have and make some nice meals out of them.
I don’t do “New Year’s Resolutions” because as mentioned already, they are fraught with issues. Including putting a time limit on whatever it is you seek to achieve.
But I do find goals to be useful, and mine are honestly rolling goals. No time limit on them, and when I feel like I have “achieved” one, I look at ways to set another one along a similar vein.
I picked up the guitar fairly seriously a touch over a year ago and my goal was to develop a practice routine that I could stick to so I could see some real skill development. That one is honestly ongoing. I did a pretty good job with that one over the past year-ish and I have seen some real skill development. I absolutely want to continue with that one for as long as I choose to play guitar.
My main guitar-playing goals moving forward revolve around playing with others. At this point, not in a formal band arrangement. But I do want to be able to play with my wife (who plays ukulele) and I do want to be able to just jam with other people. My wife was playing her uke when I got home from my guitar lesson just a bit ago, so I picked up my acoustic and we started playing “A Horse With No Name” together. I was really happy with how we did. We stayed in time really well, especially considering that we were strumming slightly different rhythms. But I want to keep working on more songs together. About a month or two ago I bought a song book that has parts for MANY different stringed instruments to at least make sure that when we choose a song, we’re playing in the same key!
I’m going to continue going to the lessons/jams with the guitar group in town. On Saturday we spent an hour working on and playing Kansas City before moving on to other songs and that was great for me. I want to get to the point where I’m pretty comfortable playing with others.
There’s a really cool monthlong music meet here that has a whole week dedicated to guitar seminars and jams and stuff. That happens in the summertime and I really want to go.
Another thing that I feel like I’m inching closer towards is being able to play and sing at the same time. Currently, it’s either one or the other for me. I cannot do both. But I am starting to feel more comfortable with rhythms and at least most of the basic chords that those things are feeling a bit more automatic and that I have a bit more mental bandwidth to work with.
I’m really looking forward to more guitar-playing this year. I feel like a number of things are coming together and I’m building on some others that will pay dividends in the longer term. The biggest of those longer-term items is my work with barre chords. My instructor was itching most of the year to start having me work on them and I finally relented in the last 2 mo or so of last year. They’re still difficult for me, but I’m seeing real progress with them. My instructor has also had me working on scales in a push to get me to start improvising solos (especially bluesy ones). I feel like as long as I continue to work on them, I’ll see improvement there, too.
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), especially improving one’s technique. However, due to my recent musical interests, I definitely plan on learning or creating new chord progressions for genres such as smooth jazz and R&B/Neo-soul. No rush, though, being retired I’ve got plenty of time to spend on practicing and composing.
.
) but just to share the good vibes and self-assess, like for example the aspects of the playing that got improved in that month’s practice. I know there’s a lot of value in playing whole songs from start to finish, but sometimes/often I feel the task too big for me and I just make short recordings.
Many thanks in advance to all those who’ll let me know 
), for now I just want to take the ingredients and tools I currently have and make some nice meals out of them.
