Goals for 26
I’d like to :
Finishlearning Wonderful tonight and try another version if I can
I learn the record version but there is an amazing live version that Id like to try
Start learning River of tears
Do BLIM as a medium goal
Consolidate it as a long term goal
Work on Transcribing
Buy a new guitar and a new amp or a couple of pedals to tweak the sound of the amp I already have
I gotta talk about it with my teacher
Looking back on 2025, I have continued playing rhythm guitar with the band, building on my experiences during 2024 when I experienced playing with other musicians for the first time which led to playing to an audience for the first time when we put on some charity ‘Bands nights’ at our local village hall.
During 2025 we have been booked to play gigs at other local venues which has given me further experience, not to mention massively improving my confidence. However, the downside to all of this is that I have spent pretty much all of my guitar time this year working on songs for the bands set. There are gaps in my playing skills /technique as I have had to stop following Justin’s course just as I had reached the end of the beginner modules to concentrate on learning the songs for the band, so for 2026 I am hoping to try and put a bit more time towards working on my weak areas and I would also like to explore lead guitar. Already, during this festive break I have made a start with Justin’s Blues lead guitar modules and revisiting the A minor pentatonic scale.
Wishing everyone here a Happy new year, and I hope you all achieve your guitar goals in 2026.
Taking short breaks from playing can actually be extremely beneficial, you might find that once you pick the guitar back up your brain will have either finished processing what it was struggling with before or have recalibrated… and you’ll do much better.
In any case, I find it very unlikely that you really have regressed on the basic motor skills involved in playing. In reality, it’s probably more likely that you’ve developed your musical ear a bit more and are now listening with more detail and being a bit more critical towards the quality of what you’re playing. So you could say you’ve been getting better, not worse…
[quote="markr31, post:5, topic:406944”]
There’s no point in trying to learn anything new when I’m regressing on what I have already learned.
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I dont agree
I tend to do the opposite
Keeping to practice the same song and get frustrated over it is not good
but every time you practice something new you develop new skills or sharpen the ones you already have without being aware of it
and when later you come back on an old song you haven t practiced for months you realise you play it way better than before
each song is different so its important to not get stuck and frustrated
So Silvia, do you ever find time to sleep?
I didn’t touch a guitar for five days. It helped. I’m back to being mediocre. 
“goals” for the year? maybe not explicit achievement goals. I spent most of my time in 2025 focusing on rhythm and being able to play a simple rhythm in group settings. I improved a TON on that, though I still have a lot of work to do. I do want to change focus, though, because working on the same thing all the time gets boring.
I bought Justin’s solo blues lesson package and that’s going to be my learning focus moving forward (honestly it started as my learning focus shortly after I bought it).
I do want to do at least one open mic in 2026, though.
Oh, and I want to finish building my electric guitar and my wife’s electric ukulele within the first few months of the year.
I thought about you when I read this , it might help you
#1 Focus on the process, not the outcome
The goal “This month I’m going to learn 2 new songs” might sound sensible. But what if one of the sections in one of those songs is much more difficult than you anticipated?
Has the month been a failure, just because you didn’t quite get the song nailed?
Almost certainly not.
But by focusing on what you want to achieve, rather than what you can do to get there, it’s easy to end up in these binary win-or-lose situations, where you judge yourself too harshly and overlook how much progress you’ve actually made.
It’s why the most successful guitarists focus on how much they practice and how consistent they are in that practice, not on how far away they are from their goal.
Try not to get too wrapped up in how you’re tracking against your broader aim of becoming a more skilled guitarist. Instead, focus on what you can control - it will feel more motivating and will help you reach your goals much quicker.
Why do we have negative thoughts? It’s a self-protective mechanism. Your anxiety is stopping you from taking too much risk, it’s avoiding the humiliation that will surely come when your guitar playing sounds like crap. It’s a normal human state of mind, about 70% of our thoughts are negative in nature.
How to deal with negative thoughts. Don’t fight against it. Acknowledge that your anxiety is well meaning, it’s trying to protect you. The problem is that it’s misguided. Say to yourself “thank you anxiety for showing up but I don’t need you today. Now let’s move on to that amazing song I would love to learn how to play”.
Do you find that playing piano has helped your guitar playing? My wife has had a piano for over 20 years. I keep wondering if should learn to play it.
Happy New Year @jacksprat. I don’t think it helps directly with the mechanics of playing guitar, but it does help with understanding chord formation and voicings, and other aspects of musical theory. I always prefer playing guitar though. Give it a go!
A technical playing goal, a perfroamnce goal an a gear goal, all in a growing context.
This is actually a good set of things to go for in my book 
Indeed, if you are learning theory, and you have a piano nearby, it can help visualize on one dimension. Applying theory on the scale of C makes it easy to visualize because you only use the white keys and you see how a chord shape moves left and right. You will see how making the the “middle” note in a major triad just one step lower (‘flattened’), it becomes minor etc.
Impressive! 
I like how you made your reflections, opportunities and threats explicit in your “Thoughts” part
Michael, I’m writing down today (paper and pen) just a few essential reminders for everyday life, one of them will be
Don’t skip the Gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays
because the physical fatigue will turn off the mind and make me sleep well at night - no good rest no effective guitar practice.
Another one will be
At Breakfast prefer Fette biscottate and honey to biscuits
(rusks that are made with a slightly sweet bread)
because honey is a super food, so good for the brain and delicious too…and right after breakfast I have my morning guitar session.
Now…the Internet is full of Life Hacks and mine are good for myself so I guess I can avoid to share all of them.
But really, I rarely have the privilege to practice more than 1hour/day.
I’ve been thinking about replacing all the instruments I’ve “learned” over the years. My wife learned to play flute in school and even performed in a flute choir for awhile at work and she still has her flutes. I learned trumpet early in school, but it was a low-quality and rather beat-up instrument that we passed along to another student who couldn’t afford anything nicer when I stopped. I haven’t played trumpet for a solid 35yrs, but I would bet certain aspects of it come back. Not that I’d necessarily be looking to buy a really nice trumpet. But at least a “student” grade instrument that’s in good condition.
More useful, though, I took a piano course in college and was reasonably good at it. Left hand independence was my major sticking point and I couldn’t play everything exactly how it was written later in the class, but I was also just good enough on the theory side that I was able to simplify the parts so that I was only playing a melody with one hand and chords with the other. It has also been awhile since I played piano (a bit over 20yrs for that), but again, I wouldn’t be starting from scratch on it. I’d be able to work through the introductory material again as a refresher without too much trouble.
Both would help me to brush up on reading music (standard music notation). I’m sure thinking about music in that way would help me to shift my thinking about the guitar fretboard in a similar context and to start connecting ideas. And plus it would be fun.
I like reading other people’s goals and how they are approaching goal-setting because it’s not something I’m very good at for myself! (BTW—@lievenDV, as somebody whose job is in strategy I appreciate you separating strategy and tactics! 
)
I think the difficulty I have is shiny object syndrome: I watch and read so much guitar content that I want to learn all the things. Then I chase after things, don’t really master them, and move on to something else leaving big gaps in my playing. Or, I get impatient and move on when things are “good enough” (but they aren’t really). I have to remember that most people don’t care how fast I can play a major scale. They care about how beautifully I can play a favourite song.
For 2026, I want to embrace slow learning and a back to basics approach. I need to really nail some of the fundamentals and be able to play some things very cleanly before I ramp up the speed or move on to the next thing.
With that in mind, I want 2026 to be the year where I slow down, work on sharpening basic tools, and learn real songs and music rather than doing scales and exercises. I have a lot of knowledge but I need to apply it.
So this year, my goals are:
I’m a bit late to this one - maybe be cause I was in the consolidation phase of Grade 2, maybe not. And I’m writing it now because I’m largely away from my instruments for 3 weeks or so.
Review of 2025
I set a goal with the church worship band of being able to play guitar in a service by September if I wasn’t required on bass or piano. In my mind that meant being able to play power chords as they are a get out of jail card when you don’t know some of the chords. I achieved that goal and played twice in church.
I started having guitar lessons because I’d bought a nice electric guitar and because it was becoming a pain finding a guitar player if our’s couldn’t make jam night. I decided it would be easier for me to play guitar and find a bass player for those occasions. I played guitar once in the band towards the end of 2025.
2026 goals
Continue playing in church (when we don’t need me on bass or piano) and at Jam night as a competent replacement for our excellent guitar player. This is an easy goal (I have gigged on guitar twice already, am rota’d for 1 church service, have another guitar gig lined up with likely more to follow).
Note, wrt the above one, I’m making the assumption I’m competent - maybe I should actually ask people who’ll provide a fair opinion for the feedback though. I’ll think about it (ignorance may be bliss😀).
Work on grade 3 with Justin guitar whilst trying to ensure it doesn’t get in the way of being as good a bass player as the bands I play in want and expect me to be. Working on grade 3 is easy (already started), balancing with bass commitments is more difficult (particularly now when I’m working overseas a lot).
Hi David, thanks for sharing your goals, it was a great read!
I think I have the same syndrome 
I can relate to this , and it surely is a well pondered, rational, doable plan; it’s very similar to mine and it’s working well with me so far. The direction you want to give to your practice is very clear and I’m sure it’ll help you to progress.
