“One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.” – Jack Penn

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.” – Marilyn vos Savant

Can ya relate?

While those quotes (and there are many, many more) apply to just about everything we do in life, I’m gonna tell you how this relates to guitar. Because after all, this is a newsletter about GUITAR.

How often have you tried working on a song, lead solo and felt you were failing more than succeeding?

Or, maybe it was a finger exercise?

Maybe it was trouble forming some real tricky chords?

Or something as simple as getting a note on the guitar to actually sound good?

I could go on but hopefully you get the idea..

Can ya relate?

That first quote is one that really resonates right now. All those stumbling blocks you make in your playing are really just stepping stones to get you where you want to go.

The big key is to never give up.

It’s easy to let life get in the way. I know, it happens to me all the time.

But, sometimes you just have to persevere. There is always a way to your destination as long as you are willing to look for the path.

In case you might have missed it, a couple weeks ago I talked about tracking your progress. Here is the link to my blog article where I get into more detail: Track Your Progress.

I decided to document taking my own medicine that I often give my private students.

I encountered a challenge from a You Tube friend of mine, Anthony Couch, to learn a sweep picking lick on guitar.

If you don’t know what sweep picking is, it is a picking technique on guitar where you literally sweep your pick across the strings. It’s often used in fast solos. It’s popular in metal (although not exclusive to that genre) and a lot of the guitar greats use it.

However, it isn’t one that I have used in my playing a lot. So I took the challenge.

And also decided to document it.

It was very hard for me at the beginning. But, I had to learn the lick. Then start slow and build up to play it to the speed.

But it was a lesson in perseverance. It could have been so easy to give up on it:

After all, I play other styles well enough. I have other things in my life to do. I don’t have time to figure out something new. Blah, blah, blah…

So I stuck with it. I’m still not there yet (I am going to follow up on my progress), but here is the video I made (done with some humor, I mean, what else can you do with your failures but simply laugh at them?).

So, if you want to see me fail, here is your chance! lol

=====================================

Here is how I learned a sweep picking lick on guitar by tracking my progress on video. No matter what you are learning on guitar, whether you are a beginner or are advanced, you should ALWAYS TRACK YOUR PROGRESS!

In all my many years of playing sweep picking was never a technique that I did much of. Here, you can see why! 🙂

I saw the lick on Anthony Couch’s You Tube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OEc_SBloyM

Thanks for watching the video!
======================================
Click below to SUBSCRIBE for more videos on my channel:
:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRHnwFtz4XeIo-_eOnn_6TQ?sub_confirmation=1

Rock On!
Tony G

=========================================
Website: https://sixstringcorner.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sixstringcorner/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonysrockguitar_6stringcorner/