5 Mistakes Adult Guitar Players Make (And How to Fix Them)
5 Mistakes Adult Guitar Players Make (And How to Fix Them)
Hey guys, Brad Litton from SimpleGuitar.com. This blog post transcribes my YouTube video on the five mistakes I see adult guitar players make over and over — the ones that keep people stuck for months, sometimes years.
I just hit 6 years on YouTube. After teaching thousands of adult players, these are the traps that show up again and again. The frustrating part is most of the time the person thinks the problem is them — that they're not talented enough, or they started too late. It's almost never that.
If you've been playing for a while and you still feel like a perpetual beginner, this one's for you.
Most of the people I work with are adults — 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. Busy, jobs, families, a lot of them have tried and quit before. The adult brain learns differently than a kid's. We understand things faster, but we also get in our own way faster. These five mistakes are usually the reason.
Mistake 1: Trying to Hold Too Many Things in Your Head at Once
You sit down and you're trying to remember the chord shape, keep the strumming going, stay in time, mute the strings you don't want, and maybe sing. Your brain is maxed out. Everything feels clumsy. You walk away thinking you're not cut out for this.
What's actually happening is cognitive overload. Your working memory can only handle a few things at once. Pile too much on, and nothing gets the attention it needs. None of it becomes automatic.
The fix: pick one thing. Get that one thing clean and comfortable until your hands start doing it without you thinking about it. Then add the next piece. That's how you move skills out of your head and into your body. Once enough of them live in your body, playing starts to feel like music instead of a mental checklist.
Mistake 2: Inconsistent or "Heroic" Practice
A lot of adults wait until they have a free hour, or they try to make up for lost time with a long weekend session. That almost never works long-term.
The players who actually break through get the guitar in their hands most days, even if it's only 10 or 15 minutes. Short and consistent beats long and sporadic every single time. Your hands and your brain need frequent contact. When you only play once or twice a week, you're basically starting over every session.
The fix: stop waiting for the perfect block of time. Put the guitar on a stand in the room where you actually live. Play for 10 focused minutes. That's enough to keep progress moving.
Mistake 3: Neglecting Rhythm and Timing
This one surprises people. Most adult beginners spend almost all their attention on the fretting hand — chord shapes, every note ringing out. The right hand just kind of happens.
Here's the truth: clean chords with bad time still sound like a beginner. Imperfect chords with solid time already start to sound musical. Rhythm is the foundation. If the time is shaky, no amount of perfect chord changes will save it.
The fix: spend part of every practice session just on your strumming hand. Mute the strings and practice the pattern with a metronome, or play along with a real song and lock in with the drums. Your timing will improve faster than almost anything else you can work on.
Mistake 4: Playing on a Guitar That Fights You
I see this constantly. Someone is struggling with chord changes, fingers hurt, strings buzzing — and the action is really high, the strings are really heavy, or the guitar has never been properly set up.
Adults feel this more than kids. Higher action and heavier strings create extra resistance, and a lot of people interpret that physical struggle as "I'm just not good at this."
The fix: get the guitar set up. Lower the action. Consider lighter strings, especially while you're still building calluses and finger strength. Removing physical friction makes everything else easier and more enjoyable.
What I recommend: most of my students on electric play .008s. On acoustic, I put .010s on mine. Try that out.
Mistake 5: Waiting to Play Real Songs Until You Feel Ready
This might be the most emotional one. A lot of adults stay in exercise mode way too long — chord changes and strumming patterns in isolation, waiting until everything feels clean enough before they try an actual song.
The breakthrough almost always happens when you start playing real songs, even if they're messy. Anything worth doing is worth doing wrong to get started. You don't need to wait until you're good. You get good by playing songs.
The fix: pick simple tunes you actually like. Learn the verse, then the chorus, then connect them. It will sound imperfect at first. That's completely fine. That imperfect version is still doing more for your progress and your motivation than another week of isolated drills.
Recap
Those are the five:
- Trying to hold too many things in your head at once
- Inconsistent practice
- Neglecting rhythm
- Playing on a guitar that fights you
- Waiting too long to play real songs
None of these mean you're not talented. They're just common traps almost every adult player falls into. They're all fixable — and when you start fixing them, the guitar gets a lot more fun, a lot faster.
If this resonated, tell me which of these five you've struggled with the most.
If you want a simple place to start, grab my free Top 10 Things to Learn on Guitar First at http://simpleguitar.com/top10.
And hang out with other adult guitar players in the Simple Guitar Facebook group: http://facebook.com/groups/simpleguitar.
About the Author
Brad from Simple Guitar helps adult learners play the songs they love without the frustration. Visit simpleguitar.com for more free resources and lessons.
