I truly believe that the purpose of the guitar is to bring happiness to you and to others through music. Happiness is ultimately tied to success. Some people measure success in money, status, or fame. To me, these things are not success. They are by-products of success. Successful people are those who simply do their best to accomplish their realistic personal goals.

I’ll let you ponder my definition of success over an example. A musician with average natural ability decides that he wants to play music for a living. He practices very hard and starts to get gigs, but he struggles financially. Over the years, he hopped from band to band, but always managed to stay in the business by working hard, and he always made enough money to support his family. To me, this man is very successful. He got what he wanted. It was a realistic goal and he made it happen.

The first principle of success is optimism. Not everyone is gifted with natural skill, but everyone has the potential to make their musical dreams come true. If you do something positive each day, you are being productive and leading to your bigger goals. It’s easy to see the notes that we miss and the solos that we cannot play yet, but daily improvement will eventually allow you to play those hard solos and hit every note cleanly. This mindset encourages us to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The second principle of success is being selfless. Very few musicians are truly solo musicians. Often we have a drummer, bassist, vocalist, backup singers, etc. Not every song is intended to feature a roaring guitar solo. Remember, that you are paid to entertain an audience, not to entertain yourself by playing solos. The key is to play each song accurately and shine when the spotlight is meant to be on you. Selflessness is about working as a team and seizing the moment when it’s your turn to shine… and everyone should have their chance to do it.

Egos often hurt our ability to be selfless. I’ve seen many guitarists who are flat-out jealous that someone on stage is getting honored or praised. Typically, this person tries to diminish the performer by saying, “I could play that. That’s easy. They suck.” My response is typically, “Prove it. Get on stage.” Great guitarists are everywhere, but don’t bring someone down negatively. This is not constructive for them nor is it constructive for how people view you.

The third principle of guitarist success is dedication. With dedication, you improve yourself daily without compromise. I used to think of this principle as motivation, but then I realized that dedication is a better word. Sometimes you are not motivated but you are dedicated enough to make something happen. A good guitarist dedicates himself to improvement. The hard part is learning how to improve every time you pick up the guitar. To help with that, I wrote a few lessons and blogs on this site. ;-) In essence, dedication is about working hard to improve so you can reach your goals. I think we can all relate to the benefits of hard work.

The fourth principle is enjoyment. To me, this is the simplest and the most important. If you do not enjoy the journey of playing the guitar, you will not be dedicated, you will not be positive, and you certainly won’t be successful.

Every day I try to stay true to my four principles of success: optimism, selflessness, dedication, and enjoyment. It applies to more than just guitar; it applies to any activity in which you have realistic goals. I hope these principles help you look at how you can be a better guitarist. In the coming months, I’ll post blogs on each of these principles. Follow each of them and I guarantee that you will be a successful guitarist.