8 Steps To MAke

Learning The Guitar

Faster And Easier!
By Bob Murnahan
Do you remember what got you hooked on learning the guitar?
For me it was the sight of my frst guitar under the Christmas tree. I was 8 years old. It was one
of those life defning moments. Something that stops you in your tracks and changes the way
you think forever. That was 40 years ago. I have been playing the guitar from that point forward
and teaching others to play the guitar for 28 of those years.
In that time I have constantly been searching for the keys to make learning the guitar easier and
faster. I have had several teachers, some bad, some good and some great, purchased dozens of
books and videos on learning the guitar, and scrutinized my favorite players in an attempt to
discover the secret to learning the guitar.
I found the most powerful techniques not in the world of guitar but in psychology, specifcally
in a technology called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP provides a set of tools to
model the abilities of successful people and then teach those same abilities to others. One of the
key traits of all people of high achievement is that they know what they want. They have very
clear goals.
NLP has developed a process called the well formed outcome. Its like goal setting on steroids.
Working through the 8 steps of the well formed outcome will provide you with a very clear road
map to get you from where you are to where you want to be.
In this report you will learn the well formed outcome as it applies to learning the guitar. Read
this report and things will mysteriously shift in your brain. You will chart a course that will be
incredibly powerful in helping you to learn the guitar. Ive had many of these defning moments
but I missed most of them on my frst reading or learning experience. Some of these were mere
sentences and I brushed past them in a hurry.
Only later when I and delved into the depth of the learning, did I understand the power and in-
tensity of it all. We tend to dismiss things that are too simple as being too simple. This report is
tiny--but extremely powerful when you apply the lessons inside.
I urge you to read this report but more importantly to use it. Set your own well formed out-
comes and experience the benefts for yourself. It will make learning the guitar faster and easi-
er. What are you waiting for? Get going. Do it now!
To your guitar playing success,
Bob Murnahan
2013 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved
The Well Formed Outcome
I would like to share with you the concept of the well formed outcome. The well formed out-
come enables you create effective goals that motivate you and pull you into the future.The well
formed outcome enables us to identify what we want and organize our actions into defnite and
positive steps to make our desires and hopes real. The well formed outcome can be applied in
all areas of your life, not just guitar playing.
All set? Here we go, step by step through the well formed outcome.
Step 1. What do you want?
Sounds kind of obvious, does it not? Yet most people dont have clearly defned goals when it
comes to playing the guitar. When the mind has a defned target, it can focus until it reaches its
intended target. If you aim at nothing, youre sure to hit it.
NLP has discovered that the way you think about a goal makes a big difference. You can think
about a goal in a way that makes it almost impossible to achieve, or you can think of that same
goal in a way makes it easier to reach. The following steps are provided to make sure that you
are thinking of your goal in ways that make it easier to achieve.
Step 1a. Make sure your outcome is stated in positive terms. Specifcally describe what you do
want. For example, I want to play solid rhythm guitar to accompany myself when I sing. A
different outcome might be, I want to learn how to play and improvise on a 12 bar blues.
Step 1b. State what you can do (what lies within your area of control) to help you reach your
goal. If your goal involves having Eric Clapton show you how to play, that is not under your
control. What is the one thing you could do today to help you reach your outcome. You could
decide to buy a book and learn one new lick, or transcribe a lick off of a cd by one of your fa-
vorite guitarists. State things that you can initiate and maintain.
Step 1c. State in sensory based words. Dont just say I want to play blues like Eric Clapton.
What will you and or others see, hear and feel when you have your outcome.
For example, I see myself playing in a 4 piece band. I am moving and playing with confdence.
I see myself executing a classic blues lick ending with a bend into the perfect note. See what
your body would look like and how your fngers would be moving. Be as specifc as possible.
This gives your brain info about what to do.
2013 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved
Imagine that future you. Experience what it feels like to be playing like you want to play. Imag-
ine the feel of the strings against your fngers. The sensations in your muscles and body as you
play. The joy that comes from creating the sounds you want to hear.
Now become aware of what you will be hearing. The sound of your guitar coming from your
amp. Will it be a clean tone or a dirty tone, or are you playing acoustic guitar with no amp at
all? Really get into how you will sound.
The more specifc you can be, the more real your goal becomes and will draw you into creating
that future.
Step 1d. State in appropriate chunk size. If your outcome seems large and overwhelming, chunk
the outcomes down to bits and pieces that are doable. Pick specifc small steps that you can
achieve on a regular basis. These small successes will keep you moving forward to the big goal.
Step 1e. What will reaching the goal do for you? Sometimes your outcome makes sense when
considered separately, but in the big picture it wont really take you where you want to go. For
example: You spend time every day learning how to read music because you think its neces-
sary in learning to play the guitar. But what you really want is to be able to play around the
campfre at night. Your time could be better spent mastering some basic chord progressions and
learning some basic fngerpicking and strumming techniques.
Step 2. How will you know when you have it?
Some people have no way of knowing if they have reached their goals. If you have no way to
measure your goals then you never get to experience the satisfaction of achieving them. And
that lack of satisfaction can lead to a loss in motivation. You need an evidence procedure in
place to determine whether your day to day actions are taking you closer to your outcome.
Step 2a. Does the evidence relate closely to the goal? Make sure your evidence provides you
with good, realistic feedback about whether you are reaching your goal. Lets again say that
my goal is to play like Eric Clapton and my evidence that I am reaching that goal is when my
friends tell me I sound great. Now thats all fne and dandy but my friends might just tell me
that because they dont want to hurt my feelings.
More appropriate evidence would be something measurable. For example: using a metronome
when practicing the blues scale to track speed, memorizing one new lick per week and being
able to play along with Clapton note for note with a CD or becoming aware of the feeling in
your hands and noticing that the playing is coming easier.
2013 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved
Step 3. Where, when and with whom do you want it?
Its very important to think about where you do and dont want your goal. Again, if your goal is
to play like Eric Clapton, do want to play like Eric Clapton all of the time. Playing a gig at the
church social may not be the best time to break into Crossroads! Over time you might be more
interested in developing your own style as opposed to copying you favorite guitarist.
Think about some of the sensory based descriptions from step 1c. Are there some specifc cues
there that might let you know that its time to put your new skills on exhibit. If one aspect of
your goal is to be playing with confdence and you dont yet have the skills to do that, you may
want to use a different feeling like curiosity, or knowing I can use my mistakes to improve my
skills.
Again, be specifc. What will you see, hear, or feel that will let you know that it is time to have
your goal.
Step 4. How will your goal affect other aspects of your life?
Make sure you take the time to consider the positive and negative consequences of reaching
your goal. You might ask yourself questions like, How might this affect important people in
my life if I get it? Are you going to have to give up something else that you value in order to
attain this goal?
If you start with an unrealistic goal just asking this simple and important question, What will
this goal get for me? In doing so you can often discover the goal of the goal so to speak. This
can lead to having more basic and worthwhile goals, and to moving towards them more directly.
Knowing what you really want can help you have much more fexibility in obtaining it more
easily.
Step 5. What has stopped you from having your goal already?
What has stopped you from becoming the player you want to be? Is it the time involved? Does
the television take up valuable practice time? Maybe its a belief like learning the guitar is
harder than I thought. Take a look at what has stopped you in the past and see what steps you
can take to overcome these limitations.
2013 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved
Step 6. Find your existing resources.
What resources do you have that can propel you towards your goal? Do you have all the learn-
ing materials you need? A good teacher? Is your guitar suitable for learning? A guitar that is not
set up properly or that is diffcult to play on can be very discouraging. Maybe you have lots of
motivation and desire. Organization can be another valuable resource. Take inventory of all the
resources that you already have at your disposal. Knowing how much you already have pro-
vides a sense of accomplishment and a solid basis for learning the additional skills you need.
Step 7. What additional resources do you need?
What additional resources do you need to meet your goals? Maybe its one of the things listed
above or maybe its something else. Do you need a music stand? If so, put it on the list. Perhaps
you need to fnd other players to jam with and learn from. Take the time now to list any addi-
tional resources you might need.
Step 8. Make a plan.
How are you going to get there? Answer this to the best of your ability. Do you need to fnd
a good teacher? How about organizing a lesson plan? Any equipment you need? How about
a metronome? Figure out now the frst step that you are going to take in order to achieve your
goals. Make sure this frst step is specifc and achievable. What can you do now to move in the
direction of your goal and what feedback will let you know are moving in that direction?
If you take the time to work through the well formed outcome presented in this report you will
experience accelerated learning. Use the well formed outcome to set long and short-term goals.
Use it to set daily, weekly, monthly and one year goals. Even longer ones if you desire. The
short-term goals allow you to have frequent successes. Those frequent successes will keep you
motivated to achieve your long term goals.
I am very interested in any feedback or comments you have concerning this or any other matters
on your mind. Please drop me a line at bmurnahan@gmail.com.
To your guitar playing success.
Bob Murnahan
2013 www.leadguitartactics.com All rights reserved