Punch Through Plateaus In Your Playing - Featuring Jamie Andreas

by Tom Boddison
•
08 Aug, 2017

The highly-acclaimed Jamie Andreas (of Guitar Principles) is here to give us some excellent advice on getting past frustrating plateaus on the guitar.

Every guitar player, at some point in their development, hits a plateau.

It's frustrating, isn't it? When no matter how hard you try, you just can't seem to get to the next level.

It's as if there's an invisible wall in front of you, preventing you from progressing.

Thankfully, Jamie has some excellent strategies for conquering guitar plateaus - focusing on the mental aspect of the problem, which as she points out is often the most important issue.

Plateaus - Jamie Andreas

A student once asked me “how do you handle it when you hit a plateau, when you feel like you are stuck and you can’t get past the level you are at”. Now, of course, this is a common experience for all players, and a common question as well.

I believe we all know that the usual reaction to this situation is a negative one; frustration perhaps mixed with anger, and a little despair thrown in for good measure! When we can’t get something to sound the way we hear someone else play it, even after lots of practice and lots of time, it IS a very frustrating, annoying situation.

At the very least, we want to hear ourselves making that wonderful music we admire, and more than that, we want to feel like we are getting somewhere as guitarists for the effort we put in, and that we have the ability to make continuous progress.

So, when we keep getting negative feedback, in the form of repeated failed attempts to be able to do something, it starts to take the wind out of our sails, and we begin to lose confidence in ourselves. Diminished desire for practising usually follows rather quickly.

So, what DO we do about this unavoidable situation?

The answer lies in understanding the point I made in my essay “The Inner Master” (Read it when you've finished this; it helps to put this advice into context - Tom). We must understand what Mastery is, and why it is possible to be, in essence, a Master right from the beginning of our relationship to music and the guitar. And that is because Mastery is an inner attitude and disposition. It is the inner position in which there is no obstruction from the outside to the inside, and no obstruction from the inside to the outside.

Sure, people who are called “Masters” hit plateaus, but they have learned not to react in ways that will prevent

eventual transcendence of the limitations of that level of ability. They have learned that all negative reactions will

prevent moving beyond the plateau. The only possible exception to this is the person who has learned the wonderful art of turning anger into an ally, using frustration as a fuel for determination; even in this case, the anger is

handled with mastery, and not allowed to become an obstacle, but that is another essay!

The Master has realised the wisdom expressed so eloquently in the New Testament “resist not evil”. The meaning of this is simply this: the way to overcome that which we do not like is not to resist and resent it, because that

only strengthens it, and weakens us. It is to “remain in place” inwardly, to study it, to understand it, and then to act.

Then, we achieve power, which is the ability to create change.

And so, knowing this, what does the Master do when they find themselves on a plateau? Why, they build a château

on the plateau, and take up residence there! They say, “Hmmm, something is going on here that I don’t understand,

so I am going to stay here and study the landscape. I will focus my attention so strongly on what I CAN see that I

will begin to see more.”. The master knows the reason for being stuck is because there is something sitting there, at

that level, that needs to be known.

So the Master sits, and studies, and if there is one thing a Master has, it’s patience!

For someone who has not discovered the inner position of mastery, the reaction to being “stuck on a plateau”

is quite different. For such a person, there ARE obstructions from the inside to the outside, and the outside to the

inside, and the obstructions arise quickly-- anger, resentment, and feelings of inadequacy (inner obstructions)

appear and intensify in reaction to negative events (outside obstructions).

If these feelings were examined, if these feelings were seen as judgements about reality rather than “facts” about reality, the road to mastery would begin to become visible. If these feelings were examined, we would find that it is not really the natural frustration of not getting what we want that is the biggest problem, but rather, it is the fact that we are, underneath that, allowing ourselves to feel inferior and inadequate. THAT is the real culprit.

Like children watching their parents divorce, we conclude immediately “there must be something wrong with

me, that is why this bad thing is happening”. In both these cases, this conclusion may appear to be justified, given

our level of understanding, but it is not the truth. The Master may feel these feelings too, but unlike the novice, the

Master neither runs from these feelings, or merely accepts them as valid. Rather, they simply become part of the

scenery to be surveyed.

The novice feels such emotional pain from these feelings that they are helpless to do anything but try to avoid

them. The novice shuts his eyes, and covers his feelings. In fact, the novice wishes to leave the plateau more out of

a desire to avoid feelings of inferiority than by the desire to really enjoy a higher level of ability.

Unlike the novice, the master does not identity with these feelings; they may arise, but the Master does not give

these feelings the power to define who he or she is, or can become.

Just because I feel like I am inferior, or unable, is no reason to assume I actually am; that would be a very dangerous belief to adopt on such dubious evidence. And so, the Master sets aside these feelings, and sits, and studies.

The Master becomes so involved in the process of communing with the conditions of the plateau that the desire to

leave it becomes secondary to the interest and adventure of learning all of what is there.

Because of this, the depth of understanding of the Master increases, and the rising to a new level of ability appears

automatically.

All of what you see in The Principles is the result of my time spent, sometimes many years, on my own plateaus.

Or, it is from the study of the plateaus upon which my students have found themselves. I have never seen a plateau

from which I or my students could not eventually rise.

Because the Master does not allow frustration and despair to obstruct the flow from the inside to the outside, he

or she is led to relate in the best and most appropriate way to the level of awareness called “the plateau”. And so, no

obstructions from the outside to the inside occur. The so called “plateau” becomes the teacher, and instructs the

Master/Student in the wisdom that is necessary to rise higher.

And so it goes, and so it goes.

Jamie Andreas is the author of the world acclaimed method for guitar "The Principles of Correct Practice For Guitar". Called "The Holy Grail" of guitar books, and "The International Bible Of Guitar", the Principles has enabled thousands of students worldwide who tried and failed to learn to play guitar for years or even decades, to become real guitar players.

In 2012 Jamie was profiled in the book "Guitar Zero" (Penguin Press 2012), a study of how adults learn to play guitar. NYU Professor Dr. Gary Marcus interviewed some of the worlds leading guitarist/teachers, including jazz legend Pat Martino and Tom Morello ("Rage Against The Machine"). He said.

"Another teacher who impressed me immensely was Jamie Andreas. The more we talked, the more impressed I became. Jamie is one of the few teachers who is interested in the relationship between muscle and brain and how to use one's body efficiently. Swim coaches and golf teachers consider such questions all the time, but it is decidedly rare in the field of guitar instruction.

Jamie continues to make her unique teaching methods available through her website www.guitarprinciples.com.