And How to Be the One Who Doesn’t
You know that guitar in your closet? The one you swore you’d finally learn to play this time?
You’re not alone. And here’s something that might surprise you: it’s probably not your fault you quit.
After 30+ years of teaching guitar in Northeast Ohio, I’ve watched this play out hundreds of times. Someone gets excited, buys a guitar, dives into YouTube or downloads an app or signs up for an online course… and three months later the guitar is leaning against the wall collecting dust.
They tell themselves they weren’t disciplined enough. They didn’t have enough talent. They’re too old. They’re too busy.
None of that is true. The real reason most people quit guitar has nothing to do with who they are. It has everything to do with how they tried to learn.
What Actually Causes People to Quit
I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count. Someone calls me and says “I tried learning guitar a few years ago and it didn’t work out.” So I ask them how they went about it. And the answer is almost always some version of the same story.
They watched YouTube videos. Maybe bought a course. Maybe even took lessons for a while from a teacher who showed them things and sent them home to figure out how to practice it on their own. So they practiced when they felt like it, skipped it when they didn’t, and slowly realized they weren’t really getting anywhere. Eventually, the frustration won, and the guitar went into the closet.
Here’s what happened: nobody gave them a path. They had information coming at them from every direction, but no structure, no plan, no one keeping them on track, and no way to know if what they were practicing was even correct. That’s not a recipe for learning. That’s a recipe for quitting.
The guitar industry is happy to sell you a $200 course or a $9.99/month app. What they won’t tell you is that without someone guiding you through the process, holding you accountable, and correcting your mistakes in real time, you’re fighting an uphill battle with no map.
The Accountability Problem Nobody Talks About
Let me tell you something I’ve observed over three decades: the students who succeed and the students who quit are rarely separated by talent. They’re separated by accountability.
When you’re learning on your own, every practice session is optional. There’s no one expecting you to have that chord transition clean by next Tuesday. There’s no one who’s going to know if you skipped practicing for a week. There’s no moment where you have to sit in front of someone and show what you’ve been working on.
So what happens? Life gets in the way. Netflix sounds better than fighting with barre chords. You tell yourself you’ll practice tomorrow. And tomorrow turns into next week, and next week turns into “I guess I’m not a guitar person.”
That’s not a character flaw. That’s human nature. Without structure and accountability, even the things we genuinely want tend to slide. This is true for exercise, for diets, for learning any new skill. Guitar is no different.
The difference between “I should practice” and “I told my instructor I’d have this ready by our next lesson” is enormous. One is a wish. The other is a commitment. And in my experience, commitment is what separates the people who play guitar from the people who tried to play guitar.
Why Some Students Progress Surprisingly Fast
This is why so many of my younger students progress surprisingly fast. It’s not because kids learn quicker than adults — that’s actually a myth. It’s because when a kid shows interest in guitar, their parents go find an instructor right away. The kid doesn’t spend two years trying to figure it out on their own first. They don’t have time to develop bad habits. And they tend to follow direction because that’s how they’re wired at that age — the teacher says do it this way, they do it that way.
The adults who progress fastest do the exact same thing. They skip the trial-and-error phase and go straight to someone who can show them the right way from day one.
Andy is a perfect example. He’s a worship leader from Newbury who had been singing and playing piano for years. When his church needed a guitar player who could handle lead lines, he didn’t sit down with YouTube and try to figure it out himself — even with all that musical experience. He contacted me right away because he knew that working with a pro was the fastest way to get the specific skill he needed. That’s the mindset that gets results.
Same thing with Bryan, who works in Chardon. He didn’t have time to waste experimenting on his own, so he looked for help from the start. No ego, no “let me see if I can teach myself first.” Just a guy who wanted to play guitar and was smart enough to take the shortest path to get there.
If you’ve been trying to learn on your own and it hasn’t clicked yet, that doesn’t mean you’re behind. It means you’ve been taking the scenic route. The good news is you can get on the fast track any time you decide to.
What Most Guitar Lessons Get Wrong
Now, here’s where I need to be honest about something that might ruffle some feathers: taking lessons doesn’t automatically solve the problem. Because most guitar lessons are set up in a way that still leaves you on your own when it matters most.
Here’s what a typical lesson looks like. The teacher demonstrates a new chord or technique. You try it once or twice while they watch. They say “good, keep practicing that” and move on to the next thing. Or worse — they learn the song by ear for you and just show you what to play. Then you go home and realize you’re not actually sure how to practice what they showed you. Or you practice it wrong for a week and build bad habits that nobody catches until they’re already baked in.
That’s not training. That’s a lecture with a guitar in your hands.
My lessons are structured differently. My students aren’t just sitting there being fed information for thirty minutes. They’re actually practicing and training in the lesson — playing, drilling, working through skills — while I watch, correct, and guide in real time. When you’re training in the lesson, every rep counts because I’m there to catch the mistake before it becomes a habit. You walk out of my studio having already improved — not just hoping you understood the homework well enough to improve on your own.
Why don’t most teachers teach this way? Because most guitar teachers were never trained how to teach. They learned guitar, got decent at playing, and started teaching the way they were taught — which is usually just showing and hoping. Teaching someone to play isn’t the same skill as playing yourself. It requires understanding how to break down techniques, how to drill them effectively, and how to diagnose what’s actually holding a student back versus what they think the problem is.
The YouTube Trap
I want to be fair to YouTube for a second. There are some genuinely good guitar teachers putting out content online. The information is good if you receive it at the exact right time. But here’s the problem: as someone starting out, you don’t know which information you need right now.
An experienced player can watch a random YouTube video and instantly recognize what concept is being taught and where it fits in the bigger picture. A beginner can’t. You don’t have the map yet. So you end up bouncing from video to video, learning a little of this and a little of that, with no idea how any of it connects.
A video can’t look at where you’re stuck and say “Stop. You’re not ready for that yet. Here’s what you actually need right now.” It can’t watch your hands and tell you that the reason your chord changes are slow is because your thumb is in the wrong spot. It can’t hear the subtle buzzing you don’t even know is there.
Knowing about something and actually being able to do it are two very different things. If information was all it took, everyone sitting at home watching YouTube videos about guitar would be a great player. And we both know that’s not the case.
YouTube gives you the what. A good teacher gives you the what, the why, the how, and the when — in the right order, customized to you.
What the Students Who Make It Do Differently
After thirty years, I can usually tell within the first few lessons whether a student is going to make it. And it has nothing to do with natural ability.
The students who succeed do three things. They find qualified instruction early instead of trying to figure it out alone. They follow the plan their teacher lays out instead of chasing shiny objects on the internet. And they show up consistently and do the work during lessons.
That second one is worth pausing on. I can tell within the first few lessons when a student is going to fight the process. “So and so on YouTube said to do it this way.” “I think it feels better to hold the guitar like this.” They’re not being difficult on purpose — but they’re letting outside noise and old habits override the guidance they’re paying for. And that’s exactly why they’ll stay stuck. The students who progress fastest are the ones who trust the process, follow the direction, and commit to building a real foundation.
That’s it. That’s the whole formula.
Emily followed that formula and was playing all the local musicians’ nights within a year. Elliot followed it and went from barely knowing one song to playing in multiple bands and planning a move to Nashville. Andy followed it and became the guitar player his church needed. None of them had some special gift. They had a clear path, they trusted the process, and they stayed on it.
The students who struggle are almost always the ones who second-guess the program, skip practicing between lessons, or disappear down YouTube rabbit holes looking for shortcuts that don’t exist.
It’s Not Too Late
If you’ve tried learning guitar before and quit, you probably blamed yourself. Not talented enough. Not disciplined enough. Too old to start.
None of that was the problem. The problem was the approach. You were trying to learn without structure, without accountability, without someone who could see what you couldn’t see and fix what you didn’t know was broken.
The guitar in your closet doesn’t have to stay there. But the same approach that didn’t work last time isn’t going to work now. Different results require a different system.
If you’re ready to stop wondering whether you can learn guitar and start actually doing it, click the button below to schedule a free trial lesson. No pressure, no pitch — just a honest conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there without wasting any more time.
About The Author
Brian Fish is a professional guitarist who has been dedicated to helping other guitar players in Northeast Ohio pursue their musical dreams since 1994. He’s passionate about guiding others on their musical journey! He is the Guitar Playing Transformation Specialist, instructor, mentor, trainer, and coach at
Guitar Lessons Geauga.
Brian has also assisted people from around the globe in developing a solid sense of timing and enhancing their creativity through the fantastic rhythm course, “Ultimate Rhythm Mastery,” available at MusicTheoryForGuitar.com.
If you live in Geauga County / North East Ohio, Guitar Lessons Geauga can help you become the player you’ve always wanted to be.