Question: Is just learning songs on guitar enough to improve my guitar playing and become a great player?

Tom Hess's Answer: You cannot become a truly great guitarist by exclusively learning the songs of other guitarists. To become great, you must work with a great guitar teacher to develop a strategy that will help you effectively improve many areas of your playing at once - while ALSO helping you reach your highest musical goals. That said, learning songs on guitar can be beneficial when you do so in order to learn what makes the guitarists who made them so great. For example, you can learn A TON about becoming a great guitarist by studying the guitar styles of virtuoso players John Petrucci, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen. Whenever you learn to play songs on guitar, do not mindlessly play the notes, think about what makes the music so great – and HOW this can be applied into your own guitar playing.

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