A lot of parents keep track of their kids’ growth by making marks on a wall. Kids love it because they’re excited about getting taller. Try doing a guitar player version of the growth chart.
As you practice guitar or work through a program like Fretboard Biology, it’s important to measure your progress. Improvement rarely comes in big spurts. It comes over time, after a lot of practice. But then there are those special moments when you realize you can do something that you couldn’t do before. You’re taller!
I encourage you to start a growth chart for your guitar playing. Archive recordings of yourself and timestamp them. At a minimum, save recordings of yourself soloing over tracks. Lock them away like a time capsule and mark a date on your calendar in 6 months or a year when you will give them a listen. Don’t listen to them too soon because you won’t progress fast enough to hear a difference. Let some time pass.
You can also save recordings of other things you practice on guitar — technical things like scales, arpeggios and sequences.
Reward systems are important and seeing progress is a great reward.
