The 20 Hours Model

Josh Kaufman's book showed millions of people how to learn a new skill in 20 hours. It absolutely works. Below is an outline on how I use this method to teach guitar. Josh's website is here and a summary follows my outline.

So you want to learn to play some songs on the guitar. You've maybe had lessons or watched some YouTube videos or taken online courses. You're passionate about learning. You put your heart into it. Your family supports you wholeheartedly and gives you a wide berth to practice banging out a song or two. "What do you think?" you ask. "It's great!!" they reply. "Well don't you recognize what I was playing?? you ask. Their sheepish looks lets you know the truth. "It was Sweet Home Alabama!" you exclaim. But some of the wind goes out of your sails. You wonder if you'll ever figure it out. At some point the guitar goes back in the closet.

Here's the thing about learning: Without some gratification every so often it can quickly become tedious and frustrating. Kids don't take the process to heart as much as adults do. But as adults we have limited time and resources to devote and if we don't see some results we have to move on to other things.

Here's how I remedy that:

• Like I said in my introduction, learning in a group is the best way. Not only will you have camaraderie with your fellow students, you will also learn from watching each other.
• To play guitar your left hand needs to learn to form chords while your right hand learns to strum (or pick). If you're left-handed the process is reversed. The only way to make this happen is by rote. You simply have to do it enough times that it becomes automatic.
  
  Strumming with your right hand is the easy part. Most people who want to learn guitar have already spent a considerable amount of time playing air guitar and have this part down. I'll show you how to count the beats while you're strumming but other than that this will basically require coordination.
  
  Note: I've only had one student in over 300 that wasn't coordinated enough to play guitar. Interestingly, he went on to learn piano and got quite good!
  
  For the left hand chording I'll show you an exercise to speed up rote learning so your brain recognizes the movements as quickly as possible. This requires the most time but what's great is you don't even have to be strumming and making any sound while you practice this. If you'd like, you can practice while you're sitting on the couch watching TV! Repetition is the key; the more times you practice the movements that sooner you'll master those chords so you can move on to more.
  
• Practice in short intervals. Practicing for 15 - 20 minutes at a time every day is much more efficient than practicing for three hours once a week. Generally this class is offered as a four week session, an hour and a half each. If you schedule another 3.5 hours of practice during that time you will have your twenty hours.
• Gratification. The main reason people give up on learning something new is because they can't see that they've made any progress and as a result don't get any gratification for their efforts. Without some fun, learning can quickly become a chore. That's why, during the very first class you'll learn several songs. You'll see how just three chords gives you an entire repertoire instantly.
• Becoming a master. The tools you'll learn are exactly the same thing all guitarists and songwriters use in blues, rock and roll, country and popular music: Three chords. Sometimes they'll use one set of three chords over another, or embellish chords for a different sound, or swap out one chord for another but the large majority of the songs you hear on the radio follow the same patterns. Therefore, once you have the basics down you can take your guitar playing in any direction you'd like. Commit to another twenty hours, get to a new level, rinse and repeat. 

Here's a summary of Kaufman's method:

Ten major principles of rapid skill acquisition

1. Choose a lovable project.
   The more excited you are about the skill you want to acquire, the more quickly you will acquire it.
2. Focus your energy on one skill at a time.Acquiring new skills requires a critical mass of concentrated time and focused attention.  Both of these are scarce, so avoid spreading them over different skills simultaneously.
3. Define your target performance level.
   In a simple, specific sentence, describe how well you’d like to be able to perform the skill you are acquiring.
4. Deconstruct the skill into subskills.
   Break down the skills into the smallest possible parts, then focus on the critical subskills first.
5. Obtain critical tools.
   Insure you have all the resources you need before you begin. You can’t learn how to play tennis without a racket.
6. Eliminate barriers to practice.
   Make sure there are no things that can get in the way of practice. Your resources should be easily available; your environment should be free of distractions; and your mind should be free of emotional blocks.
7. Make dedicated time for practice.
   No one ever finds time for anything; if you want to find time, you must make time.
8. Create fast feedback loops.Get accurate information about your performance as quickly as possible, from coaches or capture devices (e.g. a video camera).
9. Practice by the clock in short bursts.Get a countdown timer and set it for twenty minutes. There’s only one rule: once you start the timer, you must practice until it goes off. Set aside time for three to five such practice sessions a day.
10. Emphasize quantity and speed.Ensure that you are practicing using form that’s good enough to satisfy your target performance level. Once you are practicing in good form at least 80 to 90 percent of the time, crank up the speed for faster speed acquisition.