Shy & Nervous Playing Guitar In Front Of Others? Here Are 6 Ways To Overcome Your Fear

If you feel like an anxious wreck at the thought of playing guitar around other people, you’re not alone. We'll help you tackle your fears & boost your self-confidence.

Fear and anxiety of playing guitar in front of others can lead to frustration and falling out of love with playing - and we don't want that!

1. Simplify, Don’t Complicate

Step number one in your offensive to beat your playing anxieties is to set realistic goals, and focus on learning some simple well known riffs & songs first.

Many newbie players make the huge mistake of trying to learn complicated pieces of music too soon. This results in you feeling you aren’t good enough, or ‘not cut out’ for guitar.

You feel you’re struggling.

This in turn makes you dread the thought of someone listening to you practising and making snarky comments.

Action Steps - Choose 1-2 simple guitar riffs to start learning. Think, Come As You Are, 7 Nation Army, or Satisfaction. If you’re stuck for more riff ideas check out these brilliant easy beginner guitar riffs. When you've nailed them, add another one to your To Do list.

Next, decide on one or two easy beginner friendly songs with simple chords and strumming patterns to start learning. Make a commitment to learn them from start to finish. Nobody wants to be that guy who 10 years down the line still doesn't know how to play any songs all the way through.

Always concentrate on developing good technique, and practice smart. Confidence comes with competence afterall.

The more you practice the riffs and songs, the better they’ll sound. If you hear someone hanging about outside your practice room, throw in a few riffs between those important but repetitive practice drills.

2. Practice VS Playing

If you share a house, dorm, flat or whatever with other people who've never picked up an instrument in their life, they might be clueless about what it really takes to learn an instrument.

Most people don’t realise you can only make sweet music on an instrument when you’ve actually learned how to play. And this requires practice. I don’t need to tell you, but proper practice calls for repetition. And lots of it.

When you’re practising guitar it’s not always meant to sound pretty.

You’re meant to be working on developing technique, strength and control. Practice is about developing your ear, playing that intro over and over to smooth out the kinks, learning theory, working out chords in songs etc.

Action Steps - Briefly enlighten people earwigging on you practising the difference between playing songs and practice. Ask them this: could a 90 pounds overweight guy run a marathon with only a weeks training?

No. he’d have to build up to it with days, weeks and months of hard work. Learning to play the guitar is the same. To be able to play songs requires you learn how to master playing the guitar first.

3.Plug-in

Action Steps - Quit being tough on yourself. Don’t spend time assuming you sound terrible. Most people who hear you playing will either think you sound great or won’t really care because they’re too busy stressing over their own worries.

The truth is, even if you’ve only been playing for a few weeks, you’ll already be sounding a million miles better than you did when you started.

5. Get Lessons

My job as a guitar tutor is not just showing my pupils what to learn. I am there to encourage, motivate and inspire. 

Do plenty of research and find yourself a great guitar teacher who will give you advice and encouragement to help you on your learning journey. Ideally find a teacher who's been personally recommended to you. Personal testimonial is important, as there are plenty of ropey sub-standard guitar teachers out there.

Having lessons will build your confidence to play in front of other people as you'll get used to playing in front of your teacher every week.

You'll also improve your playing skills much quicker with lessons than you will struggling on your own.

Remember, confidence comes with competence. 

Action Steps:  Work on developing more confidence and a strong sense of who you are. You’re somebody with the courage and get up and go to do something that millions of others would love to do, but are too lazy or afraid to.

Consider looking for others to jam with. This is not only a good way to get used to others hearing you play, but it'll help your listening and improvisation skills improve too.

Summing it up

You don't need to be plagued by feelings of low self-esteem and shyness all your life. It's in your hands to make the decision now that  enough is enough! Tell yourself: From today, I'm going to work on not letting other people's opinions bother me.

Always keep in mind that everyone else is so wound up in their own headspace, they don't really care what you're doing. You're fulfilling a lifelong dream of learning to play guitar. You rock. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.