---
aliases: ["Music & Guitar"]
Is A: Topic
---
# Music & Guitar

Music and guitar covers the practice of playing guitar, learning music theory, discovering new music, and the deep satisfaction of making sounds with your hands. It is a purely personal pursuit — no content angle, no monetization — which is precisely what makes it valuable.

## Why this matters

Guitar is the counterweight to a life spent in front of screens. It engages a completely different set of cognitive and motor skills, and the feedback loop is immediate: you hear the result of your effort in real time, with no analytics dashboard or subscriber count in between. Playing music also exercises a kind of patient, incremental skill-building that mirrors the philosophy described in [[on-consistency-in-creative-work]] — you do not get better at guitar by reading about guitar, you get better by practicing every day. Having a creative outlet with zero professional stakes is essential for long-term mental health and prevents the kind of identity collapse where everything in life becomes about the business.

## Key resources

- Justin Guitar (justinguitar.com) — the gold standard for free online guitar instruction
- Rick Beato's YouTube channel — music theory, ear training, and analysis for curious players
- "The Music Lesson" by Victor Wooten — a philosophically rich book about musicianship beyond technique
- Ultimate Guitar (tabs and community) — the practical resource for learning songs
- [[topic-mental-health]] — the broader context of why non-work hobbies matter for founder wellbeing

## Notes

- Learning guitar as an adult requires accepting that progress is slow and non-linear — which is humbling and healthy in equal measure
- Playing even 15 minutes a day produces meaningful improvement over months; the habit matters far more than the session length
- Music theory is optional but transformative — understanding why a chord progression works changes how you hear everything
- The best practice sessions alternate between learning new material and playing things you already know well, to balance challenge with enjoyment
- There is an interesting parallel between improvising on guitar and writing: both require internalizing structure so deeply that you can riff on it without thinking
