My guitar student immediately played more accurately

After playing a song and making several mistakes, he was frustrated.

I told him one thing that eliminated almost all of the mistakes the next time he played the song.

It's simple advice, but I've seen it make a massive difference for many guitarists I've worked with.

What is this magical advice?

"Don't play the next note until you're sure you'll play it right."

If you approach a song like this, you will eliminate most if not all of the wrong notes.

At this point, you might have a couple of questions:

What about rhythm? It's important to play the right rhythm. But for this exercise, you temporarily stop worrying about the rhythm. After you gain confidence in playing the right notes, you can go back to focusing on the rhythm at a slow tempo.

What if I lose focus? When you play like this, you will need to train your brain not to be underfocused (mind wandering) or overfocused (stressed and panicked). You want to be "in the zone", with just the right amount of focus.

But don't overthink this. If you don't play the next note until you know you'll get it right, your playing will definitely get better.

Let me know how it goes.

Keep making music!