The Moosiko Method™: A Better Way to Learn the Guitar

Larry Bird would shoot 300 shots before every Celtics game. Michael Jordan would practice at his house before attending regular team practice. Here is a story of Kobe Bryant making 800 shots at 5AM before a team USA practice during the olympics.

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The work ethic of many of the greatest athletes all have one thing in common: deliberate practice. If you’ve ever played sports as a kid or been to a sports camp, you’ll remember there is always times carved out for skills training. Practicing footwork in soccer, dribbling drills in basketball, or slap shots in hockey are designed to build muscle memory through repetition. Even typing on a keyboard or texting on your cell phone is a learned skill that you built through repetition. Learning the guitar is no different.

The Moosiko Method™ takes the same effective approach used in sports and applies it to learning the guitar. Results have shown time and again that with deliberate practice a beginner with no guitar experience can play their favorite song after just a few hours of practice. But it’s not just about the raw number of practice hours. The key is the practice methodology that puts you on a track of rapid improvement. Once you are on this track, learning is dramatically accelerated and results come quickly.

The Moosiko Method can be broken into the following steps:

Breaking down into small Skill SetsMaster the easiest steps before moving onDeliberate practice through repetitionTake frequent small breaks

Breaking Down Into Small Skill Sets

To achieve any feat, one must first understand the goal and be able to break it down into smaller manageable chunks. When learning to shoot a three point shot in basketball, it is necessary to do a layup first. Then move to a five footer, then foul shot, and so on. In sports, trainers play this role of breaking down these goals into smaller skills to practice and build upon. Moosiko does this for learning a song on the guitar. Before you can play Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, you need to be able to strum a single D chord effectively.

Master the Easiest Steps Before Moving On

Trying to shoot 3-pointers when you have never played basketball before is not going to end up well. And trying to play Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty if you’ve never picked up the guitar will also end up in failure. In both cases discouragement usually sets in and interest is lost, many people give up before they even begin.

The Moosiko Method has a rule: don’t move on until you’ve mastered the previous skill. This has a few benefits. The first is that you get good at something right away which makes it fun to partake in the sport. If you can make a layup, you have enough skills to play a game with your friends. If you can play a D chord on the guitar, you can sing the first line of Free Fallin’.

Once the easiest step is mastered, then you can move on to the next hardest thing. This is a critical piece where beginners often fail because they don’t know what the next step is since they’ve never done it before. Moosiko and sports trainers are able to make the next step just challenging enough to build skill while not discouraging the student. If the leap is too far, then the challenge is too much to overcome and students will become frustrated. If the leap is too short, then the student won’t learn anything new. The Moosiko Method is designed for the optimal improvement path.

Deliberate Practice Through Repetition

If you want to learn the guitar, you just need to learn strumming. It is really that simple. There are no shortcuts or tricks. The good news is that with the right repetition plan you can learn the necessary strumming patterns very quickly, thus learning the song.

Using the Moosiko Method, the smallest # of strums needed to learn Free Fallin’ is about 600 strums, which can be done in 30 minutes a day for 2 days. Without previous experience, it is almost impossible to learn faster. The Moosiko Method breaks down those 600 strums into the right order to ensure correct practicing and building on mastered skills.

Other learning methods such as videos or private instruction will take more time because too much time is spent listening and not enough time is spent practicing.

Take Frequent, Small Breaks

The human brain is an amazing tool. It’s capability to learn and adapt is something still not fully understood by health professionals today. Through the lens of human anatomy, Learning the guitar is simple muscle memory just like typing on a keyboard.

When building any muscle memory skill, small 5 minute breaks interspersed throughout the practice session helps your brain and muscles learn faster. We’re not even sure why this works, but it does. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your fingers just ‘get it’ after coming back to the guitar after a short break.

The Moosiko Method in Action

Our mission at Moosiko is to create more musicians. Our goal is to bust the excuses heard all too often: ‘I am not very musical’ or ‘I tried guitar once but couldn’t do it’ or ‘my fingers are too small’. Learning the guitar is very easy if practiced correctly and deliberately. This is why Moosiko exists.

Head on over to the Moosiko Song Page to try out Free Fallin’ and send us a video of your success.

Happy playing!