The hierarchy of competence is sometimes also referred to as the stages of learning. These are the psychological stages of learning or acquiring a new skill. Mr. Noel Burch used it at Gordon Training International in the 1970s' as a training model for its employees. I came across this while reading a book by mental game coach Dr. Jared Tendler called The Mental Game of Poker . I found it very interesting and realized that we could apply this in learning to play the guitar, because technically, what we are really doing is acquiring the new skillset of playing an instrument. As you can see in the diagram, acquiring a new skill is gradual progress that starts from being unconscious incompetent and ends at unconscious competence when mastery is achieved. 1] Unconscious Incompetence This is the beginner stage. You have just come across the guitar or seen someone play, and you like it! You want to play it, yet you do not where to start though. Bec...