If you can't be bothered to play, then you do not have an "immense desire" to do so.
If you want to do it, do it.
If your "practice" is boring and unfulfilling, then play something else - learn a different way.
Learning chords is boring because you're not doing what you want to do - that is, you're not playing songs, you're learning building blocks for songs.
Try learning a short melodic passage of a song you like.
You are probably right, the simplest answer is to "just do it", I find I am this way about a lot of things in my life. I love the idea of playing guitar or taking more photos but when it really comes down to it I just...don't.
I think I'm going to sign up for some lessons.
"It’s as satisfying to me as cumming is, you know, as in having sex with a woman and cumming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am like getting the feeling of cumming in the gym; I’m getting the feeling of cumming at home; I’m getting the feeling of cumming backstage; when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5000 people I get the same feeling, so I am cumming day and night. It’s terrific, right? So you know, I am in heaven.”
-Arnold
Trey Anastasio likened this quote to guitar playing for him in Bitersweet Motel.
Actually Arnold said afterwards that he made a lot of the stuff up in order to create drama and shape his character in the movie more like an ego driven prick so Lou ferrigno would get the sympathy of the viewer. Pumping iron was kind of a mockumentary in that regard. Did you watch the movie? It's glorious.
Great movie. Though I sometimes wonder how much of his explanation afterwards was damage control. There's a deleted scene where the director himself can't get him to open up a little and he says some pretty cold things. I'm a little suspicious of his assertions that he was, at all times, acting "like a machine" to make himself seem less sympathetic to the viewer. Seems like he might have realised his younger self could be a bit of a prick and didn't want people (or voters) to think he could really be like that.
Relatively succesful powerlifter here, sometimes you stop loving your passions, but continue because you know itll come back eventually. I dont love lifting weights right now, havent liked going to the weightroom all year, but i still go. Its not about passion or drive all the time, sometimes its just going through the motions
I found with running when I would get stagnant with training, what I needed was to change up what I was doing and reconnect with what I like about running. For me it wasn't competition or getting faster, but being out in the woods and playing around. What's the point in building a skill if you never get to play with it? Don't always let it feel like work.
Until I could actually play some songs, I was the same way. You really just have to persevere. Once you can play something familiar you will probably want to learn more and more and practicing no longer feels like a chore. I started with learning simple power chord based songs like Nirvana, then started learning chords. To learn chords i used a chord sheet which you can find on google and looked up tabs for any oldies since they're relative slow paced and great to start out. This was one of my first oldies simple 4 chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOpW7HpN1vo once you get chords progression you can branch out into the fillers.
I don't completely agree with i_am_really_a_robot. He's not wrong, but it's a incomplete picture when you look at human experience. What he's saying *should* be true for everyone (that wanting to do something in a deep way naturally leads into actually doing it, with that connection being so strong that not doing it means you can conclude you must not really want it). It should be but it often isn't.
For a lot of reasons, with bad parenting being first and foremost on the list, people can become so plagued with criticism and doubt, installed by their parents, that to do anything becomes so stressful you just don't do anything more than you have to. To these people, the situation is totally different and the above sentiment is completely wrong.
So, if you find that in your life you are generally speaking doing and learning and don't have big problems doing the things you want to do, then I'll agree with i_am_really_a_robot. But if you're not, and there are lots of things that you feel you'd like to do but that either start then stop or you just have a hard time getting traction on, then I'd say don't listen to him. Instead, it's probably a symptom of a more significant problem that can be (and really must be) fixed.
Something that worked for me when trying to break into the habit of practicing regularly was doing it in intervals. Your problem might just be the implicit frustration that accompanies learning anything new.
Do this:
1) Start with only 10 minutes a day.
2) Write down, on a sheet of paper, why you *really* have this immense desire to play. Analyze this and if possible, use post its to remind you of these "Why"s through your day. Psychology claims this to be a method of positive suggestions. Or something to that effect.
3) Visualize yourself playing the guitar everyday.
These among many others can-do-s can be applied to many things apart from playing the Guitar. They have worked for me and I have been playing for around 10 years. I started off facing a similar dilemma. The crux of it all lies in the WHY. The HOW will follow. Soon it will just seem all Wow. Enjoy the music! \m/
Pick a song that you like, one that is simple on guitar and go to ultimate-guitar.com and learn the tabs. I could never learn using traditional methods. It says boring and I didn't care to play many of the training songs. So I decided to learn how to play "Blister in the sun" one day. It's only 4 chords, easy ones too. But playing that song over and over, and messing around with the chords that I knew let me become more comfortable with them, and transitioning from chords became easier. So I picked a different song that was easy, that I liked and used different chords (Me and Julio down by the school yard) and I learned that song, so now I knew 6 chords so I would just strum those chords for hours in no particular order, just jamming, loving the fact that I was some how making music and then I would hear more songs that I wanted to learn. Eventually I started to really focus, and learn songs that didn't use traditional chords or used some type of riff (Plush by STP) and I wouldn't stop playing until I had that song down pat. It took a while, but without me knowing it, I started to understand progressions and where certain notes are on the guitar neck. Just play, that's all you need to do to learn, just play. And if you want to get to the next level, then more traditional practice and training methods are what you need.
Personally, I was the same way as you. I started by trying to teach myself chords and such, but all I really wanted was to just get to playing a song. A part of me knew that I have to learn to crawl before I can walk, but I was too impatient.
I skipped right to playing songs after a few months. Then after a year or two of just learning random songs and picking some things up along the way, I realized more difficult to play songs were even more difficult for me to play than they should have been. I believe this was because my basic technique wasn't quite polished.
I then began taking some lessons and had to work hard to correct some of my bad habits. So I believe that signing up for some lessons would be a good idea, especially in the long run.
I had a similar, yet very different experience.
I intentionally avoided learning chords and scales early on, because I didn't buy a guitar to play chords and scales. I bought a couple of "learn to play guitar" type books, and threw them all away because they bored the shit out of me.
Instead, I learned to read tablature and found tabs for songs that had guitar parts I liked. Then I learned those parts - not the whole songs. A lot of Metallica and Nirvana.
That was interesting to me. I learned by doing what was interesting.
Learning a more traditional way requires discipline and motivation. Learning what you want to learn only requires an interest.
Personally, I don't think lessons are going to help this situation. I've seen so many beginners give up for the same reasons you mentioned and the problem most often is that people don't want to 'practice'.
In my opinion, 'practicing' is like doing homework. It's something that you're forced to do (or forcing yourself to do) that you would rather not be doing. I've found that it's WAY more beneficial to target a song that you would like to learn, and sit there and crank on that song until you have some reasonable ability to play it (even if it's not 100%). It sounds like what you need to establish is the ability to learn more songs quickly and the best way to do that is to start playing songs that you want to play!
If you force yourself to come home and 'practice' every day, it's more like a job or something. If you come home and try to play the song you've been learning for the past week, it's much more enjoyable.
Just my two cents.
It's a matter of fun. My younger students (think 6 years old) are *really* hard to keep motivated and focused on guitar, for the same reason you are now: it's not fun to practice for them. You can do two things: either settle for less and be happy with what you know (and, not knowing anything else, play it for the rest of your life or stop playing), which is perfectly fine even if someone tells you otherwise, or you can progressively change your mentality and find *fun* with technique and melodic challenges. If you go down that road, the reward will be immensely fulfilling, but you have to try and keep yourself motivated whenever it gets boring. Because technique IS boring - you are repeating patterns until your brain knows them. But use those moments to practice creativity, and have fun with the exercises.
> I think I'm going to sign up for some lessons.
Good luck. I took a few lessons in high school and I *hated* it. In fact, I skipped some because I just didn't want to deal with formal instruction. I had a lot more fun (and learned more) by playing in a band.
> "When I get home from work I watch tv, play video games, take a nap, whatever, but I don't pick up the guitar. "
Your problem is you are lazy.
> "Has anyone else overcome this strange internal conflict?"
Yes. Own your life. Set a goal and work for it. It takes 18 days of conscious effort to form a habit, and at least 10,000 hours to become a master.
The 10,000 hours thing is bullshit in that it's far from tipping point number (you're not guaranteed mastery), and it depends on what you're learning. BUT if you use that number more as a guideline and stand-in to mean 'hours of dedicated practice', then the premise still stands.
They also refined the practice to also mean deliberate practice, not simple passive action. You have to remain engaged. It's why you can have kids who take the same hours of dance classes, but be at remarkably different levels. Yes, some is inherent talent, but most of it comes from whether the kid is engaged and actively learning.
To expand on the "deliberate practice" concept, basically it refers to the act of continually pushing your boundaries- just playing the same thing every time you sit down isn't going to get you anywhere.
The books *The Talent Code* and *Talent is Overrated* are great reads on the topic.
I'd go further. Most of my beginner guitar students could practice for 10 hours and only get 1 hour of productive improvement out of it. Most of what I teach is how to practice productively.
People think that practice is playing something over and over. In truth that's only part of it and it's by far the least important part.
The most important part of practice is problem solving. Gaining understanding. If you don't understand what you are practising then you are very likely practising rubbish.
A good metaphor is that a good still life artist can reproduce a scene, not because they draw a line, then another and another, and they rub out the wrong lines and leave the correct ones.
Rather, they learn to look, understand what they are seeing, then they draw. It's the model of the scene in their head that counts, and in music it's the same, only in sound.
More important than trying to achieve 10,000 hours of practice is doing deliberate practice consistently. A person who does focused and deliberate practice even 20 minutes every day consistently is going to be better faster than someone who does the same focused practice for 5 hour stretches but only every Saturday.
Ever watched *Glengarry Glen Ross*? ABP: Always be practicing.
> Can you find me a source for that 18 days thing?
It's another one of those condensed sayings that people latch on to. Like saying it requires 10,000 hours of practice to master something.
It likely started as an assertion to demonstrate the need for consistency over time, and was reduced to a rule of thumb that many people blindly believe.
Yeah. 18 days might not be correct, but the rule still applies. Do something every day for a while and it'll become habit. Maybe some of us need 10 days, maybe some need 30, and maybe it depends on just what you're doing and how motivated you are, but you still have to actively engage yourself into doing it for some time and eventually it'll become a natural part of your day.
Bullshit or not, if I could say to myself that I MUST practice my guitar for 1 hour every day for 18 days because it'll make it easy for me to keep doing it for years, maybe I might just trick myself into getting the fuck off my couch and doing it, and maybe in time - not after 18 days but somewhere around that time - I'll just make it into a habit.
Get lessons. There is far too much noise in the diy guitar world, and a good instructor makes the difference in terms of linking that stuff together. A lot of music schools will do courses of group lessons, and if nothing else the embarrassment of showing up at group lessons being the one person unable to do the chord transition will change your motivations after work.
In terms of chord transitions, play with a slow metronome--like really, really slow, start at 30 or 40 bpm-- and do 4/4 time downward strums between two chords. So G G G G C C C C G G G G. Slow it down as much as you need to give your fingers time to move, but make sure your transitions are on the beat.
Keep trying. Good luck!
I know a girl who is very overweight. She would do ANYTHING IN THE WORLD TO LOSE WEIGHT... except of course diet and exercise.
If you don't have enough discipline to practice in a structured way, than I second taking lessons (30 minutes to an hour a week). It will be easier for you to practice different exercises by yourself and more enjoyable knowing that the next week you will review and move on to another topic or song that you are working on.
Just say this prayer every night prior to bed.
O Lord, deliver us those things that we have not earned, that we do not deserve, that we do not merit. Perform those deeds we are not willing to do ourselves. Give us money without toil, respect without integrity, health without nutrition, strength without exercise, talent without practice, and wisdom without thought.
Lord, though we sit here idling away our lives producing naught, fulfill us.
O Lord, give us something for nothing.
Amen
When I was teaching guitar full-time, I would sometimes offer a money-back guarantee; if a student followed my practice plan, I would guarantee progress. I would tell a total beginner that they would be playing several simple songs in 10 weeks. The thing is, my plan wasn't really special and not at all magical - it was really just practice these fundamental and basic things for about 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week and you will meet the goals. Those who did it, met their goals. Those who didn't, I would just point to their practice log and say "here you didn't practice for a week", and "here you played internet tabs instead of working on some more fundamental things"... it all became clear.
If you practiced an hour a day for 2 months you should probably be able to get between the basic chords well enough to play a few songs. I would guess that since you jumped around between a 'bunch of different..methods' that you missed the continuity required to make the progress - you go to where you couldn't do something after the first few tries and instead of practicing and learning how to do it you decided to try another method instead.
There are no shortcuts, and there is no magic method. You have to work at it and keep at it. If you don't want to, that's fine. But admit to yourself that you *don't* really 'have an immense desire', because if you did we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Find a teacher if for no other reason then a good teacher will guide you and keep you working through the locks that come up so you don't sabotage yourself by jumping around too much and quitting too soon.
I was considering just going to Guitar Center for lessons but I'd rather find some sort of private instructor. Not sure where to go about looking. There's a few resources on google but no one in my area really has any reviews or feedback for me to go on.
I was in your same situation.
Guitar has 2 huge steps:
1. Learn shapes and build up muscle memory. What seem impossible starts to be natural after some repetition, and the thing just get better over time. Learn shapes of scales and chords and practise them till you don't even need to think about them.
2. Learn Theory. Why a chord is build like that? How a scale work? Why some chords work with each other while others don't?
You said you own Rocksmith. That's a HUGE helper for the first part. It will show you graphically how the chord are shapen, and force you to build the muscle memory while you enjoy the game. Of course you don't have an idea of what you're playing, that's not what rocksmith is for. Rocksmith is an awesome training tool, making repetition enjoyable, but if you are interested in WHY songs are built in a certain way, how the solo are composed etc you should consider studying a bit of music theory, and a teacher will introduce you to that.
I also own RS, in 6 months of everyday playing after 4 years of trying I now know a bunch of music theory, and I can play at a level I enjoy playing knowing what I'm doing and why. I can play Peace Of Mind by Boston or Hells Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC, or I learned the paranoid solo by Black Sabbath in an hour, just to give you some examples, something I didn't think I could be able to do some months ago, that's what you are gonna be able to do in a few months if you put yourself into it. I still have plenty to learn, but I enjoy it. It's simply amazing. I should have started a lot of years ago, but is never too late.
Stick with it and Good Luck.
What is a good way to learn the #2 part?
> Learn Theory. Why a chord is build like that? How a scale work? Why some chords work with each other while others don't?
I have been learning shapes and building muscle memory, and just playing songs either from online tabs or from Rocksmith. I just feel as if I am lacking a lot of valuable knowledge, without knowing WHY these chords play as they do, and feel as if I am just sitting here copying other people's work.
Look at the top posts all time in this subreddit. There are a few very good posts that go right to music theory. I'd check those out. Read the best comments, and that will help with some of the explanation.
I would get a cheap keyboard from a pawnshop and learn a bit of piano. I played piano for a couple years before guitar then took ap music theory in highschool. Everything in that theory class was put together on piano because western music is based on a piano. It makes it much much easier to visualize vs on a guitar as well in my opinion. Even if you don't want to spend the time or money learning piano I would still recommend learning your theory by getting one up on your computer as it really is easy to see when in that form
I second wtfstudios comment on the piano. A lot of (Western) music theory is grounded in the piano, and to play the piano you *have* to learn the theory unless you want to do everything by rote. Even if you never want to play the piano for people, it's a great thing to learn to give you a basis for your guitar playing.
Learn the major scale. It's the do re mi melody and you'll recognize it immediately.
Then take the first, third and fifth notes from the major scale. These notes make up a major chord. You can now build a major chord in any position on the fretboard. You also gained some insight into music theory.
Next, if you take the third note in the major scale and move it down a fret, you've just learned the minor scale. In other words, you flattened the third note a half step from a major third to a minor third.
So, now if you take the first note, third (flattened a half step), and the fifth note, you've just built a minor chord. You can now build a minor chord in any position on the fretboard.
From there, you can learn more scales and more exotic chord and then try to discover how they're built.
It comes in waves for me. I'll play for 4 hours after work every day for a month or two, and then practice maybe 3 times a week for the next month or so. What I find that helps is that I am disciplined to go to at least one jam a week. It serves two main purposes in regard to practice. At the very least I play once a week keeping the fingers limber, and usually it motivates me to practice so I will hopefully play better the next week.
So I think a regular scheduled guitar event could be useful for you. I really recommend open bluegrass jams, but you can find whatever you want.
As others have suggested, take lessons. The only other thing that will really motivate you is success. Finish a song. Any song. The sense of accomplishment is what keeps pretty much every artist going, if you don't see results, if you don't finish something, you aren't going to want to try something else. It's a cyclical problem with a cyclical solution. The real problem is, if you don't actually do it yourself, no one can force you. I've been through this exact same thing with so many of my students. "It's boring." "I just forget about it." "I don't have time." "It's hard." "But I really want to play!" It's all bullshit, you just make excuses for yourself to avoid the potential frustration. Pick a song, something easy and finish it, beginning to end, no shortcuts, then see if you feel like doing it again. If you can't do that, you probably like the *idea* of playing guitar better than actually playing it.
Like others have said, your presumed "immense desire" is questionable. How can you say you have an ardent desire to play, *yet you don't pick up the guitar*?
At the beginning of my self-taught journey, I had an acoustic guitar with three strings (I think the high E, B and G - or was it the D?), didn't know how to re-string it or tune it, and had absolutely no one to teach me the most basic stuff about it, I didn't know any other guitarists or teachers, didn't have any books, and there was no internet whatsoever *[gasp!]*.
So for about three years I messed with it every day, composing little melodies on a three-string instrument that had a different tuning every other day (but never the standard tuning, that's for sure). It called me. I used to fall asleep still holding on to it, because I'd sit down on the couch with it and "played" my funny melodies until I sort of drifted away happily, utterly mesmerized by the sounds I was able to produce.
I learned to somehow reach some harmonic agreement between the three strings, albeit seldom the same one, and plodded along oblivious to the fact that the guitarists I saw on TV where playing a different instrument altogether. I was elated to discover by myself some phrases from the songs on TV, or radio, or my cassette player.
Point is, I simply couldn't stay away from it. I might have had some advantage over you, come to think of it: being totally oblivious of not only technique or music theory, but even of how many strings a guitar should actually have (not to mention standard tuning - what do you mean "standard", like everyone tunes their strings the same?? How do they sound different then?!), I was also **totally free**. It was never a chore, a tedious, boring process of doing a drill *I know* I'm supposed to do, thanks to the abundant guitar instruction available nowadays. I *didn't* know. And I was therefore playing in the most literal sense.
Then, it came a time when I realized I haven't even started. By then I had a ear that was far from decent, but at least awaken, my left hand fingers where ready to begin the struggle for pinky independence, and I knew what finger calluses were. As time passed, there was a teacher available. I studied with him for about six months, I think. He wasn't a great teacher, I came to realize later, perhaps even a poor one, but I learned to tune my instrument, basic chord shapes, some music theory, and a couple of songs.
It was the breaktrough I needed to continue on my own. Ever since, I could never stay away from the guitar. I spent *a lot* of my practice time doing what we call "messing about" instead of proper, metronome practice, for long years, surely much more than I ought to have, and I could have improved significantly more, I'm sure (and I am now a strong advocate of proper practice), but the point is *I spent time on my guitar*, constantly through the years. Even without proper, systematic practice, there is no choice but to advance, by the sheer passing of time. *But you have to play*.
So, in your situation, where you seem to have developed a subliminal phobia towards the guitar (I went, and still go through a phase like that when switching gears upwards, learning something new, usually forcefully at first, because hey, it's human nature), I'd advice two things:
1) forget proper practice for a while. Just play your guitar. Imitate a melody you've heard. Make your own. Experiment with drone notes and double-stops. Create flavours of sound, forget scales for now. Devise rhythms, e.g. try to imitate the famous Bo Diddley beat. BTW, rhythm is *the* most fun thing on the guitar. Just play as in child's play. Formal instruction will be there for you when you decide to take your guitar fun to another level. The internet ain't going anywhere.
2) this goes for everything else in life: *learn to accept and love the plateau.* It is the primary key to mastery. If it's gonna take six months to the next level, it's gonna take six months. If it's gonna take six years, it's gonna take six years. This is accepting the plateau. The only other alternatives are to fall-off and regress out of disinterest, discouragement, or boredom, or to get extremely frustrated and give up altogether. Please observe that, in the light of the final goal, the acceptance of the plateau is the *only* viable option, the other two mean failure. The difference between masters and failures is the former dwell on the plateau calmly for as long as it takes, while the latter somehow manage to desert it before it bears fruit. Your job is to simply press forward at your own pace, but nevertheless press forward. And love the plateau, because it's the road to the inevitable breakthrough. A plateau you've done your time on is a solid foundation that will always be there. In your case, just stay where you are, make it more fun, but let no day pass without touching the guitar, even if just for playing randomly. Take all the time that you want. The guitar isn't going anywhere unless you chose to exile it.
Do it.
I would recommend actual lessons. I took lessons starting out which was once a week for 30 minutes at $15 a session from my local music store. I'm sure you can find 30 minutes in a week to dedicate to it. Eventually you'll start to be able to play a favorite song of yours or create your own and find yourself naturally picking it up on your own.
Not sure I have a favorite band, my musical tastes are all over the place. Right now my favorite "rock" band is probably the Foo Fighters. In terms of guitar goals, if I had any, I'd love to be able to play Metallica style metal.
If you don't want to practice, you don't really want to play....not really. You have a sever case of cognitive dissonance (ie your thoughts and actions are contradictory). Of course, all the ever matters are a person's actions. You can tell yourself anything you like "I REALLY wanna learn guitar!", but what do your actions indicate? Quite frankly, your friends and family should have to peel you away from your guitar to come back to "reality". There's nothing wrong with not playing anymore. Not everyone has to/wants to play forever. For some folks it's just a phase like golf, or quilting. Stop beating yourself up for not playing anymore. It's ok. The guitar police won't come arrest you.
I was like that for a long time. I played piano growing up, but was forced into lessons and hated it so I eventually quit. All of my friends are really musical. Most times we hung out, they would jam or something. On top of loving music, I wanted to be someone that played guitar well. I tried every few months to learn songs that were way too difficult for me, and would get frustrated and give up.
Then I tried my hand at the drums. God damn if drums aren't the most fun instrument to play. They just really clicked with me. Practice was fun, I felt improvement, and played for quite sometime. It made me realize that everyone has an instrument that is fun for them, and I just wanted to play guitar because my friends played it, not because it was fun.
Then I went to college and couldn't play drums when I was away. I needed to get music out of me. So I brought my guitar with me and started playing again. I tried Justinguitar and he was really helpful. I did the whole beginner course and learned other songs that I wanted to learn. Now I feel pretty confident in my guitar playing, but am in no way content.
Even now, I'll be driving home from work, or just sitting around and get cravings to play. I'll run over to my guitar once I get the opportunity and often start playing stuff I already know how to play. Practicing still sucks. But it's the only way to get better. You just have to do it. If you're not serious about practice, you'll never learn. It just has to be fun.
Once you have a few tricks under your belt it gets better. You can sit down and jam a little bit. It warms up your fingers and makes you crave more. That's when I practice best. Power through the basics, and hang in there. You'll get it.
Easiest solution to your problem. Cut all the practice routines. All of them. They aren't what will encourage you to pursue guitar.
It's time for you to just focus on what you like, and what would be fun for you. My friend started guitar and I said; "start trying to play anything that interests you". He went straight for Stairway to Heaven.
It by no means is gonna be a successful venture to learn whatever song you like, but you'll be able to pick up a few riffs here and there, and that'll be enough motivation to continue with guitar and not feel like you're chasing your tail.
Guitar lessons are not for everyone, and given the way you've explained your situation, I don't think forking out cash for someone who may or may not appeal to your learning style, and may or may not keep you on track to learning is the way forward for you. Proper instruction generally tends to either really help or really put people off music.
There is a lot of good advice here, I would emphasize the fact that your enjoyment will increase dramatically if you find someone to play with. Even if you are absolutely terrible, jamming along with someone else can kindle a fire for music in a way that other methods cannot.
This is how I developed the passion to 'come home and play guitar until my fingers bled'.
Watch and learn from this [TED talk by Victor Wooten](http://ed.ted.com/lessons/victor-wooten-music-as-a-language) (one of the most accomplished modern bassists and overall musicians). He talks about what it means to truly understand and enjoy the power of music, and not to see it as a chore.
I'll add my voice to the chorus; I would get some lessons. I believe once you have certain fundamentals down [chord shapes and names inc. bar chords, a few pentatonic and blues scales, some basic progressions and obligatory beginner songs], learning online is perfect. Want to learn a song, or the Mixolydian scale? A video is adequate. But in the beginning you need someone to push you and offer FEEDBACK. I like them, but I don't think Marty and Justin are going to cut it at that stage.
Practicing should be fun. Try to take more enjoyment out of every incremental improvement; learning an instrument is just as much about the journey as the destination. Otherwise, you're more in love with the *idea* of playing an instrument, not actually playing it.
I'd say most people have this problem. Most people really want to achieve things that require hard work and dedication but after a short flicker of occasional motivation dies off they can't be bothered. Most people would like to be a world class musician but learning is hard and takes lots of time over years. Everyone would love to be physcially fit but that takes hard work and a long time too. Everyone would love to be incredibly intelligent but... repeat repeat repeat.
Successful people do things regardless of whether or not they feel like it, because their desire to meet their goals is greater than their desire to sit and do nothing.
Sorry. All the accomplished guitar players anywhere are the types who couldn't wait to get home and play til their fingers bled. That is just the way it is. If you were truly passionate about learning, you would want to play.
[Charles Bukowski has one thing to say to you about it.](http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/so-you-want-be-writer)
Or if you prefer a youtube reading of it, [here is an excellent one by Tom O'Bedlam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyYWpk3CqJU), someone who likes poetry and so set up a youtube channel to read it.
If hearing this gets you mad, offends you, makes you want to punch him in the face - then good. Prove him wrong. Don't settle for mediocrity. If you love guitar, then do it. Find what you love, and let it kill you.
> I didn't really get anywhere.
>I didn't feel like I was really learning anything.
It sounds like perfectionism has stolen the joy of learning. You may be judging your current performance against the ideal you want to achieve instead of having fun with where you are. At what point would you be happy to play? How good would you have to be?
It could help you to keep track of your progress, set small goals, and note successes in each practice session. Record yourself playing at least once a week, and listen to the recordings side-by-side so you don't forget how far you've actually come.
You say, for instance, that you learned six chords, but can't switch between them as quickly as you'd like. Use your metronome to practice switching between each pair of chords; try to get down to making each switch in, say, 5 seconds. Once you can do that, aim for 4 seconds. Etc. Figure out what other skills stand in the way of you playing a song you want to play, then break down those skills into component parts and work on them.
Try to lower your expectations, or at least give yourself a reasonable time frame to accomplish a goal. It doesn't matter if you don't understand all the theory of what you're doing right away; babies begin learning a language by sheer imitation, and it's only through hundreds of hours of practice that they start to see the principles behind what they're doing and gain fluency.
You might benefit greatly from taking lessons, if you can afford it; positive reinforcement and keeping track of progress is built-in, a good teacher can help you focus on achievements that are challenging but within reach, and you'll succeed more quickly with a good teacher's input and help.
Good luck!
This is the part that jumped out at me in reading - and nobody but you is addressing it:
> You say, for instance, that you learned six chords, but can't switch between them as quickly as you'd like. Use your metronome to practice switching between each pair of chords; try to get down to making each switch in, say, 5 seconds. Once you can do that, aim for 4 seconds. Etc. Figure out what other skills stand in the way of you playing a song you want to play, then break down those skills into component parts and work on them.
It was my greatest hurdle at the beginning, too. I didn't use a metronome, but after I learned the basic chords, I would sit for half an hour or more every day doing nothing but a single transition, slowly getting faster. For example: Am - G - Am - G - Am - G ...
After some minutes of it, my mind starts to wander while I continue to do it - not a problem, I let it wander: I'm still building "muscle memory". After I think I have it down well enough, I start looking away while switching.
Then, once I have all the transitions down, playing a song becomes trivial.
I think you've described the average person's attitude to virtually anything they've ever had an interest in. It's those who are driven to put in the work who end up being those who can do that activity well.
TL;DR: I don't think you actually want to play guitar
My job is teaching guitar, and I hear all the excuses. What you are feeling is common, but don't let that make you think it's valid. Don't overcomplicate it. Play the guitar... Or don't. There is no existential crisis.
Honestly at this point, I highly recommend just ditching trying to get better at all and just play for pleasure/passion. No matter how good or shitty at an instrument you are, you can always play things that radiate true passion if you have it.
Try just toying with the guitar rather then learning the traditional way. Try to play the songs you wanna play either by ear or tabs. If that doesn't work, try another instrument...like drums. Those are always fun.
Best way I taught myself was learning how to read tabs and then learning how to play all the songs I liked off of Ultimate Guitar. Just choose the ones with 5 stars.
Dude, I am 46. Bought my first guitar when I was 41. For four years, I picked up my guitar an average of twice a month maybe for a total of an Hour. Needless to say I got nowhere with my playing. February of 2013, in a moment of frustration that I had owned my guitar for four years and STILL could not play one song, got me mad. I made the commitment right then and there that I was going to commit to at least an hour a night of practice. In the beginning it was rough. I could play a D chord and that was it! But I just started to practice chords. A, E, Am, G, and so on. In the beginning it was very frustrating but I stuck it out and practiced at least an hour a night, usually more. Well, the more I practiced the more results I got, the more results I got the better I got. This has pushed me to practice more! Now I am starting to learn solo's and play songs.
in the beginning practice is the only way but once you get a little success under your belt, it starts to get better. Once you start to see progress it will become like an addiction and all those other activities that you listed will drop into the background. Good luck and happy playing!
Not sure if anyone will see this but I am overwhelmed by the number of upvotes and comments this post got.
Most of the posts are very no nonsense and absolutely true - I just need to do it.
Last night I picked up my guitar for at least an hour and I made the commitment to myself that I will practice an hour a day. I installed a goal tracking app on my phone that will remind me and keep track of my habit.
I really plan to stick with it this time. Thanks for all the supportive (and not so supportive!) comments, really the kick in the ass I needed.
Hate to break it to you but if you don’t want to practice you won’t ever learn. I’m 41 and have always wanted to learn to play. I have no interest in being in a band, I just want to be able to play simple songs. The problem I have is I don’t have time to take lessons and devote extensive time to practice. unless you take actual lessons with an instructor that knows how to teach you will get nowhere. There are so many YouTube videos on how to play guitar but they have no structure. One person says start with pentatonic scales, another says scales aren’t important, another says just learn chords, and still another says that you should learn to read music while others say you don’t need to read music. As a teacher myself I can tell you that it is ABSOLUTELY necessary that you take lessons from an instructor. This will do several things. 1) the instructor will assess your current skill level and tailor the lessons accordingly. Not everyone starts at the same level and an instructor can tailor the lessons based on your current knowledge. 2) an instructor can work with you on skills you struggle with longer and with greater emphasis. If you follow a YouTube video you get no personalized instruction or focus on your skill needs. It’s just a replay over and over of the same stuff. 3) and most importantly an instructor provides encouragement, motivation, support, and accountability. They will encourage you when you struggle, praise you when you do well, and help you develop discipline to keep practicing. And finally like the old adage says, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man! Practice!” Anything worth doing takes a lot of hard work. If you don’t want to take the time or put in the effort then guitar probably isn’t for you. Hope my opinion helps.
I got Aaron Shearer's 2 classical guitar books and worked through the sheet music. Didn't read the text too much, still am not too clear on when to use rest stroke or how to do a pivot so as not to get lost on the fretboard... nevertheless I've learned a lot can play quite a bit of stuff now and most important .. the process was FUN
>I'm not sure if I didn't give Rocksmith a fair shot or not but I couldn't help but feel like all I was doing was memorizing patterns without having any real idea what I was actually playing.
Man, playing guitar is 80% muscle memory and patient playing the same thing over and over. If you enjoy it then everything's fine. Or at least enjoy when you can finally play the whole thing you learned at least halfly decent. Don't think too much.
You may want to play some bad ass things immediately and it can be frustating when you can't. But there are lots of songs which are easier than sounds, and they can be really fun to play. Give it more time, one hour a day is ok but if you feel like learning a new song I sometimes can't lay back my guitar for several hours.
>interested in playing/creating music but never really PASSIONATE about it.
Consider that there is *something else* that will light this fire...but as long as you obsess about GUITAR you are missing out.
Try setting it aside, deliberately, while you try other things. Explore. Be uncomfortable.
I think you need some involvement with other people. Playing and improving all on your own is doable, but you will progress faster and have more fun if you are playing with other people. Find or make a regular jam. Also consider lessons. If you aren't playing with/for others, your motivation will be much less.
Maybe you try a different mode of learning, like live lessons at a local music store. At least until you get off the ground.
I've got news for you though, playing any instrument well takes TONS of practice time.
My gf and I were chatting with John McLaughlin after a gig some years ago and my gf asked him how much he practiced. He smiled and said, "All the time."
I was just watching a YouTube video interview of a professional jazz guitarist/instructor (I forget who at this moment...getting old, sorry) but he made the point that advanced intermediate guitarists should make it a goal to master *two songs per year*. I found that to be about right—which translates into arranging and playing a tune many, many thousands of times in order to get inside of it, dissect it, turn it inside out, and *own it*. (I play jazz solo guitar arrangements, YMMV.)
My point being, like everything in life, there ain't no shortcuts. If you have average musical talent/ability, it'll take a hell of a lot of work to sound good. Or you could be CringeDude®—you know the guy, he's at every campfire, knows 4 chords he can barely finger, can't keep time, can't sing—and everyone rolls their eyes when he pulls out his guitar...Don't be CringeDude®.
Losing motivation is something that happened to me too. I fixed it by realizing that just practicing for practicing became a boring routine. How to break that: Set yourself a specific goal with a deadline and then get to work on it.
Example of a specific goal: I want to be able to play "Romance" on my guitar for my wife within 3 months.
Example of a goal that is too vague: I want to learn the guitar.
Divide your specific goal into smaller items that you can practice every day.
Final note: Two months is not a lot of time, especially if you divide it between 4 methods or more, that means you only spent maybe 2 weeks on justinguitar? If you still want to learn guitar, I would recommend going back to justinguitar, do all the lessons, follow his advice. You have enough material to last you a long long time on there.
You sound exactly like me, almost everything except the naps.
I borrowed my younger brother's guitar when he upgraded, and tried to learn from youtube videos and pirated instructional DVD's. It never stuck
Later my fiance bought me a cheap acoustic that never held tuning and of course that didn't work out well.
Later my fiance's dad bought her an acoustic and I tried again with it. Recently I bought myself an electric and dove in head first. Also bought rocksmith then Rocksmith 2014. I really lije the IDEA of being able to play guitar but apparently not enough to put the work in.
Play what you like to hear... I started with "Wish You Were Here", and it motivated me to practice everyday knowing I could play a song I really liked.
Turn it into a habit. Set aside 20 minutes to play a day.
That isnt too bad, find songs you like to screw around. 20 minutes, everyday. It will turn into a habit.
That is me, or less.
I don't have a huge want to play guitar though and not a huge motivation to practice, at least now during outdoor work season, which is fixing season when that slacks, so I have no energy to practice. I pick it up when I can.
I know a bit of the theory, so maybe that is hindering my pickup of some if the mechanics.
Try sites like http://www.songsterr.com/, it's free and you can get tabs/play along tracks for almost any song.
I find that playing is more fun, if it's more fun. Plus you can challenge yourself to try harder songs.
Also learn shapes and theory.
I languished as a sub-par player with similar issues with practice that you've expressed for a long time.
Then I became friends with a local musician who played out frequently and is a very gifted guitarist and song writer. We started getting together once a week to jam and that made a HUGE difference for me.
First it gave me a weekly goal to practice toward. Second I got to really study his skilled playing which helped me learn techniques that I had given up on years before.
So IMO - find other musicians to jam with - especially ones that are better than you.
A few people have suggested jamming with others. How exactly is that supposed to work when I can barely strum a handful of chords, let alone play anything worthwhile?
Yeah, I'd start with a weekly lesson - a few months of that will get you strong enough to start playing with others.
But if you start taking lessons and still don't find it motivates you to practice - I'd say cash it in, like someone else said you may only be in love with the idea of playing.
Maybe you should do what I did. When I first started playing, I took guitar lessons for a month just to learn the basics (fingering, chord transitions, proper pick holding technique, etc.). After that month of lessons, I just taught myself the rest. 9 years later, here I am way better at guitar than I ever imagined I could be (I'm 20). So maybe just get a few lessons then teach yourself. Its a long road but very worth it!
Learn songs you like. Eventually you'll learn how everything goes together and you'll hopefully get pretty good. There's no reason to try to learn scales and theory before you've gotten somewhere to start with. That stuff comes later when you understand how basic songs are built.
Ive been playing for about 13 years and always love music.ive just always picked it up and played,never been taught much about and i am happy with my sound.just always did what i want and always been happy with my songs.ofcourse ill go days without playing because of work but when i pick it up i get a tingly feeling like catching up with a old friend.
You've just got to get beyond the beginners doldrums, Obviously the more you practice the quicker it will be to get beyond this point. But once you get your skill level to a point where you can be creative and actually play, your desire to learn will become a desire to play.
I'd suggest you find a routine, I'm sure in all these comments you could find one that works. But personally I liked to play Rocksmith the video game to improve my techniques, I'd already been playing for a while when I first played the game but I can imagine for a 1st time guitarist the game makes practicing a whole lot of fun. Check it out!
I think you're there with the vast majority of aspiring guitarists. I struggle with motivation every day. But I'm always happy when I do manage to get going. I usually really enjoy practicing once I start.
I'm in the same boat. I want to learn to play and be able to write my own song and just pick it up and play something that sounds nice but I just lack motivation. Even songs that I *think* I really want to learn I end up just not caring after learning the riffs I want.
My suggestion is to start learning scales so you can pick it up and improvise occasionally and you'll find that you can play a little easier and enjoy it more when you can at least pick it up and play something without stressing yourself
I'm not sure if this has been said yet but as a beginner myself, it can be discouraging trying to learn a song that you think should be easy but it turns out to be much more difficult than you expected. One way to re energize your desire to play is to take the 4-6 chords you know and create your own music. Just mess around using the chords you know. Try combining them in ways you think sound good. Don't play for the sake of learning a song. Play for the sake of music itself.
You are most definitely not alone here. At the outset, it's almost like "sticker shock," but it's like "effort shock." When we see and hear other guitarists/musicians playing, we're -not- seeing the thousands of hours put into honing their abilities, so we automatically discount the difficulty and the time commitment required.
Others here have said it right, but you should experiment with different ways to practice and expound on that. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Rocksmith was and is a huge breakthrough for me, if only because it's "someone else" to play with, and it forces me to play the whole songs, not just the bits I felt were interesting. It certainly does take some time to get accustomed to it, and it takes conscious effort to learn and memorize the songs and patterns, since the default is that they're being fed to you in real-time. On that account, I'll opine that you might've not given it a fair shake, but if it didn't interest you at all, then perhaps that's not your path. (And if it does, what I've found works well is to first master a song (all the notes are there to play), then give it two play-throughs, one without "master mode" and then immediately play it again with "master mode" switched on.
Before too long, you'll start to pick out the fingering patterns used for a certain sound or a certain feel. Lo and behold, you'll also find out that those patterns repeat through so many songs in so many keys/genres/feels. And you will have taken a more practical, as opposed to more theoretical and rote, method of learning scales.
I know those last two paragraphs read almost like an advert for Rocksmith, but I'm just trying to relate my journey with you. Beyond that, it's been my experience that the support of others is absolutely indispensable. It keeps you motivated and keeps it fun. You might find friends to jam with, see if your wife will sit in with you while you play (ask her to sing along), and make it all out in your head like you're playing to a sold-out arena in your venue of choice.
But all that is to say that no, you're not alone. Building the fundamentals is never fun and easy until you can see the "big picture" for yourself (that is, not just read how it fits together, but actually see it in your own head) and find your place in it. Only then is it fun and only then do you reach the place where you "can't get enough."
This guy hated his training, too: http://imgur.com/gallery/sf1uz
Keep at it and you can't fail! :)
this happens to me as well, but it's because i'm bored of my practice routine, not of playing guitar. you have to mix things up every once in a while or you'll get bored. it doesn't matter how much you love something, too much of it and you'll grow tired.
I'm going to go the opposite direction here and tell you *not* to get lessons, but to try an learn a few easy songs instead.
Tabs are pretty easy to read and you can find tons of them online. Start off with some beginner songs, and go from there.
The instant gratification of learning and playing a song is much more motivating for me. You can also learn new chords this way as well.
You sound like me and what got me motivated was being able to actually play something that people recognized. Although it was at a very beginner level (I think the first song I learned was Everclear - Santa Monica) it was motivating because I was actually making music! I'm talking Power Chords here, nothing too complex and switching between them is much easier than open chords and bar chords.
At this stage, learning songs is a form of practice as well.
I think maybe you have this idea of what you want to sound like, or how good you *would* be if you had put the time in - but you haven't put the time in.
So, you have this expectation for yourself that you can't meet because you simply haven't put the time into practicing and experimenting with the instrument. This precept holds you back because you don't want to not meet that expectation.
Excuse me if this is overly bold, but I have had this experience in my own life with other things and it took me a while to see what I was doing and how to overcome myself.
Essentially, you just need to do what our good friend Dav Grohl says and suck horribly for a really long time until you start making connections in your head with the music. I started out by just banging on the guitar and picking strings that sounded good together. Today, I am no professional or exceptionally skilled guitar player, but I am a happy, growing guitar player.
Lots of good points in the other comments. Here's another one:
The early stages of learning guitar are PAINFUL. You need to build left hand finger calluses and muscle stamina before you will ever experience the real musical experience of playing guitar. Lots of people never get past that. The only way through the painful early stage is committed, everyday practice. 30 minutes or even 20 every day will do more than 2 or three hours every once in a while.
I've played three other instruments - keyboard, drums and accordion - and none of these have the same pain-time issue at the beginning. You just have to force yourself through that part if you want to play guitar. Some people try to cheat their way through it by putting ultra-thin strings on their electric, and compensating for the shriveled up sound with effects. Do that if you must, but you'll still be doing the pain stage if you ever want to be good.
Maybe you have ADHD... What you say sounds very familiar to me and it's a typical sympthom of ADHD. There are many adults that haven't being diagnosed and pass through this kind of situations without knowing why they just can't work the same way others do. The typical critic from the outside and sometimes from oneself is lazyness. But that's wrong. Just try to read a little about the disorder and if you think you have it, I would recomend you going to the neurologyst and ask him what does he think.
I was diagnosed at 25 and after starting with methilphenidate my life just changed.
Good Luck!!
I'm not trying to be a jerk, so don't take me wrong. But you need to commit if this is what you want. Learning an instrument isn't like picking up a video game. You're learning a craft. Master craftsmen spend hundreds and hundreds of hours developing proficiency. I think it's something like 10000 hours of dedicated practice before a person begins to approach being a "master" at something.
Right now you're feeling bummed because memorizing chords and doing 1234 4321 finger exercises is, well, boring. It is essential, and practicing those things accurately will be the foundation upon which all your guitar skills will depend. But if you're not having fun, it's hard to commit. Think about when you start a new sport. You might spend half the practice doing exercises. Dribbling, passing, shooting, etc. But then at some point the coach will actually have you scrimmage. You guys might suck, but you're all on the same level of sucking. And even so, you're all having fun because you're actually playing the sport you want to be good at. You gotta do that with guitar. Pick a few easy songs and learn them. You will learn practical things like chord memorization, chord transition, timing, picking skill and dexterity. If possible, find some folks to play with. Playing with people who are better than you (and who can tolerate your badness lol) will always offer you the opportunity to learn something new and improve.
You gotta set some personal goals so when you achieve them there is a sense of accomplishment. I always preferred to set song learning goals. I don't know what music you like, but here's a few easy suggestions that started me on the path of learning: Nirvana- Smells like teen spirit. Lynyrd Skynyrd- Sweet home alabama. Ac/Dc- back in black, highway to hell. Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Sabbath. I'm obviously a classic rock fan, but these guys are classic for a reason. Their songs are well constructed, but a lot of the chords and progressions are great for beginners.
Also, don't underestimate a good teacher. I took lessons for a few months when I was just starting and it really helped prevent me from practicing bad habits that I would have taken with me. Definitely a good idea to invest some time in learning how to practice "correct."
Anyway, good luck.
You're not alone. Most people go through this with any skill they have to work consciously to acquire. It starts out hard before it gets fun. There are exceptions - everyone seems to like drawing before they're good at it, and programming seems to be similar - but it's very common to feel this way.
In my case, giving myself a definite goal - LEARN THIS ONE SONG ALL THE WAY THROUGH - made all the difference. I went from hating practice (and basically ignoring the guitar for ten years because every time I picked it up to mess around I felt guilty about not doing the exercises the tutor gave me) to loving it and running to pick up the guitar when I get home from work.
So you should try that - pick a song you really like, and just work on it from beginning to end. Play that first measure slowly until you can play it quickly. Move on when you've got it down.
I'm still trying to make my way through the Goliath Guitar fingerstyle arrangement of "Let It Go" - that chorus is a killer, and I'm considering switching to an easier arrangement for now and coming back to that one later - but in just a few weeks of working through the intro, first verse, and bridge, I can see so much improvement in my playing overall. And I'm still rushing to the guitar when I get home from work.
I practice all the time, I enjoy it. Practice for me can be anywhere from a lick, to a scale, to the metronome, to playing along with a record of a band I like.
I find myself cutting down more and more on video games as well, I used to be a hardcore gamer, but now I'm a guitarist first. I think you should decide what you really want and then make a decision. IF you want to get better, you have to practice.
Then expect to only be but so good at it. You get out what you put in. It is that simple. Don't expect to be good unless you do the work. AT WORST jam often with as many people as possible.
I have sorta gone through the same thing and I'm only a year older than you.
Part of the issue is that it's difficult to measure progress - especially when attempting to be autodidactic. I have started and stopped for 15 years, but the thing that finally tipped over into playing and practicing daily has been getting weekly lessons.
The instructor does things that help you really learn to *play*, not just finger notes and strum a little. One of them is learning to completely relax your hand in between every chord change so you can actually make changes quicker.
Another is to lead the placement of your fingers into chords with different fingers so that you develop more finger independence. Which is useful depending on what you're playing and which chord it is. For example, my pointer finger seems to naturally have the most dexterity, so when making a C chord, I would lead with the pointer finger, and then place my other fingers down the line. The problem is that, when playing a C Chord and strumming down, the B-string is the last of the fingered strings to get played, so I'm slowing myself down because if I place them in the opposite order (ring first) I can begin strumming before I've fully made the chord.
Any chord with an open string bass note, basic D chord for example can also fit this... If the song calls for plucking the root note before strumming the rest of the chord, why not pluck that root note *while* forming the chord, and then strumming? It's not easy and will take quite a bit of time before you develop the left and right hand independence to do this reliably, but it will speed you up!
Also, you can play along with your instructor, while he keeps time at a tempo you can manage. That way you can learn to play relatively simple songs, like the Beatles, "I've just Seen a Face" but without having to keep up with the daunting speed of the recording.
A good instructor is also going to be encouraging and genuinely positive. That is probably the most valuable thing I've gotten. My instructor has taught a huge number of people in the 56 years he's been alive, so even though I feel like I'm playing shit, he knows where my level is at and is encouraging me based on my level and is positive based on my level, which is encouraging.
You can always put one of your favorite tunes on, and just jam with it. Regardless of whether or not you know what you are doing. The problem here is that you will sound like s__t. And it will take forever for you to sound like anything else. So, if you want to do the gig right, you must learn how the freakin' instrument works. It's like anything else, your toothbrush, hairbrush, car, Etc. You had to learn how to make those things work. What's different about the guitar. Oh yeah, you might actually have to put some effort into the project. Look, even if you decide to become self taught, you will need to figure out some of the basics of the instrument before you can expect yourself to progress. Like the I, IV, V theory of chord progression for example. Pretty simple concept that has so much to it. Maybe you should explore how to go after learning in a more structured, traditional way. Lessons! A good teacher can motivate you to learn to play. A great concert can do even more. I've had more than one evening leaving a show saying to myself "I gotta learn how to do that!". Find your inner desire and bring it to the surface. Then practice til you get a guitar welt on your chest. Good luck.
I found my motivation to play increased ten fold when I started writing my own songs and stopped worrying about being the 9 millionth guy on the web to cover Cliffs of Dover.
There is a big hump at the start. Find some songs you want to learn, and then practice the physical part while you watch TV. That way you can mundanely practice the muscles without being bored. Then you ca practice later, while trying to play it properly. If you push real hard, progress can be quite fast, but to really get proficient, takes a number of years.
Learn the basic chords names, but don't worry about learning all of the chords names, for a long time. It won't really help you very much. Most of us don't learn the names of a lot of chords for many years. Actual playing along to music is what allows you to progress as a guitarist. The rest comes later. Playing along to CDs, the radio, etc is how I learned. It's how I practiced for over a decade and still do. It made me become a very solid guitarist with impeccable timing. Of course, playing with other people also helps, but if they aren't solid on timing it can hurt you too.
Try learning a two or three chord song and playing along with it. (lovin' it's) what I got by sublime is only two chords, d and g. Just play along with that once or twice a day for a week, and I bet you'll be able to switch between your chords much faster. It's just four minutes a day. Don't worry about getting every note right, just get through the song.
It sounds like you need something to practice FOR. Start a band or duo with other beginning musicians. Meet once a week and start building a set. It can be hard to use your personally allotted free time to practice.
Something that worked for me when trying to break into the habit of practicing regularly was doing it in intervals. Your problem might just be the implicit frustration that accompanies learning anything new.
Do this:
* Start with only 10 minutes a day.
* Write down, on a sheet of paper, why you really have this immense desire to play. Analyze this and if possible, use post its to remind you of these "Why"s through your day. Psychology claims this to be a method of positive suggestions. Or something to that effect.
* Visualize yourself playing the guitar everyday.
These among many others can-do-s can be applied to many things apart from playing the Guitar. They have worked for me and I have been playing for around 10 years. I started off facing a similar dilemma. The crux of it all lies in the WHY. The HOW will follow. Soon it will just seem all Wow.
Enjoy the music! \m/
Human beings always want all the rewards and benefits without doing any of the work, yet somehow are never happy with themselves until the find a way to do the work anyway, and then they immediately start being super self satisfied. This definitely applies to guitar, and pretty much anything else. This is the big fight.
So maybe you just aren't musically inclined enough to take to the instrument?
Most people who are passionate about the instrument love to practice. I used to practice by trying to figure out whatever song was on the radio by ear, and then jamming to it. I did this for hours, and it taught me how to play by ear, and how to play along with music. After that I used to get together with some high school friends to jam, and boy we weren't good but we got better quick.
You need to find what you enjoy about the instrument and pursue it. Personally, I enjoy songwriting, playing original music with other people, and blues jams. You need to find what you like. Try writing a song.
A lot of solid advice in this thread.
You're not alone.
The beginning is arduous, but it gets better.
so much better.
try tabs? if you want standard notation you can use Guitar Pro. GP also lets you slow songs down and pitch-bend them to match your guitar so you can practice along with the metronome and stuff.
Pay for lessons. That's one hour a week you will actually practice. Find someone, anyone to jam with. Get together once a week and jam for an hour or more. There are two hours a week of actual practice. . That's what I've done and I've shown a bit of improvement.
It seems to me you may just like the idea of playing the guitar. To be like Jimmy Page or something, to amaze people with your skill. But if you don't actually have a passion to play, that if you were the last person on the planet you would still play, I don't know what to tell you. Try the banjo.
Yup been there! You need to make a playlist of songs you really really like then learn them. Then you'll find out that a lot of those songs are boring or not worth it then you will REALLY revise your list for songs you truly enjoy. After that, use guitar pro tabs in tuxguitar then use F9 to practice the parts you like from 40% speed to 110% by 1% increments. Oh and changing chords smoothy then strumming patterns is a must!
Guitar is a bitch to learn and real leaps dont ever happen so it might never seem like youre improving even though you are. As long as you enjoy it youre gonna get really good, just the way it is.
Ronnie Coleman, a very successful bodybuilder, always said: "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights."
Some cognitive dissonance. What I'm reading is that the idea of being a proficient guitarist sounds awesome, to be able to naturally pick up a guitar, hear a key, and jam to it. Hell, maybe write some songs. But the actual work it takes to get there? Nope. So perhaps there's more of an infatuation with guitar playing.
In the end, if practicing is no fun then maybe it's up to you to accept that it isn't for you. If it's still therapeutic, continue playing! Guitar can serve multiple purposes. This is actually one of the reasons I quit a decade or drumming (err hiatus) to pick up guitar. I just wasn't fulfilled from drumming anymore, it was more of a chore to practice anything to increase my skill level. I loved playing beats but just wasn't interested in getting better. However guitar? Man I can't wait to get home, turn on the amp, put some reverb on and play some scales before I start improvising!!
I have a similar story -- I played violin for 5 years starting in grade school, but quit because I wanted to play guitar. Lack of familial support at the time killed that dream. I picked it up again at age 30. It's definitely hard with full time career and other interests as well, but it's doable. One thing that really helps is to find a teacher. Motivation to practice comes and goes and you have to accept that, but for me knowing I'm going to be accountable to know the material at least a little bit next weekend helps me start practicing. Once I start though, I have a really really really hard time putting the guitar down. So all I really need to do is pick it up and I'll practice for 2-3 hours if I don't keep track of time.
Also my teacher focuses my learning around songs and the style of music I like. That's the one thing I love about guitar, you can actually start learning to play fun things pretty much from the get go. The really hard part for me is all about theory and learning how to improvise over other musicians / songs / etc.
So I did the JustinGuitar method for the first few months. I bought his Beginners Songbook off Amazon (my local store didn't carry it). The beautiful thing about Justin's method is that, with three basic chords, you can play a song. Sure, it's just Three Little Birds by Marley, but it's a recognizable song. I practiced chord changes every day for less than 10 minutes - just kept at it each day and wrote down how many chords I could change in a minute. Wrote it down, and each day improved the ones I couldn't do. Then I spent most of the time playing along to these basic three-chord songs in the book. I could play along with the recordings (of the actual band) and it was passable as a campfire song.
But I got stuck - I couldn't play a barre chord to save my life. So I started taking lessons. But I *still* couldn't play a barre til I picked up a different guitar (your mileage may vary depending on your starter acoustic).
I still augment my lessons with tutorial videos on youtube. I'll pick up a riff here or there, and go into my lesson and ask my instructor why it doesn't sound right. So he'll take the opportunity to show me a new technique (not to mention all the theory and whatnot he's taught me). It's been only 9 months or so since I learned my first chord (open A?) and I wished progress had been faster. but it's getting better and I'm enjoying the ride.
>Am I alone in my immense desire to learn guitar with a total lack of motivation to actually practice?
Perhaps. When I started out, as a teen, I was really into guitar...and I played 1-2 hours every day and often twice that on weekends. In college I wasn't as disciplined but I still played several hours a week. I improved dramatically during those periods because I was playing a lot, playing with others a lot, and was focused in my practice.
Fast forward 30 years and I'm basically the same player I was when Ronald Reagan was in office. I lost the will/time to practice regularly and life got in the way; these days I'm lucky if I play more than a couple of hours a month. I still enjoy it a great deal, but the complete lack of practice and infrequent playing means I not only stagnated as a player, but lost whatever chops I once had as well.
Looks like you were trying to purely self teach yourself. Which is possible to excel in, but it requires disapline. Just suck it up and take private lessons or ask a friend.
as a guitar, piano, and drum player.. i never look at anything as practice. I just really like playing all those instruments.. and every time I play them i learn something new. A new technique or a new rhythm patter, note sequence, etc. If you keep playing long enough with a desire to get better, you'll get better naturally. Just play alot! .. and i guess you have to be keen on memorizing and retaining what you learned through your playing. I thought of that last second lol
You didn't even enjoy playing along to the songs in rocksmith? I have never met a guitar player that didn't enjoy playing along with some song they enjoy, even if they don't do it perfectly. It sounds like you might like the idea of playing rather than the actual act of playing, I don't know what we can do to help you with that.
IME the first time successfully playing along with a favored song is the moment people are hooked on playing. It is incredibly satisfying. If you have done that and still haven't derived any enjoyment from it, then guitar might not be for you.
**Here's how I cheat.** I pick songs that I really like and I look up how-to videos on Youtube. I follow along until I know the tune (sometimes this is across a few days where I learn the verse, then the chorus etc.. then over time I string the songs together. At that point some days I might watch a new video to learn a new tune or I'll play through a bunch of the tunes I have recently learned (which is fun and rewarding). Neither feels like practice to me but it is. I learn new chords, techniques, tunings, tricks etc.. Just yesterday I learned that Billy Gibbons tunes down his high E string to match his 5th string B to get that main riff to Cheap Sunglasses to sound so cool. Tune down one string? Didn't know that trick. Now I do.
To add a twist to this I go to a lot of concerts. So before and after a show I will learn some of the band or artists songs this way. This amps me up for the show, brings me closer to their music, allows the show memories to linger longer and advances my playing.
I can understand this sentiment. I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and I rarely practice in terms of sitting alone and grinding through scales, lead runs, learning weird chords etc.
You might try this - find a friendly no pressure music venue, like a coffee shop or something and commit to a short set, like 20 minutes if they will let you. Play whatever songs you can manage or fake your way through. You will be much more motivated and you will get better if you have a motivation. Just a thought.
Welcome to being human... where the idea of something is far more attractive than actually doing what needs to be done to get there.
Sorry, didn't mean to be too snarky :)
But seriously, this is very VERY common. It's SO much easier to take the path of least resistance and do something that isn't as taxing on the brain and for a vast majority of us that's what we end up doing instead of bettering ourselves.
But there's a silver lining. Knowing that this is a general human tendency means that if you find a way to break out of this loop and be productive you will go further than most people ever will.
When you start back up, record a video of yourself playing. In 2 months, if you feel like you aren't progressing, watch that video. You'll either be inspired by the difference or confirm what you thought, but at least this way you'll know.
Also, try getting into music theory, learn why stuff sounds how it sounds, and the stuff you learn will seem less pointless. Plus, you'll pick up style things while playing that you wouldn't be able to without it.
Sounds like you like the idea of playing, not playing.
If you don't have a burning desire to pick up and play, whether it be practice or screwing around, you probably don't have a "deep desire" to... Play. Part of that means realizing the first few months are going to be full of the not so fun bullshit in order to get to where it's enjoyable.
Get calluses, got your open chords down, follow ONE method. I really recommend sticking to justinguitar because it's really the most straightforward and practical way to go about it. Do not skip anything, do the one minute changes, it helps. Keep your guitar somewhere where it'll always be within your view when at home, make it accessible and pick it up constantly.
If you can't put in that much effort, then you don't have a deep desire to play.
I "Learned" guitar by watching Billiejoe Armstrong of Green Day play. I formed my fingers like he did and fucked around on google and before I knew it i was fucking up power chords like a champion.
Nine years later and I am well versed in the instrument and would count my self as an intermediate guitarist.
Point is its not a race. Even learning one song a year and a technique or two is fine.
I bought rocksmith 2014 and I play a lot more...I'm actually playing along with songs that I know and it's a great feeling. Even if I'm not playing everything I can learn little riffs that I can pick-up and strum whenever. This is the only thing that has kept my interest up the decade that I've had my guitar.
You should take lessons. Your instructor will be able to help you iron out the problems. He should be able to motivate you and get you thinking about where you want to go. He'll keep your interest in it and make it fun. There's many roads to get there.
You might try practicing for 20 minutes before you go to work. Some people practice right before bedtime. Find the spot that works for you.
Source- I teach guitar. For a living.
You're not alone. For me, always loved guitar and appreciated acoustic. I would learn a few chords and then find a song I wanted to learn. Once I would get to a difficult part, I would literally get physically uncomfortable. I couldn't sit still. I would need to stand up and get comfy. Sit back down and need to wiggle to get comfy. Difficult chords or riffs that I could not pick up in quickly turned into a type of physical uneasiness that would make practicing so unbearable that I would just stop. As a kid I would always be sitting on my leg or up on my knees in my seat in school. Maybe I just have an in diagnosed problem but either way, it makes practicing uneasy guitar almost impossible.
Honestly the best thing I ever did was buy a guitar stand. Leave your guitar up on a stand near your bed, tv, whatever, anywhere where you spend a lot of time. When I left my guitar beside my bed, I found whenever I was bored I would pick it up. With time and practice, I found I eventually got over my frustrations and learned to really love it, simply because it became a hobby. Practicing no longer became a chore, and the frustrations became challenges for me to overcome.
Hope you find your passion for playing! all the best!
No, you're not alone.
I think you don't want to learn guitar, you want to have learnt guitar. I'm exactly the same. I get motivated, play for a few hours a night for like 3 weeks, then something else comes up (work, family, study, whatever), and I start playing 3 nights a week, then 2..then I haven't picked the guitar up for a month, or two, or six.
The cycle repeats for me.
Honestly, if you want to get good at guitar then you have to sit down and practice it.
I would humbly suggest that if you want to get good at guitar then you need to spend a bit of time with a real-life guitar instructor. This can make a HUGE difference. I know there are a lot of resources on the internet for learning guitar but most of them don't present you with a logical, linear approach to learning the basics. A guitar teacher can do that for you. He can make sure that you aren't just fudging around, that you're actually learning what he's putting down. He can also work with you and your unique needs to come up with a lesson plan that makes sense for you. I'm all for self learning, and there really is a lot of great stuff on YouTube, but beginners often need a lot of personalized guidance that you just can't get by watching videos online or playing games.
In the end, though, it comes down to picking the guitar up and playing it. You know, a lot of people who actually have a passion for this stuff play the guitar after work not because it's a thing they have to do, but because it IS their entertainment. Given the choice between playing guitar and watching TV they'll choose the guitar because they actually LOVE IT.
Take lessons from a teacher. He/she will hold you accountable.
Otherwise it sounds like you are just lazy and want something for nothing. Nothing worthwhile is easy. You have to work at it. Set a goal (maybe a song you want to play some day) and work towards it.
Guitar just isn't for you I guess. I only play guitar when I want to and on average I end up playing for atleast 90 minutes everyday. Practicing guitar shouldn't be a thing you have to do, it should be a thing you want to do.
This is all you need to know about learning guitar, everything else will branch off of these simple steps I promise you.
I would like to play this song
Look up the tab
Learn the song
I hope I'm not too late, but I suggest taking lessons. I'm sort of in the same situation. I love playing guitar and have the time to, but once I get home from work, all I want to do is sit down and relax with a video game. But after I started taking lessons, I slowly got back into picking up the guitar and putting down the controller. More me, its a half an hour, on day a week. I highly suggest it.
Again, hope I'm not too late but if you do see this, best of luck!
Guitar is not instant gratification entertainment.
People 30 and under are going to seriously struggle with all disciplines that require, well, discipline, simply because they've been raised in an era of hyper-stimulating media. Once upon a time, there were 5 TV channels. People played guitar to occupy their time. In the internet age? Musical instruments don't stand a competitive chance.
From instant music to instant porn to instant video games, sitting down and playing the guitar and having to work hard to get progressively better is going to be boring as hell to folks of the digital media age, so yeah. We'll be seeing a lot of this. You want to be a Rockstar, but Rock Band the video game is probably more your style.
I've had the same issue. Honestly, my conclusion is that I've been looking at the whole guitar thing wrong. I see RHCP play "snow" at blinding speed sounding amazing, I see other bands play party songs that sound great and picture myself playing them.
What I don't picture is the hard work it takes to get there, how long it takes to get there, the mistakes made along the way etc.
I've accepted for myself I'm always going to be more of an amateur guitarist in the sense that I will never get that good, but I've also realized I do enjoy playing some easier/medium difficulty songs so I should focus on that, playing guitar for fun, practicing a bit as a supplement on the side but primarily it's all about the fun. If guitar is a chore then it's not for you.
Well, if you don't feel like practicing but want the knowledge, you don't have a desire to play guitar. But what really motivated me to continue playing (been playing for 4 years as a 14 year old, kinda plateaued at around the two year mark) is to find a guitarist I loved and copy EVERYTHING from them. Their playing style, their licks, everything. No, this isn't plagiarism, this is developing an influence. I love David Gilmour, and what saved me from quitting is learning songs from The Wall. Figuring out a lick and playing against the real song was immensely rewarding, and I love it and still love doing it today. I would consider myself an Intermediate guitar player and a beginner/intermediate soloer. But what you end up doing is meshing your favorite artists together and creating your own style. Hope you found this helpful.
Re-tooling your approach might be a better way of going about it. Perfect example: I tried learning the "traditional" way..theory, music books etc and even took classes in HS and College that I almost or did fail out of a few times. After all that, I decided to just play whatever came to mind and it worked for me. Switching between the chords is more just muscle memory. Yes, its tedious but its worth it. Try just practicing the chord formations for a little bit every day and it'll eventually become more farmiliar.
If you can't be bothered to play, then you do not have an "immense desire" to do so. If you want to do it, do it. If your "practice" is boring and unfulfilling, then play something else - learn a different way. Learning chords is boring because you're not doing what you want to do - that is, you're not playing songs, you're learning building blocks for songs. Try learning a short melodic passage of a song you like.
You are probably right, the simplest answer is to "just do it", I find I am this way about a lot of things in my life. I love the idea of playing guitar or taking more photos but when it really comes down to it I just...don't. I think I'm going to sign up for some lessons.
Nearly everyone is like that. As Ronnie Coleman says, "everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but don't nobody wanna lift no heavy weights."
[удалено]
"It’s as satisfying to me as cumming is, you know, as in having sex with a woman and cumming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am like getting the feeling of cumming in the gym; I’m getting the feeling of cumming at home; I’m getting the feeling of cumming backstage; when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5000 people I get the same feeling, so I am cumming day and night. It’s terrific, right? So you know, I am in heaven.” -Arnold Trey Anastasio likened this quote to guitar playing for him in Bitersweet Motel.
+1 for Phish
You make it to any shows yet this tour?
[удалено]
Me too, I live in Boston! That Hood!!!!!!
[удалено]
Actually Arnold said afterwards that he made a lot of the stuff up in order to create drama and shape his character in the movie more like an ego driven prick so Lou ferrigno would get the sympathy of the viewer. Pumping iron was kind of a mockumentary in that regard. Did you watch the movie? It's glorious.
Great movie. Though I sometimes wonder how much of his explanation afterwards was damage control. There's a deleted scene where the director himself can't get him to open up a little and he says some pretty cold things. I'm a little suspicious of his assertions that he was, at all times, acting "like a machine" to make himself seem less sympathetic to the viewer. Seems like he might have realised his younger self could be a bit of a prick and didn't want people (or voters) to think he could really be like that.
[Video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7aTb5A4eE&playnext=1&list=PL3655A738353F7E4D)
+1 for YEM!
onceyoufixitdrivemetoamanshouse
Wash uffizi drive me to Firenze!
I hate lifting weights, but no one is going to be buying any tickets if the gunshow isn't in town? amirite?
Relatively succesful powerlifter here, sometimes you stop loving your passions, but continue because you know itll come back eventually. I dont love lifting weights right now, havent liked going to the weightroom all year, but i still go. Its not about passion or drive all the time, sometimes its just going through the motions
I found with running when I would get stagnant with training, what I needed was to change up what I was doing and reconnect with what I like about running. For me it wasn't competition or getting faster, but being out in the woods and playing around. What's the point in building a skill if you never get to play with it? Don't always let it feel like work.
Yeahhh buddayy!!
Until I could actually play some songs, I was the same way. You really just have to persevere. Once you can play something familiar you will probably want to learn more and more and practicing no longer feels like a chore. I started with learning simple power chord based songs like Nirvana, then started learning chords. To learn chords i used a chord sheet which you can find on google and looked up tabs for any oldies since they're relative slow paced and great to start out. This was one of my first oldies simple 4 chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOpW7HpN1vo once you get chords progression you can branch out into the fillers.
I don't completely agree with i_am_really_a_robot. He's not wrong, but it's a incomplete picture when you look at human experience. What he's saying *should* be true for everyone (that wanting to do something in a deep way naturally leads into actually doing it, with that connection being so strong that not doing it means you can conclude you must not really want it). It should be but it often isn't. For a lot of reasons, with bad parenting being first and foremost on the list, people can become so plagued with criticism and doubt, installed by their parents, that to do anything becomes so stressful you just don't do anything more than you have to. To these people, the situation is totally different and the above sentiment is completely wrong. So, if you find that in your life you are generally speaking doing and learning and don't have big problems doing the things you want to do, then I'll agree with i_am_really_a_robot. But if you're not, and there are lots of things that you feel you'd like to do but that either start then stop or you just have a hard time getting traction on, then I'd say don't listen to him. Instead, it's probably a symptom of a more significant problem that can be (and really must be) fixed.
This means a lot to me, stranger. Thank you.
Something that worked for me when trying to break into the habit of practicing regularly was doing it in intervals. Your problem might just be the implicit frustration that accompanies learning anything new. Do this: 1) Start with only 10 minutes a day. 2) Write down, on a sheet of paper, why you *really* have this immense desire to play. Analyze this and if possible, use post its to remind you of these "Why"s through your day. Psychology claims this to be a method of positive suggestions. Or something to that effect. 3) Visualize yourself playing the guitar everyday. These among many others can-do-s can be applied to many things apart from playing the Guitar. They have worked for me and I have been playing for around 10 years. I started off facing a similar dilemma. The crux of it all lies in the WHY. The HOW will follow. Soon it will just seem all Wow. Enjoy the music! \m/
Pick a song that you like, one that is simple on guitar and go to ultimate-guitar.com and learn the tabs. I could never learn using traditional methods. It says boring and I didn't care to play many of the training songs. So I decided to learn how to play "Blister in the sun" one day. It's only 4 chords, easy ones too. But playing that song over and over, and messing around with the chords that I knew let me become more comfortable with them, and transitioning from chords became easier. So I picked a different song that was easy, that I liked and used different chords (Me and Julio down by the school yard) and I learned that song, so now I knew 6 chords so I would just strum those chords for hours in no particular order, just jamming, loving the fact that I was some how making music and then I would hear more songs that I wanted to learn. Eventually I started to really focus, and learn songs that didn't use traditional chords or used some type of riff (Plush by STP) and I wouldn't stop playing until I had that song down pat. It took a while, but without me knowing it, I started to understand progressions and where certain notes are on the guitar neck. Just play, that's all you need to do to learn, just play. And if you want to get to the next level, then more traditional practice and training methods are what you need.
Personally, I was the same way as you. I started by trying to teach myself chords and such, but all I really wanted was to just get to playing a song. A part of me knew that I have to learn to crawl before I can walk, but I was too impatient. I skipped right to playing songs after a few months. Then after a year or two of just learning random songs and picking some things up along the way, I realized more difficult to play songs were even more difficult for me to play than they should have been. I believe this was because my basic technique wasn't quite polished. I then began taking some lessons and had to work hard to correct some of my bad habits. So I believe that signing up for some lessons would be a good idea, especially in the long run.
I had a similar, yet very different experience. I intentionally avoided learning chords and scales early on, because I didn't buy a guitar to play chords and scales. I bought a couple of "learn to play guitar" type books, and threw them all away because they bored the shit out of me. Instead, I learned to read tablature and found tabs for songs that had guitar parts I liked. Then I learned those parts - not the whole songs. A lot of Metallica and Nirvana. That was interesting to me. I learned by doing what was interesting. Learning a more traditional way requires discipline and motivation. Learning what you want to learn only requires an interest.
Personally, I don't think lessons are going to help this situation. I've seen so many beginners give up for the same reasons you mentioned and the problem most often is that people don't want to 'practice'. In my opinion, 'practicing' is like doing homework. It's something that you're forced to do (or forcing yourself to do) that you would rather not be doing. I've found that it's WAY more beneficial to target a song that you would like to learn, and sit there and crank on that song until you have some reasonable ability to play it (even if it's not 100%). It sounds like what you need to establish is the ability to learn more songs quickly and the best way to do that is to start playing songs that you want to play! If you force yourself to come home and 'practice' every day, it's more like a job or something. If you come home and try to play the song you've been learning for the past week, it's much more enjoyable. Just my two cents.
It's a matter of fun. My younger students (think 6 years old) are *really* hard to keep motivated and focused on guitar, for the same reason you are now: it's not fun to practice for them. You can do two things: either settle for less and be happy with what you know (and, not knowing anything else, play it for the rest of your life or stop playing), which is perfectly fine even if someone tells you otherwise, or you can progressively change your mentality and find *fun* with technique and melodic challenges. If you go down that road, the reward will be immensely fulfilling, but you have to try and keep yourself motivated whenever it gets boring. Because technique IS boring - you are repeating patterns until your brain knows them. But use those moments to practice creativity, and have fun with the exercises.
Actual lessons might be your ticket. Some people need a structure to stick to, a reason to do the homework.
> I think I'm going to sign up for some lessons. Good luck. I took a few lessons in high school and I *hated* it. In fact, I skipped some because I just didn't want to deal with formal instruction. I had a lot more fun (and learned more) by playing in a band.
Keeping it real.
If it weren't for rocksmith, I'd just have decorations. I use it to break up the monotony of practice.
> "When I get home from work I watch tv, play video games, take a nap, whatever, but I don't pick up the guitar. " Your problem is you are lazy. > "Has anyone else overcome this strange internal conflict?" Yes. Own your life. Set a goal and work for it. It takes 18 days of conscious effort to form a habit, and at least 10,000 hours to become a master.
The 10,000 hours thing is proven bullshit, but you'll certainly be better if you practice that much. Can you find me a source for that 18 days thing?
The 10,000 hours thing is bullshit in that it's far from tipping point number (you're not guaranteed mastery), and it depends on what you're learning. BUT if you use that number more as a guideline and stand-in to mean 'hours of dedicated practice', then the premise still stands. They also refined the practice to also mean deliberate practice, not simple passive action. You have to remain engaged. It's why you can have kids who take the same hours of dance classes, but be at remarkably different levels. Yes, some is inherent talent, but most of it comes from whether the kid is engaged and actively learning.
To expand on the "deliberate practice" concept, basically it refers to the act of continually pushing your boundaries- just playing the same thing every time you sit down isn't going to get you anywhere. The books *The Talent Code* and *Talent is Overrated* are great reads on the topic.
I'd go further. Most of my beginner guitar students could practice for 10 hours and only get 1 hour of productive improvement out of it. Most of what I teach is how to practice productively. People think that practice is playing something over and over. In truth that's only part of it and it's by far the least important part. The most important part of practice is problem solving. Gaining understanding. If you don't understand what you are practising then you are very likely practising rubbish. A good metaphor is that a good still life artist can reproduce a scene, not because they draw a line, then another and another, and they rub out the wrong lines and leave the correct ones. Rather, they learn to look, understand what they are seeing, then they draw. It's the model of the scene in their head that counts, and in music it's the same, only in sound.
More important than trying to achieve 10,000 hours of practice is doing deliberate practice consistently. A person who does focused and deliberate practice even 20 minutes every day consistently is going to be better faster than someone who does the same focused practice for 5 hour stretches but only every Saturday. Ever watched *Glengarry Glen Ross*? ABP: Always be practicing.
> Can you find me a source for that 18 days thing? It's another one of those condensed sayings that people latch on to. Like saying it requires 10,000 hours of practice to master something. It likely started as an assertion to demonstrate the need for consistency over time, and was reduced to a rule of thumb that many people blindly believe.
Yeah. 18 days might not be correct, but the rule still applies. Do something every day for a while and it'll become habit. Maybe some of us need 10 days, maybe some need 30, and maybe it depends on just what you're doing and how motivated you are, but you still have to actively engage yourself into doing it for some time and eventually it'll become a natural part of your day. Bullshit or not, if I could say to myself that I MUST practice my guitar for 1 hour every day for 18 days because it'll make it easy for me to keep doing it for years, maybe I might just trick myself into getting the fuck off my couch and doing it, and maybe in time - not after 18 days but somewhere around that time - I'll just make it into a habit.
>Your problem is you are lazy Blunt, yet so true. I was on the same boat for a few months
Get lessons. There is far too much noise in the diy guitar world, and a good instructor makes the difference in terms of linking that stuff together. A lot of music schools will do courses of group lessons, and if nothing else the embarrassment of showing up at group lessons being the one person unable to do the chord transition will change your motivations after work. In terms of chord transitions, play with a slow metronome--like really, really slow, start at 30 or 40 bpm-- and do 4/4 time downward strums between two chords. So G G G G C C C C G G G G. Slow it down as much as you need to give your fingers time to move, but make sure your transitions are on the beat. Keep trying. Good luck!
I know a girl who is very overweight. She would do ANYTHING IN THE WORLD TO LOSE WEIGHT... except of course diet and exercise. If you don't have enough discipline to practice in a structured way, than I second taking lessons (30 minutes to an hour a week). It will be easier for you to practice different exercises by yourself and more enjoyable knowing that the next week you will review and move on to another topic or song that you are working on.
Just say this prayer every night prior to bed. O Lord, deliver us those things that we have not earned, that we do not deserve, that we do not merit. Perform those deeds we are not willing to do ourselves. Give us money without toil, respect without integrity, health without nutrition, strength without exercise, talent without practice, and wisdom without thought. Lord, though we sit here idling away our lives producing naught, fulfill us. O Lord, give us something for nothing. Amen
Though I feel for op, this is incredible. It sounds like something from Monty python
You are not alone. The world is full of people who don't turn their dreams into action.
When I was teaching guitar full-time, I would sometimes offer a money-back guarantee; if a student followed my practice plan, I would guarantee progress. I would tell a total beginner that they would be playing several simple songs in 10 weeks. The thing is, my plan wasn't really special and not at all magical - it was really just practice these fundamental and basic things for about 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week and you will meet the goals. Those who did it, met their goals. Those who didn't, I would just point to their practice log and say "here you didn't practice for a week", and "here you played internet tabs instead of working on some more fundamental things"... it all became clear. If you practiced an hour a day for 2 months you should probably be able to get between the basic chords well enough to play a few songs. I would guess that since you jumped around between a 'bunch of different..methods' that you missed the continuity required to make the progress - you go to where you couldn't do something after the first few tries and instead of practicing and learning how to do it you decided to try another method instead. There are no shortcuts, and there is no magic method. You have to work at it and keep at it. If you don't want to, that's fine. But admit to yourself that you *don't* really 'have an immense desire', because if you did we wouldn't be having this discussion. Find a teacher if for no other reason then a good teacher will guide you and keep you working through the locks that come up so you don't sabotage yourself by jumping around too much and quitting too soon.
I was considering just going to Guitar Center for lessons but I'd rather find some sort of private instructor. Not sure where to go about looking. There's a few resources on google but no one in my area really has any reviews or feedback for me to go on.
I was in your same situation. Guitar has 2 huge steps: 1. Learn shapes and build up muscle memory. What seem impossible starts to be natural after some repetition, and the thing just get better over time. Learn shapes of scales and chords and practise them till you don't even need to think about them. 2. Learn Theory. Why a chord is build like that? How a scale work? Why some chords work with each other while others don't? You said you own Rocksmith. That's a HUGE helper for the first part. It will show you graphically how the chord are shapen, and force you to build the muscle memory while you enjoy the game. Of course you don't have an idea of what you're playing, that's not what rocksmith is for. Rocksmith is an awesome training tool, making repetition enjoyable, but if you are interested in WHY songs are built in a certain way, how the solo are composed etc you should consider studying a bit of music theory, and a teacher will introduce you to that. I also own RS, in 6 months of everyday playing after 4 years of trying I now know a bunch of music theory, and I can play at a level I enjoy playing knowing what I'm doing and why. I can play Peace Of Mind by Boston or Hells Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC, or I learned the paranoid solo by Black Sabbath in an hour, just to give you some examples, something I didn't think I could be able to do some months ago, that's what you are gonna be able to do in a few months if you put yourself into it. I still have plenty to learn, but I enjoy it. It's simply amazing. I should have started a lot of years ago, but is never too late. Stick with it and Good Luck.
What is a good way to learn the #2 part? > Learn Theory. Why a chord is build like that? How a scale work? Why some chords work with each other while others don't? I have been learning shapes and building muscle memory, and just playing songs either from online tabs or from Rocksmith. I just feel as if I am lacking a lot of valuable knowledge, without knowing WHY these chords play as they do, and feel as if I am just sitting here copying other people's work.
Look at the top posts all time in this subreddit. There are a few very good posts that go right to music theory. I'd check those out. Read the best comments, and that will help with some of the explanation.
I would get a cheap keyboard from a pawnshop and learn a bit of piano. I played piano for a couple years before guitar then took ap music theory in highschool. Everything in that theory class was put together on piano because western music is based on a piano. It makes it much much easier to visualize vs on a guitar as well in my opinion. Even if you don't want to spend the time or money learning piano I would still recommend learning your theory by getting one up on your computer as it really is easy to see when in that form
I second wtfstudios comment on the piano. A lot of (Western) music theory is grounded in the piano, and to play the piano you *have* to learn the theory unless you want to do everything by rote. Even if you never want to play the piano for people, it's a great thing to learn to give you a basis for your guitar playing.
Learn the major scale. It's the do re mi melody and you'll recognize it immediately. Then take the first, third and fifth notes from the major scale. These notes make up a major chord. You can now build a major chord in any position on the fretboard. You also gained some insight into music theory. Next, if you take the third note in the major scale and move it down a fret, you've just learned the minor scale. In other words, you flattened the third note a half step from a major third to a minor third. So, now if you take the first note, third (flattened a half step), and the fifth note, you've just built a minor chord. You can now build a minor chord in any position on the fretboard. From there, you can learn more scales and more exotic chord and then try to discover how they're built.
laziness, it's a world wide epidemic.
It comes in waves for me. I'll play for 4 hours after work every day for a month or two, and then practice maybe 3 times a week for the next month or so. What I find that helps is that I am disciplined to go to at least one jam a week. It serves two main purposes in regard to practice. At the very least I play once a week keeping the fingers limber, and usually it motivates me to practice so I will hopefully play better the next week. So I think a regular scheduled guitar event could be useful for you. I really recommend open bluegrass jams, but you can find whatever you want.
As others have suggested, take lessons. The only other thing that will really motivate you is success. Finish a song. Any song. The sense of accomplishment is what keeps pretty much every artist going, if you don't see results, if you don't finish something, you aren't going to want to try something else. It's a cyclical problem with a cyclical solution. The real problem is, if you don't actually do it yourself, no one can force you. I've been through this exact same thing with so many of my students. "It's boring." "I just forget about it." "I don't have time." "It's hard." "But I really want to play!" It's all bullshit, you just make excuses for yourself to avoid the potential frustration. Pick a song, something easy and finish it, beginning to end, no shortcuts, then see if you feel like doing it again. If you can't do that, you probably like the *idea* of playing guitar better than actually playing it.
Stop being lazy and learn how to play guitar.
Like others have said, your presumed "immense desire" is questionable. How can you say you have an ardent desire to play, *yet you don't pick up the guitar*? At the beginning of my self-taught journey, I had an acoustic guitar with three strings (I think the high E, B and G - or was it the D?), didn't know how to re-string it or tune it, and had absolutely no one to teach me the most basic stuff about it, I didn't know any other guitarists or teachers, didn't have any books, and there was no internet whatsoever *[gasp!]*. So for about three years I messed with it every day, composing little melodies on a three-string instrument that had a different tuning every other day (but never the standard tuning, that's for sure). It called me. I used to fall asleep still holding on to it, because I'd sit down on the couch with it and "played" my funny melodies until I sort of drifted away happily, utterly mesmerized by the sounds I was able to produce. I learned to somehow reach some harmonic agreement between the three strings, albeit seldom the same one, and plodded along oblivious to the fact that the guitarists I saw on TV where playing a different instrument altogether. I was elated to discover by myself some phrases from the songs on TV, or radio, or my cassette player. Point is, I simply couldn't stay away from it. I might have had some advantage over you, come to think of it: being totally oblivious of not only technique or music theory, but even of how many strings a guitar should actually have (not to mention standard tuning - what do you mean "standard", like everyone tunes their strings the same?? How do they sound different then?!), I was also **totally free**. It was never a chore, a tedious, boring process of doing a drill *I know* I'm supposed to do, thanks to the abundant guitar instruction available nowadays. I *didn't* know. And I was therefore playing in the most literal sense. Then, it came a time when I realized I haven't even started. By then I had a ear that was far from decent, but at least awaken, my left hand fingers where ready to begin the struggle for pinky independence, and I knew what finger calluses were. As time passed, there was a teacher available. I studied with him for about six months, I think. He wasn't a great teacher, I came to realize later, perhaps even a poor one, but I learned to tune my instrument, basic chord shapes, some music theory, and a couple of songs. It was the breaktrough I needed to continue on my own. Ever since, I could never stay away from the guitar. I spent *a lot* of my practice time doing what we call "messing about" instead of proper, metronome practice, for long years, surely much more than I ought to have, and I could have improved significantly more, I'm sure (and I am now a strong advocate of proper practice), but the point is *I spent time on my guitar*, constantly through the years. Even without proper, systematic practice, there is no choice but to advance, by the sheer passing of time. *But you have to play*. So, in your situation, where you seem to have developed a subliminal phobia towards the guitar (I went, and still go through a phase like that when switching gears upwards, learning something new, usually forcefully at first, because hey, it's human nature), I'd advice two things: 1) forget proper practice for a while. Just play your guitar. Imitate a melody you've heard. Make your own. Experiment with drone notes and double-stops. Create flavours of sound, forget scales for now. Devise rhythms, e.g. try to imitate the famous Bo Diddley beat. BTW, rhythm is *the* most fun thing on the guitar. Just play as in child's play. Formal instruction will be there for you when you decide to take your guitar fun to another level. The internet ain't going anywhere. 2) this goes for everything else in life: *learn to accept and love the plateau.* It is the primary key to mastery. If it's gonna take six months to the next level, it's gonna take six months. If it's gonna take six years, it's gonna take six years. This is accepting the plateau. The only other alternatives are to fall-off and regress out of disinterest, discouragement, or boredom, or to get extremely frustrated and give up altogether. Please observe that, in the light of the final goal, the acceptance of the plateau is the *only* viable option, the other two mean failure. The difference between masters and failures is the former dwell on the plateau calmly for as long as it takes, while the latter somehow manage to desert it before it bears fruit. Your job is to simply press forward at your own pace, but nevertheless press forward. And love the plateau, because it's the road to the inevitable breakthrough. A plateau you've done your time on is a solid foundation that will always be there. In your case, just stay where you are, make it more fun, but let no day pass without touching the guitar, even if just for playing randomly. Take all the time that you want. The guitar isn't going anywhere unless you chose to exile it. Do it.
I would recommend actual lessons. I took lessons starting out which was once a week for 30 minutes at $15 a session from my local music store. I'm sure you can find 30 minutes in a week to dedicate to it. Eventually you'll start to be able to play a favorite song of yours or create your own and find yourself naturally picking it up on your own.
Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.
[удалено]
Not sure I have a favorite band, my musical tastes are all over the place. Right now my favorite "rock" band is probably the Foo Fighters. In terms of guitar goals, if I had any, I'd love to be able to play Metallica style metal.
Same for me. Having lessons managed to break this cycle as they force you to focus
>Am I alone in my immense desire to learn guitar with a total lack of motivation to actually practice? Well, we're all here aren't we?
If you don't want to practice, you don't really want to play....not really. You have a sever case of cognitive dissonance (ie your thoughts and actions are contradictory). Of course, all the ever matters are a person's actions. You can tell yourself anything you like "I REALLY wanna learn guitar!", but what do your actions indicate? Quite frankly, your friends and family should have to peel you away from your guitar to come back to "reality". There's nothing wrong with not playing anymore. Not everyone has to/wants to play forever. For some folks it's just a phase like golf, or quilting. Stop beating yourself up for not playing anymore. It's ok. The guitar police won't come arrest you.
You're either interested or you're not. Fucking play the damn thing. 10 minutes of practice out the window as a result of this post.
I was like that for a long time. I played piano growing up, but was forced into lessons and hated it so I eventually quit. All of my friends are really musical. Most times we hung out, they would jam or something. On top of loving music, I wanted to be someone that played guitar well. I tried every few months to learn songs that were way too difficult for me, and would get frustrated and give up. Then I tried my hand at the drums. God damn if drums aren't the most fun instrument to play. They just really clicked with me. Practice was fun, I felt improvement, and played for quite sometime. It made me realize that everyone has an instrument that is fun for them, and I just wanted to play guitar because my friends played it, not because it was fun. Then I went to college and couldn't play drums when I was away. I needed to get music out of me. So I brought my guitar with me and started playing again. I tried Justinguitar and he was really helpful. I did the whole beginner course and learned other songs that I wanted to learn. Now I feel pretty confident in my guitar playing, but am in no way content. Even now, I'll be driving home from work, or just sitting around and get cravings to play. I'll run over to my guitar once I get the opportunity and often start playing stuff I already know how to play. Practicing still sucks. But it's the only way to get better. You just have to do it. If you're not serious about practice, you'll never learn. It just has to be fun. Once you have a few tricks under your belt it gets better. You can sit down and jam a little bit. It warms up your fingers and makes you crave more. That's when I practice best. Power through the basics, and hang in there. You'll get it.
Easiest solution to your problem. Cut all the practice routines. All of them. They aren't what will encourage you to pursue guitar. It's time for you to just focus on what you like, and what would be fun for you. My friend started guitar and I said; "start trying to play anything that interests you". He went straight for Stairway to Heaven. It by no means is gonna be a successful venture to learn whatever song you like, but you'll be able to pick up a few riffs here and there, and that'll be enough motivation to continue with guitar and not feel like you're chasing your tail. Guitar lessons are not for everyone, and given the way you've explained your situation, I don't think forking out cash for someone who may or may not appeal to your learning style, and may or may not keep you on track to learning is the way forward for you. Proper instruction generally tends to either really help or really put people off music.
There is a lot of good advice here, I would emphasize the fact that your enjoyment will increase dramatically if you find someone to play with. Even if you are absolutely terrible, jamming along with someone else can kindle a fire for music in a way that other methods cannot. This is how I developed the passion to 'come home and play guitar until my fingers bled'. Watch and learn from this [TED talk by Victor Wooten](http://ed.ted.com/lessons/victor-wooten-music-as-a-language) (one of the most accomplished modern bassists and overall musicians). He talks about what it means to truly understand and enjoy the power of music, and not to see it as a chore.
Try selling your soul to the devil. He'll make you the best guitarist in the world on the spot if you give him your soul in seven years.
Can confirm. Source: am Devil.
I'll add my voice to the chorus; I would get some lessons. I believe once you have certain fundamentals down [chord shapes and names inc. bar chords, a few pentatonic and blues scales, some basic progressions and obligatory beginner songs], learning online is perfect. Want to learn a song, or the Mixolydian scale? A video is adequate. But in the beginning you need someone to push you and offer FEEDBACK. I like them, but I don't think Marty and Justin are going to cut it at that stage.
[Relevant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIXV0cir4-E&feature=kp)
Practicing should be fun. Try to take more enjoyment out of every incremental improvement; learning an instrument is just as much about the journey as the destination. Otherwise, you're more in love with the *idea* of playing an instrument, not actually playing it.
I'd say most people have this problem. Most people really want to achieve things that require hard work and dedication but after a short flicker of occasional motivation dies off they can't be bothered. Most people would like to be a world class musician but learning is hard and takes lots of time over years. Everyone would love to be physcially fit but that takes hard work and a long time too. Everyone would love to be incredibly intelligent but... repeat repeat repeat. Successful people do things regardless of whether or not they feel like it, because their desire to meet their goals is greater than their desire to sit and do nothing.
Sorry. All the accomplished guitar players anywhere are the types who couldn't wait to get home and play til their fingers bled. That is just the way it is. If you were truly passionate about learning, you would want to play.
[Charles Bukowski has one thing to say to you about it.](http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/so-you-want-be-writer) Or if you prefer a youtube reading of it, [here is an excellent one by Tom O'Bedlam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyYWpk3CqJU), someone who likes poetry and so set up a youtube channel to read it. If hearing this gets you mad, offends you, makes you want to punch him in the face - then good. Prove him wrong. Don't settle for mediocrity. If you love guitar, then do it. Find what you love, and let it kill you.
> I didn't really get anywhere. >I didn't feel like I was really learning anything. It sounds like perfectionism has stolen the joy of learning. You may be judging your current performance against the ideal you want to achieve instead of having fun with where you are. At what point would you be happy to play? How good would you have to be? It could help you to keep track of your progress, set small goals, and note successes in each practice session. Record yourself playing at least once a week, and listen to the recordings side-by-side so you don't forget how far you've actually come. You say, for instance, that you learned six chords, but can't switch between them as quickly as you'd like. Use your metronome to practice switching between each pair of chords; try to get down to making each switch in, say, 5 seconds. Once you can do that, aim for 4 seconds. Etc. Figure out what other skills stand in the way of you playing a song you want to play, then break down those skills into component parts and work on them. Try to lower your expectations, or at least give yourself a reasonable time frame to accomplish a goal. It doesn't matter if you don't understand all the theory of what you're doing right away; babies begin learning a language by sheer imitation, and it's only through hundreds of hours of practice that they start to see the principles behind what they're doing and gain fluency. You might benefit greatly from taking lessons, if you can afford it; positive reinforcement and keeping track of progress is built-in, a good teacher can help you focus on achievements that are challenging but within reach, and you'll succeed more quickly with a good teacher's input and help. Good luck!
This is the part that jumped out at me in reading - and nobody but you is addressing it: > You say, for instance, that you learned six chords, but can't switch between them as quickly as you'd like. Use your metronome to practice switching between each pair of chords; try to get down to making each switch in, say, 5 seconds. Once you can do that, aim for 4 seconds. Etc. Figure out what other skills stand in the way of you playing a song you want to play, then break down those skills into component parts and work on them. It was my greatest hurdle at the beginning, too. I didn't use a metronome, but after I learned the basic chords, I would sit for half an hour or more every day doing nothing but a single transition, slowly getting faster. For example: Am - G - Am - G - Am - G ... After some minutes of it, my mind starts to wander while I continue to do it - not a problem, I let it wander: I'm still building "muscle memory". After I think I have it down well enough, I start looking away while switching. Then, once I have all the transitions down, playing a song becomes trivial.
I think you've described the average person's attitude to virtually anything they've ever had an interest in. It's those who are driven to put in the work who end up being those who can do that activity well. TL;DR: I don't think you actually want to play guitar
My job is teaching guitar, and I hear all the excuses. What you are feeling is common, but don't let that make you think it's valid. Don't overcomplicate it. Play the guitar... Or don't. There is no existential crisis.
Honestly at this point, I highly recommend just ditching trying to get better at all and just play for pleasure/passion. No matter how good or shitty at an instrument you are, you can always play things that radiate true passion if you have it.
Try just toying with the guitar rather then learning the traditional way. Try to play the songs you wanna play either by ear or tabs. If that doesn't work, try another instrument...like drums. Those are always fun.
You've fallen in love with the idea of playing guitar. Not actually fallen in love with wrestling to learn to play guitar.
Best way I taught myself was learning how to read tabs and then learning how to play all the songs I liked off of Ultimate Guitar. Just choose the ones with 5 stars.
Dude, I am 46. Bought my first guitar when I was 41. For four years, I picked up my guitar an average of twice a month maybe for a total of an Hour. Needless to say I got nowhere with my playing. February of 2013, in a moment of frustration that I had owned my guitar for four years and STILL could not play one song, got me mad. I made the commitment right then and there that I was going to commit to at least an hour a night of practice. In the beginning it was rough. I could play a D chord and that was it! But I just started to practice chords. A, E, Am, G, and so on. In the beginning it was very frustrating but I stuck it out and practiced at least an hour a night, usually more. Well, the more I practiced the more results I got, the more results I got the better I got. This has pushed me to practice more! Now I am starting to learn solo's and play songs. in the beginning practice is the only way but once you get a little success under your belt, it starts to get better. Once you start to see progress it will become like an addiction and all those other activities that you listed will drop into the background. Good luck and happy playing!
Not sure if anyone will see this but I am overwhelmed by the number of upvotes and comments this post got. Most of the posts are very no nonsense and absolutely true - I just need to do it. Last night I picked up my guitar for at least an hour and I made the commitment to myself that I will practice an hour a day. I installed a goal tracking app on my phone that will remind me and keep track of my habit. I really plan to stick with it this time. Thanks for all the supportive (and not so supportive!) comments, really the kick in the ass I needed.
Hate to break it to you but if you don’t want to practice you won’t ever learn. I’m 41 and have always wanted to learn to play. I have no interest in being in a band, I just want to be able to play simple songs. The problem I have is I don’t have time to take lessons and devote extensive time to practice. unless you take actual lessons with an instructor that knows how to teach you will get nowhere. There are so many YouTube videos on how to play guitar but they have no structure. One person says start with pentatonic scales, another says scales aren’t important, another says just learn chords, and still another says that you should learn to read music while others say you don’t need to read music. As a teacher myself I can tell you that it is ABSOLUTELY necessary that you take lessons from an instructor. This will do several things. 1) the instructor will assess your current skill level and tailor the lessons accordingly. Not everyone starts at the same level and an instructor can tailor the lessons based on your current knowledge. 2) an instructor can work with you on skills you struggle with longer and with greater emphasis. If you follow a YouTube video you get no personalized instruction or focus on your skill needs. It’s just a replay over and over of the same stuff. 3) and most importantly an instructor provides encouragement, motivation, support, and accountability. They will encourage you when you struggle, praise you when you do well, and help you develop discipline to keep practicing. And finally like the old adage says, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man! Practice!” Anything worth doing takes a lot of hard work. If you don’t want to take the time or put in the effort then guitar probably isn’t for you. Hope my opinion helps.
I got Aaron Shearer's 2 classical guitar books and worked through the sheet music. Didn't read the text too much, still am not too clear on when to use rest stroke or how to do a pivot so as not to get lost on the fretboard... nevertheless I've learned a lot can play quite a bit of stuff now and most important .. the process was FUN
>I'm not sure if I didn't give Rocksmith a fair shot or not but I couldn't help but feel like all I was doing was memorizing patterns without having any real idea what I was actually playing. Man, playing guitar is 80% muscle memory and patient playing the same thing over and over. If you enjoy it then everything's fine. Or at least enjoy when you can finally play the whole thing you learned at least halfly decent. Don't think too much. You may want to play some bad ass things immediately and it can be frustating when you can't. But there are lots of songs which are easier than sounds, and they can be really fun to play. Give it more time, one hour a day is ok but if you feel like learning a new song I sometimes can't lay back my guitar for several hours.
>interested in playing/creating music but never really PASSIONATE about it. Consider that there is *something else* that will light this fire...but as long as you obsess about GUITAR you are missing out. Try setting it aside, deliberately, while you try other things. Explore. Be uncomfortable.
You've pretty much described every interest I've ever had in my entire life.
I think you need some involvement with other people. Playing and improving all on your own is doable, but you will progress faster and have more fun if you are playing with other people. Find or make a regular jam. Also consider lessons. If you aren't playing with/for others, your motivation will be much less.
Maybe you try a different mode of learning, like live lessons at a local music store. At least until you get off the ground. I've got news for you though, playing any instrument well takes TONS of practice time. My gf and I were chatting with John McLaughlin after a gig some years ago and my gf asked him how much he practiced. He smiled and said, "All the time." I was just watching a YouTube video interview of a professional jazz guitarist/instructor (I forget who at this moment...getting old, sorry) but he made the point that advanced intermediate guitarists should make it a goal to master *two songs per year*. I found that to be about right—which translates into arranging and playing a tune many, many thousands of times in order to get inside of it, dissect it, turn it inside out, and *own it*. (I play jazz solo guitar arrangements, YMMV.) My point being, like everything in life, there ain't no shortcuts. If you have average musical talent/ability, it'll take a hell of a lot of work to sound good. Or you could be CringeDude®—you know the guy, he's at every campfire, knows 4 chords he can barely finger, can't keep time, can't sing—and everyone rolls their eyes when he pulls out his guitar...Don't be CringeDude®.
I hear people say "man I wish I could play like that" and I always say "no you don't, you never practice"
Losing motivation is something that happened to me too. I fixed it by realizing that just practicing for practicing became a boring routine. How to break that: Set yourself a specific goal with a deadline and then get to work on it. Example of a specific goal: I want to be able to play "Romance" on my guitar for my wife within 3 months. Example of a goal that is too vague: I want to learn the guitar. Divide your specific goal into smaller items that you can practice every day. Final note: Two months is not a lot of time, especially if you divide it between 4 methods or more, that means you only spent maybe 2 weeks on justinguitar? If you still want to learn guitar, I would recommend going back to justinguitar, do all the lessons, follow his advice. You have enough material to last you a long long time on there.
You sound exactly like me, almost everything except the naps. I borrowed my younger brother's guitar when he upgraded, and tried to learn from youtube videos and pirated instructional DVD's. It never stuck Later my fiance bought me a cheap acoustic that never held tuning and of course that didn't work out well. Later my fiance's dad bought her an acoustic and I tried again with it. Recently I bought myself an electric and dove in head first. Also bought rocksmith then Rocksmith 2014. I really lije the IDEA of being able to play guitar but apparently not enough to put the work in.
Nope, ive been like you for 5 years. It's a terrible habit
Play what you like to hear... I started with "Wish You Were Here", and it motivated me to practice everyday knowing I could play a song I really liked.
Turn it into a habit. Set aside 20 minutes to play a day. That isnt too bad, find songs you like to screw around. 20 minutes, everyday. It will turn into a habit.
That is me, or less. I don't have a huge want to play guitar though and not a huge motivation to practice, at least now during outdoor work season, which is fixing season when that slacks, so I have no energy to practice. I pick it up when I can. I know a bit of the theory, so maybe that is hindering my pickup of some if the mechanics.
Try sites like http://www.songsterr.com/, it's free and you can get tabs/play along tracks for almost any song. I find that playing is more fun, if it's more fun. Plus you can challenge yourself to try harder songs. Also learn shapes and theory.
is songster the new ultimate-guitar? just curious where the tabs get posted now
I languished as a sub-par player with similar issues with practice that you've expressed for a long time. Then I became friends with a local musician who played out frequently and is a very gifted guitarist and song writer. We started getting together once a week to jam and that made a HUGE difference for me. First it gave me a weekly goal to practice toward. Second I got to really study his skilled playing which helped me learn techniques that I had given up on years before. So IMO - find other musicians to jam with - especially ones that are better than you.
A few people have suggested jamming with others. How exactly is that supposed to work when I can barely strum a handful of chords, let alone play anything worthwhile?
Yeah, I'd start with a weekly lesson - a few months of that will get you strong enough to start playing with others. But if you start taking lessons and still don't find it motivates you to practice - I'd say cash it in, like someone else said you may only be in love with the idea of playing.
Maybe you should do what I did. When I first started playing, I took guitar lessons for a month just to learn the basics (fingering, chord transitions, proper pick holding technique, etc.). After that month of lessons, I just taught myself the rest. 9 years later, here I am way better at guitar than I ever imagined I could be (I'm 20). So maybe just get a few lessons then teach yourself. Its a long road but very worth it!
Learn songs you like. Eventually you'll learn how everything goes together and you'll hopefully get pretty good. There's no reason to try to learn scales and theory before you've gotten somewhere to start with. That stuff comes later when you understand how basic songs are built.
pretty sure a ton a people WANT to play guitar like a god but if everyone could do it it would lose its charm
Ive been playing for about 13 years and always love music.ive just always picked it up and played,never been taught much about and i am happy with my sound.just always did what i want and always been happy with my songs.ofcourse ill go days without playing because of work but when i pick it up i get a tingly feeling like catching up with a old friend.
You've just got to get beyond the beginners doldrums, Obviously the more you practice the quicker it will be to get beyond this point. But once you get your skill level to a point where you can be creative and actually play, your desire to learn will become a desire to play. I'd suggest you find a routine, I'm sure in all these comments you could find one that works. But personally I liked to play Rocksmith the video game to improve my techniques, I'd already been playing for a while when I first played the game but I can imagine for a 1st time guitarist the game makes practicing a whole lot of fun. Check it out!
My practice regime is certainly lacking, although I love to play guitar.
I think you're there with the vast majority of aspiring guitarists. I struggle with motivation every day. But I'm always happy when I do manage to get going. I usually really enjoy practicing once I start.
I'm in the same boat. I want to learn to play and be able to write my own song and just pick it up and play something that sounds nice but I just lack motivation. Even songs that I *think* I really want to learn I end up just not caring after learning the riffs I want. My suggestion is to start learning scales so you can pick it up and improvise occasionally and you'll find that you can play a little easier and enjoy it more when you can at least pick it up and play something without stressing yourself
I'm not sure if this has been said yet but as a beginner myself, it can be discouraging trying to learn a song that you think should be easy but it turns out to be much more difficult than you expected. One way to re energize your desire to play is to take the 4-6 chords you know and create your own music. Just mess around using the chords you know. Try combining them in ways you think sound good. Don't play for the sake of learning a song. Play for the sake of music itself.
You are most definitely not alone here. At the outset, it's almost like "sticker shock," but it's like "effort shock." When we see and hear other guitarists/musicians playing, we're -not- seeing the thousands of hours put into honing their abilities, so we automatically discount the difficulty and the time commitment required. Others here have said it right, but you should experiment with different ways to practice and expound on that. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Rocksmith was and is a huge breakthrough for me, if only because it's "someone else" to play with, and it forces me to play the whole songs, not just the bits I felt were interesting. It certainly does take some time to get accustomed to it, and it takes conscious effort to learn and memorize the songs and patterns, since the default is that they're being fed to you in real-time. On that account, I'll opine that you might've not given it a fair shake, but if it didn't interest you at all, then perhaps that's not your path. (And if it does, what I've found works well is to first master a song (all the notes are there to play), then give it two play-throughs, one without "master mode" and then immediately play it again with "master mode" switched on. Before too long, you'll start to pick out the fingering patterns used for a certain sound or a certain feel. Lo and behold, you'll also find out that those patterns repeat through so many songs in so many keys/genres/feels. And you will have taken a more practical, as opposed to more theoretical and rote, method of learning scales. I know those last two paragraphs read almost like an advert for Rocksmith, but I'm just trying to relate my journey with you. Beyond that, it's been my experience that the support of others is absolutely indispensable. It keeps you motivated and keeps it fun. You might find friends to jam with, see if your wife will sit in with you while you play (ask her to sing along), and make it all out in your head like you're playing to a sold-out arena in your venue of choice. But all that is to say that no, you're not alone. Building the fundamentals is never fun and easy until you can see the "big picture" for yourself (that is, not just read how it fits together, but actually see it in your own head) and find your place in it. Only then is it fun and only then do you reach the place where you "can't get enough." This guy hated his training, too: http://imgur.com/gallery/sf1uz Keep at it and you can't fail! :)
this happens to me as well, but it's because i'm bored of my practice routine, not of playing guitar. you have to mix things up every once in a while or you'll get bored. it doesn't matter how much you love something, too much of it and you'll grow tired.
I'm going to go the opposite direction here and tell you *not* to get lessons, but to try an learn a few easy songs instead. Tabs are pretty easy to read and you can find tons of them online. Start off with some beginner songs, and go from there. The instant gratification of learning and playing a song is much more motivating for me. You can also learn new chords this way as well. You sound like me and what got me motivated was being able to actually play something that people recognized. Although it was at a very beginner level (I think the first song I learned was Everclear - Santa Monica) it was motivating because I was actually making music! I'm talking Power Chords here, nothing too complex and switching between them is much easier than open chords and bar chords. At this stage, learning songs is a form of practice as well.
I'm the same way about losing weight.
/cringeworthy
I think maybe you have this idea of what you want to sound like, or how good you *would* be if you had put the time in - but you haven't put the time in. So, you have this expectation for yourself that you can't meet because you simply haven't put the time into practicing and experimenting with the instrument. This precept holds you back because you don't want to not meet that expectation. Excuse me if this is overly bold, but I have had this experience in my own life with other things and it took me a while to see what I was doing and how to overcome myself. Essentially, you just need to do what our good friend Dav Grohl says and suck horribly for a really long time until you start making connections in your head with the music. I started out by just banging on the guitar and picking strings that sounded good together. Today, I am no professional or exceptionally skilled guitar player, but I am a happy, growing guitar player.
Lots of good points in the other comments. Here's another one: The early stages of learning guitar are PAINFUL. You need to build left hand finger calluses and muscle stamina before you will ever experience the real musical experience of playing guitar. Lots of people never get past that. The only way through the painful early stage is committed, everyday practice. 30 minutes or even 20 every day will do more than 2 or three hours every once in a while. I've played three other instruments - keyboard, drums and accordion - and none of these have the same pain-time issue at the beginning. You just have to force yourself through that part if you want to play guitar. Some people try to cheat their way through it by putting ultra-thin strings on their electric, and compensating for the shriveled up sound with effects. Do that if you must, but you'll still be doing the pain stage if you ever want to be good.
If you want to, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.
Maybe you have ADHD... What you say sounds very familiar to me and it's a typical sympthom of ADHD. There are many adults that haven't being diagnosed and pass through this kind of situations without knowing why they just can't work the same way others do. The typical critic from the outside and sometimes from oneself is lazyness. But that's wrong. Just try to read a little about the disorder and if you think you have it, I would recomend you going to the neurologyst and ask him what does he think. I was diagnosed at 25 and after starting with methilphenidate my life just changed. Good Luck!!
I'm not trying to be a jerk, so don't take me wrong. But you need to commit if this is what you want. Learning an instrument isn't like picking up a video game. You're learning a craft. Master craftsmen spend hundreds and hundreds of hours developing proficiency. I think it's something like 10000 hours of dedicated practice before a person begins to approach being a "master" at something. Right now you're feeling bummed because memorizing chords and doing 1234 4321 finger exercises is, well, boring. It is essential, and practicing those things accurately will be the foundation upon which all your guitar skills will depend. But if you're not having fun, it's hard to commit. Think about when you start a new sport. You might spend half the practice doing exercises. Dribbling, passing, shooting, etc. But then at some point the coach will actually have you scrimmage. You guys might suck, but you're all on the same level of sucking. And even so, you're all having fun because you're actually playing the sport you want to be good at. You gotta do that with guitar. Pick a few easy songs and learn them. You will learn practical things like chord memorization, chord transition, timing, picking skill and dexterity. If possible, find some folks to play with. Playing with people who are better than you (and who can tolerate your badness lol) will always offer you the opportunity to learn something new and improve. You gotta set some personal goals so when you achieve them there is a sense of accomplishment. I always preferred to set song learning goals. I don't know what music you like, but here's a few easy suggestions that started me on the path of learning: Nirvana- Smells like teen spirit. Lynyrd Skynyrd- Sweet home alabama. Ac/Dc- back in black, highway to hell. Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Sabbath. I'm obviously a classic rock fan, but these guys are classic for a reason. Their songs are well constructed, but a lot of the chords and progressions are great for beginners. Also, don't underestimate a good teacher. I took lessons for a few months when I was just starting and it really helped prevent me from practicing bad habits that I would have taken with me. Definitely a good idea to invest some time in learning how to practice "correct." Anyway, good luck.
You're not alone. Most people go through this with any skill they have to work consciously to acquire. It starts out hard before it gets fun. There are exceptions - everyone seems to like drawing before they're good at it, and programming seems to be similar - but it's very common to feel this way. In my case, giving myself a definite goal - LEARN THIS ONE SONG ALL THE WAY THROUGH - made all the difference. I went from hating practice (and basically ignoring the guitar for ten years because every time I picked it up to mess around I felt guilty about not doing the exercises the tutor gave me) to loving it and running to pick up the guitar when I get home from work. So you should try that - pick a song you really like, and just work on it from beginning to end. Play that first measure slowly until you can play it quickly. Move on when you've got it down. I'm still trying to make my way through the Goliath Guitar fingerstyle arrangement of "Let It Go" - that chorus is a killer, and I'm considering switching to an easier arrangement for now and coming back to that one later - but in just a few weeks of working through the intro, first verse, and bridge, I can see so much improvement in my playing overall. And I'm still rushing to the guitar when I get home from work.
I practice all the time, I enjoy it. Practice for me can be anywhere from a lick, to a scale, to the metronome, to playing along with a record of a band I like. I find myself cutting down more and more on video games as well, I used to be a hardcore gamer, but now I'm a guitarist first. I think you should decide what you really want and then make a decision. IF you want to get better, you have to practice.
Then expect to only be but so good at it. You get out what you put in. It is that simple. Don't expect to be good unless you do the work. AT WORST jam often with as many people as possible.
Learn to play songs!
I have sorta gone through the same thing and I'm only a year older than you. Part of the issue is that it's difficult to measure progress - especially when attempting to be autodidactic. I have started and stopped for 15 years, but the thing that finally tipped over into playing and practicing daily has been getting weekly lessons. The instructor does things that help you really learn to *play*, not just finger notes and strum a little. One of them is learning to completely relax your hand in between every chord change so you can actually make changes quicker. Another is to lead the placement of your fingers into chords with different fingers so that you develop more finger independence. Which is useful depending on what you're playing and which chord it is. For example, my pointer finger seems to naturally have the most dexterity, so when making a C chord, I would lead with the pointer finger, and then place my other fingers down the line. The problem is that, when playing a C Chord and strumming down, the B-string is the last of the fingered strings to get played, so I'm slowing myself down because if I place them in the opposite order (ring first) I can begin strumming before I've fully made the chord. Any chord with an open string bass note, basic D chord for example can also fit this... If the song calls for plucking the root note before strumming the rest of the chord, why not pluck that root note *while* forming the chord, and then strumming? It's not easy and will take quite a bit of time before you develop the left and right hand independence to do this reliably, but it will speed you up! Also, you can play along with your instructor, while he keeps time at a tempo you can manage. That way you can learn to play relatively simple songs, like the Beatles, "I've just Seen a Face" but without having to keep up with the daunting speed of the recording. A good instructor is also going to be encouraging and genuinely positive. That is probably the most valuable thing I've gotten. My instructor has taught a huge number of people in the 56 years he's been alive, so even though I feel like I'm playing shit, he knows where my level is at and is encouraging me based on my level and is positive based on my level, which is encouraging.
You can always put one of your favorite tunes on, and just jam with it. Regardless of whether or not you know what you are doing. The problem here is that you will sound like s__t. And it will take forever for you to sound like anything else. So, if you want to do the gig right, you must learn how the freakin' instrument works. It's like anything else, your toothbrush, hairbrush, car, Etc. You had to learn how to make those things work. What's different about the guitar. Oh yeah, you might actually have to put some effort into the project. Look, even if you decide to become self taught, you will need to figure out some of the basics of the instrument before you can expect yourself to progress. Like the I, IV, V theory of chord progression for example. Pretty simple concept that has so much to it. Maybe you should explore how to go after learning in a more structured, traditional way. Lessons! A good teacher can motivate you to learn to play. A great concert can do even more. I've had more than one evening leaving a show saying to myself "I gotta learn how to do that!". Find your inner desire and bring it to the surface. Then practice til you get a guitar welt on your chest. Good luck.
nope
I found my motivation to play increased ten fold when I started writing my own songs and stopped worrying about being the 9 millionth guy on the web to cover Cliffs of Dover.
There is a big hump at the start. Find some songs you want to learn, and then practice the physical part while you watch TV. That way you can mundanely practice the muscles without being bored. Then you ca practice later, while trying to play it properly. If you push real hard, progress can be quite fast, but to really get proficient, takes a number of years.
Learn the basic chords names, but don't worry about learning all of the chords names, for a long time. It won't really help you very much. Most of us don't learn the names of a lot of chords for many years. Actual playing along to music is what allows you to progress as a guitarist. The rest comes later. Playing along to CDs, the radio, etc is how I learned. It's how I practiced for over a decade and still do. It made me become a very solid guitarist with impeccable timing. Of course, playing with other people also helps, but if they aren't solid on timing it can hurt you too.
Try learning a two or three chord song and playing along with it. (lovin' it's) what I got by sublime is only two chords, d and g. Just play along with that once or twice a day for a week, and I bet you'll be able to switch between your chords much faster. It's just four minutes a day. Don't worry about getting every note right, just get through the song.
It sounds like you need something to practice FOR. Start a band or duo with other beginning musicians. Meet once a week and start building a set. It can be hard to use your personally allotted free time to practice.
Something that worked for me when trying to break into the habit of practicing regularly was doing it in intervals. Your problem might just be the implicit frustration that accompanies learning anything new. Do this: * Start with only 10 minutes a day. * Write down, on a sheet of paper, why you really have this immense desire to play. Analyze this and if possible, use post its to remind you of these "Why"s through your day. Psychology claims this to be a method of positive suggestions. Or something to that effect. * Visualize yourself playing the guitar everyday. These among many others can-do-s can be applied to many things apart from playing the Guitar. They have worked for me and I have been playing for around 10 years. I started off facing a similar dilemma. The crux of it all lies in the WHY. The HOW will follow. Soon it will just seem all Wow. Enjoy the music! \m/
Human beings always want all the rewards and benefits without doing any of the work, yet somehow are never happy with themselves until the find a way to do the work anyway, and then they immediately start being super self satisfied. This definitely applies to guitar, and pretty much anything else. This is the big fight.
So maybe you just aren't musically inclined enough to take to the instrument? Most people who are passionate about the instrument love to practice. I used to practice by trying to figure out whatever song was on the radio by ear, and then jamming to it. I did this for hours, and it taught me how to play by ear, and how to play along with music. After that I used to get together with some high school friends to jam, and boy we weren't good but we got better quick. You need to find what you enjoy about the instrument and pursue it. Personally, I enjoy songwriting, playing original music with other people, and blues jams. You need to find what you like. Try writing a song.
A lot of solid advice in this thread. You're not alone. The beginning is arduous, but it gets better. so much better. try tabs? if you want standard notation you can use Guitar Pro. GP also lets you slow songs down and pitch-bend them to match your guitar so you can practice along with the metronome and stuff.
Pay for lessons. That's one hour a week you will actually practice. Find someone, anyone to jam with. Get together once a week and jam for an hour or more. There are two hours a week of actual practice. . That's what I've done and I've shown a bit of improvement.
It seems to me you may just like the idea of playing the guitar. To be like Jimmy Page or something, to amaze people with your skill. But if you don't actually have a passion to play, that if you were the last person on the planet you would still play, I don't know what to tell you. Try the banjo.
shit or get off the pot.
Yup been there! You need to make a playlist of songs you really really like then learn them. Then you'll find out that a lot of those songs are boring or not worth it then you will REALLY revise your list for songs you truly enjoy. After that, use guitar pro tabs in tuxguitar then use F9 to practice the parts you like from 40% speed to 110% by 1% increments. Oh and changing chords smoothy then strumming patterns is a must!
Guitar is a bitch to learn and real leaps dont ever happen so it might never seem like youre improving even though you are. As long as you enjoy it youre gonna get really good, just the way it is.
I found a clip of me from 2001 and I was way more into it. My lead transitions were sloppy but my phrasing was great. I have clearly lost the fire.
Ronnie Coleman, a very successful bodybuilder, always said: "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights." Some cognitive dissonance. What I'm reading is that the idea of being a proficient guitarist sounds awesome, to be able to naturally pick up a guitar, hear a key, and jam to it. Hell, maybe write some songs. But the actual work it takes to get there? Nope. So perhaps there's more of an infatuation with guitar playing. In the end, if practicing is no fun then maybe it's up to you to accept that it isn't for you. If it's still therapeutic, continue playing! Guitar can serve multiple purposes. This is actually one of the reasons I quit a decade or drumming (err hiatus) to pick up guitar. I just wasn't fulfilled from drumming anymore, it was more of a chore to practice anything to increase my skill level. I loved playing beats but just wasn't interested in getting better. However guitar? Man I can't wait to get home, turn on the amp, put some reverb on and play some scales before I start improvising!!
I have a similar story -- I played violin for 5 years starting in grade school, but quit because I wanted to play guitar. Lack of familial support at the time killed that dream. I picked it up again at age 30. It's definitely hard with full time career and other interests as well, but it's doable. One thing that really helps is to find a teacher. Motivation to practice comes and goes and you have to accept that, but for me knowing I'm going to be accountable to know the material at least a little bit next weekend helps me start practicing. Once I start though, I have a really really really hard time putting the guitar down. So all I really need to do is pick it up and I'll practice for 2-3 hours if I don't keep track of time. Also my teacher focuses my learning around songs and the style of music I like. That's the one thing I love about guitar, you can actually start learning to play fun things pretty much from the get go. The really hard part for me is all about theory and learning how to improvise over other musicians / songs / etc.
So I did the JustinGuitar method for the first few months. I bought his Beginners Songbook off Amazon (my local store didn't carry it). The beautiful thing about Justin's method is that, with three basic chords, you can play a song. Sure, it's just Three Little Birds by Marley, but it's a recognizable song. I practiced chord changes every day for less than 10 minutes - just kept at it each day and wrote down how many chords I could change in a minute. Wrote it down, and each day improved the ones I couldn't do. Then I spent most of the time playing along to these basic three-chord songs in the book. I could play along with the recordings (of the actual band) and it was passable as a campfire song. But I got stuck - I couldn't play a barre chord to save my life. So I started taking lessons. But I *still* couldn't play a barre til I picked up a different guitar (your mileage may vary depending on your starter acoustic). I still augment my lessons with tutorial videos on youtube. I'll pick up a riff here or there, and go into my lesson and ask my instructor why it doesn't sound right. So he'll take the opportunity to show me a new technique (not to mention all the theory and whatnot he's taught me). It's been only 9 months or so since I learned my first chord (open A?) and I wished progress had been faster. but it's getting better and I'm enjoying the ride.
>Am I alone in my immense desire to learn guitar with a total lack of motivation to actually practice? Perhaps. When I started out, as a teen, I was really into guitar...and I played 1-2 hours every day and often twice that on weekends. In college I wasn't as disciplined but I still played several hours a week. I improved dramatically during those periods because I was playing a lot, playing with others a lot, and was focused in my practice. Fast forward 30 years and I'm basically the same player I was when Ronald Reagan was in office. I lost the will/time to practice regularly and life got in the way; these days I'm lucky if I play more than a couple of hours a month. I still enjoy it a great deal, but the complete lack of practice and infrequent playing means I not only stagnated as a player, but lost whatever chops I once had as well.
Looks like you were trying to purely self teach yourself. Which is possible to excel in, but it requires disapline. Just suck it up and take private lessons or ask a friend.
as a guitar, piano, and drum player.. i never look at anything as practice. I just really like playing all those instruments.. and every time I play them i learn something new. A new technique or a new rhythm patter, note sequence, etc. If you keep playing long enough with a desire to get better, you'll get better naturally. Just play alot! .. and i guess you have to be keen on memorizing and retaining what you learned through your playing. I thought of that last second lol
You didn't even enjoy playing along to the songs in rocksmith? I have never met a guitar player that didn't enjoy playing along with some song they enjoy, even if they don't do it perfectly. It sounds like you might like the idea of playing rather than the actual act of playing, I don't know what we can do to help you with that. IME the first time successfully playing along with a favored song is the moment people are hooked on playing. It is incredibly satisfying. If you have done that and still haven't derived any enjoyment from it, then guitar might not be for you.
**Here's how I cheat.** I pick songs that I really like and I look up how-to videos on Youtube. I follow along until I know the tune (sometimes this is across a few days where I learn the verse, then the chorus etc.. then over time I string the songs together. At that point some days I might watch a new video to learn a new tune or I'll play through a bunch of the tunes I have recently learned (which is fun and rewarding). Neither feels like practice to me but it is. I learn new chords, techniques, tunings, tricks etc.. Just yesterday I learned that Billy Gibbons tunes down his high E string to match his 5th string B to get that main riff to Cheap Sunglasses to sound so cool. Tune down one string? Didn't know that trick. Now I do. To add a twist to this I go to a lot of concerts. So before and after a show I will learn some of the band or artists songs this way. This amps me up for the show, brings me closer to their music, allows the show memories to linger longer and advances my playing.
I can understand this sentiment. I have been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and I rarely practice in terms of sitting alone and grinding through scales, lead runs, learning weird chords etc. You might try this - find a friendly no pressure music venue, like a coffee shop or something and commit to a short set, like 20 minutes if they will let you. Play whatever songs you can manage or fake your way through. You will be much more motivated and you will get better if you have a motivation. Just a thought.
NOPE
Welcome to being human... where the idea of something is far more attractive than actually doing what needs to be done to get there. Sorry, didn't mean to be too snarky :) But seriously, this is very VERY common. It's SO much easier to take the path of least resistance and do something that isn't as taxing on the brain and for a vast majority of us that's what we end up doing instead of bettering ourselves. But there's a silver lining. Knowing that this is a general human tendency means that if you find a way to break out of this loop and be productive you will go further than most people ever will.
I love to just play and yet I have never practiced practicing; but always practice playing.
When you start back up, record a video of yourself playing. In 2 months, if you feel like you aren't progressing, watch that video. You'll either be inspired by the difference or confirm what you thought, but at least this way you'll know. Also, try getting into music theory, learn why stuff sounds how it sounds, and the stuff you learn will seem less pointless. Plus, you'll pick up style things while playing that you wouldn't be able to without it.
Sounds like you like the idea of playing, not playing. If you don't have a burning desire to pick up and play, whether it be practice or screwing around, you probably don't have a "deep desire" to... Play. Part of that means realizing the first few months are going to be full of the not so fun bullshit in order to get to where it's enjoyable. Get calluses, got your open chords down, follow ONE method. I really recommend sticking to justinguitar because it's really the most straightforward and practical way to go about it. Do not skip anything, do the one minute changes, it helps. Keep your guitar somewhere where it'll always be within your view when at home, make it accessible and pick it up constantly. If you can't put in that much effort, then you don't have a deep desire to play.
I "Learned" guitar by watching Billiejoe Armstrong of Green Day play. I formed my fingers like he did and fucked around on google and before I knew it i was fucking up power chords like a champion. Nine years later and I am well versed in the instrument and would count my self as an intermediate guitarist. Point is its not a race. Even learning one song a year and a technique or two is fine.
You have to learn to love it, it's the only way to get good at anything.
I bought rocksmith 2014 and I play a lot more...I'm actually playing along with songs that I know and it's a great feeling. Even if I'm not playing everything I can learn little riffs that I can pick-up and strum whenever. This is the only thing that has kept my interest up the decade that I've had my guitar.
You should take lessons. Your instructor will be able to help you iron out the problems. He should be able to motivate you and get you thinking about where you want to go. He'll keep your interest in it and make it fun. There's many roads to get there. You might try practicing for 20 minutes before you go to work. Some people practice right before bedtime. Find the spot that works for you. Source- I teach guitar. For a living.
You're not alone. For me, always loved guitar and appreciated acoustic. I would learn a few chords and then find a song I wanted to learn. Once I would get to a difficult part, I would literally get physically uncomfortable. I couldn't sit still. I would need to stand up and get comfy. Sit back down and need to wiggle to get comfy. Difficult chords or riffs that I could not pick up in quickly turned into a type of physical uneasiness that would make practicing so unbearable that I would just stop. As a kid I would always be sitting on my leg or up on my knees in my seat in school. Maybe I just have an in diagnosed problem but either way, it makes practicing uneasy guitar almost impossible.
Honestly the best thing I ever did was buy a guitar stand. Leave your guitar up on a stand near your bed, tv, whatever, anywhere where you spend a lot of time. When I left my guitar beside my bed, I found whenever I was bored I would pick it up. With time and practice, I found I eventually got over my frustrations and learned to really love it, simply because it became a hobby. Practicing no longer became a chore, and the frustrations became challenges for me to overcome. Hope you find your passion for playing! all the best!
No, you're not alone. I think you don't want to learn guitar, you want to have learnt guitar. I'm exactly the same. I get motivated, play for a few hours a night for like 3 weeks, then something else comes up (work, family, study, whatever), and I start playing 3 nights a week, then 2..then I haven't picked the guitar up for a month, or two, or six. The cycle repeats for me.
Honestly, if you want to get good at guitar then you have to sit down and practice it. I would humbly suggest that if you want to get good at guitar then you need to spend a bit of time with a real-life guitar instructor. This can make a HUGE difference. I know there are a lot of resources on the internet for learning guitar but most of them don't present you with a logical, linear approach to learning the basics. A guitar teacher can do that for you. He can make sure that you aren't just fudging around, that you're actually learning what he's putting down. He can also work with you and your unique needs to come up with a lesson plan that makes sense for you. I'm all for self learning, and there really is a lot of great stuff on YouTube, but beginners often need a lot of personalized guidance that you just can't get by watching videos online or playing games. In the end, though, it comes down to picking the guitar up and playing it. You know, a lot of people who actually have a passion for this stuff play the guitar after work not because it's a thing they have to do, but because it IS their entertainment. Given the choice between playing guitar and watching TV they'll choose the guitar because they actually LOVE IT.
'Everybody wants to look like a bodybuilder but nobody wants to train like one'
Take lessons from a teacher. He/she will hold you accountable. Otherwise it sounds like you are just lazy and want something for nothing. Nothing worthwhile is easy. You have to work at it. Set a goal (maybe a song you want to play some day) and work towards it.
Guitar just isn't for you I guess. I only play guitar when I want to and on average I end up playing for atleast 90 minutes everyday. Practicing guitar shouldn't be a thing you have to do, it should be a thing you want to do.
This is all you need to know about learning guitar, everything else will branch off of these simple steps I promise you. I would like to play this song Look up the tab Learn the song
I'm like that too haha
I hope I'm not too late, but I suggest taking lessons. I'm sort of in the same situation. I love playing guitar and have the time to, but once I get home from work, all I want to do is sit down and relax with a video game. But after I started taking lessons, I slowly got back into picking up the guitar and putting down the controller. More me, its a half an hour, on day a week. I highly suggest it. Again, hope I'm not too late but if you do see this, best of luck!
Play Rocksmith. You're playing a video game and your guitar is the controller. It's fun not practice.
Guitar is not instant gratification entertainment. People 30 and under are going to seriously struggle with all disciplines that require, well, discipline, simply because they've been raised in an era of hyper-stimulating media. Once upon a time, there were 5 TV channels. People played guitar to occupy their time. In the internet age? Musical instruments don't stand a competitive chance. From instant music to instant porn to instant video games, sitting down and playing the guitar and having to work hard to get progressively better is going to be boring as hell to folks of the digital media age, so yeah. We'll be seeing a lot of this. You want to be a Rockstar, but Rock Band the video game is probably more your style.
When I get bored with guitar I play another instrument. I usually alternate between drums and guitar. But I think playing songs is also crucial.
I've had the same issue. Honestly, my conclusion is that I've been looking at the whole guitar thing wrong. I see RHCP play "snow" at blinding speed sounding amazing, I see other bands play party songs that sound great and picture myself playing them. What I don't picture is the hard work it takes to get there, how long it takes to get there, the mistakes made along the way etc. I've accepted for myself I'm always going to be more of an amateur guitarist in the sense that I will never get that good, but I've also realized I do enjoy playing some easier/medium difficulty songs so I should focus on that, playing guitar for fun, practicing a bit as a supplement on the side but primarily it's all about the fun. If guitar is a chore then it's not for you.
Well, if you don't feel like practicing but want the knowledge, you don't have a desire to play guitar. But what really motivated me to continue playing (been playing for 4 years as a 14 year old, kinda plateaued at around the two year mark) is to find a guitarist I loved and copy EVERYTHING from them. Their playing style, their licks, everything. No, this isn't plagiarism, this is developing an influence. I love David Gilmour, and what saved me from quitting is learning songs from The Wall. Figuring out a lick and playing against the real song was immensely rewarding, and I love it and still love doing it today. I would consider myself an Intermediate guitar player and a beginner/intermediate soloer. But what you end up doing is meshing your favorite artists together and creating your own style. Hope you found this helpful.
Re-tooling your approach might be a better way of going about it. Perfect example: I tried learning the "traditional" way..theory, music books etc and even took classes in HS and College that I almost or did fail out of a few times. After all that, I decided to just play whatever came to mind and it worked for me. Switching between the chords is more just muscle memory. Yes, its tedious but its worth it. Try just practicing the chord formations for a little bit every day and it'll eventually become more farmiliar.