Originally Posted by: DavesGuitarJourneyHi Jeroen,
I think I completely understand what you are going through. I'll talk about some of my own struggles a bit because 1) I like to talk about myself, and 2) I suspect that my experience is probably similar to that of many other folks, and if my experience is similar to yours, maybe you can take some encouragement.
So far one of the most difficult things for me has been accepting that my progress on this is going to be very slow. I have to constantly remind myself that there is no deadline here. I am doing this for my own enjoyment. No one is keeping score.
It does get frustrating because sometimes (most times) I start to feel like I am not any better than I was a month ago. But the sneaky thing is that I really am better at most of this than I was a month ago. It just doesn't feel like it, because I still can't play up to speed and I still can't hit the chords just right and stay on the beat, etc. But, if I go back a couple of lessons and play something I was working on a few weeks ago, almost every time I will discover that hey, it still sucks, but it doesn't suck quite as bad as it did before! Or if I was only hitting that chord on time 50% of the time before, maybe now I'm hitting it 60% and even when I don't hit it quite right, I'm just a little bit closer to it.
We have to be patient and really set expectation levels realistically. We all want to be able to play one or two songs really well within a month or two (or six, or ten) of picking up the guitar. That may be realistic for some of us, but not for me. I don't have time or energy to practice enough to make that happen, and if I'm honest, I don't know if I have the natural ability to learn it all that quickly even if I did put in a lot more practice time.
The most important thing really is to keep it fun though. This is not a job. Find some pleasure every time you pick up your guitar. Some days that pleasure may be just enjoying the way the strings feel under your fingers even if the sound isn't great. Some days it will be you find the groove for three bars and it feels just right, even if you completely fall apart after that. Let yourself laugh a little bit even as you make that ugh! face when you hit a clunker. Even on a really bad practice session, take a posiive away. For me sometimes that can be "well, my fingers totally got lost on my D to Am changes but I kept that right hand strumming all the way through it anyway."
On my absolutely worst practice time, I might pause for a few minutes and close my eyes and just enjoy how the guitar feels in my hands. I like the smell of the wood. I like the way it feels to slide my hand along the fret board and hear the raspy noise the wound strings make. I know I'm sounding a little weird and creepy here, but I challenge anyone here to say that they don't feel the same.
If you can't find any pleasure in your practice, then it really is time to do something else - and that can be throw away your practice routine and just goof off and see what kind of weird sounds you can make to annoy everyone around you, or put away the guitar and play a game of yahtzee and pick up the guitar tomorrow. Don't let it be a drag, because that's not why you are here.
A final thought - by all accounts from people who have gone through this, you are going through the hardest part of the guitar learning journey right now. This is the part where probably well over half of beginners walk away. Those who push through this become guitar players. It will take some of us longer than others, but if we stick with it, we will become guitar players. And I ask you, what's cooler than that?
Hang in there Jeroen, you are not alone with this.
Dave...
Thanks Dave, I needed to read this.
