Guitar journey ups and downs

stickyfiddle · October 2023

We definitely all have good and bad days. Progress isn't a linear thing - it's normal to have days where you make breakthroughs and days where you get frustrated.

What you'll learn with more experience (23+years here..) is to recognise those blocks, push on them a little bit, then let it go for a day or two if it's still not working.

Image: https://i0.wp.com/beefrunner.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/progress-is-not-linear-straight-line-consistency.jpeg?ssl=1

guitarjack66 · October 2023

ScreamingDave said:

I’m not trying to be flippant, but expecting to nail Clapton after a year seems pretty ambitious. He’s one of those players who makes it look easy, but it clearly isn’t.

All I’d say is never give up.

I remember being frustrated because I couldn’t nail barré chords. Now I can’t imagine how I ever couldn’t do it. I can’t even force myself to play them as badly as I used to.

I wish I'd have known you back then as I could have told you that you don't use nails to form them,just your fingers!

ScreamingDave · October 2023

guitarjack66 said:

ScreamingDave said:

I’m not trying to be flippant, but expecting to nail Clapton after a year seems pretty ambitious. He’s one of those players who makes it look easy, but it clearly isn’t.

All I’d say is never give up.

I remember being frustrated because I couldn’t nail barré chords. Now I can’t imagine how I ever couldn’t do it. I can’t even force myself to play them as badly as I used to.

I wish I'd have known you back then as I could have told you that you don't use nails to form them,just your fingers!

You use the nails to hold down the strings your fingers can’t. It makes playing Smoke on the water a slow process, but it works.

guitarjack66 · October 2023

ScreamingDave said:

guitarjack66 said:

ScreamingDave said:

I’m not trying to be flippant, but expecting to nail Clapton after a year seems pretty ambitious. He’s one of those players who makes it look easy, but it clearly isn’t.

All I’d say is never give up.

I remember being frustrated because I couldn’t nail barré chords. Now I can’t imagine how I ever couldn’t do it. I can’t even force myself to play them as badly as I used to.

I wish I'd have known you back then as I could have told you that you don't use nails to form them,just your fingers!

You use the nails to hold down the strings your fingers can’t. It makes playing Smoke on the water a slow process, but it works.

Whoosh!
I meant carpentry type nails,but a poor joke.

ScreamingDave · October 2023

guitarjack66 said:

ScreamingDave said:

guitarjack66 said:

ScreamingDave said:

I’m not trying to be flippant, but expecting to nail Clapton after a year seems pretty ambitious. He’s one of those players who makes it look easy, but it clearly isn’t.

All I’d say is never give up.

I remember being frustrated because I couldn’t nail barré chords. Now I can’t imagine how I ever couldn’t do it. I can’t even force myself to play them as badly as I used to.

I wish I'd have known you back then as I could have told you that you don't use nails to form them,just your fingers!

You use the nails to hold down the strings your fingers can’t. It makes playing Smoke on the water a slow process, but it works.

Whoosh!
I meant carpentry type nails,but a poor joke.

Yeah, I did as well. You nail down the strings you can’t manage with your fingers. Sorry, mine was a sh!t joke as well!

chor808 · October 2023

Make sure you record yourself playing as much as you can. I have my recordings from about a year of playing and there's no way they would be on YouTube. It's so easy to think it's too hard or people are better etc but recording yourself means you have something to reference yourself to. I've been at it for about six years and I think I'm rubbish, too slow etc but I enjoy it, play in a band, play to YouTube etc. You find as time goes on things get easier like the example of the barre chords above. It's supposed to be fun do don't worry about your 'progress', you will be getting better even if you don't notice it....

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Guitar journey ups and downs

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