Frustrated...

Hey, well guys, I've been playing for close to two years, (playing being a relative term, I haven't have much spare time for the last six months or so...), and I've sort of hit a wall. If I'm given a piece of sheet music and a night to go over it, I can play quite well, but there's so much I can't do, such as hearing a song and being able to play it, that keeps me from being able to really play. I know amazing musicians who taught themselves to play, but I'm lost. Does anyone have any drills, books, or advice on how y'all learned to play so well?

Originally Posted by: lyricchicHey, well guys, I've been playing for close to two years, (playing being a relative term, I haven't have much spare time for the last six months or so...), and I've sort of hit a wall. If I'm given a piece of sheet music and a night to go over it, I can play quite well, but there's so much I can't do, such as hearing a song and being able to play it, that keeps me from being able to really play. I know amazing musicians who taught themselves to play, but I'm lost. Does anyone have any drills, books, or advice on how y'all learned to play so well?

I have the same exact time playing, felt frustrated no long time ago, the quitting kind of frustration. Still having trouble with my development cause I work all day and play like from 12 to 2 in the night, I know it's gonna take a lot of time doing it this way (damn i got 3 guitars 2 at home and one at the office) but still can't manage time to sit and really set up goals.

From time to time I feel like I have something and rock for a while but sometimes, I just wanna bash my guitar (I'll never will cause I love them) but I know the feelling, take it easy, when frustrated, listen to Inspiring music, watch a concert, then sit and practice, if you are not in the mood, don't do it, never take your guitar if you really don't feel like it, it's supposed to be fun and challenging not frustraiting.

Keep it up and hopefully someday you will Shred.

Me too, people say I play well, but i tend to think of the things I can't play instead of what I can.
I've just signed up for 'Full access' and what I've learnt so far ( 3 weeks ) is very inspiring.
I have no excuse now - I have to nuckle down.

I've been playing for 21 years now, and still feel frustrated sometimes. The answer is always to practice precisely the thing that you can't do. So from what you've said above, work on ear training. There are numerous pieces of software and books available. I used a book called 'Ear Training for the contemporary guitarist' years ago, and that worked. A couple of my students have said a pc program called 'audacity' is good, but I can't vouch for it personally.

you'll also need to listen to small chunks of music and try to play them on your guitar by ear... it'll get easier the more you do it.

Structured practice is the key - how much time do you have / can you find? My practice goes a bit like this each day:

15 mins warmup - alt picking, legato exercises and sweeps to a metronome to get my hands going
30 minutes on technique - building picking speed, sweeping new shapes etc
30 minutes on scales / arpeggios
30 minutes on rhythm playing
30 minutes on 'head' exercise - theory, ear training etc
30 minutes 'fun' - jamming to backings / learning a tune

plus time recording whatever I'm recording at the time - variable depending on what else is going on...

The sections shift a bit sometimes depending on what I need to focus on - so at the moment as I'm about to take a diploma exam I'm using the 'technique' time for more theory and scales. And some days if I'm very busy I'll trim the slots down into a smaller chunk of time.

Just make sure you practice every day, and as long as you continue to push yourself you'll get there. 2 years isn't very long to have been playing, so don't get too down that you're not the next Jennifer Batten yet! :D

When you say you can take a piece of music and learn it overnight, give an example - you might be way better than you think you are... It's common to sell yourself short....

Time is gobbled up by so many things each day, it can drain you. Sometimes you just have to Veg-out. Forcing yourself to learn something new when your burnt takes the fun out of playing this complexed instrument. Playing the same repetitious stuff just for the sake of practice gets boring. Many new guitarists won't find the time to play or concentrate on the mechanics involved. Finger dexterity and coordination are the key to mastering those strings and you don't always have to focused on what you are playing to acheive strength and gain composition.
Try grabbing the guitar sometimes while watching the tube and just alt. pick open strings, then jump strings for a while. After that, capo a fret with your index finger while focusing on the program instead of what you are practicing. This is a great way to play by feel and train your ear to different sounds. In a short time you will feel it when you hit a sour note. Building dexterity even when your'e veggin will motivate your desire to learn new things because your picking techniques, ear and two hand coordination have moved to a higher level. Frustration comes from the mind because your fingers won't do what you you want them to. Sometimes you just have to ignore them and let your fingers do the walking like Jimi Hendrix did.

be careful with the 'absent minded practice' route... I can see where it is attractive to just play while watching TV or whatever, but...

because of muscle memory, if you aren't practicing 'correctly', you'll just get better at doing it 'wrong' or badly or whatever.... It can limit you further down the road. I used to sit watching TV with a metronome connected to headphones in one ear, and then practice my alt picking without really thinking about it... It can work, but be aware that you're likely to get better results more quickly if you're fully engaged in what you are doing...

It isn't as much fun having to think about playing, and the ultimate goal is to be able to play without thinking, but you still need to do the ground work in my opinion...

Being able to play by ear requires EAR TRAINING. After going through this, you can transcribe songs easier, WRITE easier, and among other things. It sounds impossible to achieve, but remember this; Music is a langugue; it can be read, written, made, and expressed. You listen to some one say a sentence, and you can repeat what they said, right? Well, doing that for the guitar is the same idea. You didnt learn the english langugue in 6 hours... It takes time, plus the things I previously mentioned, and many more...

Originally Posted by: zreynoldspbe careful with the 'absent minded practice' route... I can see where it is attractive to just play while watching TV or whatever, but...

because of muscle memory, if you aren't practicing 'correctly', you'll just get better at doing it 'wrong' or badly or whatever.... It can limit you further down the road. I used to sit watching TV with a metronome connected to headphones in one ear, and then practice my alt picking without really thinking about it... It can work, but be aware that you're likely to get better results more quickly if you're fully engaged in what you are doing...

It isn't as much fun having to think about playing, and the ultimate goal is to be able to play without thinking, but you still need to do the ground work in my opinion...

I agree with practicing 'correctly', but it can create stumbling blocks, especially when you try to dedicate 15 minutes to this and 30 minutes to that. That's not the real world for many individuals wanting to learn guitar.
A lot of players sound the same 20 years later because they do the same routine for 20 years. I don't believe that Hendrix was under some intense study with 6 hits of acid under his headband!!!!! He made sounds unheard of because it was a part of his being. He felt his sound differently every time he played. Sometimes he even wanted to eat it!!!! Look at Page, if he did the same routine day in and day out, his talent would'nt have inspired so many others trying to follow such great inspiration. Music comes from within, Page is one of the best examples of that. Even using the same structure, he created so many different melodies. I'm sure he stumbled across many of them because there were none to copy from.

I never advocated practicing the same thing every day, or for years. Structured practice is a necessity for the mechanical aspect of guitar - picking / legato / whatever. Music theory is perhaps not a necessity, but it is very useful. The important message I was trying to get across is that you should practice every day if possible, and your practice should cover ground. Alot of players just practice alternate picking for hours and wonder why all they can do is play spider patterns at 700bpm... :rolleyes:. It needs to be balanced.

Creating your own stumbling blocks can actually be positive...

Creativity cannot be taught, but as with anything else, if you work on it you can develop. Hendrix / Page must have spent some time in a practice regime to be able to play a guitar... if you can't make your fingers do what you can hear in your head, how are you going to get that music out?

I am, or was, in your same boat. I think the key is practice. For almost 2 years I practiced 1-3 hours a day and jammed 3-6 hours on the weekends. Then work got in the way and for about 6 months I was lucky to get in 15 minutes of practice a day. I was still jamming on the weekends, but I was getting worse, not better. Chords and chord progressions were still OK, but solos just plain sucked...and I was told so on many occaisions...but when you practice only 15 minutes a day, how many times can you play all your solos when your song list is about 40 songs long? How can you possibly learn something new-and master it?

I went back to practicing 2-3 hours a day. I either got up early or stayed up late. Because I REALLY wanted to do it. It only took ONE week and I was close to where I was 6 months ago...close, but not there, yet...

I work on 3-4 songs a day. I play the solos until I can play them 10 times in a row-perfectly. Sometimes I only play one song for all 2 hours...really bites, but that's why they call it practice.

Learning to play chord progressions by ear is fairly easy, if you listen. (about 100 times to the same song)

Learning solos, for me is difficult. I use a software program called "Best Practice." I think it is free, but I can't remember. If it costs a little it is worth it. It allows you to slow down the music (mp3's or wav's) and pick out small sections and loop them-over and over and over and over...play a 10 second passage at 70% for 30 minutes and sooner or later you will figure it out.

So, bottom line, get back on the practice horse, and ride, baby, ride!

Practice is key, for sure. The more the better. But when you spent hours trying to learn every note from a song that someone else wrote, what are you learning? Buying sheet music from your favorite artist helps you sound like your favorite artist. If that is your goal in music and you continually practice it, you can acheive that goal. It can also trap you into memorizing those sound patterns long after they are no longer your favorite artist. Influences are a part of music, we all have them from past work in some form or another. There are times that I ask myself "who influenced Kobain"? Obviously he was influenced by others, but why was Nirvana so different and original from anything the world heard before? All of a sudden out with the old and a whole new sound starts. He played the same guitar (upside down) that many had played before, why so different???? Not just one song, but many and influenced others to follow. All forms of Music come from within.