Getting discouraged

Ia m hitting the discouargment stage, i am on the lesson where i am trying melodies but just added more string, the melody is five miles out, i have been working on this for a week now, and i can't get my fingers to cooperate, the other using the first 3 strings i picked up in no time, but i can't find the strings without looking and if i am looking, i can't see what strings i am supposed to hit, I don't want to quit and give up, but feel like i am just not good enough to learn to play it. any siggestions? please if you have any, i will try anything

I am not trying to be smug but your answer is in your own signature line. Giving up is the best way not to succeed. This is a very challenging instrument and we all have different levels of abilities, but what I read over and over again in this forum is that persistence is our best friend.

If I am struggling with a song or technique I don't drop it outright. I move on and revisit the problem area. I have been trying to learn Honky Tonk Women which I started months ago. I can't seem to get it. So I move on and learn other stuff and revisit from time to time.

Originally Posted by: casper27292

any siggestions? please if you have any, i will try anything

[br]Did you really think it was going to be easy?

Originally Posted by: William MG

I am not trying to be smug but your answer is in your own signature line. Giving up is the best way not to succeed. This is a very challenging instrument and we all have different levels of abilities, but what I read over and over again in this forum is that persistence is our best friend.

If I am struggling with a song or technique I don't drop it outright. I move on and revisit the problem area. I have been trying to learn Honky Tonk Women which I started months ago. I can't seem to get it. So I move on and learn other stuff and revisit from time to time.

You are absolutely right, thank you for reminding me, just gettin a bit frustrated is all, Thanks agin.

As a fellow struggler I find that practicing at a very slow speed helps. Do it so slowly that you can place your fingers in the right place every time. And practice that over and over until your body learns it.

I'm struggling with a chord change from D to F sharp. I've done it very slowly over and over. 2 weeks later and I've improved the speed of change by about 50%.

I'm nowhere near where I need to be yet, but I can see I'm getting there.

I try to remember that when I see a good player, it's not because they were naturally brilliant immediately, it's that they worked very hard at it.

Work hard too and you'll get it.

It took me a while as well, but I can tell you by experience that hard work pays off

Originally Posted by: casper27292

Ia m hitting the discouargment stage, i am on the lesson where i am trying melodies but just added more string, the melody is five miles out, i have been working on this for a week now, and i can't get my fingers to cooperate, the other using the first 3 strings i picked up in no time, but i can't find the strings without looking and if i am looking, i can't see what strings i am supposed to hit, I don't want to quit and give up, but feel like i am just not good enough to learn to play it. any siggestions? please if you have any, i will try anything

Celebrate the small victories. The whole learning experience is full of peaks and valleys.

Suddenly made sense of the Am to Em transition without losing time? Yay!

G to D (maybe even to C)? Double yay!!!

Nothing is working today? Put down the guitar and come back tomorrow.

Finally, a strum pattern with quarter or even eighth notes? Way to go!!!

If it's any consolation, everything for me was relatively easy also until I got to Five Miles Out. There seems to be something about it that's harder than it ought to be. Not sure what. But I persevere.

Originally Posted by: strumble99

Celebrate the small victories.

This. We tend to minimize the small victories but I try to remind myself that this journey (or should we say odyssey?) is a series of small victories that accumulate little by little into something truly rewarding.

Very well said, Strumble.

The rest of the advice in this thread is spot on, too.

Looks like an old post but i'll say something for anyone else who comes across this thread. I've been playing 20+ years and have experienced my fair share of discouragement so, what i normally do when something isn't quite clicking for me is I just quit trying for awhile and go back to playing something fun that i know well, sometimes i just put the guitar down for the day. Sometimes you might wake up in the morning or even when you are just hanging out watching the TV, it might hit you what to do to make it work, it happens! only if you keep playing though! Don't let the stress get to you, I hope that helps somebody out there. Also, even if you're already pretty good player, never hurts to take some lessons, thats what i'm doing, i've already been shown some new perspectives on some very old stuff and i'm having fun!