Frustration after 8 weeks practicing Em, C, D, G

Time for a pithy phrase.

The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.

It is frustrating but like so many have said, keep it fun, we will get there.

Not playing well is better than not playing at all.

Dave

here's some great hints for strugglers/ beginners

slow down the "play with the band" pace to whatever level works for you.

understand at least 75 percent of the lesson and move forward. you can always loop back with new understanding and patience another day.

go online and print off songs you like with just the 4-5 chords you do know. playing your fav songs at your own pace is so fun and rewarding! you will get faster!

remember that playing the guitar is a fun hobby and an adventure in new skills. no timelines, no audience needed. your pace, your way , just for you!

enjoy the journey! w.

Dave and others here are definitely on to something. My experience is not too over-focus on one problem and stay stuck there. Move on. I give you an example.

I started this course on March 1st and play about 1 hour a day (so you have some idea of my experience.) Very early into the course I wanted to 'master' strumming along with rock songs I liked. So after I learned most of the open chords, I decided I wanted to play Man on the Moon by REM. Why? because I love the song, it's all accoustic, and it only has the chords C, D, Am, G and Em. But guess what, the verses have this switch from C to D and back and it caused me problems. C is a hard chord, you feel like you are forced to place down one finger at a time. I addition, the chorus has rapid-fire chord switches between Am, G, C and D again. It was absolutely hopeless.

So I decided to give this one a rest and move on, and focus on simpler songs with easier chord progressions and fewer chords.

This week, though, I tried to give Man on the Moon and new try. And almost miraculously all fell into place. In less than an hour I could play along with the song, at normal speed, and hit all the chords right. Now it feels like a dead-easy song. And what's more, it's the first song where I can actually play along AND sing along at the same time - which for a beginner is really hard.

I think the reason I all of a sudden have this song down is I practiced and practiced on other stuff and became better and better at it, instead of playing Man on the Moon for 8 weeks. As an added bonus, I now not only play Man on the Moon but 5 other songs. Also after playing C a million times I noticed that when my brain says 'C', my fingers almost automatically form the shape in mid-air before placing them down. Which is what you want, but it only comes after a lot of practice. Again, the key is not to get overly hung up on this one obstacle. Better to move and and revisit later. By move on, I mean try other songs with either fewer chords and/or different chord progressions for the same chords. Build from there. I guarantee you that this will solve itself.

Originally Posted by: vanrooy.gert

This week, though, I tried to give Man on the Moon and new try. And almost miraculously all fell into place. In less than an hour I could play along with the song, at normal speed, and hit all the chords right. Now it feels like a dead-easy song. And what's more, it's the first song where I can actually play along AND sing along at the same time - which for a beginner is really hard.

I was sitting practicing while watching REM playing at Glastonbury and I noticed that I was hitting similar-sounding chords and within five minutes I was near-as-dammit following the song on telly. Was very good for my playing confidence.

Hi Jeroen,

As you can see, you're not alone in feeling frustration from time to time, as everyone of all skill levels can get stuck. You've got a great attitude, passion and patience to persist, so I don't think you'll be stuck for too long.

There's no need for me to reiterate on the excellent advice you've already been given. For me, when I get stuck, whether it's with learning guitar or just learning for my career, there are a few things I do to help myself.

1) Obviously persistance, which you have - so don't give up. Learning is a lifetime experience, you're in this as a marathon, not a sprint.

2) Get different perspectives - You've started doing this already, by voicing your frustration and asking for advice. Guitartricks isn't the only source to learn from, so along with your practice and things here, branch out to some freely available resources online. YouTube for example has endless videos if you know what you're searching for - fall down a rabbit hole and see how others do things. You'll hear and see a different perspective on the same thing. This motivates me all the time.

3) Do something different - others have mentioned this as well, but try something different. Move to the next lesson, play a song, fiddle around and goof off etc. Siloing yourself to just the same exercises add to your frustration. "Work smarter, not harder" is the idea. Obviously you're already working hard, you just need to jolt yourself out of the "trying too hard" loop. I think this will help you relax and smile more, even when you make a mistake.

4) Practice should be fun, not a chore - we all have off days, some may argue we have more off days than "on" days. It happens! If you're feeling like it's a chore, everything becomes more difficult. Recognizing when something fun becomes a chore is part of life experience, and I think when you're aware that something isn't working, that's when you can change things up.

You're doing fine! The good news is that you're never alone and this community will support you. Don't give up, and have fun!

Have you tried slowing down the chord changes to a snails pace? I do this when I start getting frustrated about a technique that is hard for me to perform. Take a break from the guitar, then when ready to come back go at an extremely slow pace....like.....really.....really....slow!

After you have done this a few times and you feel ok with the changes, you can start to speed it up a little incremently.

Also, I sense you are trying to be something of a perfectionist? Don't get hung up on occassional off-notes or buzz strings. Move on to something else to take your mind of your frustrations. You can come back to where you left off another time and you will probably find your technique has improved.

I have something that you can start working on learning. It may be too soon, but it might give you something else to work on into the future. It is a skill that will serve you for the rest of you guitar playing years. A useful skill to develop, is not letting a flub up mess up the rest of you line/ performance. Every musician flubs notes. The better you get, the less they happen... but they happen. Great guitarists are adept at not letting those flubs detract from the rest of their performance. The best of them can cover so well that, for the most part, the audience never notices the descrepancies. So start learning how to soilder on after a flub. You will get better at this over time, just like all the other guitar skills you are developing.

I once saw Andres Segovia play a show in a small venue. During one song I kept hearing an occasional note that would sound flat. But even hearing that note from time to time did not stop the power of his performance. He just kept charging into the song like the master he was. In fact, I ended up doubting my own ears, because of his otherwise overpowering performance. Then as he finished the song to appauase, he reached up and tuned one of his strings with a quick 1/4 turn. He was so good that he must have been bending all the notes on that fell on that detuned string, so that they sounded in tune. Only when there was a note, played on that open string, did the detuning sound out.

This was a real lesson for me, in how masters do not let a flub (even an repeating one) get in the way. It was mind boggeling to watch. We all are working to eleminate errors... We all error... We need to learn how to not let us stop a song, when we flub a note, or a chord, or a rhythum. Not an easy skill to master, but an important one to get under your belt. You can start this learning process with the songs you are working on now. When you flub a note keep going and try to carry the song despite the prior mistake.

I too am a new player.. started in March and posted pretty much the same problem. Should have read your posting and all the encouraging responses. I feel like I am where I should be now based on reading your post and the responses of others. I am slowly learning and realize now I don't have to be perfect to keep going. You are not alone in this.. I suck too !!!! lol but let's keep at it and even our worst playing will impress someone at some point.

Originally Posted by: Kingstonontario

I too am a new player.. started in March and posted pretty much the same problem. Should have read your posting and all the encouraging responses. I feel like I am where I should be now based on reading your post and the responses of others. I am slowly learning and realize now I don't have to be perfect to keep going. You are not alone in this.. I suck too !!!! lol but let's keep at it and even our worst playing will impress someone at some point.

No one sucks Kingstonontario, we are all just at different experience levels. :) No matter where you are in your learning, there's always someone to learn from, in any direction. Keep a positive frame of mind, you impress people NOW, just because you're learning to play. No one is perfect, you just have to have fun and be passionate about it. Keep up the good work!

My question is: Why do call the D# an E on the 3rd string up?

Originally Posted by: warrenposternack

My question is: Why do call the D# an E on the 3rd string up?

Hi there,

I'm having a little trouble understanding your question here. Could you please reiterate the question please?

Thanks!

Sounds like me you just need a little success. The Em, C, D, G take a lot of time to get proficent enough. What I did was keep practicing those but then spend some time learning the "cheater method" I call it (sure it has a real name). I fooled many people in beliveing I was guitar player early on with this method.

Learn the following four chords by locking pinkie on string 1 fret 3 an middle on string 2 fret 3 then finger the rest of the cord(s) with same 2 fingers

Dsus4 (index string 3 fret 2)[br]Cadd9 (index 4,2,, middle 5,3) [br]Em7 (index 5,2 middle,4,3 )[br]G (index 5,2,, middle 6,3)

Find any song that uses these chord and strum it out..You be amazed how close it sounds. I was able to learn some songs and enjoy my guitar like this. I then started adding the Major varaitons learned from lessons. Whats also nice with this when you do learn all the other chords you will find when playing songs you can improvise and choose easier variations to progressions you are not fast at. Not only do you learn a 4 finger version of G when you do the 3 finger version of it can be like the C chord up 1 fret using you pinkie on the little e as you are used to using it and great from moving from a C chord..however D to G the 4 finger version is easier.

If I had to wait to beable to do the actual E G C Em without playing songs I would of probably quit and I didn't because I "cheated" :)

Thank you for posting this.It gives me a little hope that we are all on this journey and having the same struggles but it can be overcome with perserverance and patience. We don't need to be perfect, we just need to keep showing up.

I am a beginner too (about 1 year) and here's what I do that works very well to get my chord change speed and accuracy to increase:

Take two chords, say c and d. Put a timer in front of you set for one minute (I use my smart phone). Start the timer and start changing between c and d chords. Count as you go, for example, you strum the c chord, that's 1, you go to the d chord, strum it, that's 2, you go back to the c chord, strum, that's 3, etc.

After one minute, let's say your count is 25. In a notebook make a heading entitled, "C to D Chord Change". Beneath the heading write the date and 25. The next day you do the same C to D chord changes for 1 minute. Let's say you are now up to 26. Write it down in your notebook. I usually will be able to get up to 50 or 60 speed chord change count withing 3 or 4 weeks.

The great thing about this technique is you can see your improvements over time because you kept daily notes. I love to see that 2 or 3 weeks ago I could only do 20 chord changes in 1 minute and now I do 35, for example.

Of course, keep a record for other chord changes (Em - C) (Em - D), (Em - G) (C - D) (C - G) (D - G)

When I ran into this type of problem I went back to "spider" type finger excersizes to refresh muscle memory as to what finger was on which strings and wherefingers were and also began making my own chord diagrams, by writing in the diagram it reinforced the "shapes".

Hi Jeroen

We all go through these struggles. Learning the guitar is a life long journey and one that you should enjoy while on this jouney. As a lot of our fellow guitar players have said on this post is, focus on some other skills and keep moving forward you can always get back to the chord changes, but never quit. You will get to that day that it al of a sudden just works, it always does if you put in the time.

Enjoy the journey