Experience frustration?

Hi all,

I'm wondering how many other users/players get very frustrated at themselves when unable to play something new...

This happens to me constantly, which could be due to the fact that I'm still pretty new to guitar. However, whenever I make even the slightest mistake while playing it really gets to me; this may sound really dumb to a lot of the people reading this.

But I am genuienly interested to know how many others experience this, if for no other reason than to make me feel a little less alienated lol.

Thanks all.

Frustration is normal Tom. I think the variance in how it gets to us comes down to how much pressure we put on ourselves. At my age I'm not too worried about how accurate or fast I can play. It's important that I continue playing and learning. Those are what's most important to me for this hobby.

However, you may be younger and more gifted and have higher expectations. If that is the case your level of pressure is going to be higher than mine.

Tom, I've been playing guitar for 32 years. I have started with the basics on this site because I am self taught. Plently of things appear to be,,,challenging. should I mention scales!!!

Most new things require you to develop muscle and or pattern memory. When you are learning something new on guitar you will find your fingers go in the wrong place, you pluck the wrong string oryou muffle half the bloody strings and that pushes you to thinking that "you suck at this".

Truth is, EVERY guitar player (experience or not) has experienced that. It will stick after a while. Personally, I have sometimes found that it's better to go grab a coffee and come back. Somethiimes the more frusted you get the worse the co ordination between you brain and fingers seem to be. You will also find, on occasion, you will come back to something 24 hours later and it just seems easier- I have no explaination for that.

Hang in there brother you will master it!

Kev

Originally Posted by: tom.g.cuff

Hi all,

I'm wondering how many other users/players get very frustrated at themselves when unable to play something new...

This happens to me constantly, which could be due to the fact that I'm still pretty new to guitar. However, whenever I make even the slightest mistake while playing it really gets to me; this may sound really dumb to a lot of the people reading this.

But I am genuienly interested to know how many others experience this, if for no other reason than to make me feel a little less alienated lol.

Thanks all.

I agree with William that all of us experience some degree of frustration from time to time. Just keep things in perspective. Unless you`re going to make a living from playing guitar, realize it`s a hobby or a pastime and that it`s supposed to be fun. There`s enough pressure and stress in life as it is, no sense in adding to it . Best of luck.

Here's my two cents, for what it's worth... I too, have been playing for many years now and because I love the way it sounds when it's right, I push myself to make it sound more and more pleasing. Your frustration is a sign that you also care about that outcome and that's good too. Sometimes I have to just put the guitar down for a day or two because I can't get a particular run or solo. Then when I pick it back up, things fall into place better and my perspective changes again! You know if guitar was easy, everybody would be playing. It's probably why they made games like guitar hero because everyone wants to be one, but that road is narrow and not everyone can put the time and effort to get there.

How you respond to frustration is probably the biggest hurdle beginners have to surmount. This frustration, ends more would be guitar playing dreams than anything. Know it is worst in the beginning, when everything is new. At this point you have to find a way to keep practicing.

I suspect that every beginner has gone through this furstration. Learning how to not let this derail your practice is critical. Know that if you succeed in keeping up your practice, without driving your self crazy, you are well on the way to becoming the guitarist you want to be! You need to be persistant about practice in a way that does not just increase your frustration. No easy task! But if it were any other way, I suspect most people would be playing guitar. Clearly that is not the case. Everybody is different and as such, everbody has to navigate this personal quest to find enduring inspiration.

The good news is that the longer you keep up a regular practice schedule (what ever that is for YOU) the better you get at, not only rising above the learning process... but thriving on it. In the above entries you can see how diffrent people have dealt with finding their own path to surrmount learning frustrations. EVERY, WOULD BE GUITARIST IS DIFFRENT, EVERYBODY FACES FRUSTRATION, NOT EVERYBODY OVERCOMES THIS THE SAME WAY.

KEEP PRACTICING......

Hello everybody,

Thank you all so much for your replies, it's really great to get these perspectives, especially from experienced players. A lot of what has been said resonated with me and although I hadn't been allowing the frustraition to hault or dissuade my practise, I certainly won't let it now!

It's also great to know that there's a helpful and supportive forum to help a begginer out. Rock on dudes!

Cheers.

Tom,

Glad if any of my drivil was usefulI. I just saw this video today, and I had to come back to this thread and share what it showed me. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks0EeVGtQCM

(sorry, I couldn't get a hyperlink to work)

As you watch this demo, of learning a complicated bending technique, watch how this skilled guitarist breaks down learning a difficult passage. He uses the same technique that gets taught to beginners!! Break it down and work out the small pieces frist, then put them together. He is facing the same delemma as all the beginners wanting to play cowboy chords for the first time. IT IS THE SAME TECHIQUE!! No matter how much you grow as a guitarist, as long as you are still developing your skills, you will face frustration with learning new skills. This never changes!

So learning to accept what you can do and still, work to develop the skills you want, without getting derailed in the process... is a fundimental skill as valuable as learning to tune the instrument or turn on your amp.

Even Steve Vie (an exceptional world class virtuoso) spent a lot of time working this skill out! You would be hard pressed to name a guitarist who is better than Vie... Diffrent yes, better no. Yet, Steve Vie is clearly still facing that frustration roadblock, at the peak of the profession! Nobody get out of befriending this challange... again and again and again.

So try to face frustration with anticipation, not dispair. You will constantly face it until you give up the instrument or you die. Leaning this lesson is absolutly invaluable. Rising over this frustration, without giving up, is a good indicator of just how skilled your really are. Good guitarists have all leaned how to turn this situation to their advantage.... No guitarist gets out of this one alive, without this patient skill in their quiver of tricks.

Originally Posted by: tom.g.cuff

Hi all,

I'm wondering how many other users/players get very frustrated at themselves when unable to play something new...

This happens to me constantly, which could be due to the fact that I'm still pretty new to guitar. However, whenever I make even the slightest mistake while playing it really gets to me; this may sound really dumb to a lot of the people reading this.

But I am genuienly interested to know how many others experience this, if for no other reason than to make me feel a little less alienated lol.

Thanks all.

Most people have heard the aphorism that 'perfection is the enemy of good' (as quoted by Voltaire) but I prefer in this application, the Winston Churchill version; Perfection is the enemy of progress.

Because you did not perform perfectly, you've stopped progressing to lament your supposed failure.

Think of it this way; did you actually fail to move the mountain of gravel because a few pebbles and rocks were left behind. No.

A friend I used to work with thought that way. That moving the proverbial mountain was way less important than the final perfection. Don't get me wrong, doing an excellent job and striving for perfection is a good goal and motivator. The friend and the job I mentioned did not require perfect. Someone else was responsible for the 'perfection'. I'd tell this person that don't mark a failure when you've acheived 99% of the goal and your job wasn't to achieve 100%.

Apply that here and particularly because you don't need perfect and like most of us, will never achieve perfection.

I've told many here that when I started playing in the early 80's the second song I learned was Led Zep- Black Dog. Wanna know something? I still don't play it perfectly, Jimmy Page doesn't either when he plays live (he plays nothing prefectly live!).

The trick is to know the difference between an periodic 'oops' versus a skill deficit in your playing. If you generally play something well but ocassionally have an 'oops', no biggie. If you notice that you can never get something down, then you have a skill you need to focus on.

It's that last part tht differentiates how you oriented your thinking on perfection when playing.

You will never play perfectly. Nobody does. Not even the legends..they just know how to roll through it. However, if you do something well but once in a while, mess it up; no problem. Just let it roll.

To paraphrase (I can't remember the exact quote), "If you are not struggling, then you are not trying hard enough."

If it's easy, there's no challenge, and therefore you aren't learning.