why is the guitar so frustrating!

i dont know how any of you guys force yourself to play everyday, for hours, i have been for past 5months, and im losing it. i feel like i have gained nothing, theres so much to learn and so much i dont understand! this is crazy. Theres got to be a easier way to learn then studying all this technical stuff, hendrix did it. Ok heres my question, sorry for the blow up there. Say you learn the major and minor penatonic and major in each key. then should you practice jaming with them. How can i make chord progressions. for B it is (B, E, F#) or b,c#,eb , e, f#, ab, and Bb. how do i go about making a chord progression to jam with the b maj scale. can you tell me a few chord patterns to use while jamming with bmaj , n then a few i can use for Bmin penatonic.

For the B-Minor Pentatonic, just use any progression that has the starting chord of b-minor.

Here's a good one for practicing the A-Minor Pentatonic.

Am, F, C, G

For playing 5 months and knowing the major and minor pentatonics is a good start.

It is very frustrating at times, but when you start to excel, you tend to learn new techniques and tricks faster which tends to keep you more interested.
Just keep practicing. I remember the first few months that I played. I couldn't get anything right. My fingers wouldn't work how I wanted them too, I hit multiple strings all the time, but then I just kept at it and got better.

Don't worry it's still frustrating to all of us sometimes.

I don't know about everyone else, but I never force myself to play if I don't want too. That takes the fun out of the instrument. If everytime you see a guitar you think of work, then the instrument will no longer be fun for you. So don't just practice all the time, take some time to jam and it will a lot better.

Totally have to agree. Same with me. But I go thru spurts with it, family and all doesn't really give time for 2+ hrs a night to really become what I wanna be (another time)

The best thing that happend to me was running into a buddy from high school. He still plays so we get together about 2 nights a week and jam out. It helps to do new things with new people and keep the newness of the instrument and why you wanted to play with you. I don't know about anyone else but if it wasn't for that, I don't think I'd still be playing.

Lastly, check out this link. Someone else posted it and I've been using it ever since. It's an online prog that tells you scales for anything, chords for anything (meaning notewise). You can change tunings you name it... check it out. Hope it helps you out.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_rb.html

Neil,

You gotta chill out, man. First: take some time off from the guitar if it's that frustrating. I've found that I sometimes actually play BETTER after taking a few weeks off. Of course, I'm mostly into acoustic folkie-type stuff. But some time off makes you appreciate the instrument better. Use that time to listen to others' music. Go see some live shows. Listen to stuff you don't normally listen to.

Two: Find someone else to jam with. That always injects new passion into my playing. And it doesn't have to be another guitarist. Find a drummer, a piano player, a kazoo-player--it doesn't matter.

Three: Give it a little more time. It took me years to feel that I was decent enough to play in front of other people!

Finally: just have fun. Play folk songs. Make up silly songs. Don't take it so seriously.

Good luck, man!

Great advice I'd say. Especially the fact about taking it so seriously, just chill and have fun with it. But yeah you should practice your pents with a chord progression once you have learned them on the guitar. The easiest chord progressions to start with in major or minor is the I IV V (major) and i iv v (minor). I dunno if you understand that but if your practicing your G major pentatonic just play the chord progression Gmaj, Cmaj, Dmaj. A good first step because this chord progression is purely major, and anything you play in a g major pent is going to sound good. Same thing in the key of E minor just play a chord progression Em, Am, Bm with a E minor pent. You should see a pattern with these chord progressions. Those chord progressions are a great place to start, and don't work up chord progressions that are more than 4 notes, at least not until you are completely familiar with them.

If you go to Gtr Oblq at

http://kronosonic.com

There's an article called "Help! I've fallen"

It's all about this subject.

hehe thanks for the theorpy! hehe. normally i do have fun with it, write songs, i just frustrated with few days ago. but thanks for the advice.

I was kind of frustrated for the first 4 years of playing, then one day,
it all just... ... swoooosh. Swoooosh is a good word for it,
it all just made sense to me. Although I knew I could play
fairly good before, that day it all just swoooshed.
Not only did my fingers start doing what I wanted, I started to understand notes and tabs in a whole new way and
I realized "Cool, I can actually play the guitar".
Well lets round up:
Everything is frustrating at first, there is so much you want
to learn so fast, but your mind and body wont let you,
just like any other activity.
But give it time, don't force yourself to play, just have fun
and take it a piece at a time and soon that frustration
will turn into endless satisfaction that things are actually going your way

yeah - its quite normal. one could assume that your abilities grow to the same extent as you learn, but thats not true. infact, your abilities do not improve linear - they improve like a stairway. sometimes you seem to not making any progress no matter how hard you try, and then all of a sudden "swoooosh" *LOL*

I don't think I can consider myself proficient at guitar, but I am nothing to sneer at, if I can say so myself. Jam with buddies that are a little better, and they can teach you. Next, whatever you do, don't learn by the book. Those stupid "Learn the guitar" books just teach you to play chords. Unless you are into that kind of thing, they are worthless. Get a chord chart at K-Mart for that. I hardly ever use chords, such as D7 and E5 and all that crap. But if you want to play rock music and the like, buy/burn CD's of simple punk/metal songs. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana is a good one, or pretty much any Nirvana is good beginner stuff. "Atwa" by System of a Down is another piss-easy one. Just get the feel for power chords for rock-style music. My first song I learned 3 years ago was "Wipeout". So easy. Also try single-note stuff like that first. There is "How to Play Rock Guitar in a Nutshell".

Originally posted by Neil22
hehe thanks for the theorpy! hehe. normally i do have fun with it, write songs, i just frustrated with few days ago. but thanks for the advice.

What's "Theorpy," Neil? Is it anything like, say, "Meatlic?" Just messin with you. But I hardly think constraining yourself to power chords is a good idea. You should try out all kinds of chords so you can find ones that you really like, and find a style of rhythm guitar you like besides "JUG JIGGA JAA JIGGA JUG JIGGA JAAAAA JIGEDY JIGGEDY JAAAAAA!!!!"

Originally posted by Number of the Beast
You should try out all kinds of chords so you can find ones that you really like, and find a style of rhythm guitar you like besides "JUG JIGGA JAA JIGGA JUG JIGGA JAAAAA JIGEDY JIGGEDY JAAAAAA!!!!"

ROFLMAO!!

So true, so true.

i´m deeply in to those extreme-chords that make some peeps cringe *LOL* if used wisely they can create a tremendous amount of tension.

You know, I really like those quick spanishy chords and chord progressions. Although minors and sevenths are my favorites.

I like minors and 7ths as well. I like more dark, melodic, moods to songs, a la minor chords.

You should learn all the chords that you can, I believe. Even take some time and strategically plot different fingerings to see what kind of sound you can get. Knowing and understanding the effects of different chords can dramatically improve your creative output. Take the major 7th chord which is used in alot of romantic, or ballad music because of it softer sound. And then the minor 7th which lightens up a minor chord because of the major triad that exists with a minor 7th chord. A minor 7th is a good way to keep a major tone while playing a minor chord in a major key. 6th chords add sort of a jazzy tone to a chord. Sus2 chords have a really spaced out feeling to them. And well the list goes on... Just listen to different chords and feel them, don't just say, "ahh I figured how to play this chord out and then forget about it".

Josh your reply makes me laugh, you say you don't like to use chords like X5 but yet you say learn nirvana and SOAD songs, dewd that's all they use is X5 chords.

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-28-2003 at 12:19 AM]

You should'nt ever have to force yourself to play. You play because you feel like it.

Originally posted by merker
You should'nt ever have to force yourself to play. You play because you feel like it.

Amen to that!

Originally posted by merker
You should'nt ever have to force yourself to play. You play because you feel like it.

well.. i cannot realy say amen to that. but that depends on where you want to go with your play. if you want to become real good and maybe make a living out of it you HAVE to force yourself to do more then the average player. of course the fun has to play a vital part, but it just cant always be fun - we are not in kindergarden anymore. that has something to do with discipline.
i personally even pick up the guitar when i dont feel like it, and just a few minutes later - bang - the fun is back and i cant stop.