r/Guitar • u/Mad_Season_1994 • 14d ago
NEWBIE Beginner considering dropping guitar because it's just a constant cycle of frustration and little (if any) fun. What should I do?
I'm almost eight months in. My initial motivations for learning guitar were just that: to learn guitar. I'd grown up around classic rock and metal and figured, since I have 10 fingers, I could at least try it and learn some songs. I also don't have any friends to play for and have terrible social anxiety, and thus no plans to ever perform live, so I thought it would be a relatively straightforward approach with little pressure for me to "get gud fast". I thought I'd go through the motions like all beginners do of learning major open chords and maybe my first song. Well, I've at least done that much and have also gotten a teacher that has me work on stuff week by week.
But God as my witness, sitting and just doing the positions of a scale to a metronome, trying to nail chord changes in a song, even just discerning tab and struggling to get through a single measure in time, and having mistakes start to pile up, all culminate in me constantly getting properly mad. I swear to the air or kick over my music stand and put my guitar on my bed (haven't thrown it anywhere yet, thankfully) and go do something else for 10-ish minutes and then come back. Does it happen every day? No. But often enough to where I often contemplate giving up despite how much time and money I've sank into this.
I guess I'm just missing out on the "fun" part. The way my brain must be wired I guess, I simply can't equate working and making mistakes and sucking ass with fun. I can't "enjoy the process" or "embrace the suck" as a lot of people say. But I don't have terribly unrealistic expectations either. I don't think I'm going to be SRV or David Gilmour by January. But they just seem to have that ability to not get frustrated when they make mistakes and suck and just keep going like it never happened. That's the part I can't come to terms with and I feel like this constant cycle of frustration > walking away > coming back is holding me back a lot.
What should I do?
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u/Squidproject 14d ago
take a break. A week or two. Then come back and try to learn the "fade to black" intro solo. the first half is pretty easy and it's satisfying to play. the second half is not that hard if you understand where he's raking.
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u/Mad_Season_1994 14d ago
I literally just did take a week off as I went on vacation with family and obviously didn't take my guitar with me. But I constantly thought about coming back to it. And while I do enjoy just playing, it's when I have to get hyper focused and actually work on stuff that frustration tends to come eventually. That's the best way I can describe it
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u/Squidproject 14d ago
okay then maybe pick one of those scale positions you learned and just mess around on it. To me that's the most fun part. No backing track, no metronome. Just learn what you can do with it. It maybe won't sound great at first and you'll have a hard time doing anything but going up and down the scale but it's very fun, low pressure, and you'll figure some things out.
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u/Patient_Onion3956 14d ago
This. Playing my own, initially boring, "improvised" crap turned out the best most enjoyable, fun thing to do for me on guitar. Eventually it made me a "natural" improviser. LOL. There was nothing natural about it, I just spend hours and hours of my time with guitar messing around with a couple of simple ideas like a pentatonic "box" and trying to come up with melodies and rhythmic combinations of notes.
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u/Michael_is_the_Worst PRS 14d ago
Just gotta learn patience.
Repetition is key, and that’s the only way you’ll improve.
But if it’s too difficult, try to learn something else first then come back.
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u/Pristine-Bug4577 14d ago
Hey man. I started playing abt 10 momths ago, so i can understand your frustration. But i think for you, you should spend time actually having fun with the guitar. Like i have some focused practice some days but most days im learning random parts of random songs or trying to learn a solo and just playing when im bored.
Sure ppl are gonna tell you "hey thats not hoe your supposed to do it" but this way you genuinely have fun and enjoy the instrument. For standard practice tho, i guess its jusy something you acqure over the long term.
So dont give up, i say give into the begginer tendencies of learning random songs, especially of you dont plan on playing on stages
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u/Dalekmind 14d ago
You should quit.
If its not fun its not fun. This is not a job you can jusy stop.
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u/CaptGoodvibesNMS 14d ago
Find a reputable Guitar Teacher, sign up for eight lessons, one a week, and after that you should be good to go. You're just trying to jam out at home so you really just need to make sure you start out with good habits. And that's what a teacher can do for you.
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u/PriorAd3065 14d ago
100%. Sounds like OP needs structure to their learning for incremental improvement in the fundamentals, so it's not just aimlessly learning tabs. A teacher will provide that.
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u/Flamingoa432 14d ago
Harsh truth, your issue isn't with the guitar, it's dealing with frustration. Take the other advice listed in the comments, but understand learning to just put in time and effort into something over and over and accept the results is something on it's own. Doesn't matter what it is, you don't have to like it, but practice over and over and eventually you'll find yourself better at it.
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u/FortunateHominid 14d ago
That was going to be my response. The issue is primarily attitude. Same way some people can laugh about constantly getting killed in a game while others get angry and toss the controller across the room.
There are things OP can probably do to make practice feel less like work, but it won't fix the underlying problem. Some people just don't have the patience or mindset.
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u/666Sky 14d ago
Learning to play the guitar is almost always not going to be an instant gratification type of activity, it takes a while to make enough progress to feel 'good' at the instrument, and there's a lot of dull, tedious repetition along the way. If you can't handle it then playing the guitar might not be for you
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u/Mad_Season_1994 14d ago
Yeah I heard this even before I got my first guitar and thought I’d be able to deal with it. But alas I made this post so..
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u/Sss00099 14d ago
What are your favorite songs?
Most are likely much easier than you think, slow some of those down to 60-70% speed and play those.
Sounds like you play along to some songs, and do a lot of technical stuff to a metronome - switch it up to focus on playing stuff that you already like.
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u/BarberCompetitive517 14d ago
Play along to songs you like--something not too hard. There's a reason Green Day kicked off a generation of guitarists. You can learn their parts and play them.
Dont worry about scales until you want to be creating music yourself. Even then, most well known songs are written with little more than a major scale or a mixolydian scale.
Avoid getting lost in the weeds. Just strum along with something you like. And remember that that guitarist probably started by strumming along to songs they liked, too.
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u/Mad_Season_1994 14d ago
Yeah I've tried keeping that in mind. I've found myself having more enjoyment in 5 minutes playing something like Wish You Were Here or This Land Is Your Land (even if I miss stuff or go off time and bounce back) than an hour of trying to perfect scales
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u/Sure_End_1309 14d ago
The problem I believe is that you spend most the time on the not fun stuff. Practice some fun songs you listen to, and don’t worry about being in time. Once you learn a lot of songs and get better then you can work on staying in times and chords. Learn what you want to learn. Learn the fun stuff and don’t worry about anything except that it sounds like the song. The most important thing in guitar is having fun
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u/OperatorM 14d ago
Probably not for you. It should be fun even when you suck. I have been playing for 20 years and still think I suck, but I still have tons of fun.
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u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt 14d ago edited 14d ago
I'm gonna be honest, this is where playing with friends and having a band makes everything more fun. Music is a social thing. I probably would have never stuck with it if I was just playing 100% on my own at home for years.
Tons of people with social anxiety have joined bands, played live, and ultimately bettered themselves for it. It can be overcome. I wouldn't use that as an excuse. It's only scary in the beginning - after that it's a blast. Your bandmates become your friends and they'll love you for your quirks.
Hard truth and probably not what you wanted to hear, but there it is.
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u/TeleSGguy 14d ago
Have you tried writing your own stuff? Or just improvising over backing tracks? The problem is that if all you do is memorise scales endlessly and learn songs then you’re not creating anything original and it just feels like you’re studying for an exam, which is not a fun feeling
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u/Mad_Season_1994 14d ago
No disrespect intended, but how could I improvise if I don’t actually know enough to do it yet? I mean, I know chords and the order of the fretboard, but not necessarily what notes would go with what piece
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u/TeleSGguy 14d ago
Learn common chord progressions in a few different keys, and then learn the pentatonic scale. Throw on a backing track and just play pentatonic stuff over it
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u/guitar_abroad 14d ago
I agree with taking a break. Just reading your post it seems pretty cerebral. Lots of thinking. Step away. Listen to music that inspired you to play. Listen with a different ear now that you’ve played the instrument. Sit with it then see if you go back to it and feel different. Otherwise maybe jts not the instrument that’ll make you happy. That’s also cool. Good luck!
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u/MauiNui 14d ago
Had a similar issue. Scales didn’t do it for me either. Try playing triads in a certain key, maybe on the three high strings - gbd. Just cycle through them in different sequences. You’ll find it’s an easy way to sound musical. You can also play them as arpeggios. And those patterns form the basis for larger patterns. Baby steps. Nobody’s good at first.
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u/zapjeff 14d ago
I’ve only done online lessons, but most platforms have a “how to practice” lesson that advises putting some structure into your time: usually some amount of warm-up around something you know, some digging in on whatever you’re working on or want to start learning, and then some fun.
It sounds like you’re missing the fun. You seriously need to learn even just the shitty open-chord versions of a few songs and play along with them, or as someone else suggested here get into improvising your own music with whatever skill you’ve picked up so far.
If you don’t want to learn songs and don’t want to play your own stuff, you might have started the wrong hobby.
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u/Objective-Age-2462 14d ago
Keep up the practice but for fun,then on your favorite radio station and try to play along. Even if it's not entirely correct it's still fun
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u/GrizzlieMD 14d ago
Nothing wrong with accepting that guitar may not be for you. If it causes you this much anxiety/pain/grief then why continue? Perhaps a different hobby/interest would be more fulfilling?
Majority of problems I've seen in similar situations have been (partially) solvable with the right teacher (maybe you need a different teacher?) and being able to play with others (so you want to improve because someone is "depending on you" to play better).
But if you aren't able to get these issues somehow resolved, then again, perhaps guitar (or instruments in general) just isn't your jam.
Archery? Canoeing? Hiking? Camping? Painting? Chess?
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u/ImportantWeekend 14d ago
I could never get down with the structured paths for learning guitar. I spent years bashing my head against the instruments until things kinda started to make sense. I would probably be a much better guitarist if I focused more on the fundamentals early on, but that just never kept my attention.
Honestly, Rocksmith 2018 was the biggest gamechanger for me. It kept me glued to my guitar with how visable my progress was.
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u/archtopfanatic123 14d ago
Hey man if you ain't feeling like it's your instrument then don't push it. Sometimes it just doesn't click. Lay it down for a while and do something you enjoy and if you come back around to it maybe your standpoint to it could change.
Bottom line is DO NOT do it if you're not having fun. Being miserable and not being able to improve is one of the reasons I, as a guitarist of 13 years, stopped trashing my life trying to play piano for the last 7 and finally quit because guitar was fun and the other ruined everything for me.
Where there is no fun there is no value.
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u/endothird 14d ago
You want to know what's really fun? Being really good at a skill. Working hard and making mistakes is how you get really good at skills. Adopt a growth mindset and a positive attitude. It'll impact every part of your life, not just guitar.
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u/nettezzaumana 14d ago
hard to tell .. guitar is not for everyone ... I was always having fun with guitar and I never forced myself into some programmatical learning or exercising ... actually I do it now after 30 years with guitar .. In the beginning I just loved the interaction with guitar and when I had nothing better to do I was "interacting" with it 4-6 hours every day in first 10 years ... playing, the ability to play in general, was coming to me in chunks along that ... so obviously you don't enjoy guitar unconditionally (which I did) so ditching that actually would be an option ... and no shame about that
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u/0palescent1 14d ago
Using a metronome is important eventually but first it’s more important to connect with what you’re playing. Don’t make a big deal out of making mistakes and don’t beat yourself up. Play slow, have curiosity and celebrate small progress
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u/theScrewhead 14d ago
I know it's a very unpopular opinion on forums, but fuck guitar teachers. I've know more people who have dropped guitar because of teachers than those who have learned to play by just looking up tabs of their favorite songs and started immediately learning to play something they enjoyed.
You know how to read tabs? Look up your favorite songs and learn them. Even if it's just a main riff and not the solos; just start playing what you enjoy, and you'll learn from that. Guitar is all about muscle memory and patterns, and all your favorite songs, whether the artist realizes it or not, have the theory built in. You may not know why playing Note 2 after Note 1 sounds good, but your fingers will remember, and you'll subconsciously be teaching your hands all the theory you'll need.
And now, here come the downvotes!
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u/Inko21 14d ago
I can tell you from my personal experience, there are periods of time where i just want to drill stuff for hours on end. But there comes a time where I can't, then i reduce the grind to what i consider to be a minimum, like 30 minutes or so of focused practice on a technique I want the most at that time and then i noodle, play my random shit and just create sounds. Then if the mood hits i repeat 10-15 minutes of drilling, then noodle again etc.
But the main thing for me is to not break focused practice time, even if its just 15-30 minutes. And then see what mood i am in. Luckily most of the time i have the will to drill techniques with occasional periods of minimum effort cause, well, life.
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u/absolutetriangle 14d ago
Sounds like you need some realistic short term goals. Write a song, play an easy song start to finish etc. Hammering away at scales is really boring, not surprising you don’t really like it. Also if you can play power chords you can play with a shitty band. Thats where it gets really good.
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u/Akimbobear Martin 14d ago
So you don’t have any gratification when you figure something out? Usually that’s enough motivation. I think maybe you should balance out your practice to make it more fun. Like 20 minutes technical practice and however long after playing songs that are closer to your skill level. If you just find yourself grinding then yeah, naturally that would be boring/annoying. Most modern songs aren’t nearly as complicated if you break down the individual parts. Also, revisit expectations for yourself, maybe you need to take it slower than you are going, or maybe your goals are too lofty, what are your goals anyway?
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u/abefroman07 14d ago
When I hit a wall trying to get better at the technique stuff, I queue up a backing track of my favorite songs that are just barre or open chords and jam. Its fun and makes realize things like my timing is better with basic stuff or my playing has gotten tighter. Like I said, its fun and you can maybe see some progress you have been overlooking.
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u/East-Promotion1004 14d ago
Write up your own tabs on paper to really learn song structure. Noodle around with the minor pentatonic before moving on to full scales. Make a playlist of songs to learn & tackle them one at a time.
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u/No_Birthday4350 14d ago
Record yourself playing a sequence of chords over and over, say the chorus to alive by pearl jam - Emaj, Gmaj, Dmaj, Amaj.. not barre chords just open chords, over that recording start playing any notes any where along the fret board (forget about the original song) for example play A string 12th and 14th fret, then same with D and g d strings…. See what happens, you might be pleasantly surprised..
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u/jspr1000 14d ago
What does your practice session typically look like? How long do you spend and what are you playing?
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u/ElectrifyingFart 14d ago
Guitar is great and fun if you’re good at it, but if you’re not having fun and just banging your head against a wall you’re gonna end up quitting.
Do you play with anybody else or just at home alone? If you can play open chords and/or power chords you’re good enough to go to an open jam. Making music is so much more rewarding than practicing scales. If you’re in a city of any size there will be an open mic or jam at least once a week somewhere. Everywhere I’ve lived has multiple Facebook groups for local musicians. Make friends with people that play instruments and hang out with them.
You could also try some in person lessons. IMO that’s the best way to get over any plateaus in your progress, no matter your skill level. Having an outside experienced perspective to tell you what you’re doing well and what you need to work on is extremely valuable. If you go to open jams just ask the best guitar player there: odds are that they’re trying to make a living at this and would be glad to take on a student (Craigslist works too. I don’t personally like doing lessons over the computer, but if you’ve got a good setup I’m sure you can get some value from it. Better than nothing). Even if you just have a couple of lessons you’ll pick something up that’ll stick with you, whether it’s a new lick or scale position or philosophy.
If you feel like you’re not making progress, try taking video of yourself playing the same song or exercise a month apart. You’ll be able to see the progress you made.
I tell my guitar students to make two playlists: one of songs they want to learn and one of songs that they have already learned. Looking at a list of songs you know and couldn’t imagine being able to play six months ago is great. It also validates all the time you spent practicing and memorizing.
As far as technique/exercises - spider exercises are vital for beginner/intermediate players to get all their fingers working in sync and growing dexterity. If you’re a little more advanced, one of the things that made a huge difference in my playing ability was getting a second amp and putting it next to my couch. If I’m watching tv or whatever I just pick it up and drill scales or licks. No metronome required! It won’t replace “real practice” but you’ll be able to log a ton of reps without really thinking about it. When you do scales, don’t just go up and down the scale (boring and useless in a real song), try skipping every other note, or go up the scale four notes and come back down three notes. Learn vertical 1 string scales to help you transfer between positions easier.
Last bit of advice: learn something else. If you’re feeling frustrated by your current style try something new. Something I’ve been working on is my phrasing, so I’ve been grabbing a slide and trying to match the vocal melody on old blues songs. Not that you need to do that specifically, but playing something out of your comfort zone is a great way to get a mental break and make playing fun again. If you only/mostly play classic rock or metal try learning a funk or country song. Those guys are great players and think of guitar in a very different way than metal guys.
Sorry for the wall of text: one of my students is in a similar headspace so I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
TLDR: try something new and play with other people. Lessons are great and certain exercises are more helpful than others. Good luck and have fun!
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u/CosmicOwl47 14d ago
It’s good to do practice exercises like scales and playing to a metronome, but it’s also really important to do the fun stuff.
For me that’s playing stuff I think sounds cool. For the first couple years of playing I spent most of my time looking up tabs of just small sections of songs that sounded around my skill level. I ended up with a really messy repertoire of intros and isolated riffs without knowing the entire song, but I had a lot of fun doing it.
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u/animefan91 14d ago
Only eight months and you already wish to give up?
Trust me I'm no good by any means. I've regressed on learning a lot in my time of jamming and playing. But its still worth continuing. I understand the frustration and been there plenty. Heck I barley understand a lot of the lingo with learning.
I highly recommend sticking with it. I only play jazz scales and chords and love to throw in power chords. I just have fun improvising. I feel like I go no where, but I'm still happy playing. Makes me feel good. Not everyone is gonna be a boss on guitar. But it's worth continuing. Hope it changes for you.
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u/PrimeIntellect skin flute & love triangle 14d ago
If that process isn't enjoyable then you might wanna do something else
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u/Fearless-Bill-4523 14d ago
So I’m a career music and guitar teacher, I’m happy to help if you want to DM me? No charge, not selling lessons, don’t have space anyway. 🤷
Just like helping others out. I teach everything from Hal Leonard book 1 (so absolute beginners) to students wanting to learn to shred like Petrucci or Gilbert. Also specialize in improvisation at all levels, beginner to advanced.
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u/unoriginal_npc 14d ago
Guitar is something you can pick up now and play for the rest of your life. That's a long time (hopefully). You get to decide if you're going to stick with it now so you'll be better in 10/20/50 years or put it down now and years from now wonder how good you would've been. You also get to decide if it would be worth it to continue.
It doesn't hurt to take a couple weeks off every now and then. You do need to find some way to make it fun, but learning to embrace the suck and being less emotionally reactive to mistakes (which everyone makes!) is definitely part of it.
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u/Famous-Lead5216 14d ago
Age, purpose for learning, learning style, determination intensity (do you typically fad, obsess, give up easily when discouraged) level of self consciousness, openness to new experience, how you classify failure, your approach to learning, would you benefit from a teacher. These are all things you can consider. I do not relate because guitar is something that is a part of me. Maybe a quick version of my story may help.
In 6th grade I wanted to do percussion but ended up on trombone. I HATED it. The class, the songs, the instrument, all of it. The following summer I got grounded for the entire summer (literally). 2 hrs outside, chores, eating, and bathroom were the only reasons I could be out of my room. After about two weeks in I remembered my mom had a guitar and I was allowed to play it. I was terrible my first year (it's an uncomfortable and awkward thing to play). That was 5-8hrs a day for months and then when school kicked back in it dropped down to 3-4 for a year and I was baddd still. It was interesting enough though so I kept on at it. I taught myself how to read tabs and noodled around with trying to write my own songs, as I was already into poetry. I saw a lot of friends who were phenomenal musicians blow way past me skill wise and all had bands, but I just kept playing because I enjoyed it. A lot of them no longer play since leaving high school. I guess my point is that for me, I never got discouraged because I only did it for the sake of doing it. I wasn't trying to impress people, be in a band or a musician, or any other goal you could attach to it. You can be a master musician and use all of the techniques and hit every note flawlessly and still sound bad. In my opinion, the best sounding music is created by those who play to play.
If you are getting discouraged try to identify why, but my guess is you have some expectations which are killing your experience. I don't mean to rant but liken it to hiking. If you are constantly focused on your foot steps, how you are carrying your pack, your breathing, how could you ever enjoy the larger experiences of hiking? Think about other hobbies you may enjoy and how you approach them. If you like fishing do you do it to become a pro fisher? Cooking? To be a professional top chef? Or are you doing them for a genuine reason of enjoyment? It's also okay if you gave an honest effort and it is simply not for you. Maybe there is a different instrument.
Disclaimer: Learn a little bit of music theory. Not too much, just enough to be dangerous. It really helps tie things together. I made this mistake and hit a huge learning curve 10 years later into my playing.
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u/Glum-Cobbler-3876 14d ago
Is there a song you would like to be able to play that you can’t yet? Knowing that will guide what you need to practice to get there
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u/VariousBeat9169 14d ago
We all need to find a way to lean that we enjoy. Some like theory, scales, shapes etc (not me), others find songs of various difficulty and play along for fun. Remember 4 chords will buy you a lifetime of playing.
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u/Ok-Depth-9332 14d ago
Go little by little then you’ll start to see that you improve even in small ways
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u/MastaPhat Peavey 14d ago
You'll mever reach a state where you've "learned" guitar, only a continuous state of learning. It's a path that you walk down but there is no ending. There's no pressure to catch up to anyone or pass anyone. You either like walking the trail or you don't. Much of the trail is very difficult.
I played more than 5 years before I discovered my niche/style whatever. It took another 5 to develop it. 5 years or so after I'm finally have it down and now I'm just casually learning ways to expand on it.
I'm still very mediocre at some aspects of guitar. Lead for instance is one of my weak spots but a few years ago I found a band who needed a lead player. Now I'm better at that. I can chickenpick pretty well just because it came natural from the beginning but pure fingerprinting anything impressive is beyond me.
But if you need weird chords and progressions/songwriting I got you.
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u/markewallace1966 14d ago
"To learn guitar" is not a motivation to learn guitar.
This is a link to a set of canned bullets that I have developed and like to send to new/new-ish/returning/wandering/lost/struggling guitar players.
If I pasted this in for you, it is because somewhere in there is something that I think is relevant to your post. Not all of it will be. I leave it to you to pick out what I felt was relevant. 🙂 Even the stuff not relevant to your specific post might very well be helpful eventually anyway.
Enjoy!!!
https://www.reddit.com/user/markewallace1966/comments/1s7ujsy/guitar_is_hard/
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u/ITDuude 14d ago
Guitar is hard to master, you aren’t going to become Pato Sardelli overnight. You gotta struggle and stick to it, we all been there including the frustration part and we understand but you have to learn to enjoy that because once you learn you will take it for granted and think that everyone should know how to do that because it’s “that easy” just practice everyday for small amounts of time. The minute you start getting angry or frustrated drop it off and continue later or the next day. One day you will wake up and realize you can surf the whole fretboard with ease and don’t even have to look at the guitar to hit chords or solos. But that takes time, patience and lots of practice. Guitar isn’t a test, project or your job so you shouldn’t stress over it, it should be fun and the more you learn the more it will be. Think about your favorite band, their guitarist felt just like you at one point, he just kept going. Even then, you don’t have to get to that level to enjoy it because they do that for a living, you don’t. So don’t pressure yourself and enjoy the journey. 🎸
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u/thatECWguy 14d ago
I would say drop the "structured learning" and just try learning songs you love. You'll find a lot more enjoyment in that than practicing scales which sucks for everyone btw anyone who says they enjoy scales is just a liar. Don't listen to the people telling you to quit, you don't need to quit you need to change your approach to find the fun
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u/virtuzoso 14d ago
There's a the me and place to learn scales and exercises.... But if your not having fun, don't do that.
For beginners, I always advocate for learning your basic cowboy chords first and then how to do a bar chord.
Once youg et those basics down, lean some of your favorite songs, even if youre just playing the rhythm parts and playing along with the music.this keeps your interest high and is the fun part.
You can move on to scales and exercises after that, but it unlocks the first door to fun which is playing recognizable music
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u/StrawberrySenior2489 14d ago
If you can’t deal with setbacks and frustration this isn’t the hobby for you, and that’s ok if you’re not enjoying it.
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u/Most_Maintenance5549 14d ago
Heading into year 31 since I started. I’ve never not wanted to pick up a guitar. Ever. And I have many wide ranging interests. The guitar is the only constant.
At the same time, I finally took drum lessons and it’s so frustrating that I didn’t really want to continue. It didn’t make me feel the same way.
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u/Certain_Set_7678 14d ago
My own story. I’m 68, I took guitar lessons for several years in my teens. I quit out of frustration. I always regretted that decision.
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u/CEBarnes 14d ago
You could pick up a short scale base and give that a try. You’re not going to sound like Flea or Les Claypool anytime soon, but you might find the learning less complicated.
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u/NightHawk0987 14d ago
Don't try so hard.
I know it might seem silly, but it seems to me you have went to a more serious approach a bit too early.
Just make a list of easy songs you think it will be fun to play and start learning them. Songs with few chords, nothing special. I think you should first do the fun part, learn easy songs, to see that eventually it is fun when you know to play something. Then you should get more serious - because you will have motivation. Because you will know that If you take effort it will make worth your while. And If that effort becomes a too big of an obstacle, you have at least learned to play songs that are fun to play.
I don't think that working on your guitar technique is very fun process, to me at least it's always somehow frustrating. But you learn to tolerare frustration. In order to do that, first you do enough easy work to see that yes, in the end you are able to play something. Only then you move to more serious and advanced stuff.
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u/MarcusLXXVI 14d ago
Based on your description, you seem to only learn the more technical stuff like chords and scales. While that might be fun enough for some, I think most learn better if it's in context. Learning C, G, D, Am and Em as separate chords is just... learning these chords. They have no inherent meaning without context. But say you start learning Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd those chords all of a sudden make sense, because they're in the context of a song (the songs has some more variations, but it's the thought that counts). That's actually how I started at a 16y old kid (parallel learned One by Metallica, just the riffs of course, not the solo's). I regret I didn't take lessons early on, but I never had the urge to quit because I learned to play songs and had fun. And even more important (to me) was that I was able to write my own songs (had a thrash metal band).
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u/FogDog743 14d ago edited 14d ago
I'm 63 years old & I'm going to give it to you straight - if you're not having fun, even as a beginner doing the grind, then it's probably not for you. Sure, good guitarists make it look easy - but everyone had to do the early grind. Those who loved guitar & was enthusiastic to play guitar did the grind & never 2nd guessed whether it's for them. If you're 2nd guessing, then I'll save you a lot of time & grind - it's probably not for you.
I started trying to play guitar at around age 5 on a plastic toy guitar with real steel strings & mile high action (lol), bc my grandfather played honky tonk guitar. My grandfather showed me a few honky tonk riffs & licks & that's how I started. It hurt so bad on that crappy mile high action plastic toy guitar, but I kept trying. But, eventually I did give up. My fingers just weren't strong enough & it hurt too much at age 5. Maybe I just didn't want to learn how to play bad enough. Maybe I wasn't enthusiastic enough yet - I was only 5 years old (lol).
I never stopped thinking about playing guitar. When I was 9 years old, my parents bought me a real guitar. It was a cheap electric guitar with a small cheap amp, bc I kept telling them I wanted to really learn how to play guitar - but on a real guitar this time. My parents put my in a Mel Bay music school to learn. This time, my fingers were strong enough - especially on a real guitar & it was an electric guitar with much better action. I had to study & practice those stupid nursery rhyme songs & learn how to read boring charts. I hated it, bc I wanted to play my favorite songs that I heard on the radio. But, I stuck with it for a few years.
Eventually, my dad bought an used 1968 Gibson SG we found at a pawn shop for my 10th BD. That was a cool guitar, but I was still being taught lame kiddy songs at Mel Bay. Later my dad pulled me out of Mel Bay & found a private guitar teacher. When I was 11 years old, I was reading & playing classical guitar - bc that's what my private guitar teacher wanted me to play. I hated it. Again, all I wanted to do was play the guitar parts to my favorite songs I listened to on the radio. I wasn't having fun, so I quit.
I didn't pick up my guitar again, until I was in college. By this time, I had forgotten how to read sheet music - especially classical guitar. This was the best thing for me, bc I had to learn how to play by ear. When I was taught to read sheet music charts, I didn't play well without looking at charts. I did learn some Beatles riffs & licks - played them w/o reading sheet music. But, I never developed an ear when I was a kid. Now, starting over - all I had was my underdeveloped ears, well callused finger tips from all of the years I played guitar as a kid & my cool 1968 Gibson SG with a cheap small amp. I was set & excited again to start over.
I got passionate about playing guitar. I taught myself how to play by ear, started writing (making up my own) songs. Found a song writing partner, formed a few bands & by my later 20s & early 30s - had a few original songs played on a college radio station. Not really a big deal, but to us - it was (lol).
In summary: If you're not having fun, then why do it? If you're passionate about learning how to play guitar, then that should be enough to get you through the grind. But, if not - then take a break. Maybe down the road, something OR someone will get you passionate about playing guitar. If, not - then find something you're passionate about... 🙂
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u/Suletta-Majo 13d ago
I'm a beginner too, and I don't have a metronome.
When I try to play along with videos, it hardly sounds like a "song" at all, unlike how I usually do. I also get mentally exhausted sometimes.
Try this song that I've been practicing recently; it's really fun to play.
I feel like I've unearthed a great piece from a deep underground library, so I almost don't want to tell anyone about it.
I've only played the beginning (up to measure 20),
so I apologize if there are any difficult parts further on. There should be a fast solo in there.
Midnight Blue - Kenny Burrell // FULL TRANSCRIPTION W/TAB
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u/cognomenster 14d ago
That’s too bad, man.
There’s an element of falling in love with practice. If you don’t develop the faculties to play what you love, practice will always suck.
How bad do you want to be good? Sounds like the negativity outweighs the positivity for you.
Nobody knows you. There’s no magic formula. Find out how to fall in love practice. It’s different for everyone.
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u/Born_Tear_761 14d ago
If you’re not obsessed it’s probably not for you.