sunvalleylaw
Contributing Member
Well, you fine folks are about the only ones I can do this to, and I have to vent so I can accept the situation and move along.
For a good chunk of the last year, and particularly this summer, I have felt frustrated about my progress, or lack thereof, in playing. I have played regularly for a little over three years now. But I feel a bit stuck, and that I am not making good progress, even in improving old bad habits that were identified. Right now, I even feel that my basic rhythm playing on strum-a-long songs (American Pie, etc.) is not as clean as I want it. I seem to be finding fault with all aspects of my playing right now.
The reasons or excuses: I have not had as much playing or practice time, due to an increase in work, and the fact that we have been doing work on our own remodel because we are bringing my mother in law in to live with us due to oncoming dementia issues. She is doing much better living with us, but it is hard to see. And yes, I do get along with her. She is an amazing woman who lived through German occupation of her town near the German/Netherlands border, and emigrated to the states back in the 50's.
But back on topic, usually when I have played over the last months, I am often pretty tired from long days, and just play a few things from the same group of songs I have worked on for a while. I have taken on new projects, including the jazz oriented arrangements of "Over the Rainbow" and "Wonderful World" that I play with my Dad while he plays sax, but I have felt that my chording has been not as clean as I like there, and that I want to be doing something a bit more interesting when I am playing rhythm.
I had to reduce, and then stop, taking individual lessons this last year. I have had a few where my instructor helped my figure out my arrangement on the songs to play with my Dad, but other than that I have been on my own. I think at this stage in my playing, that has contributed to the stall I feel. That, and I have not had much opportunity to play with others since basically last fall.
My plan to break the doldrums? I have started from scratch on Mark Wein's Foundations book and his on line lessons. At first, that has seemed frustrating, because it points out bad habits that formed when i basically forced my first instructor to start teaching me Neil Young songs instead of tracking his lesson plans. I think my right hand rhythm issues can be traced back to that time, because I learned to play the song in time, but was doing weird stuff with my strumming hand rather than just moving it in time. Also, I have fretting hand bad habits, like letting my thumb drift off too far toward the neck, and letting my elbow come in to the body, especially on certain chords. Open C is an example of one where I start to let my elbow drift in.
But starting back on the basic foundations in the Foundations book, and really trying to break these habits (which my instructors did point out, btw), by learning more efficient techniques, will help me move forward. I have kept adding knowledge and understanding over the last year, and can play and know a lot of cool chords, progressions, etc., so it is not all grim. I bet that if I can improve my foundational techniques, I will be using this knowledge better soon enough. I think when I started, I wanted to be "good" sooner than I could reasonably get there, and tried to "skip chapters" in my development. In skiing, which I coach at a high level, I have often gone back to basics, both with my students and in my own skiing. We often say that if you are not standing properly on your equipment and skiing from a strong platform, you cannot hope to make strong, efficient moves, and carve, jump etc. in good balance. I am betting it is the same with guitar.
Well, enough whining. I just needed to share this with my guitar friends so that I could accept where I am in guitar right now, and commit to moving forward.
Thanks for letting me vent! If any of you have suggestions or words of wisdom/encouragement for me, I would sure welcome them.
Yours in fretterhood,
Steve
For a good chunk of the last year, and particularly this summer, I have felt frustrated about my progress, or lack thereof, in playing. I have played regularly for a little over three years now. But I feel a bit stuck, and that I am not making good progress, even in improving old bad habits that were identified. Right now, I even feel that my basic rhythm playing on strum-a-long songs (American Pie, etc.) is not as clean as I want it. I seem to be finding fault with all aspects of my playing right now.
The reasons or excuses: I have not had as much playing or practice time, due to an increase in work, and the fact that we have been doing work on our own remodel because we are bringing my mother in law in to live with us due to oncoming dementia issues. She is doing much better living with us, but it is hard to see. And yes, I do get along with her. She is an amazing woman who lived through German occupation of her town near the German/Netherlands border, and emigrated to the states back in the 50's.
But back on topic, usually when I have played over the last months, I am often pretty tired from long days, and just play a few things from the same group of songs I have worked on for a while. I have taken on new projects, including the jazz oriented arrangements of "Over the Rainbow" and "Wonderful World" that I play with my Dad while he plays sax, but I have felt that my chording has been not as clean as I like there, and that I want to be doing something a bit more interesting when I am playing rhythm.
I had to reduce, and then stop, taking individual lessons this last year. I have had a few where my instructor helped my figure out my arrangement on the songs to play with my Dad, but other than that I have been on my own. I think at this stage in my playing, that has contributed to the stall I feel. That, and I have not had much opportunity to play with others since basically last fall.
My plan to break the doldrums? I have started from scratch on Mark Wein's Foundations book and his on line lessons. At first, that has seemed frustrating, because it points out bad habits that formed when i basically forced my first instructor to start teaching me Neil Young songs instead of tracking his lesson plans. I think my right hand rhythm issues can be traced back to that time, because I learned to play the song in time, but was doing weird stuff with my strumming hand rather than just moving it in time. Also, I have fretting hand bad habits, like letting my thumb drift off too far toward the neck, and letting my elbow come in to the body, especially on certain chords. Open C is an example of one where I start to let my elbow drift in.
But starting back on the basic foundations in the Foundations book, and really trying to break these habits (which my instructors did point out, btw), by learning more efficient techniques, will help me move forward. I have kept adding knowledge and understanding over the last year, and can play and know a lot of cool chords, progressions, etc., so it is not all grim. I bet that if I can improve my foundational techniques, I will be using this knowledge better soon enough. I think when I started, I wanted to be "good" sooner than I could reasonably get there, and tried to "skip chapters" in my development. In skiing, which I coach at a high level, I have often gone back to basics, both with my students and in my own skiing. We often say that if you are not standing properly on your equipment and skiing from a strong platform, you cannot hope to make strong, efficient moves, and carve, jump etc. in good balance. I am betting it is the same with guitar.
Well, enough whining. I just needed to share this with my guitar friends so that I could accept where I am in guitar right now, and commit to moving forward.
Thanks for letting me vent! If any of you have suggestions or words of wisdom/encouragement for me, I would sure welcome them.
Yours in fretterhood,
Steve
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Although my own playing has progressed greatly due to the fact that I have a band with fairly regular gigs - a couple things I do when it feels like things are getting stale are:
