Thoughts on (finally!) improving

[oldhippiegal]

This is not to brag (well maybe 7% of it is that), but to encourage. Nine months after I became an intermediate player, I hit a wall, and hundreds of hours of practice over months did not move that wall much at all. I posted about it ~18 months ago, calling it the intermediate doldrums or something like that. It was like those scenes in Master and Commander when the ship is becalmed for weeks and they're all sweaty and worried and running out of fruit. I was missing the fruit of satisfaction of improvement at guitar for freakin' months.

Oh, I was probably improving in tiny ways all along, but I had a couple of aha/yes! moments these past few days where I understood I'm better than the guitarist who once wrote that frustrated post here. I have returned to seeing steady improvement. (I kept up with decent musicians at a jam. I learned a new song with a new technique in a few minutes. I picked up a blues solo by ear in five minutes, and I sight-read my way through some Nietzche (yes, that guy) music (written for piano but playable on guitar) and didn't do half-bad, despite his love of accidentals.)

I've also noticed that while I studied the fretboard back 18 months ago, and learned the pentatonic and major/minor scale and arpeggio shapes longer ago than that, it's finally all coming together; my hand knows where the chords are around the neck and my guesses when transcribing/mimicking lead/solo parts are often correct without my needing to think out the solution. My ear is better, my left hand is better, and my brain is better.

I'm halfway between on my knees weeping in abject gratitude and screaming, "It's about bloody time I improved!"

When I posted my intermediate doldrums post back then, a dozen of you hopped in and said "geez, me too!" (and that was comforting, if not a solution.) There are probably a dozen more of you at that point now. So I'm posting this largely to say, you will improve. You try this, you try that, you keep trying different approaches, you keep up the daily practice despite seeing you're not getting better and despite wanting to gnaw your way through the guitar some days, and, yes, it might be (as it was with me) years before a plateau ends and the climb recommences, but it does eventually happen.

It's not a solution, but I hope it's comforting: hang in there

[delb0y]

Another good thing to do is to tape yourself and after a decent period of time (years in my case) have a listen and you'll realise how far you have improved. Or you'll discover that you were pretty good anyway!

[BluesBelly]

Hi OldHippieGal,

Looking back over all the years I've been playing I'd say it's pretty normal to plateau or bottom out and count on it happening every so often. When ever this happens to me I change things up for a new approach. One time I went flat and in order to rebound I bought a round neck reso and learned slide. Other times I revert to my electric guitar days and fire up the Gibson ES335 and tube amp, put the volume on patent applied for, and blow my brains out with some 60's stuff. When I come back down everything seems to be OK. Glad you rebounded. Keep up the good work, and most of all have fun.

Best,

Blues

[Bern]

oldhippiegal, great to hear that all the hard work you've put in has payed you back.
I like posts like yours...it gives some credibility to practice.

[Kerbie]

OHG, good to hear your perseverance paid off. And I imagine it will continue to do so. Just the nature of the learning curve. Hanging in there is good advice... and probably something we can heed every now and then.