"You are allowed to make mistakes"

I say this to myself these days while practicing. I'm learning how to forgive myself for not being perfect, especially on the guitar. As someone recently told me "You do not have the 'Perfect Gene'". So I'm trying to accept this. It is not always easy. Sometimes I forget. But I do feel better when I cut myself some slack.

So this is my advice to you beginners and heck you old timers too. It's okay to not be perfect. None of us are.

[reeve21]

Well put, Doug! Check out the clam at about 1:12 and his reaction a couple of seconds later. This is the right way react to a mistake.

[jklotz]

Of course we all make mistakes. It's just part of the process. It can be frustrating at times, but if it wasn't a challenge, would we enjoy it as much? It could be worse, we could be on the golf forum.

[dwasifar]

If it were easy, it wouldn't be as rewarding.

[tbeltrans]

There is a saying that if you are not making mistakes, then you aren't trying hard enough. We learn through our mistakes. If we play it safe so as to not make a mistake, then we will probably never learn anything new.

Watch little kids learn to walk. If they never get up after their first fall, they will never learn to walk. People say that kids learn faster than adults and then come up with all this stuff about how the brain "hardens" or whatever scientific reasoning they can come up with to support the limiting ideas.

I say that if kids learn faster, it is because they keep trying until they get it. Adults may have too much baggage to allow themselves to do that.

Tony

[mercy]

I enjoy the guitar so much that mistakes are ok, though Id like to not make them.

[blacknblues]

Thanks, I need to be reminded that obsessively trying to play thru songs perfectly can suck the fun out of playing guitar.

[DukeX]

I gave up the pursuit for perfection. It's not one of my guitar strengths, but I admire those who near perfect. Those are the folks I love to watch!

I focus on rhythm/groove first (right hand), tone second (right hand), fretting third (left hand). Perhaps oddly, I sound better, have more fun, and make fewer mistakes this way. And the mistakes I do make are less noticeable.

[Goodallboy]

Trying to perform a song mistake free is always my goal. That doesn’t suck any fun from the process. Making a mistake doesn’t suck any from the joy of playing.

Forget any such notion that anything can suck the fun from playing music and you’ll be free to create and actually “make music”.

[wguitar]

Mistakes often lead to discovery!

[Tico]

Pay no attention to mistakes.
Just do your best to not repeat them.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

It's okay to not be perfect. None of us are.

True, but we don't have to like it.

[Beakybird]

I practiced and practiced a song I wrote until there were no mistakes. Listening to my recording, I painfully realized that writing the song was a mistake.

[tj_mangum]

“I guess if you keep making the same mistake long enough, it becomes your style.”
— John Prine

[Mr. Jelly]

When I play billiards I have good shots and bad shots. There are times I'm not concentrating enough and other times I'm concentrating too much. Some licks or notes hit spot on and some that could have been better.