Frustrated

[TomiPaldanius]

With only 1 year playing experience it is common to not to finish things that well. I suggest very basic chord progressions with singable melodies. Get more connected with the rhythm and melody. Go carefully through the form of the song. For example La Bamba is C-F-G7. There is a song for you to enjoy,

[softballbryan]

Boys around here, the country song.... Chords A and D.... Alternate them none stop for the entire song! Now you have another.....

Bryan

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by Tim.M

Having a bad guitar day

Not good enough to play what I want and can't play anything from start to end.
...tried to voice this to my guitar tutor but we still haven't really picked a piece of music to learn ... practice most days, anything from 20 mins to an hour.
..

I think YOU have to pick the song you want to learn. It needs to be a song YOU like, and one whose melody you know well enough to hum/sing.

Is there one song you already DO know well? Find another song that uses the same chords but in different order and with a new rhythm. You'll have half the battle already won. (there are about sixty-seven gazzilion songs that use G, C, & D)

Finding a good teacher who 'clicks' with your style of learning is so important. Ask your teacher for a fresh assessment of your skills today, compared to where you were when you started a year ago. Ask him where he thinks your weak points are, and put the time in to strengthen them. It's really hard to advance quickly if you are missing foundations and basic skills.


Effective practicing tips:
1. warm up for 10 minutes doing scales, arpeggios and other simple exercises.
2. metronome, use with warm up as well as song practice!
3. self-discipline to keep the metronome on SLOW until notes are smooth and and correct; then slowly speed it up, 5bpm at a time, till you are at full desired tempo.
4. pick one song and stick with it.

Patience and persistence will help you succeed! good luck

[rvf263]

I was in the same boat, been playing a long time....just noodling, bits and pieces of songs, really never learning anything all the way through.
It gets very discouraging at some point especially when you love guitar.

The only way to fix it is to learn songs. I made it the number one goal with my instructor.....
1) I WANT TO LEARN SONGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
2) Learn a little theory along the way

Stay focused on this one goal. If you or your instructor gets side tracked, stop and regroup.

Be careful though, do not pick a song that is not obtainable from where your at right now. You'll just get frustrated again very easily.

Find something cool and obtainable, this was important for me too.

There are tons of cool tunes out there that are within your reach.

Pick one, stick with it, and keep working at it, you'll get there!

Best of luck!

[T1mothy]

Learning songs from beginning to end is just a matter of will power.
Im just learning to play this arrangement of georgia on my mind
and my willingness to learn has stopped right on the bridge of the song so Im gonna hoover the house now and get back to it right after and finish it. Also a good thing when ure stuck with learning songs (fingerstyle or flatpicking or whatever) is to go into different playing style. For me I m not into flatpicking really but I love fingerstyle (although Im not following any books, just music I love) and gypsy jazz so whenever I feel like I need a break from fingerstyle I try to get better at my rhythm and lead in jazz manouche and vice versa.

Just my 2 ideas/cents

Tim

[Tim.M]

Originally Posted by rvf263

I was in the same boat, been playing a long time....just noodling, bits and pieces of songs, really never learning anything all the way through.
It gets very discouraging at some point especially when you love guitar.

The only way to fix it is to learn songs. I made it the number one goal with my instructor.....
1) I WANT TO LEARN SONGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
2) Learn a little theory along the way

Stay focused on this one goal. If you or your instructor gets side tracked, stop and regroup.

Be careful though, do not pick a song that is not obtainable from where your at right now. You'll just get frustrated again very easily.

Find something cool and obtainable, this was important for me too.

There are tons of cool tunes out there that are within your reach.

Pick one, stick with it, and keep working at it, you'll get there!

Best of luck!

This is exactly where I am at, what song did you end up going with?

[naccoachbob]

Tim,
I know exactly what you mean. You mentioned Hotel California.
If you are able to make all the chords, here is the chord pattern for it.

Verses
Bm F#m A E G D Em F#m

Chorus
G D F#m Bm G D Em F#m

If you're trying to learn barre chords, this is hog heaven, because you can play almost every chord as a barre. I go between barre and open G, and always open D, but everything else is barred (of course Em and E aren't, but they're part of barre shapes).
You can strum it over and over, and you can arpeggiate it.
Just google "hotel california chords" and find a site with the pattern I used above and you can play along. If you don't find a good one, pm me and I'll send you a Word document with all of it on there.
Something else I do is take my .mp3 collection and try to play songs from it, trying to learn the chords by ear. It's early in your playing, so that might not be very easy right now. But once you learn to pick up songs (just chords at first) by ear, it opens up the world for you.
I play a lot of older 60's thru 80's country, and there are a large number of songs with just the 1, 4, 5 chords. I learned by playing on the 6th or 5th string and just trying to find the note that sounded like the chord that was being played. Over time, I would figure the 1 chord, and once I had it, the other 2 were easy to figure out. Of course, there are a huge group of songs with more chords, but fun to try to figure out.
Another song that is fun to play, and chord shapes are much easier, is Take It Easy. I love the Travis Tritt version of it. But it's one I mostly play chords on. It could be arpeggiated though. Again, pm if you want the Word doc on it.
Best of luck,
Bob

[stanron]

Originally Posted by Tim.M

Having a bad guitar day

Any advice from those who have been through similar would be much appreciated.

There are some very experienced teachers out there and I was wondering if any of them would suggest what I am going to suggest.

Keep a practice diary.

In it record the length of the session, start and finish times, specific goals for that session, longer term goals, and discoveries and realisations that occurred whilst practicing. You would record if you met the goal for that session or if you achieved a longer termed goal.

Goals should be about ability and not about length of time practicing or the number of scales you play through. Short term goals should be achievable in the short term. A short term goal might be to play a set chord sequence without stopping or pausing at a specific metronome speed. Or to be able to play a set number of bars of tab, in time from memory.

You have to be realistic about goals like 'Play James Taylor's Fire and wine note for note'. If you are just starting fingerstyle that will be a long term goal. If you have a wide range of fingerstyle techniques already then it could be a short term goal. It's a matter of common sense.

The goals should reflect what you want to achieve and if your teacher is not setting you this kind of work you need to discuss it with him.

If you keep a practice diary for any length of time you should be keeping a record of successes, and reading through it after a bad practice session will be good therapy.

[Tim.M]

Great suggestions folks, it's really helping me to shape my ambition. Much appreciated

[Blueser100]

I find that even small chunks of practice time keep frustration at bay and help with keep me motivated. I practiced classical exercises for 15 minutes last night and one piece I'm working on for five minutes.

I'm a very long way from being consistent, skilled and good but last night I stuck with it and felt a sense of accomplishment.

[Luke_]

Originally Posted by softballbryan

Boys around here, the country song.... Chords A and D.... Alternate them none stop for the entire song! Now you have another.....

Bryan

Hard to believe that boring stuff makes so much money

[softballbryan]

Originally Posted by Luke_

Hard to believe that boring stuff makes so much money

I agree with ya. The tune is ok at a party I guess.....

I try to be open to all music but stuff like this just makes me switch the song after a short time....

Bryan