#16
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Can't hit the string, just hit the guitar. That'll fix it. |
#17
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#18
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I have actually met quite few who just crashed things when they got frustrated trying to learn something, but they never quit. I think quitting is worse than crashing. |
#19
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I suspect what happens is that your mind is getting ahead of your fingers. I know the feeling of getting "smash-it-up!" angry in other areas of life - only very briefly, but I think it's part of being human. It's always when some stupid little thing goes wrong - and then goes wrong again, despite your best efforts. Something really simple suddenly decides to make itself really complicated .
I'm a naturally patient guy, so these experiences are rare for me, and never a problem (they pass quickly), but I do know that the answer is a bit of self-analysis and a sense of humour. Often they're the kind of things that are hilarious when you see someone else suffer from them, like slapstick comedy. Inaminate objects acquiring a cantankerous life of their own. In my experience it happens when I get absent minded for some reason; my mind shoots ahead on some other track, because I think the task I'm involved in shouldn't take much concentration. But of course it does, I trip up, and feel stupid. How could I be so dumb!! If this is ringing a bell, the answer is always to approach the guitar with proper attention. Don't have anything else on your mind. Take it slow and steady, and don't have any goal you have to reach, anything you have to master by the end of the practice session. Just make it recreation, an escape from the other pressures of life. IOW, playing guitar should be the opposite of pressure; so don't impose pressure on it yourself. It's not a race, not a competition. Listen to every single note, how beautiful it is... One note played well is worth more than a dozen notes played clumsily. |
#20
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A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.
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Mick Martin D-28 Maton EA808 Australian Maton EBG808 Performer Cole Clark FL2-12 Suzuki Kiso J200 |
#21
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(I only put the dots because 10 characters are demanded ) |
#22
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Finally someone feels like me.I have had a few guitars one of which I did flip out and end up pulling a Kurt Cobain (still regret that). I have been practicing for 3 months now (serious practice) and I've noticed a few improvements. Mostly I struggle but every now and then I get to say to myself "I got that right!" I guess just tons of patience. I'm 40 and the learning curve is aimed downward for me so I have to take things in really small chunks. I learned the intro to Soul to Squeeze,I can nail it now but literally I hat to learn 4 to 5 note pieces but began to put it all together. I play everything slow at first sometimes super slow then when I can get it right I begin to speed it up.... Persistance I've learned is really important.
Last edited by jaxpiersurfer; 09-16-2012 at 04:08 PM. |
#23
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The First Years
the First ten or so years are the the most frustrating. i think thats why many have long periods of no playing , AND thus do not progress as rapidly . true in my case . My first guitar i believe was a very cheep harmony I ended up smashing to pieces after about a year ( age 20 - Year 1969) . My second guitar was a cheep Epi dread about 5 years later ...beginning the learning process again and getting frustrated . i wanted a better guitar so I set it on fire and watched it burn . almost ritualistic...from thence - I've treated my instruments with care and they've provided much enjoyment . You do crazy things in your young frustrated years ... then you grow up ... or most of us do ...
Last edited by SpiderTrap; 09-19-2012 at 12:39 AM. |
#24
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I get cranky and lose my temper but never thought of smashing a guitar. They are like women.
I did, however, recently lose my temper with my computer mouse which just wouldn't function well. I picked up a pair of scissors and cut it off. It actually now looked like a mouse (with the tail). I show my 9 year old boy and we rolled around on the floor for ten minutes. Well worth the cost of a new mouse. Don't hit guitars, treat 'em rough, play 'em hard but just don't hit them. |
#25
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I think it is common to want to act out anger and frustration. It's a sign of maturity to not do so. I think, at age 57, I'm finally getting there.
At the extreme end, young Robert Schumann got frustrated with his progress at piano playing while studying with Frederich Wieck and smashed his fingers--ended his playing career...but then he moved on to composing. And died in a mental institution in his 40's, starving himself to death. Try not to be that extreme. Actions taken in anger cannot be taken back. I agree with the advice to have fun. Sure, challenge yourself ten or fifteen minutes a day with working on a new skill, but also just play a half hour a day, or at least every other day, songs you know, two and three chord songs you can sing to. If you stick with it, and improve, improvement starts to slow down further. As an intermediate guitarist, you'll find months of work go by with little obvious progress in skill level. It's a difficult instrument. With a pick and three open chords, most people can learn to play something in a week. But to get good at it? Many thousands of hours of work are required. |
#26
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Have I felt like that? Heck I did smash a guitar one time It was a crappy Yamaha..... the worst part was it didn't break the first or second smash.... it was really hard to break it... those Yamahas are tuff
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Guitar Fundi Gibson "Custom Late 1950's Reissue Southern Jumbo Triburst" Taylor 314CE (Built by Ren Ferguson) Mystery Resonator Fender Stratocaster |
#27
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I get this from time to time. Often taking a different approach helps (sometimes putting the guitar away is the different approach) what I mean is playing upto the your sticking point from a different point in the tune/exercise. Your muscles and brain will view it slightly differently than trying to repeat exactly the same thing over and over.
Then again sometimes I find chords disappear off the fretboard with stuff I've played so many times, completely confidently and the chord is nowhere to be found!!! |
#28
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I honestly believe things come naturally to some and not to others. I personally know two people that started playing in bands 2-3 years after picking up a guitar AND they are good! I most certainly can't afford to wait 20 years (48 now) or more like some have said on here.. I'm wondering if those people actually realised after 5 years of hard toil they were not going to make the heights they aspired to? I am not disparaging anyone from playing the guitar as I love it myself. However no matter how much 'good' practice and lessons over the years I've had, I won't be aggravating other musicians by attempting to jam with them. A good analogy... I have a single figure handicap in golf and do not practice. I didn't have any lessons either.. I would do anything to swap golf for guitar. Rhythm and timing among other things in a golf swing came naturally, similarly with a guitar. One of the guys I mentioned playing in a band after a couple of years wanted me to teach him how to play golf.. Lets just say he is equally good at golf as I am playing a guitar. The fact is you cannot simulate natural feel. A little like teaching a narcissist to feel empathy. I have heard Noel Gallagher say countless times that he is hopeless at everything other than writing songs and playing guitar. I have most certainly had visions of shredding my guitar into match sticks but as rubbish as I am playing it, I love it. You just have to accept sometimes 'It is what it is'
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#29
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Necro-bump! But anyway...
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I mean, I was good enough - meaning I could strum 3 or 4 chords in time. That was all that was necessary, at that point. We were all pals and the band was our "gang". Quote:
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In fact if you start off "aspiring to great heights" that's probably the wrong attitude too. As a teenage beginner I obviously had fantasies of stardom, but I knew that's all they were. But I was playing guitar because I liked it. It was recreation, not "work". It was time off from the "toil" I might have been otherwise involved in (school, day job). I spent as much time as I did practising because I enjoyed it. Not because I thought I had to or I wouldn't get any better. Of course, I did get better, but that was almost an accidental by-product. Quote:
What you may lack is improvisational vocabulary, because - like anything - improvisation requires practice to get better at it. It's not about being to play fast or knowing lots of scales. It's about having ideas in the first place. It's more about attitude than technique. In the first week I owned a guitar, I composed four tunes. Were they any good? Of course not. But I saw no reason why I shouldn't have a go. It's like having a new toy: you play with it, see what it can do. You don't have to be taught how to do it (I wasn't). You mess around, try stuff, keep what sounds good, discard what doesn't. Same with improvisation (composition on the spot). We're all crap at it to start with. But the more you do it - the more you allow yourself to try it - the better you get. Still - not every great musician is either a composer or improviser, or has to be. Some virtuosos never write or compose anything, they enjoy playing other people's music too much. By the way, in case you're wondering: I had zero musical "talent". A non-musical family, and a worse musical ear than average. Excluded from the school choir for having no idea how to pitch my voice. No interest in music at all until the age of 13 or so, and then no interest in actually playing anything until over 15. And I probably would still have had no interest if my closest school friends weren't all amateur musicians. Quote:
That's a result of not being in a musical "community": not having friends who are in a similar position, and only ever witnessing professional musicians in the media or on record. In comparison with them, obviously you're a clumsy no-hoper. IMO, if such a thing as "talent" exists, it's that ability to devote oneself to one activity, for considerable amounts of time, because it's personally rewarding. Other people's opinions of how good/bad you are at it are of no account whatsoever. You know it's what you want to do, and there's nothing else you want to do anywhere near as much. You don't compare yourself to anyone better than you, except to treat them as inspirations. It's the same attitude you see in great athletes, or great artists, or great scientists. I.e., the "talent" itself is not in any specific sphere, it's the basic single-minded attitude or personality. The specific activity chosen would depend on some inspiring childhood or teenage influence. Those who get really good at - the professional virtuosos - are people who would give up friends and family to play guitar, if that choice was forced on them. They might give up food and sleep if they could. Those people never have to be persuaded to practice. They have to be persuaded to stop practising sometimes. They would certainly never think of what they do as "hard toil". They might call it "work" sometimes, but it's the most enjoyable and absorbing "work" imaginable. Actually, I think a lot of time musicians refer to practice as "work" as a way of letting non-musicians think they're not "just playing", because to non-musicians "playing" is something that kids do, and an unproductive waste of time for an adult. "Honestly I'm really not just playing [= enjoying myself] here, I'm practising." IOW, one tip is to regard "playing" as a fundamental human activity, at any age. Play is how we learn, any topic or activity at any age. We can be taught things of course, but it's in messing around with that information, those techniques, that we learn. Just parroting what we're taught is not really learning. We have to play, to make it our own - and obviously that's even more the case in any creative sphere, whether that's music, art, sport, writing, programming... Oh ... I guess I should add that I never became famous. So maybe my attitude was wrong all along... I barely make a living from it now. But music has still been the best thing in my life for the last 54 years (and counting) - a handful of girlfriends along the way might not like me saying that, but I think they'd still agree. You can judge my skills (FWIW) from a few videos if you want. (Links provided on request)
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. Last edited by JonPR; 01-07-2020 at 07:22 AM. |
#30
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Oh yes, I certainly had that reaction - frustration at my limitations visited upon a perfectly good instrument. "a bad workman always blames his tools" etc.
I don't think I ever actually did it but I got close. There was a situation that stopped me reacting like that. I was playing in a bluegrass band with a talented but volatile mando player - a weight trainer of impressive build. One day, whilst rehearsing in his house he ripped of his F5 mandolin (copy) breaking the leather strap and threw it across the room. He was renowned in the local music community for such fits of rage. He demonstrated to me how not to handle such moments of frustration.
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |