When you get frustrated with the pace of your improvement, how do you manage?

[Horseflesh]

This is mostly some beginner venting but if anyone has advice I am all ears.

Learning the guitar is hard. Like, super hard. I had a rough patch the other day where I got really frustrated, and it was demoralizing. There are so many separate skills that need to come together in perfect sync to play something cleanly... And just when you make progress on one, you realize there's something new blocking you from perfect execution. Or even good execution.

When you get frustrated trying to improve your skills, how do you break through, and keep from getting discouraged?

Did you ever reach a point in your studies where you felt like, "even if I never get any better, I am happy with where I am now," or does the road always feel infinite?

I know that I am making progress, but I am unreasonably self-critical and picky which does not help. My instructor keeps telling me, "you're honestly doing well, try to have fun, relax, drink a beer if you gotta," but that is hard advice to take when I only ever see the next hurdle, not what I have already accomplished.

[Joe Beamish]

Yes to all of the above. I feel that way sometimes.

Then I remember why I play. It’s the music. The guitar is just a tool.

Revert to your love of playing and singing songs. Or as Robert Henri said to art students, be a master of such as you have now. Even if it’s a pair of twos and a jack. (Mark Twain.)

[Mycroft]

Now and then I just fall into a picking pattern on a guitar that sound exquisite, and just listen and feel the emotion it brings.

[MThomson]

One of the things I do is to go back and play stuff that I found hard before (like a year ago) and it's invariably easier. I find it a way to remind myself of the distance travelled instead of the journey yet to come.

[Silurian]

If I'm working on something difficult and feel I'm not making progress I take a break from playing. Just two or three days usually.

I invariably go back refreshed and motivated.

[RodB]

Originally Posted by Horseflesh

..........
When you get frustrated trying to improve your skills, how do you break through, and keep from getting discouraged?

Did you ever reach a point in your studies where you felt like, "even if I never get any better, I am happy with where I am now," or does the road always feel infinite? .........

These 2 situations are not mutually exclusive to me. I am happy with the level I have achieved but recognise that there will always be improvement potential.

These two previous posts strike a chord with me:

Originally Posted by MThomson

One of the things I do is to go back and play stuff that I found hard before (like a year ago) and it's invariably easier. I find it a way to remind myself of the distance travelled instead of the journey yet to come.

Originally Posted by Silurian

If I'm working on something difficult and feel I'm not making progress I take a break from playing. Just two or three days usually.

I invariably go back refreshed and motivated.

I often take a break either completely or at least from what I am trying to get right - a difficult finger configuration perhaps. What seems impossible when repeated attempts fail can suddenly seem well within reach, just by taking time out.

Having said this I would recommend a beginner to keep regular practice sessions but perhaps revert to the less challenging stuff sometimes.

Enjoy the journey

[EZYPIKINS]

Back in the 70's I joined a band doing covers at specials to pay for studio time on originals.

I knew I had allot to learn.

Saw a TV program either late 70's , George Benson, Chet Atkins, and Earl Klugh.

I nearly quit right then. I knew I'd never achieve that level of expertise.

Today, I'm comfortable with my ability. I can pretty much play what I want to play.

But I was right, back in the 70's. I'm still not at "that" level, of the TV show.

But have developed a style I'm very happy with.

The thing that has helped me more than anything. Is learning to set up my guitars, so they play effortlessly.

Much easier to learn new things, when you're not fighting your guitar.

[RedJoker]

A friend of mine was giving me a hard time after a performance last week. She said that I was much better than she would have expected, given how short of a time I've played. When I pointed out that I've been playing for eight years, she said "Oh, in that case, I would have expected you to be better than you are."

I laughed and laughed.

Like others have said, I am amazed at how much just a day off will help. I'm also amazed at how I think "I'm getting nowhere with this piece and I've worked on it all weekend!" but being able to play it easily after a couple weeks of practice.

I find that if I'm working on a specific song or part of a song, about 1/2 hour is all i'm good for on that part. I'll then work on other songs. The next day, I find that both have improved, even if just slightly. Continue that amount of progress and significant changes have been made after just a week or two.

[buddyhu]

When I get discouraged, I try to figure out why...because there are lots of ways that discouragement can creep in. And it is important not to linger in the discouragement space for too long.

Often, discouragement is rooted in me being too ambitious: I expect to play faster than I can (so "it sounds like the record"), or expect myself to sound like a paid performer who has put in A LOT more time than I have with practice and preparation and experience. When this is what is happening, I try to stop comparing myself to others.

Discouragement can also come from not practicing regularly, or not practicing in a focused way. When that is what is going on for me, I get more focused. I choose a VERY small chunk (a 4 or 6 note arpeggio, or a chord change, or a picking pattern) and practice it very slowly, putting in 10 or more repetitions in a row, and do that EVERY DAY for a week or two. I will see progress and development (though it still might be imperfect). Daily focused practice (not playing through an entire song) is absolutely necessary...just 10 or 15 minutes of focused practice is needed, but nothing can substitute for daily practice. Most of the time, just getting in repetitions is the most important thing, and letting the repetition slowly refine the playing.

Discouragement can also be a result of getting too upset about mistakes. It is good to simply treat practice as being like shooting 100 free throws or doing a half hour of batting practice: I am just putting in the time and repetitions in a relaxed (but intentional) way.

I hope these words help. If nothing else, the responses to your original post will let you know that this is a challenge for many of us, and will continue to be a challenge going forward. Yes, at some point you may feel like you have crossed a threshold into "good enough" territory...but most likely, you will raise the bar, and formulate higher aspirations, and once again be vulnerable to feeling discouraged with the rate of your progress, or the limitations of your skills.

"It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive." - Robert Louis Stevenson (and the journey is its own reward).

[TBman]

Right now I'm just keeping at it a bit at a time. I started to learn to use finger and thumbpicks about 3 weeks ago and it seems as though I took 50+ years experience and threw it out the window,

I'll get there.

[imwjl]

Long ago I learned to aim more to beat means and medians and be more realistic about my goals. If I'm not doing well at or with something but feel I'm okay with most important measures I just roll on. For guitar playing it means I'm a chronically mediocre amateur player but has kept all the efforts something that brings pleasure.

This is a different story for age and physical activities. Instead of get depressed I just look around and see how many others in my cohort are at the same stuff.

[ewalling]

Most people want to know stuff; few people want to learn it.

[rllink]

Yes, some times I get frustrated that I'm not progressing fast enough. When I do, I mix up a drink and take a moment to reflect on how far I've come and to remind myself that it isn't a race and there is no finish line. I am what I am and that's all what I am. It is a life long learning process and I'll never be better than I am at any given moment. Then I finish my drink and go back to working on getting a little better.

I also don't set my expectations unrealistically high. I believe that a series of small successes over a long period of time beats one gigantic failure over a short period of time.

That's my attitude anyway.

[Mr. Jelly]

The push forward has its demons. A way to deal with them is to step back and not engage. It's needed at times. Like mini vacations that reset the mental emotional balance of a person. What I have done is pick a day or more and not push or practice. I do play but I just pick up my guitar and play whatever. I stay with the easy stuff or chords and make sounds that I think sound good together. For me the way forward always takes a step back. It's after I've stepped away and forgot about it that it comes together when I revisit it. It's a way of assimilating things.

[tinnitus]

My growth/skills development came in spurts over the decades once I started teaching myself in the 1960s, standing next to the record player. I'd get better, and then plateau for a while. What typically got me going again was hearing new songs on the radio that I wanted to master. Very pleasing (to me anyway) to "solve those puzzles" as they presented themselves.

I guess I have an "ear." So, when I was hearing most new songs (be it Skynyrd or Santana), I could identify, "that's in G, because that other chord is obviously a D with that silly trill everybody adds to it." Armed with that, I'd try new songs on for size, deducing, "well then that's a C7 and an Em," and eventually find my way to a complete song. Capos and altered recording speeds in analog studios (often manipulated to suit a singer's vocal range) presented some twists to the plot, but that worked itself out too.

Another opportunity to take big leaps forward, I find, is to join bands or collaborate with other players to learn all their songs. There's typically a new "trick" or two in every new tune. These usually provide collateral springboards to reveal similar twists other songs. Though I'm more of a rock/blues guy, playing in a "pop" band exposed me to tons of styles and tones that turned out to be a lot of fun. Even songs I still don't care much for made me more versatile than I was before.

Very little of this happens (for me) in huge leaps. It's all incremental, just bits and pieces here and there. Stacking up the months, years and decades is how it becomes something.

No band or other musicians to play with? Maybe scroll through songs by artists you like or even do a little exploring on YouTube. Those little snippets all spawn progress.

YMMV - this is just one man's take on continual forward movement. Am I an excellent, great or good player? Hardly. Especially since that's all in the ear of the beholder. Far more realistically, I find myself passably competent at age 66 and anxious to learn more, one little riff at a time.