Lack of Progress.

Hi Dave

I have been playing for 10 months and feel exactly the same. It amazes me when people post that they can play a complete strummed song and they've been playing for 7 minutes and how do you do a barre chord hammer on from the 3 to the 27th fret?

Recently I have gone back to page one of my learn guitar book and I am going through it all again, just to prove that I have made progress and to make sure I can do it properly. I've found by doing this that I seemed to have skipped rather more than I thought.....

I went to an acoustic open mic night last Wednesday and really enjoyed it. It reminded me why I wanted to learn, they all made it look so easy, even though I was close enough to see their fingers shaking between chords. Frustrated the crap out of me when I got home and sounded decidely worse than usual, but I enjoyed it none the less. If something like this is on near you it might be worth a go, get you motivated again?

I will carry on trying and see how I go. Winners never quit and quitters never win and all that. At the gym today I finally managed a 5km run in under 25 mins, thats been a goal of mine for 18 months and I must have yelled 'don't quit' about a 1000 times during the last 1.5kms!

Er, I'll go back to work now.

Rich (35 on Wednesday, going to a Tracy Chapman gig on Thursday (my first concert ever) and now a sub 25 min 5km runner. Still rubbish at guitar though, but still enjoying trying. Most of the time....)

To keep it short for a change: we all have had it, and still have it. Usually it goes well the first minute, then it seems you're going nowhere for the next few months. One day you'll wake up and suddenly, mysteriously you'll notice you can do a whole lot more. You'll feel like God. Then the next day it's crap again. So what's up? Perceived ability. Right now you'll learning all kinds of new things and you ARE improving. However you haven't yet reached 'The Next Level' so it seems you are going nowhere. Once you give your progress that final kick in the butt you will suddenly be able to do a whole lot more. And then you will be frustrated until you reach yet another level. Just accept it as a nasty part of reality, you usually won't appreciate your progress from day to day since it is too small to be really noticed. It's like watching your hair grow: it seems nothing happens but after a year you'll be trippin' over it.

A small bit of advice: record yourself. You probably think you still suck as much with your strum you are practicing. Odds are that is not true, you were just being enthousiastic in the beginning and irritated right now. Record yourself every monday or so and listen to the recordings of the past month before you start every week.

9 months now for me. I am 36.

There were/are lots of up and down moments for me. Most of them up though and I credit that to my teacher. He didnt teach me anything that I couldnt have figured out on my own but he DID keep me well motivated and make me believe in myself. Got me to a point where I dont really worry about the moments that I dont play so well. I can play better than I did a month ago and I know I will play better than this a month from now, year from now, and I decade from now. I know that as long as I continue to pick it up on a regular basis I will get better. I dont worry about whether or not I know all my chord, barre chords, strumming patterns.. none of that matters to me cause I finally feel like I am not in a race but I am in a "relationship" with my guitar. No BS

Hang in there and give yourself a break. Just play to have fun and dont worry about how good you are today. Just know that you will be better tomorrow (Not literally, I mean sometime in the future).

Geoo

Am I to expect this as a 47 yr old with no musical training?Yep!

I started at 45, and am just about to turn 50. I've progressed to sort of a beginning intermediate level. I'm still striving to attain mediocrity.

just my opinion of course but it sounds like you are progressing fine for the amount of time you spend per week and how long you've been at it.
you have already stated the obvious suggestions that i would advise.
perhaps browsing the "easy song" forum would help you find a tune you could play along with on a cd or your pc speakers.

the forum above- https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10913
has a sticky with some great free stuff listed

personally i use the Mamp player a lot for goofing when i get bored or want to try to figure out part of a song for variety
( http://sac-ftp.externet.hu/sound10.html - (#493)

btw i'm 47 too :wink:

do hang in there. it will come to you. remember not to use to strict a measuring stick. I dont think advanced age is a detriment. perhaps it is an advantage; you have so much more lisetning experience than , let's say a 12 year old. those things matter. maybe it enhances goals or frustration...jury is out on that.

Im 54 years old. been playing almost 40 years. a year ago I began pedal steel. at this late age I wonder if it is possible. many veteran players say that mastering pedal steel takes a life time.. since I used up half a life time already, does it make sense to try? answer, absolutely, I am having a riot learning.
all my years behind a guitar are paying off.

so many times I hit the wall. so tired of the same old ssame old. then , one day, you break on thru and your playing stuff you never thought you could; it just happens.

I feel you are spending a good amount of time playing/practicing. perhaps if you find another to play with you. I know that builds up speed to break thru the walls.

It amazes me when people post that they can play a complete strummed song and they've been playing for 7 minutes and how do you do a barre chord hammer on from the 3 to the 27th fret?

Its a rare individual who can quickly and accurately fret open and barre chords(by which I mean moving all fingers simultaneously) after a couple of months of playing. Ive seen people claim it, but in life, I've never seen it.

As long as you enjoy playing keep at it.

You shouldn't look at how many months one has been playing but how many hours. I've seen plenty of dudes who could play barre chords fluently and easily after two months of picking up a guitar. Might seem insanely talented but people at my age generally have much more time to practice each day.

You have not hit a wall, between you and me I don't think there are any walls on this road, only a few ruts to get stuck in from time to time.
I have days that I can't play something I could play in my sleep a week before and then all of a sudden there are days that I can do no wrong.
Just keep at it and it will come to you.

I suspect this has been raised by another rookie in the past, but here is my whine:

I believe this is my cue...I am no doubt that rookie you mentioned...I am 39 and been at it for 4 months...I made such quick progress the first 2 months and then it stopped. One thing that I never realized is that I started during the summer when I am off from work (I am a teacher) so I was playing 3, 4, somtimes 5 hours per day...! Of COURSE I will make progress faster. Now if I get an hour in a day I feel damn lucky. And it frustrates the HECK out of me because things I KNOW I can play and HAVE played seem like huge tasks now...

I wish I could give you advice and tell you not to worry but I know in 2 minutes I'll probably post a "whiney" post myself complaining about some garbage I can't do...I guess it's par from the course and we should trust all the experienced players here that this is normal and it will pass and then return and then pass and then return and then pass and then return...etc!

Ditto what the others said, but add:

Don't underestimate stress and tension from other parts of life. There's another thread on this site about relaxing. I find the biggest roadblock to improving (or even playing something I played last night) is tension. It can make it seem as if you're worse than you really are.

You shouldn't look at how many months one has been playing but how many hours

That is true Arjen, but I think the vast majority of people require a lot more practice to fluidly play open and barre chords. Some begginners must read some of the posts here about how fast their peers learned these skills and become discouraged. I am aware that there are some gifted poeple out there, but I think the norm to learn these skills is far beyond a couple of months even with a good deal of dedication and practice time.

I'd agree with everyone here. Part of your answer lies in your own suggestion: Getting a teacher. Can help you improve a lot faster than without.

Keep at it, and all that jazz.

Max: Could very well be. To be honest it seems I get more talented every month. Right now I remember playing chords fluently after a month but I wouldn't be surprised if I remember playing chords fluently after just one minute if you ask me next year. And then: what is fluently? If I could play them superbly in a day, does that mean I haven't improved in the two years since? Either that or I wasn't really as great as I remember myself being.

In any case, don't worry about where you are now or where your best friends nephew was in 1863. Just make sure you are going forward and the process itself is fun. If learning ain't fun you might as well stop since you'll never ever have learned everything there is to be learned. If music is a sport I might just as well have sticked with football, I'm better at that then playing guitar. ;)