Ok i suck

Sara:
How long have you been playing? What specifically are you having trouble with? What type of practicing have you done and how much of it? What can you do so far?
Also, what type of guitar do you have and is it tuned correctly? Is your intonation correct? Was it setup profesionally? :) I could go on and on.. Give us a little more info and we will do our best to help.

Uh, i just got an eltric guitar for christmas its a squier bullet some fender thing and i think ive been playing off and on for a year trying to play at all but i just cant play anything.

Sara:
Christmas was only a week ago, and trying to play off and on doesnt count. :!: Learning to play takes time and dedication and it wont come over night. It takes years to master an instrument. Start off by checking out some of the begginer articles from this web site, they will get you started. Don't give up.
Take it easy at first.. learn the simple things. I'm sure your squier pack came with some type of instructional DVD or cd-rom. If your fingering your chords correctly, make sure your guitar is properly tuned to
E A D G B E. If you didnt get an electronic tuner, get one.. They range about $20 or so. Find a local teacher and take a few leasons to get you going.
We all suck when we first start :wink: but if it was easy what would be the point.

Sara

Fiberoptik is right. Guitar is frustrating at times. And here's some bad news, it never goes away. I have been playing almost every single day for over 30 years. A couple of nights ago I was practicing and really didn't have it going well. And I thought to myself "I Suck!" Really. But.... Because I have been playing a long time I have come to know that I will get feelings like this at times. But they will pass. And tomorrow I may play guitar and think I am the hottest thing going. That is how guitar is. It can really mess with your mind. What you are going through is completely normal and I promise you EVERY guitar player goes through this, even the masters.

But the longer you play the better you get. You will go from "I Suck" to "Hey, I'm Starting to Get This" to "Wow, I was pretty good tonight" to "Look Out World!" You will still have bad days on guitar, but not as often. And your good days will become more frequent. This is all normal.

But as Fiberoptik said, guitar requires dedication. I look at it like this. When I got my first guitar, day one I told myself that I am going to play this thing the rest of my life if I am physically able. And I know one day, sooner or later, I'm gonna get good at this thing. And I have played almost every single day since then. Why quit? The guitar is a good friend. Why can't you do many things in life and still play guitar? You can. So play your guitar as often as possible. You WILL get good. Trust me.

Wes, you crack me up.

I saw you play and you don't suck by a long shot.

Which just goes to prove your point. We all think we aren't making the progress we should. We all have our "I suck" moments.

So Sara, don't despair about the feeling "I suck". It's as normal a part of guitar playing as sore fingers.

8)

Ive tried everything, i still suck i have an eletric guitar but i dont understand notes and the chords dont sound right. i need help.

So what's the problem? :wink: That's how every beginning guitarist starts out..

As someone on the forum pointed out, to learn to be good at something means you have to face the fact that you'll be really bad at it for a little while.

As long as you keep working, you WILL improve. The beginner lessons here are a very good place to start. They'll give you a good grasp of the basics to build on.

Just don't give up.

Sara,

Coming from someone who has only been practicing and playing for a couple of months now.. I know your Pain.. and it lasts.. The best advise I can give is to make sure the guitar is properly tuned.. that was my first problem which was solved by shopping on ebay and buying an electronic tuner for about $12 dollars US.. Also I started to learn by playing simple Songs like Yankee Doodle or Amazing Grace and only playing the Lead (single notes) to hear what the individual notes should sound like when placed in a song.. then I started to practice Chords and as you can see from a post a couple of days ago I am still have problems with them. Depending on how best you learn though I would highly recommend going to a couple of lessons. One or 2 lessons can make a world of difference. Also a teacher will be able to verify that the guitar is in tune. Another option is take it to a local shop and have them do a professional setup .. which can run as much as a lesson or more.

play smoke on the water with the amp maxed out every day.... for some reason pissing off the neighbors makes me feel like i dont suck.. :lol:

Nick

Thanks for the compliment. But really, even someone who has played a long time can still have a bad day.

I compare it to bowling or golf. When you first start bowling you might have an average of 100. On a bad day you might bowl a 70, on a good day 140. But you stay at it. Now maybe after a year you bowl an average of 150. On a bad day 100, on a good day 210. Still you practice everyday. Now, after 10 years of daily practice your average is up to 225. On a good day you might pull off a perfect 300 game, and on a bad day a 170.
This is how it is with guitar. Even on my worst day it is still much better than anything I could have played my first year. But it still sucks!! :D

And even Tiger Woods, undoubtably the greatest golfer in the world (probably the best ever) has bad days. I've seen him hit it in the woods. And I think he even failed to make the cut for several tournaments last year. So if he can have a bad day, we all can.

A couple of suggestions here-

One, make sure your guitar is properly set up. Make sure the strings are in good shape and the action is not too high - high action makes it really tough. Trying to play an instrument that's not properly set up makes it many times harder, and a beginner may not realize that to be part of the problem due to lack of experience.

Also, you need to practice on a regular basis, as a minimum I would say a half-hour a day 5-6 days a week. (I personally find taking one day off a week is beneficial). But put in as much tyime as you can afford.

make sure you have some kind of structure to your practice- like set a few goals and work on them until you get them. One example might be "learn to play a G chord cleanly", or be able to change fluently between an A and D". Pick a simple song that incorporates the skill you are trying to learn and work on it. When I started I was playing Mr. Tambourine Man until my wife got sick of it, but now I can play the chords to that song with my eyes closed.

Hope these suggestions help.

Especially in the beginning, take pleasure in the small accomplishments. Yes, you will one day realize that you are getting better, but only after getting better at a bunch of seemingly little things.

When I first started (and still do), I took pleasure just in practicing itself. It got me away from all the nonsense in my day, and it was something just for me. Of course, as you master some of those seemingly little things, even this will get more pleasurable.

Everything about the guitar is a process, enjoy it.

Oh, Sara, I promise that you really don't suck!!!! You haven't been at it nearly long enough to suck yet! The beginning of the learning process is THE MOST DIFFICULT part of the whole, ongoing process (and it is a never-ending process). It gets SO boring running scales, screwing up chord after chord, taking five minutes to make a chord change because you have to stop to make sure that your're putting the right fingers on the right strings in the right frets and darned if it still doesn't sound like a cat just got it's tail caught under the rocking chair! Exasperation and frustration are the two most dominant feelings in the beginning of the learning process. (And, those are the reasons that most people give up.)

Then, all of a sudden it happens. With no warning whatsoever. All of a sudden you can make that chord change that yesterday you would have sworn you would NEVER be able to do, (your fingers couldn't possibly bend like that.... couldn't possibly reach that far).... and you'll do it without even thinking about it. All of those horrible notes that you've been plucking away at suddenly become recognizable as an actual song!!!! It is THE BEST HIGH I've ever had in my life!!!! It all began to fall together. It all began to make sense. I was actually learning to play the guitar!!!! Can you imagine such a thing???? Me!!! Playing the guitar!!! WOW!!!

That was a few years ago. I still get frustrated. I still get exasperated. I still get that amazing high when something that has been so elusive for so long one day becomes second nature.

What you have to keep in the back of your mind, IMHO, is the fact that you are training your hands/wrists/fingers to do things, move in directions, develop muscles and muscle memory that you've never asked them to do before. It's kind of like going to the gym for the very first time, you're not strong enough yet, you're not fast enough yet and you're going to hurt like the dickens in the morning. BUT, if you keep after it, it gets easier and it doesn't hurt so much anymore! (And you look really good! -- Or, in proper context, you can play the guitar!!!!!).

IMHO...... give yourself a year. Then come back and read this post and see how far you've come. I can guarantee that unless you've given up.... you're going to amaze yourself!

Hey Sara! I just got a guitar this Christmas. Ive been playing for 2 days...and I don't feel real great about it. I had been warned about this so Im doing my best to keep practicing. I think you should too. Practice is what will help, but you have to do it more than just on and off. Good luck!

play smoke on the water with the amp maxed out every day.... for some reason pissing off the neighbors makes me feel like i dont suck.. :lol:

and Sara

we all have our own little " Smoke on the water " if you can get some finger charts for your chords and learn timing / strumming .

You will get better and better

cheers