Overwhelmed?

I have gotten that feeling as well - I think everyone gets it. Just move past it - realize that no matter how good you get, there will probably be someone better than you. Play for the sake of playing, not just for the sake of being better than others. I figure as long as I am having fun playing, and I notice some sort of improvement every once in a while, I am happy. Have fun! :)

Now imagine what I'd feel, as a 38-year-old who's only been playing for two months, in the same store...

What are your goals for playing guitar? If your goal is to sit in a guitar store and sound like Angus Young, you're right to be frustrated. But I have a feeling that's not it.

I just try to look at my progress relative to my goals, nothing more. My current goal is to be able to play some songs I like and to be able to compose and record my own music using the guitar. If I'm moving toward that goal, however slowly, I'm making progress.

If your goal is to write songs, join a band, become famous, whatever... No amount of 12-year-old show-offs at the guitar store are going to stop you. Your path is your own, and the only thing that can stop you is if you put the guitar down for a week every time you get discouraged.

Good luck!

You chose the wrong path. If you wish to sound like Angus Young or even better you need to play every day. And play all the hour you can dedicate. Play until your fingers are hurt. And go to the store next Christmas and play as Angus Young or as you want.

Don't worry and just play!

And have fun while you are playing! 8)

Ask yourself if you're satisfied with your playing at the moment. If not, then why not. Sometimes it helps(me) to go into a different style for awhile. If you're not happy because you can't play like someone else, then I think you're in for a long road. There will always be better players. Try not to concern yourself with them. Play for yourself, and when you want to get better, work at it. Instead of being disappointed when you hear others play, try being inspired to get better.

Denny

I was in Sam's Club recently. A kid was wailing on Guitar Hero III to Alice Cooper's School's Out. I Looked next to me at the Fender Starcaster and amp sitting there. I thought briefly that I might pick it up and start playing along, but thought better as not to make the poor guy feel bad. When I'm at the music store, I don't try to show off. I've been playing a while and i'm not half bad, but there are a lot of people better than me. Once you get confident in your own playing, you will enjoy those people as I do. You also will learn it's not nice to "show off" in front of novices to make them feel bad. These kids don't know this yet. :wink: Don't worry. Enjoy the guitar, play and have fun. It's an art, a hobby or even a career .... but never a contest. (Except for Guitar hero)

just walk past those kids. they have memorized Tabs and know the lick well. but I have a feeling that is all they know.
you won't here a whole song, any phrasing, any taste. I met a few of those kids at a jam. they sit on the amps and sound like an angry bee for an hour. no let up. not listening.
I dont feel bad that I can only play a few licks and know a few hundred songs.

You are always going to meet better players. I have been playing 35 years and occasionally I will meet a young person who has only been playing 3-5 years that can outplay me. And I practice every day.

But that is not what is important. You do not need to play 32nd notes at 200 beats per minute to be a great player. Listen to David Gilmore, he has always played slow. But his solos are incredible by anybody's standards.

Now I'm going to say something that many will think ridiculous, but here goes:

Playing guitar is easy

No really, it is. After you have been playing a long time (you have not), you will realize that playing guitar is simply putting together lots of simple techniques. If you take the most complicated solo or chord progression and break it down into parts and slow it down a bit, you will realize that it is all very simple. It really is.

And this is how you learn to play. Go slow and break everything down into simple parts. Learn to play these simple parts well and then connect them to other simple parts. When you are finished you will be playing what others believe is complicated music. But it is not.

Folks get frustrated because they are in a hurry. You have to slow down and get the basics down. Once you do you will be able to play anything well.

Watch this video showing some of David Gilmore's famous licks. Notice how this instructor slows each lick down. Doesn't it look pretty simple? It is. :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ak342Xpts

You see, this instructor understands what I was saying. The most complicated techniques are really a sum of simple techniques played well. This is one of the secrets to playing well.

If you do not practice regularly, then you cannot expect to play well. Nobody gets to be a good guitar player for free. You have to pay your dues. 8)

Now I'm going to say something that many will think ridiculous, but here goes:

Playing guitar is easy

No really, it is. After you have been playing a long time (you have not), you will realize that playing guitar is simply putting together lots of simple techniques. If you take the most complicated solo or chord progression and break it down into parts and slow it down a bit, you will realize that it is all very simple. It really is.

And this is how you learn to play. Go slow and break everything down into simple parts. Learn to play these simple parts well and then connect them to other simple parts. When you are finished you will be playing what others believe is complicated music. But it is not.

Folks get frustrated because they are in a hurry. You have to slow down and get the basics down. Once you do you will be able to play anything well.

Watch this video showing some of David Gilmore's famous licks. Notice how this instructor slows each lick down. Doesn't it look pretty simple? It is. :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ak342Xpts

You see, this instructor understands what I was saying. The most complicated techniques are really a sum of simple techniques played well. This is one of the secrets to playing well.

If you do not practice regularly, then you cannot expect to play well. Nobody gets to be a good guitar player for free. You have to pay your dues. 8)

what true and great advice wes....you summed up what i've figured...

guitar is about learning a bunch of techniques and putting them all together...just like a writer puts words together...we can all write a sentence after learning a language....BUT...only a good writer can turn those words into something both touching and stimulating....technical dont equal talent

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL

Well said Wes and Ballybiker.

Put it this way piratelove. When Jimi Hendrix came onto the scene in London, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend claim they couldn't play for weeks. They were baffled by how incredible he was. There egos were shattered. But they realized they were great in their own ways and kept playing, until this day. Don't let other players discourage you. Let it drive you to get to that stage.

And great story TRGuitar. That was nice of you not to show off...but I do hate Guitar Hero/Rock Band...so it wouldn't have mattered if you do either way. :) Maybe he would have changed his mind and went with the right guitar. ;)

Happy New Year everyone.

Techniques are easy.

The trick to being really good, as opposed to being able to play someone else's tab, is developing your ear and mind.

Being able to hear something and reproduce it, or imagine something and then play it is a lot more impressive than being able to rip up an SRV tab flawlessly. Develop your ear and your musical imagination, along with your ability to read and write music and to understand theory.

Work on being a musician who plays the guitar, rather than just a guy who follows tabs, and you'll have the self-confidence to face people who are really impressive guitarists and recognize what you're seeing -- the musical equivalent of a paint by numbers artist.

WECOME TO THE WORLD OF GUITARISTS!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think every guitarists at one point or another feels like this. LIke it'd be better to just chuck the guitar out the window (or at your neighbors car :twisted: )

When I feel like this, I usually need to be reinspired by something. Usually I'll come to guitarnoise or I'll watch all my favorite music videos to get me back into the spirit of playing.

Then remind yourself that yes, like others have said, these are just twerpy little kids who memorize one cool riff, have played it billions of times, and then go and show off in music stores so people think they're soooooo cool :roll:

You've probably got a hundred songs over them.

Keep your chin up and keep playing.

8) ... and here I was thinking that I had really accomplished something after I had learned a handful of easy songs and went into a music store and was able to PICK MY OWN GUITAR - I mean, instead of having the sales guy have to demo guitars for me :twisted:
... like anything else, take LIFE for example, some folks are bleeding money out of their nose and others can't feed their children ... most of us are destined to be somewhere in between and the trick is learning to be happy with just that - or as Warren Miller used to say ' the success of a skier is judged by the width of their smile' :wink:

Yea I think we've all been there. See some little kid in the guitar store ripping it up, usually with alot of gain, but like someone else mentioned for most that's probably all they know but hey if that's what they like let them have their fun.

Guitar is definitely about putting the time in there's no getting around that.

You just need to feel good about what you do with the guitar, no one else matters.

I am one of those paint by number kind of players, don't expect anything more and not that good at that either but I still like to do it. I disagree somewhat with what King said, not that he's wrong but everyone doesn't have the same goals and if I could play every song in the world if given the tab and play it flawlessly does that make me less of a player?

To me the end result is what comes out of the instrument, what people hear, it doesn't matter whether you learned it from a tab, sheet music or made it up on the fly if it sounds good it's good and that's all that counts.

At 19 you've got plenty of time to play circles around those kids someday.

Thanks for your comments everyone...:D I feel a whole lot better now, it's nice to know that other people went through the same thing.

~Alma