For sme reason I've been stuck in a weird kind of rut with my guitar playing. It's not that I don' have anything left I want to accomplish, it's more of a too many things and I can't can't see me doing any of them. I've been trying to get a little more serious with guitar by taking lessons, as opposed to occassionally playing for the year and sometime that I've had my guitar. I know a few songs fully, none of them at performance level, and I've working on getting them there. I'm working on excersies with hands. I'm working on scale excersises which my teacher taught me. And I'm trying to write a song. But other than that I'm confused about where to go. I wanted to learn a few more songs. I considered taking up Classical Gas as a showcase piece, later decided to ask my teacher to show me a Bruce Colburn song. I haven't gotten to be able to do the first few bars by any even tempo, and the song is quite fast. I know my teacher would have warned me if it was impossible, but I'm wondering, since experienced guitarists on the net say it's a difficult and impressing work. So right now I feel a bit like I'm going nowehere. Like I'm striving for general imrpovement with some tangible goals in mind but it's not happening in any way I can see or fortell x.x
Sorry for my depressed bitching.
That wasn't just depressed bitching, if it was, you would have done it on Xanga, or livejournal or one of those things.
It's a normal feeling, theres so much to do. You just gotta make a dent somewhere pal. Your teacher should be giving you direction, and you should be following that direction. Don't learn songs just because they are impressive, learn songs because you love them, otherwise, you won't ever be able to play them with a true passion.
Guitar is no different than advanced math. First a person must master basic addition and subtraction, then division and multiplication, then algebra, geometry, etc.... You can't hop to calculus right away. That may sound stupid but that is kind of what you are trying to do. All you are going to do by taking on complicated music is frustrate yourself. In fact, that sounds like exactly where you are at right now.
I think it's ok to dabble with difficult music, but have some fun. Knock out a bunch of simple songs within your ability. Start a little notebook and learn as many easy songs as possible. By learning these easy songs your guitar playing will improve in every way. Your ear will improve, dexterity, timing, etc... Then when you try the more advanced songs they won't seem quite so difficult.
I think sometimes people forget the main thing we want to do with guitar, and that is play great music we enjoy. The songs do not have to be difficult. Most of the songs I really love are pretty darn simple.
And when you go to see your favorite musicians, do you really care if the music they are playing is advanced?? I know I don't. I could care less. If a song sounds great I don't even think about how difficult or advanced it was.
So, not trying to lecture at all. Just play lots of fun easy songs you enjoy, and work on technique in your spare time. In time you will improve and be able to handle the hard stuff.
Have fun. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
