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Challenging challenges, or, Is it just me…?
I’ve been with TAC for 11 months, and I feel I haven’t gotten much past where I was in July. I do plan to stick with it, but I’m wondering, is it, what’s the word–cowardly? lazy?–to not want to do a challenge I don’t like? Some I physically can’t do but want to, like barre chords, others I can physically do but don’t like the sound of, like dead strums. Or maybe it’s the genre of a song. I’ve seen some comments about, say, someone likes to fingerpick and up comes a week of flat picking, so they will skip that lesson or whatever. Of course, there are things I DO like and want to learn.
I do know to “trust the process” and I do; I’ve learned a lot here. But how important is it to spend time on techniques I will never again use? I don’t want to end up hating to practice just because we’re doing an “ugly” (to me) song.
How do you maintain motivation when presented with this kind of challenge?
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9 Replies
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</div>@BarbaraM in my opinion there is no right or wrong here. It is a matter of personal choice. The process asks that you spend 10 mins on a challenge. In my situation, if I really don’t like something I do the 10 mins and move on to practice something else. When it came to barre chords, which I hated, I practiced every challenge really hard because I thought that barre chords were that important. It took me seven months before I could get my first barre chord. Every time a barre chord lesson came around I would curse a little and do the lesson. I thought to myself that I will never be able to do this, but I suffered through them. Finally, I made peace with them and did learn them. Personally, I’m glad I practiced something I hated, but that might not be the same for someone else. One thing Tony has said, though, always finish your practice playing something that makes you happy. Close the practice on a happy note.
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Yes I try to do that. Make an attempt then move on. And yes I always play a few songs I *can* play fairly well that I enjoy, at the end of a practice session. But barre chords…
I did persevere on hammer-ons and pull-offs, bends, and tremolo/vibrato (which is it, are they the same?), and got them fairly well. And I can do the C chord and the mini-F (most of the time) when I never thought I could. So it’s not out of the question that I will eventually get dead strums and palm muting, if I keep trying it. But I cannot do certain things that are waaaayyy beyond any stretching ability I may have or hope to have. But if a 5-fret power chord is integral to a song, like the recent Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo, then I can’t play the song (not that I want to, I don’t really like it). I can just avoid palm muting if I want, but not changing actual notes.
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You mentioned that 5 fret stretch. I can’t do it on my full size guitar and barely on my Little Martin, but I’m using that little power chord sequence as a stretching exercise. I have small hands and less flexible with age. I find it a cool little daily exercise to get my fingers as flexible as possible at my age. I will probably never play Rock n Roll Hoochie Too (it’s not my thing) but the exercise is good for me.
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I asked myself this very question many times as I have followed Tony P to guitar fluency: “how important is it to spend time on techniques I will never again use? I don’t want to end up hating to practice just because we’re doing an “ugly” (to me) song” I arrived at a comfortable conclusion. I will attempt the technique. I may not have a need for it now. The reason I do it as presented is so I don’t have to think about what happens next. I found that as I get better (over time) at a technique I find a place to use it. That is an incredible lightbulb moment when that happens. It provides me the “stick to it” motivation when I don’t have context for new technique. It is easier for me as time goes on to separate the song from the building blocks of the song, so much so all the songs become one song with variations that distinguish one from another.
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Yes, I do attempt the technique, more than once, so I have an idea if I *can* do it, and if I like the effect. Some things I have gotten after persevering, things I never thought I’d be able to do.
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You are on the right track Barbara. I wish I had a nickel for everything I can do now that I thought I never would, I would be richer. : )
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@BarbaraM, if you’re not having fun, you won’t progress. If something isn’t fun, don’t do it. There are plenty of other ways to learn and have fun at the same time. If you don’t want to do a challenge, then by all means, don’t do it. Spend your 10 minutes or more doing something fun. Focus on the challenges that are fun for you. Just curious, what is your favorite thing about playing guitar?
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Yeah, when Tony says “this is so much fun to play” I tend to take it under advisement! But most of the time they are.
What I enjoy about guitar is learning in general, the sweet sound of an acoustic, learning different techniques that sound good to me, being able to”pick up” a melody after hearing it, playing songs I like and getting fluent in them. I’m more of a strummer than a single note picker, as I can get away with a tad less accuracy, but I want to get better at single notes like arpeggios.
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Correct. What may be fun for one person, may not be for another. I also try to have practice time, and then just time to play. Sometimes if I’m just not wanting to practice, I don’t and just end up playing. And that’s OK too as long as you’re doing something. And even not doing anything is OK. If I’m just not feeling it, I just don’t play. It’s rare, but does happen. I used to feel all guilty if I didn’t play. Guilt playing never seemed fulfilling.
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