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Not Giving Up
I ignored my guitar for a week (total procrastination) and was ready to give up. I gave it one more shot last night and ended up playing longer than my typical 5 min. I actually enjoyed it for the first time since joining. So I’ll keep going.
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4 Replies
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That’s awesome! Trust me, it takes a bit (took me two months) but you reach a point where you will need willpower to stop playing most days! Good work! Hang in there!
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The race goes to the steady. Good win. Keep the fun foremost.
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Awesome, change your thought process. Don’t call it giving up (that’s a negative use of words), call it taking a break and that’s ok. As long as you pick it back up and continue learning. There is no failure, just hurdles to cross. When I smoked cigarettes, I always said that as long as I continued to battle and eventually, I would be winning more battles than losing. I haven’t smoked now since Oct 5th, 2000, so I finally won the war. That’s how I look at my guitar journey. I’ll keep battling and one day I hope to do an open mic, first steps first.
Enjoy It All, @itsthecampers
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Hey @mearcedgmail-com I’m glad you took a much needed break and are giving it another go.
Guitar is not an easy instrument to learn. At the beginning, it can feel impossible. I decided to supplement TAC with private guitar lessons beginning around the end of my first year, beginning of my second year.
So a testament first to TAC, my guitar teacher said that I was further along in playing and knowledge, especially basic foundational skills and theory from the Fretboard Wizard, than 90% of his 2+ year students.
I nearly quit, probably at the end of my second year, because I wasn’t good, my vocals were bad because my vocal chords atrophied during covid from lack of use. I was a caregiver for my mother with lewy body dementia, and we could not have lucid conversations. It was a very dark time for me, and if it weren’t for finding TAC & learning to play, and especially to the people in the forums I don’t know where I’d be today.
I was a very slow learner, and it did not come naturally to me. I was going to Florida to meet up with some other players for a few days, and we had a list of all the songs we planned on learning and playing. I spent a good month or two trying to play those songs, because otherwise I would be at a disadvantage. Things did not go well at the meet up, and I left early. I was very depressed and seriously going to quit.
The turning point felt like it happened so suddenly. All oc a sudden, things began to make sense, fell into place and muscle memory kicked in, I was able to transition chords faster, pick up songs very quickly, and Bam! I was having the best time. I wasn’t a super great player, my vocals are subpar, but I was getting better and better at a very fast rate. I had someone comme t in a jam club I belong to, that I was getting better and better at a much faster rate than anyone they had ever seen. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to hear that. Because it meant that all of my hard work was finally falling into place and coming to fruition.
I still play daily, and I still come on TAC every day. I challenge myself by choosing songs that are a little bit outside my playing skills, because it forces me to learn new things and to continue to grow.
So long story short, don’t give up before the miracle happens, because it will in due time. Remind yourself daily why you wanted to learn the guitar. I painted a saying that I saw somewhere that says, Music is life. That’s why our hearts have beats! I have another metal.art that says, This is My Happy Place.
Sorry for the long post.
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