How to keep ANY progress and have fun again

Question

Actually I'm not even sure where to start.

I play (mostly acoustic) guitar for about 4 year now and at the beginning (lets say 2 first years of playing) I was really inspired but now I kinda lost it. I don't know when it all started. Maybe when I started guitar lessons (after about 2 years of playing) so that i could progress even faster.

First of my teachers was teaching me how to play fingerstyle pieces note for note but that was totally not what I was trying to pursue even though I appreciated how my guitar control improved.

I started lessons with second teacher with aim of learning some music theory. I liked it at first but then felt overwhelmed with amount of things to learn (scales, modes, intervals, progressions) and I felt like we were just jumping around from topic to topic and after 1.5 year I must admit I learnt almost nothing. Maybe because my teacher didn't really check If i progress, maybe I couldn't find application for this knowledge or maybe we tried with wrong repertoire (jazz and than switched to blues on my request)

At this point I feel like there is no way for me to progress because If I lost 2 years of playing then there is no way for me to learn anything new. When I pick up a guitar I just noodle around with the same old things I played even before I started my lessons! after 30min of playing I feel frustrated with that and just put it down.

I don't want to give up and that's why I write it here but I don't know what to do... Should I give another shot with a different guitar teacher? I also thought that maybe changing gear would help a little but I don't believe it since I'm completely not a gear person. Maybe switch to piano for a while would help?

What I want to be able to do with my guitar is to play kinda like intro in this cover:

and I want to be able to pick songs from radio by ear and arrange them my way taking into account that I sing a bit. I just want to have fun again.

Answer 1

A. Find a good teacher.He will give you targets to aim for, on a short term and long term basis.

B.Assuming you know a good few basic chords, put the radio/CD player etc. on and just jam along to whatever is playing- find the key, play chords,make up lead breaks.You've played for a couple of years, so this will not be impossible.Don't keep going over the same song, unless you've a burning desire to learn that one in particular.

C. Find someone (or two) to play with.Share songs, even if you don't like them much (the songs !) Jam over some 12 bars in different keys, maybe even work out a couple of numbers -you can sing- and do an open mic. session.

D. By all means have a dabble on another instrument - keys are good - because you'll be making probably the same music but through a different medium.One will complement the other.

E.Good luck !

Answer 2

I think the first question you need to answer is what made you inspired to play when you started, and what kept you inspired for those first 2 years when it was fun? If the reason that it's not fun anymore is because you're not learning anything new, then you need to learn something new. If there's nothing new in the books you have or any online resources, you can go to another teacher or just pick something yourself and do it. I prefer the second option because you will be in control of what you are learning.

Take the intro to the song in your question and figure it out. It may take an hour or two, or it may take a week or two, but do it. If you're tired of playing the same old noodley stuff, don't let yourself play it. Force yourself to try something you don't know how to do. That's the critical part and also the hardest part when you are self-learning. Without someone to tell you what to practice, you have to give yourself those things.

It's also possible that you just have completely lost the drive to play guitar. There's no shame in that. But you need to figure out if what made it fun early on can be recaptured.

Answer 3

I play piano, not guitar. Take my advice with a grain of salt.

For me, I keep going to learn new songs. Not just a quick run through of the chords, but to play the songs the way they're supposed to be played - all of the detail and all of the feel plus my feel on top.

Keep a minimum of 4 songs in your brain, and practice them, say, once a week so you don't forget. If there are too many songs to fit in your brain, record them and be done with them and keep the top ones in there.

Play those songs for other people. Keep learning new stuff. Sounds like you just haven't found a teacher that clicks with you. Keep looking.

Answer 4

You seem to have a couple of separate questions here. If you want to play that intro, practice should give you that relatively quickly. But from what you are saying I would guess you don't want to practice, as that is the bit you don't enjoy any more, so I would suggest avoiding that piece for now.

Instead, find some music you enjoy listening to and just play along - jamming with it at first, not worrying about exact notes. If you enjoy this, keep going - you need to rediscover your enthusiasm for playing music. Play some classics. Record some backing tracks and get into the enjoyment of playing. Then when you reach the limit of your ability you should hopefully be inspired to push a bit further.