Frustrated? Good!

If you have been playing guitar for any amount of time, you have probably felt frustrated at something you just can’t get right. It could be making a chord, strumming in time, playing a run or melody. When you feel some frustration it can actually be a good thing. The frustration lets you know that this is something you need to work on. Everyone who is learning a musical instrument is going to get frustrated at some point. Even seasoned veteran players can get frustrated at learning a new technique. The critical thing here is how we deal with the frustration. In the early stages of learning guitar, the frustration can seem overwhelming, even driving you to just “give up” all together. You can let the frustration beat you down, or you can turn it around and use it to drive you even harder. Once you learn to deal with the frustration for what it is and move beyond it, improvement in what you are learning is bound to happen.

How do you move beyond the frustration? Try to keep in mind that learning guitar is a journey, not a destination. We are all still learning, no matter how long we have been playing. If you can accept this, your anxiety should start to ease. Along with the mental acceptance, you need a game plan. Setting your sights on specific goals can help keep you focused. You have your big, long term goals like – “I want to play lead guitar in a rock band”, or “I want to be a professional classical guitar player”, or “I want to play rhythm guitar in a local band at the neighborhood bar”. These types of goals will help to keep you motivated – to a certain extent. You also need very specific, short-term goals to get you through the task at hand. If you are learning a scale, for example, the first few times running through it may feel awkward and clumsy. You are probably also trying to play it a full speed. This quickly leads to frustration. Many people will say, “this is too hard, I just can’t get it” after a few tries. Take a deep breath, slow it way down, and keep trying. Let it be clumsy at first, but keep trying with the best of your ability. Play it a slowly as you need to in order to play it clean. The speed will come as you practice. Use a metronome to keep track of your timing. If something is holding you up that you can’t identify, talk to your guitar teacher. Someone else may be able to spot what you need to change or work on more closely. Keep your sights on the small goals you can obtain, but keep in mind sometimes new things can take weeks or months to master. Don’t let that discourage you. If learning to play the guitar were quick and easy, then everyone would be a rock star.