My playing is crap

Zzzen Dog

Blues Junior
I can't help but chuckle when I read your title, as I "hear" it with a Scottish brogue for some reason. So I've laughed a few times, as I keep coming back to your post because it resonates with me.

Fact is everyday you are better than you were before. That doesn't mean that certain aspects that you thought you'd learn won't be forgotten. Or that that effortless feeling you had going up and down your pentatonic scale yesterday, is gonna sound like crap today. But if you're consistent at working on the various aspects that make up your practice, you are getting better. It's kind of a up three steps, down two steps with a few ten step sprints thrown in occasionally.

Take the time to record your practice sessions and compare them to one another now and again. You'll hear the improvement.
 

luckylarry

Student Of The Blues
I try to remind myself that today is the only day of practicing/playing I am guaranteed. I don't look back to what I used to do, the future is never what is expected. There is only today; and today I will enjoy every pick/strum/song as much as I can. there are no mistakes, only new opportunities for learning. Works for me, hope it helps someone else.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I am beginning to feel frustrated. Started BBG2.0 three weeks ago, but my Sitting Easy Blues is nowhere near to what I expect it to sound like. I am not a total newbie, started playing the guitar in April this year with another beginner course (electric guitar, learnt picking and stuff like hammer ons, pull offs, bending etc but no chords other than power chords). Is it normal that it takes weeks to sort out SEB ? My biggest challenge is switching from single notes passages to the simple chords. Started working on strumming the real sevens chords from the next two lessons after SEB, but can’t consistently change one to the other yet.

Today Is the first day I toyed around with recording (from a Fender Mustang amp directly to Audacity on a laptop) but despite multiple attempts there is no single version that doesn‘t sound awful.

Is this normal or am I just too stoopid for this hobby ?

VERY normal and at this point most people quit. Stick with it and once you get over this hump you will wonder what you were fussing about... Until you hit the next hump, then the next...
If it was easy, EVERYONE would play like Griff.
 

KirkJohnston

Northern Michigan
I am 58 and just started playing again after not even picking up a guitar for over 35 years. After a few months of practicing about an hour a day, give or take, on the BBG course. I can play the Easy Sitting Blues and the Full Out Blues fairly well, except for the open B7, I still struggle on transitioning to the chord. But as Jimi Hendrix once said "Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’re gonna be rewarded.” So I just keep on sticking with it and just progress a day at a time and enjoy it. I just bought a new roadhouse edition Fender Strat, so along with my Les Paul and Acoustic, I want to be able to play the Blues fairly well and maybe get a small group together and play some blues. Every experienced musician I know as told me the same thing, as soon as you can, start playing with other guitarists regardless of your experience level. It will tremendously help with your learning and level of playing. So I have found a few players through my local music shop that want to get together and start playing and I am going to jump in on that.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Every experienced musician I know as told me the same thing, as soon as you can, start playing with other guitarists regardless of your experience level. It will tremendously help with your learning and level of playing.
I started withe Gibson Learn and Master Guitar DVD's and Steve Krenz actually puts that into the course - play with others as soon as you can strum a chord.

Eric
 

PeterSchroeder

Munich, Germany
It´s not so easy to find other people. I meet a young guy once in a while, he checks my progress and tries to prevent me from picking up bad habits, but he is a semi professional metal dude, so no playing together. A friend of mine plays guitar, plus keyboard and percussion, but he has a job, family AND plays in a band himself, so we rarely got the chance to meet. If we do, it is a lot of fun.

To progress I set up a practice routine for myself. No matter how much time I got, and even when it is only 20 minutes, I start with 5 minutes warm up (usually scales and a couple of very easy beginner songs), then 5 minutes dedicated to Sitting Easy Blues (and nothing else), then 5 minutes strumming chords with circular progressions E7-A7-B7 (man changing to B7 is a pain in the back side !), then 5 minutes relaxing and playing whatever comes to my mind. Seems like I am slowly getting better with SEB, I still suck with chords but my fingers don´t feel like a bunch of carrots any longer. I got to accept that this takes a lot more toime than I thought when I started (but then it was just like "learn a coiuple of cool riffs and then see what comes").
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
man changing to B7 is a pain in the back side !
Welcome to learning the guitar! :LOL: :Beer: We've all been there. And lurking around the corner is the F barre chord. Whatever strategy you find to play B7 you'll use again for F barre.

I got to accept that this takes a lot more time than I thought when I started
When I started I thought I'd be Yngwie in 6 months :rolleyes: 6 wires and a piece of wood, how hard can it be, right? :LOL:

Eric
 

KirkJohnston

Northern Michigan
It´s not so easy to find other people. I meet a young guy once in a while, he checks my progress and tries to prevent me from picking up bad habits, but he is a semi professional metal dude, so no playing together. A friend of mine plays guitar, plus keyboard and percussion, but he has a job, family AND plays in a band himself, so we rarely got the chance to meet. If we do, it is a lot of fun.

Peter, Try your local music / instrument shops in Munich. That is how I found some other guitarists that were willing to play with me, I posted on the bulletin board at my local music shop that I was a beginning guitarist looking to jam with other guitarists/musicians that are interested in the Blues. I had several people contact me, and I live in a small rural town in Northern Michigan in the US. If not a music shop, maybe Facebook of local social media sites in your area.
 
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