Feeling of accomplishment?

Let’s hear your story of feeling of accomplishment .
My story was today I felt like taking my acoustic out side and play for a while on my patio. So I started by playing a few songs that I know by heart , then started doing scales and other training. After a while I started working on songs that I am learning and played for a bit. I started to pack up and my neighbor looked over the fence and he proceeded to tell me every song I was playing and said it sounded good and I thanked him and one of the songs I played he asked me to play it again for him and he proceeded to sing along . I was kinda happy as I don’t usually play in front of any one. Today is a day of accomplishment for me ,how about you . Let’s hear your story.

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That’s a good start that should help keep you motivated and partying with your neighbors. :slight_smile:

Back when I was playing some pool parties, I was asked to play a song that I had written, and was requested to play it and others from then on.

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Clint and that probably gave you a high that no drug can do.

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I wrote two songs that made my wife cry :smiley:
I played with one of my favourite artists’ band :open_mouth:

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Brian now I make my wife cry all the time when I play but that’s because her ear are bleeding :drop_of_blood:. :joy:

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Great question!

I would say there are two that stick out to me. I remember in the beginning trying to learn how to play songs and nobody that heard me would be able to figure out what I was playing. A few months into learning, I was trying to figure out how to play the intro to Layla- which is not a song that most people that know me would think I would want to play. My husband Dan walked by when I was practicing and said “Are you playing Layla?” I was so happy :laughing:

The second more recent example was playing the community OM 22 with my band playing our first two original songs. This is still kind of nuts to me, but I felt very accomplished that day.

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It’s just a great feeling.

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Super cool!

I left out something more recent: Playing some gigs with a friend on Sunset boulevard (pre-COVID).

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I didn’t have any major accomplishments for a while, but every time I realize that I can play something I wanted to play it’s such an amazing feeling that’s hard to describe.
The last moment like this happened the last weekend when I wanted to revisit a few bits of Holiday, typed “Green Day” into search bar in Songsterr and end up trying almost a dozen of songs with none of them being Holiday. :laughing:
So, it turned out that I can play with no to little practice Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Wake Me Up When September Ends, 21 Guns, Know Your Enemy, When I Come Around and Peacemaker. Not that they’re very challenging, but I just didn’t want to put time and efforts into them. And now it was like I knew all of them. Kinda like a Green Day streak with 3 albums relistened and the only thing left is to actually learn all these songs, because playing along tabs isn’t that cool and I need to break this habit.

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This is really great to read Jeff! Congratulations! My latest accomplishment I think is being able to memorise and visualize little classical pieces quite fast for me, only a few days! I felt like I was struggling with this and now I can do it more easily!

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Silvia that is a accomplishment as I don’t know if I could do that.

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The first thing, that comes to my mind after reading your question, was being able to fingerpick a song from start till end while singing along :innocent:.

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That’s huge! I can’t even open my mouth without completely messing everything up.

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Great thread idea Jeff.

There are two that I can think of. One was a couple of months ago when a friend came over to our place, he’s “played” guitar for about 20 years but by his own admission has not focused on it at all for a long time. I played a bit of Wicked Game on the acoustic, picking the melody, and he said - wow, that’s great, I can’t play like that! Made me feel really good.

The other is that I recently started learning a Jack Johnson song, it has barre chords with decorations, a solo, etc - the first time I attempted it over a year ago I had trouble fretting the chords, this time I learnt most of it in one sitting, now just have to practise it to get it smooth. Really felt like progress!

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I haven’t achieved any great feelings of accomplishment like the ones reported here……but, funny that you started this thread now…

A couple of nights ago, I was playing a blues piece that I’d learned from tab and I decided to find it by ear higher up the neck.
Not only did I find it fairly quickly, but it sounded so much better higher up on different strings.
When I’d done, I looked at my guitar and said…

“ Hey, I can play this thing !“ :guitar::smiley:

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I think for me it’s really that I’m now able to play along with a small but growing number of songs that I actually enjoy listening to (I mean as opposed to the songs that you learn initially because they’re simple rather than being songs you’d listen to by choice). At one stage I doubted I’d ever get beyond being able to do simple down strums, so it all feels like accomplishment

I’ve not got as far as playing for anyone in person, that’s for the future!

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My biggest feeling of accomplishment that probably means the most to me is when my daughter burst the door open on me and says 'was that you playing? that sounded real ’ :grin:

My most recent is finally getting this one bar right in a blues piece I’ve been working on. It’s not huge but my fingers just didn’t seem to want to do it and I started thinking I’d never get it, but I slowed it right down and practiced it over and over and over (and over and over) and now I can play it all the way through, at tempo :smiley:

Thanks for inviting us to share this Jeff :slight_smile:
I’ve enjoyed reading everybody’s replies :sunflower:

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This is an inspiration to me and I am sure others are getting inspired. This is what guitar is all about making people feel good.

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Every morning I wake up and a complicated piece or entire song that I practiced the day or days or weeks before suddenly comes out of my fingers in the right order and sounds good and like…well … music :smiley:, fortunately I don’t get used to that feeling yet and can really make me very happy every time… :sunglasses:

Greetings

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Superb thread idea Jeff! Aside from simply being able to play anything on guitar there’s probably 2 that stand out for me.

First one was learning and recording She Talks to Angels by The Black Crowes. It was one of my first true Dreamer songs when I started learning. It took a good 4-6 months of work on it alongside learning to get it but boy I was happy with it.

Second one is writing an original song of my own, I thought it’d be straightforward after watching Justin’s dice songwriting lesson but I never really connected with that. I’d pulled together a few riffs of my own whilst noodling but none that actually developed more. Then only a few months back something just came to me and it worked, completely disconnected from my previous riffs. It’s pretty basic in reality but it’s mine, and that’s all that matters. The saying goes everyone’s got a book inside of them but I actually prefer to think that everyone’s got a song in them!

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