Feeling of accomplishment?

Letā€™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 donā€™t usually play in front of any one. Today is a day of accomplishment for me ,how about you . Letā€™s hear your story.

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Thatā€™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 artistsā€™ band :open_mouth:

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Brian now I make my wife cry all the time when I play but thatā€™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 ā€œAre you playing Layla?ā€ 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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Itā€™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 didnā€™t have any major accomplishments for a while, but every time I realize that I can play something I wanted to play itā€™s such an amazing feeling thatā€™s hard to describe.
The last moment like this happened the last weekend when I wanted to revisit a few bits of Holiday, typed ā€œGreen Dayā€ 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 theyā€™re very challenging, but I just didnā€™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 isnā€™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 donā€™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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Thatā€™s huge! I canā€™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, heā€™s ā€œplayedā€ 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, thatā€™s great, I canā€™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 havenā€™t achieved any great feelings of accomplishment like the ones reported hereā€¦ā€¦but, funny that you started this thread nowā€¦

A couple of nights ago, I was playing a blues piece that Iā€™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 Iā€™d done, I looked at my guitar and saidā€¦

ā€œ Hey, I can play this thing !ā€œ :guitar::smiley:

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I think for me itā€™s really that Iā€™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 theyā€™re simple rather than being songs youā€™d listen to by choice). At one stage I doubted Iā€™d ever get beyond being able to do simple down strums, so it all feels like accomplishment

Iā€™ve not got as far as playing for anyone in person, thatā€™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 ā€™ :grin:

My most recent is finally getting this one bar right in a blues piece Iā€™ve been working on. Itā€™s not huge but my fingers just didnā€™t seem to want to do it and I started thinking Iā€™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:
Iā€™ve enjoyed reading everybodyā€™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 likeā€¦well ā€¦ music :smiley:, fortunately I donā€™t get used to that feeling yet and can really make me very happy every timeā€¦ :sunglasses:

Greetings

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Superb thread idea Jeff! Aside from simply being able to play anything on guitar thereā€™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 itā€™d be straightforward after watching Justinā€™s dice songwriting lesson but I never really connected with that. Iā€™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. Itā€™s pretty basic in reality but itā€™s mine, and thatā€™s all that matters. The saying goes everyoneā€™s got a book inside of them but I actually prefer to think that everyoneā€™s got a song in them!

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