Midjourney crisis - nothing works good

Community Hub đź—¨ Just Chatting
1

Dear all,

I would like to talk with you about “midjourney crisis” and I would describe it as really bad time like middle age crisis, when guys around 40 starting to feel like nothing and they buying cars and so on…

I think I am in it right now with guitar. Like I am at Grade 2 learning C major scale and F chord. I can do both pretty good, F chord still tricky… but when I jump to anything else like simple Am - C - G and D with D DU UDU… it does not bring me that joy like it used to. I feel like I cant do anything and nothing sounds good. Checked my tuning and thats all good. This makes me less and less motivated to play or training anything… I am watching guys on YouTube playing guitars and I really love it and then I jump to guitar and it feels right now to me like disappoinment.
Is this something that guitar learners must go through? Is there any heal for this?

Thinking about forget Justins path for few weeks and just blindly learn some fingerstyle from “Six String Fingerpicking”. I dont know… its like… I dont know how to describe my feelings but I definitely wanna go over it and learn all. Dont even think about quiting guitar.

Thanks for any response.

2

I totally get what you are saying about this. I have been participating in this forum for 3 1/2 years now and am an observer of behavior.

My impression is that such feelings are quite common and normal at several stages of learning, especially at the juncture of transition from just learning mechanics (supported by the beginners enthusiasm) to actually starting to want to make music.

The frustration occurs because our ability has not caught up to our imagination of where we think we should be and the less musical exercises are not that enjoyable until we can see outcome. If that makes sense.

I presume our success or failure at guitar stems from how we handle this common problem.

I definite felt what you describe around a similar time. I was bored and felt stuck. What I did was…wait for it….

LEARN SONGS, LEARN SONGS, LEARN SONGS!

Find at least a few songs that can be played at your level and a couple that are just a bit of a challenge and just go at them.

I think it is fine to pick an easier finger style arrangement from somewhere like Six String, he is great. BUT, fingerstyle at your level is NOT easy so those are dreamer songs to work on, but not measure your success and happiness on as of yet.

Make sure you find some straightforward strumming songs that you can easily achieve and get a groove on in addition.

Set yourself up for success and you will be much happier.

After a while, with a few reasonable songs under your belt, you will want to expand on that and for that you will need to learn better skills, understanding and techniques, so will start practicing non-song practice again, but with purpose and intent, and with songs too. Then you will make real progress.

12 Likes
3

Hi @Carreta,

I was going to reply, but @Jamolay said nearly everything I would have said.

I spent the last 3-4 months feeling down more than up about my playing. I have a distinct problem (not being able to pick accurately) that hold back a lot of what I want to do. I have decided to tackle that as priority #1 because the other priority items are much less impactive. Once I fix problem #1, a lot more will open to me and I can pick a new problem to solve. This will likely take me a few weeks, and I needed to come to terms with that time I’ll need to take.

I did what jamolay mentioned - I stopped selecting dreamer songs and started selecting far easier songs. Think through your favorites and pick out the easier songs. Listen to stuff you haven’t heard in a long time and see if there is something there that sounds exciting. Playing is what we want to do, so pick stuff you can play so the dreamer songs don’t make you feel like you can’t play anything.

8 Likes
4

One more comment. Be very humble when admitting what is actually in your wheelhouse. Success is what you want.

Justin has a whole bunch of great and straightforward lessons with grade 1 and 2 songs. Just have fun playing a bunch.

I have a similar problem with fingerpicking (I don’t use a pick). I am aiming for the “Drunken Master” style of play…:man_facepalming:t3:

4 Likes
5

I’ve been hoping that slow “wax on - wax off” method pays off. :slight_smile:

I have been counting on “blues can be sloppy” but I am more sloppy than blues can handle!

3 Likes
6

Maybe try some boxing :innocent:. That’s what I did 10 years ago when my guitar playing went into stagnation. It’s a lot of fun and you get to punch people :grin:

2 Likes
7

I agree with all of this.

We all get frustrated when our expectations do not align with reality. To make that more dramatic, most of us are viewing content that makes it seem like we should be way ahead of where we are in the process. Some like 9 year old that can play solos that we might only dream of ever being able to fuddle through or some grand master that has only been playing 8-10 hours a day for 40 years or something.

The point is as @Jamolay said, you have to be humble about where you are and always set your goals one step higher. There is always a constant sense of achievement if your goal is not far away and you will always be getting better. In addition, I think any kind of learning log is helpful so while your goals are achievable and short term, you can still look back and see how far you have come through the process.

To be honest this Community Forum has been very helpful to my own sense of progress. I really enjoy seeing real people play covers of music I know or even their own songs imperfectly and without all the production afterwards. Just knowing that other people also don’t find it easy makes me feel better about where I am, even if we are not working at the same level.

Best of Luck on your Journey!
♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.

5 Likes
8

Well done for posting Michal and thus far some good responses from Joshua and Michael.

I would just add in perceived; viz. “our perceived success or failure”, into Joshua’s statement. We are after all often at our most critical with our own playing.

This mantra has merit; however it is often preached by those [not a personal criticism aimed at Joshua] who don’t learn many songs … go figure ! All I would add is learn more than one song at a time; ie. two or three. It helps keep interest; and without falling into “psychobabble”, I do agree with brains larger than mine that I can learn two or three songs in parallel more efficiently than learning each of them consecutively. Some things we learn the hard way … :thinking:

:rofl: , that all depends on one’s POV. I actually find fingerpicking easier that strumming ! In fact I think my flat-picking is “better” than my strumming … :upside_down_face:

:ok_hand: … learn a few songs that YOU like, Michal, and ones that you are motivated to learn.

Nothing wrong in doing that per se; although one doesn’t have to follow the JG’s modules in a linear fashion. This site is a “warren of rabbit holes”; there are many places I have not been as yet (around 2 yrs in here, and 4 yrs playing). Pick something out that sparks your interest and spend a little time with it: perhaps theory or skills/techniques. It doesn’t matter if you are out of your depth, some of it will stick and will be of use to you sometime in the future.

I’ll stop there, others will have their experience to share. Keep at it, a little and often will pay dividends … :+1: :sunglasses:

3 Likes
9

“Pick Boxing” perhaps ? :wink:

10

might be satisfying. especially when I send one across the room. bet I’ll lose a bunch though!

:rofl:

1 Like
11

Tip one is much cheaper :smiley: :sunglasses:

Greetings,Rogier

6 Likes
12

If you watch YT for inspiration and motivation , great. If it just creates frustration, stop watching. No one there got good in 2 weeks or by being a “natural”. It takes hard work every day. There is no way to get better than to practice a lot. There is no fast way. Everybody gets a bit down sometimes. As written above mix and match what you love learning/playing with some “grinding” on things you want to be better at.

1 Like
13

Michal,

Some very wise advice above… I agree with almost everything above - boxing could lead to serious hand injuries that could end your guitar playing! :rofl:

The one thing I would add is “baby steps”… what I mean is set goals for yourself that are very close to your current ability. For example, you can play a D chord but not a Dsus2 or Dadd 4 - so that’s your next “goal”… then measure your success by conquering those small goals as Victories in your playing world. When I achieve a Victory, I feel that it’s time for a reward! Maybe go out to dinner someplace nice, or open that bottle of good wine my wife & I have been saving or… wait for it…

BUY ANOTHER GUITAR!!! (Well maybe that one is for a Big Victory!!!) :grin:

Another thing is comparing yourself to others is very frustrating… you see guitar players on YouTube who do this for a living… they are a lot better than the vast majority of guitar players will ever be & if you watch John Mayer playing a cool solo & you’re having trouble making your guitar sound like anything musical… it’s a downer. Try to look at others as Inspiration - “I want to play that song SOMEDAY, but I know it won’t be anytime soon” & as Joshua mentions above, learn a simple song or 2 or 3 that you can make sound musical.

When I first started to learn guitar ages ago, I had a Hal Leonard Easy Guitar songbook that included Brown Eyed Girl. I loved that song & wanted to play it in the worst way. But I didn’t sound anything like Van Morrison. So, I gave up. Fast forward a year or 2, I found my songbook in a bookshelf, got my guitar out, dusted it off & tuned it & tried again. I sounded, if anything, worse than before. So, I quit. Told my wife, I’m selling that damned guitar, it sounds like total crap. Now, my wife is a very wise woman… instead of selling my first, beginner $50 Costco special guitar, she bought me a better guitar - a blue Ibanez acoustic (my favorite color) & had it on my guitar stand with my songbook in the entry hall of our home when I came home from work one day! Well, guess what? It didn’t sound any better that my 1st guitar but boy was I motivated to play - I learned Brown Eyed Giel but decided that I probably couldn’t play it like Van so I play it like Tod - fingerstyle, slow & more balled-like! It works in my style…
So the moral to this anecdote is, find your voice with your guitar, don’t worry about how well you’re progressing, just progress!
Enjoy the journey - the slower you go, the more you see!!

Tod

4 Likes
14

Thank you all for so much supportive talking, I did not expect that much. It could sound bad, but I am happy its pretty normal to feel like this. :smiley:
Well I am gonna jump into song learning because… lets “put hand on heart” I am not doing it that much, because I dont like to “know” 20 songs and play them somehow. I really like knowing few songs and play them good, but thats just about me. :smiley:
About that fingerstyle… thats my main goal and why I started to learn guitar, so before I finished my Grade 1 I had big jumpes around different teachers and I was able to do hammer ons and play songs like “Anouk - lost” before I did my final exam. :smiley: Its like sometimes I just watch The Walking Dead while I am doing some fingerstyle… even changing from Barre F to C chord… I could do it 1 hour by TV and it feels good, but I dont see any move forward here, so I am gonna stick with some known fingerstyle and basic songs and I will see. Maybe I “overslept” when Justin was saying to look for different strumming pattern. I am still using the same Old Faithful and I am playing it without thinking… and maybe this repetitivenes is killing me.
Anyone would recommend some nice strumming pattern? I can also do Wonderwall strumming with chord changes, but it does not feel nice, because I cant do backbeat here…
If you got some favourite strumming pattern you can leave it here just in format “D DU UDU”.

Thanks a lot all, gonna heart and read all your comments. This makes me feel better how great this community is. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
15

Perhaps.
You don’t expect proper grammar from a boxer, do you? :crazy_face:

16

Rut Buster #1 = Money Can Buy Happiness!

1 Like
17

Hi there,

I am going through the same thing so I can relate. I feel like I make zero progress sometimes and not much better than I was a year ago. The best advice to this situation is give yourself a break and tone down your goals to smaller simple things. I decided I am dedicating all of 2024 to improve strumming and rhythm instead of repeating failures in things like soloing and lead guitar. If I don’t sound good in basic rhythm no one will wait to hear the solo part.

Lately I have tried to go back and revisit songs I have done the past couple years and make the rhythm more interesting or different. Yet I do crave learning something different so maybe try new songs not too complex as well. I’ve posted plenty songs here in the forum and people give advice sometimes. I just need to listen and do the work to improve. Remember you are an artist playing music and we want to hear your personal style eventually. This is something to be proud of. I’ll still be posting more songs here eventually and hopefully will hear more feedback.

I am sure you have achieved a lot already. Play the mini F if the full f is too hard. I promise you no one will care which one they hear. Do what you can.

Jeff from California

2 Likes
18

Daaaaamn!
I wonder if there is anything that Justin does not have covered, this is really really great video… did not know it has even it own terminology. :smiley:
About that guitar buying… I had mood for this month ago or something like that and that did not go that well. I am gonna give you link to that topic, so you can see it. But I pretty like Furch guitars. I am from Czech Republic so its local dealer, but they are pretty expensive. :slight_smile: Also really expensive for someone changing few chords. :smiley:

1 Like
19

I may be deviating from the way Justin is teaching it with my next few thoughts! :slight_smile:

I have never been a fan of sticking with a pattern. I think it is better to listen to the rhythm in the song and then create something that fits and accompanies it. We have some reasonably useful goals, like strum down on the 1,2,3,4 and up on the “ANDs”. This generally fits most things, but may get in the way for a few cases. Feel free to change to what feels like the music you are accompanying.

What are the drums or bass doing in the song? Do they have a pause or emphasize portions of the beat? Can you do the same in the strumming? Can you augment what they are doing with a strum emphasis or direction (up and down sound different)? Can you maybe fill in somewhere the rhythm is silent and create something interesting to hear?

I think that experimenting in a song you like to fill in some strumming could be both fun (which you need) and build some ideas to get out of just playing old faithful. Justin has said this over and over in his videos, but I really feel it when I just try to play along with a song - not try to play like the song. Just trying to play something interesting to hear. Yes, you sill have some really horrible stuff, but that is good learning so you know it sounded bad and you can see how to alter it so improve it.

I think of this as a part of the noodling style of play, so don’t let this take over all your practice. Basic technique still needs to be practiced.

4 Likes
20

Hi

:grin: :sunglasses:
This afternoon I was sitting in a store, bored and hoping that with this video in mind I could pick out a new guitar… strangely enough my wife thought differently… :roll_eyes:

And never apologize for an expensive guitar vs your playing level, just buy the guitar that your savings bank can provide you :sunglasses: … and if in doubt, a good second hand one will retain its value or even become more valuable, a new one that is not produced too much also by the way, I saw that with my guitar here on my avatar …
But the chance that I will sell it is close to zero, so it doesn’t matter

Greetings

2 Likes