When you're feeling frustrated - "The Art of Sucking at Music"

Exactly this is why Justin is a brilliant teacher. Showing us how to suck, with his Nitsuj course. Trying to play left handed.
When I feel I suck or get stuck.
I watch a video of Nitsuj and feel instantly better, seeing him struggling too.
Some dedication. Why would you want to go trough this process again,pff

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What he doesn’t say in the video is to get better you have to figure out why you suck at something.
I can’t remember who said this but this quote is so true.
“The guitar is the easiest instrument to play Badly”

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I have a thing about when accomplished musicians claim they suck. It irritates me. I get what they’re saying- there’s always someone better, there’s always a technique or genre that they’re not good at, we’re always in learning mode, there’s never an end to the journey, and there’s always something more to learn. I understand, the goalpost always moves with us when we are looking at ourselves determining whether we suck. Whatever Eric Clapton is trying to learn, he sucks at. So he feels like he still sucks. I’ve said it myself, even after playing piano all my life, I really am not very good at it. I can play some stuff, but I can’t sit and play.

But what it says to me when accomplished players say they suck, is that I am abysmal. That I really, really, REALLY suck. While its true, I really suck, because I am a beginner and I know that, it IS difficult to hear 30 year musicians tell others they themselves suck. It really does make me want to give up, because I don’t know if I have it in me to put in 30 years starting at my age, if that’s what it takes to get good. And evidently, it takes much more than 30 years if 30 year guitarists suck.

I get what this guy is saying- embrace the sucky times because we all are suckers except for those few moments when we perform what we have perfected. Its true. It IS what makes us “players” since we spend a lot more time playing and practicing than we do performing. Practicing IS playing.

But I really wish someone would be honest when beginners ask “how long does it take to get good?” and say something like “look, I’ve been playing 5 years and I’m pretty good, I can do a lot of cool sounding techniques, can play a bunch of difficult songs, I’ve played in a band”, etc etc instead of defaulting to “man, I’ve been playing 200 years and I still suck”.

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EXACTLY! I sooooo appreciate the Nitsuj videos. I swear, without them I never would have kept up for the whole year that I’ve put in. It’s exactly what a self-critical, overthinking type, visual learner, beginner needs to see- that learning guitar is HARD even for a super accomplished person who TEACHES guitar to others!

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Babe Ruth the greatest home run hitter in American baseball struck out more than anyone!

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I’m about to go suck at F chord.
Thanks for sharing the video. I get the message behind it.
I attempt to not compare myself to others. My guitar journey is MY guitar journey.

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Lately I’ve also felt that I shouldn’t compare my skills to those of others, but it’s a difficult thing to do. Of course, looking for (and finding) inspiration is useful, but so much depends on individual circumstances.

Also, 30 years of playing or doing anything is not the same for someone who starts it at the age of 6 and for someone else who starts it at the age of 36.

One of the pieces of advice I would give my younger self (selves) would be to really take the opportunity to try something instead of waiting around for times becoming more suitable.

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Great video,thanks for sharing. Know all about sucking at guitar, been doing it for about 5 years again now. I am not great but have learnt lots of songs but struggle with lead, but am persevering. I know the minor pentatonic and mainly just jam/improvise thst including some licks i have picked up. Getting too old to soend 3 weeks plus on a 30 second solo :laughing:

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I feel the need for a new Tee shirt! lol Thanks for posting.

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“Oh that person is so talented!”
“No, they’re not.”

Don’t let that go unnoticed.
It reminds me back when I was playing basketball and we were like 16yo…
Our coach was saying that “talented” is someone really young, early teens max.
Then it’s just really hard work whether someone is talented or not.

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I read some good advice recently…I think it was in the Brainjo book…and the gist was:

“Don’t compare yourself to other, better guitarists. Compare yourself to the guitarist you were a year ago”

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That was good, thanks for sharing

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Bit of an odd vibe in that video for me. Don’t really know why.
Anyway, practice with focus and purpose and you’ll get better at most things.

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It’s a promotional video. He’s trying to hook people into following him.

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A quote I’ve posted before, from the great Andres Segovia: “the guitar is the easiest instrument to play, and the hardest instrument to play well.”

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That may apply for the triangle and the cowbell, too :stuck_out_tongue:

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I think it’s a matter of perspective. I think the myth is that a good guitarist can just sit and play anything. And well, they’re going to find it easier to learn than you or I, and it will build on top of techniques they’ve learnt. But if it’s not something simple, they’ll still have to learn it (be bad at it while learning it) until they get it.

I think the myth is that there is some point where you can master guitar, and I’m not sure that’s true. Sure, you can get really, really good at some parts of it. But can a fantastic, rock guitar veteran play flamenco guitar? No, unless they learn flamenco guitar, which apparently is really hard.

There is a level of playing proficiency that the vast majority of us are not going to get to. That 30-year guitarist level, if starting midlife. But there are plenty of really good guitarists that started in their teens and are now in their 20s… so it’s possible to get to a certain level.

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I agree and it depends whether you are glass half full or half empty in your view point.

It’s very much glass half empty if the message that you take away is that in 30 years I’ll still suck. The truth is that you’re likely to be a really decent guitarist long before then but just don’t expect perfection.

The glass half full view is knowing that it’s not you who is uniquely bad or incompetent, when after whatever period of time you’ve been playing for, because even the guitarists that appear to have it mastered, still don’t get it right all of the time. It’s a journey for us all, some are just a bit further down the road than others

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There is no glass :wink:

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There is a big difference between a 30 year musician who never practices and only plays a few times a year and a 5 year musician you puts in the time and effort.

You also need to decide do you want to be Neil Young good or Steve Vai good or somewhere in between. Most will get Neil Young good within a few years (depending on time spent practicing). To become Neil Yound good you need to get very good with timing and be very comfortable strumming and singing. Most people don’t have enough time to put into practicing to get Steve Vai good.

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