# What so you do when you feel like giving up guitar?



## Ajb667 (Jul 1, 2013)

Lately I've felt like giving up guitar. I've been playing for over a year and can't play a full song (haven't put billions of hours of effort into it though) and it doesn't help my guitars shitty Floyd rose doesn't stay in tune in long practice. I feel like I'm going nowhere and I get really frustrated lately and I don't know what to do. I love heavy metal and its my dream to play it but lately...I just feel like ill never be able to.


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## bcolville (Jul 1, 2013)

Buy some super expensive gear then you'll feel obliged to play it.


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## User Name (Jul 1, 2013)

dont get down on yourself. the one thing you can do to change how good you are is practice. you wont get good ever if you dont practice your ass off. if you say you cant even play a whole song then you know exactly where to start. get started on a whole song. i would definitely suggest something easier as a first song though. 

i would also suggest getting some higher quality gear, that will always help a bit as well. however, focus most on practice and actually learning guitar and theory.


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## User Name (Jul 1, 2013)

bcolville said:


> Buy some super expensive gear then you'll feel obliged to play it.


.... or this


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## Captain Butterscotch (Jul 1, 2013)

Block your trem.


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## Ajb667 (Jul 1, 2013)

User Name said:


> dont get down on yourself. the one thing you can do to change how good you are is practice. you wont get good ever if you dont practice your ass off. if you say you cant even play a whole song then you know exactly where to start. get started on a whole song. i would definitely suggest something easier as a first song though.
> 
> i would also suggest getting some higher quality gear, that will always help a bit as well. however, focus most on practice and actually learning guitar and theory.



I've been trying to practice more lately, and I'm slowly getting better, but I still find it difficult to play fairly easy songs.

I wish I could get better gear but I'm broke


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## Hyacinth (Jul 1, 2013)

Just power through it. There's two ways to look at it: 1. You can keep playing and get better, which you inevitably will and have, at the very least, a very rewarding hobby and at the most a source of income if you do it right. 2. You can quit and have wasted a year of your life and lose a very rewarding hobby and potentially a source of income if you do it right.

Here's some strategies to motivate you.

Keep your guitar out and on a stand throughout the day. This may or may not shorten string life but you can grab it on a whim. For me, grabbing the guitar to play for a few minutes usually turns into at least a half hour practice session if not more. Which is always a good thing.

Pick one song to focus on and try to learn it all the way through. It might take weeks or even the better part of a month to get it down near perfect, but it's a very rewarding experience to be able to play along to a whole song.

EDIT: You could also consider saving up a bit and selling your current guitar for a new one if you can't get along with the one you have now.


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## User Name (Jul 1, 2013)

Ajb667 said:


> I've been trying to practice more lately, and I'm slowly getting better, but I still find it difficult to play fairly easy songs.
> 
> I wish I could get better gear but I'm broke



just play something VERY easy, that will get you going in the swing of things. just learn an entire song. just a very easy one. some people may disagree but all i can really think of is asking alexandria, they have some very very easy songs. i could probably learn one of their albums in a day haha. try one or two songs and that will probably help a bunch.


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## DSilence (Jul 1, 2013)

Gear frustrations definately take its toll when you are learning, if there is any advice I wish I knew when I was 1st began I wish it was to get a fixed bridge with a decent setup, 
There is also no harm in learning easy songs for a while to get you past the time. It keeps you playing in the mean time.. Just chill and relax with it. 

Otherwise take a break, just don't put any pressure on yourself to perform or be up to anyones standard. Its a long road ahead but enjoyable once you get past a frustrating stage


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## guitarfreak1387 (Jul 1, 2013)

if your having troubles with the trem make sure its setup properly, if your still having issues with it then block it, it will save you many headaches. later on down the road when you have the money pick up another guitar with a better trem.

maybe you just need a break. I often get stuck into rut weather its creativity or just ability. take a few days off, be sure to keep the guitar in sight to always remind you its there. you'll know when you feel like playing, you'll end up picking it up soon after just for shits and giggles and remember how fun it was to play.

new music toys also helps every once in a while.


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## Ajb667 (Jul 1, 2013)

User Name said:


> just play something VERY easy, that will get you going in the swing of things. just learn an entire song. just a very easy one. some people may disagree but all i can really think of is asking alexandria, they have some very very easy songs. i could probably learn one of their albums in a day haha. try one or two songs and that will probably help a bunch.



Yeah, I've probably been trying songs that seem easy but aren't  as much as I dislike AA it'd probably been worth it for the sake of progress. And maybe Machine Heads's The Burning Red. It's super slow so I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before


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## User Name (Jul 1, 2013)

yeah, just get some typical crap songs with lots of break downs and some simple riffs in between. 

in other words, the definition of AA. although in all reality for what they are, i think they are actually not too bad a band.


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## Osorio (Jul 1, 2013)

Stop playing. Come back to it in a month or two. Forcing yourself to play will accomplish absolutely nothing if not to test your patience...

It might also be worth considering, in your off time, if this really is the thing for you. Sure, a lot of encouragement in the direction of "don't give up!" can be found here, but realistically speaking, not everyone needs to play an instrument. Maybe you would be better suited to another hobby, one that is more gratifying to you in the short or long term. As much as you may love it, you may not be happy DOING it. Maybe your thing with metal is more on the passive side. There is NOTHING wrong with that. You really don't need to play guitar to appreciate music.

For the record: I have done this myself. I "quit" guitar about 3 times during my 11 years of playing. One of those times was for a solid 4 years or something. If you really love it and need it, you will come back to it eventually. No need to force it. 
I LARGELY disagree with the person that said that giving yourself a break is equal to "having wasted time of your life". Sometimes stuff just doesn't work like you want it to. I also don't believe it is realistic to think that you will just forget everything about guitar playing if you give yourself a break. Even a break as long as mine didn't screw me over as much as that person is saying. Sure, I still can't quite shred like I used to, but a huge part of that is that my mentality and outlook on music evolved in a different direction, and right now, I have absolutely no desire to shred, whereas it was my ultimate goal during my teen-years.


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## toiletstand (Jul 1, 2013)

youre still at the beginning and i think maybe youre forgetting to have fun. you dont have to know full songs. just work on and play what you like.


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## TallestFiddle (Jul 1, 2013)

Get a program to slow down a song so you can play it slower. When I want to learn a cool riff, but I can't play as fast i'll just use a program to slow it down so i can play it at like 70%. I'll practice it each day, and then little by little increase the speed. But even if I can't play it to full speed i don't get discouraged, because it doesn't really matter. i still learned the riff that I wanted, i can use that skill for myself at my own speed. Also, i've never learned a full song, i just learn the parts that I like.

You need to have patience and realize that you can only do so much in one day, sleeping on your practice will leave you more skilled than you were the day before. A little bit each day is enough, you don't need to practice for hours and hours every day. If you just take your time you'll see an improvement. 

Professional musicians are skilled for a reason, so try to look into their practice methods and philosophies.

And ya, if you're not feeling like playing, just don't. There's no reason to force yourself to play if you don't find enjoyment in it.


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## Berserker (Jul 2, 2013)

Get lessons.


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## Ajb667 (Jul 2, 2013)

User Name said:


> yeah, just get some typical crap songs with lots of break downs and some simple riffs in between.
> 
> in other words, the definition of AA. although in all reality for what they are, i think they are actually not too bad a band.


 What songs in particular would you suggest? I only know of like one of their songs.


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## Ror (Jul 2, 2013)

Another good beginner song is The Ballad of Tommy Clayton & the Rawdawg Millionaire by Of Mice & Men. One of the very first songs I learned. And significantly better music than AA


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## User Name (Jul 2, 2013)

Ajb667 said:


> What songs in particular would you suggest? I only know of like one of their songs.


just look up a playlist of asking alexandria songs on youtube. find which ones you wish to learn or think are catchy. then just learn them, i believe they mostly play in drop D.


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## Given To Fly (Jul 2, 2013)

Easy songs are great confidence boosters! Greenday's Brain Stew is a good one to start with.

Also, I would get the Floyd Rose blocked. Any guitar tech should be able to do it and it will get rid of that headache.


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## AlexRuger (Jul 3, 2013)

I know you sort of touched on this, but if you could elaborate...

What's your purpose for playing guitar? Why are you doing it? 

Don't think of it in terms of "achievements" or whatnot. Think of it more like...what does playing guitar give you that _not_ playing _doesn't_ give you, or even _takes away?_


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## Kaickul (Jul 3, 2013)

Get a guitar instructor to help motivate you and play in a band.


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## vilk (Jul 3, 2013)

My first few years of playing guitar was just looking up tabs and playing it. No guitar solos, nothing technical. I've always picked a song just at my ability level and played it. If I printed out a tab (before the day of laptops so sheets of paper were more easily transported to the garage) and it ended up being to hard to play, I said, "meh, I guess this one is too hard for me. Maybe some day." and just moved on to another song that I could play. You shouldn't expect to be that good after only a year. I don't think I played anything that required any amount of ability until I had been playing for at least 3 years. Of course when I started playing I was really into Blink 182 and Green Day so this would give me endless options for 3 chord songs. You being into metal might prove challenging because honestly metal is in general more challenging to play than basically anything in the pop-rock genre. Are you sure there're no pop-punk bands you might like to play just for nostalgia purposes? Deftones are another option, too. 

You can get better by picking songs outside your ability level and working your way up to them, but frankly I think one's formative guitar years should be spent more just familiarizing yourself with the instrument by playing easy crap that you can learn in an afternoon. Once you have the feel of a guitar ingrained into your psyche you can begin to challenge yourself. Of course, challenging yourself will mean sometimes taking an entire month to fully learn a song (I know it took at least that long for me to be able to play certain Veil of Maya songs). 

As of recently I've been trying to learn all of Catch-33. Let me tell you that this has been quite a challenge because while most of the riffs are relatively slow and simplistic, it's freaking impossible to play them in the correct order without making mistakes. I should start a thread asking for tips on how to memorize super unpredictable stuff...


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## vansinn (Jul 5, 2013)

Dude, you're merely one year into playing, it's absolutely normal feeling no progress, don't worry.

Apart from the previous advice to let it rest for a short while when feeling frustrated, I'd also suggest digging in with pure technique, like picking up/down with same style speed and sound, rehearsing simple scales slowly, later picking up speed a BIt, using a metronome for rhythm precision.
Yes, it sounds boring, but good solid basic technique just happens to be the foundation 

Are you taking lessons? If not, do consider starting. Any style will help, like rock, bluesgrass, light jazz..

If you don't have an acoustic guitar, find a decent used one. It's totally relaxing slapping the legs up on the table and just experimenting with no direction, getting into some really simple but cool stuff (like old Creadence Clearwater ), plus it can aid you in being able to focus on creating good clean notes.


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## Solodini (Jul 8, 2013)

Play music with someone. Learning an instrument can be very isolating if you're just sat on your own. It's like being in a room and talking to yourself, having no idea whether what you're saying is worthwhile or even makes sense. 

Find a friend who is better or worse than you, doesn't matter. "talk" to them musically. Play a random note. Play another nearby. Play the first one again. Play another. Repeat that for a bit. Keep playing the first note so your friend can just play each note up a string until they find one which works. Do the same with the next note. Before long you will have something to jam on. Play about a bit after that and see what comes out. You'll start to develop some chops, in time.

You're learning a language by learning music. Babies babble and make mistakes when they learn to talk. Most adults have an infantile level of communication with music, even people who've done it for years!

Have fun and get feedback from others.


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## GiveUpGuitar (Jul 8, 2013)

Did someone say my name?


Realistically, I call myself a pussy, remind myself that I have no future, and call myself an asshole. Steve Vai taught me that.


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Jul 8, 2013)

GiveUpGuitar said:


> Realistically, I call myself a pussy, remind myself that I have no future, and call myself an asshole. Steve Vai taught me that.



He taught me otherwise



Good vid for you to watch, OP


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## Idontpersonally (Jul 8, 2013)

Play like everyone's watching you and its so beautiful that they just cant take it and it makes them want to cry.


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## Shaft (Jul 8, 2013)

Don't think about how good you are today. Think about how good you can be a year from now. Then think about how amazing you will be 5 years from now.

Also, play SLOW (with a metronome) and play lightly. I remember straining my hand a lot when I first started because no one ever told me I didn't need a deathgrip. Nothing can frustrate a beginner like a silly hand cramp that makes you feel like you are physically incapable of being a skilled guitarist.

Don't give up, man. Once you break your current wall, you'll just keep knocking them down. 

STAY POSI BRO <3


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## Kaickul (Jul 9, 2013)

NEVER give up. Don't be a pussy.


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## StratoJazz (Jul 9, 2013)

Solodini said:


> Play music with someone. Learning an instrument can be very isolating if you're just sat on your own. It's like being in a room and talking to yourself, having no idea whether what you're saying is worthwhile or even makes sense.



This ^

I've noticed i usually remember why I like playing when I'm playing with other people. Playing and performing with musicians can be the most rewarding experience in terms of your musical development. The metronome, audacity, Band in a box and jam tracks can only take you so far.

In my opinion when you like the people you're play with and you all have a good musical vibe going on, you'll be amazed at how much you love playing. The only thing better than that is playing a gig with those people and getting paid. It will make you feel something like this:

#WHAT SHOULD WE CALL CONSERVATORY | What it feels like after a gig


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## ghost_of_karelia (Jul 9, 2013)

Give up.

...then suffer the unavoidable urges, like a painful itch all over your body, to go back and pick up the guitar again. Let the itch build for a few days, listen to some of your favourite guitar-based music, then finally succumb to it and enjoy your burst of sudden inspiration, renewed enthusiasm, and freshly-relaxed muscles.


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## p0ke (Jul 9, 2013)

I've had the same feeling a few times. I got over it by thinking a little bit about my life, I realized that playing the guitar is all that really matters to me. Yes, I'm an IT engineer and run my own fairly successfull business, but that's not what I want people to remember me by. I'd rather be the guy who wrote that shitty song than the guy who programmed that awesome software.
Also, you don't have to quit, you can just be a little less active for a while. Just keep the guitar as a decoration or whatever and play it again sometime when you feel like it. I've done that a few times. At one point, when I was between bands, I actually had all my guitars at my parent's place and only played them once a month when I went there, but then the urge to play came back, and now I have all four of them here at my place 

As for learning an easy song: Breaking the Law by Judas Priest is pretty much the easiest song in the world. It was the first full song I learned too.


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## Solodini (Jul 10, 2013)

StratoJazz said:


> This ^
> 
> I've noticed i usually remember why I like playing when I'm playing with other people. Playing and performing with musicians can be the most rewarding experience in terms of your musical development. The metronome, audacity, Band in a box and jam tracks can only take you so far.
> 
> ...


 
And when you realise how much you love it and want that chunk you came up with to sound better, you'll be so much more inspired to work on it so it sounds as good as you can make it!


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## FruitCakeRonin (Jul 10, 2013)

Wait a few days and realise what a silly notion it was.


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## birch (Jul 10, 2013)

Theres an exercise Jon Damian gives to his students for this. He calls it the amazing time machine exercise. You flip your guitar round the other way so your playing it left handed. Thats how alien the guitar felt to you when you first picked it up. Should make you feel better about your current ability!


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## Ibz777 (Jul 10, 2013)

You need to set small goals with you guitar playing.
Then find the information or training you need to do it.
Getting good at guitars is all about hours, not years.
When someone tells me they have been playing guitar for 10 years and they suck, I can tell they dont put in the practice hours they should have to be good at it.
Then Ill see a kid that has only been playing for 2 years and he rocks!
Its all about the right information and hours.

You need personal drive to get there.
You need to find goals you have to have that are attainable in a week or a month.
If you do that, youll feel good about the time you put in to guitar and inspired to do more.

You have to want it!


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## JustMac (Jul 10, 2013)

Yeah, just set your default text colour to a nice, dark olive-green, you'll be back to the fretboard insanity in no time!


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## viesczy (Jul 10, 2013)

You're missing what music is about: expression and being fun to play. 

The end isn't the means here, plus you're blaming your equipment and that's a poor musician! 

Take a song you like, then take a part that you really like of the song and get that part down (within your ability). Once you got that down take the part right before or right after it and get that down. Continue building on those parts. 

Now when you're getting the pieces down, don't focus on "HFS I messed up again", focus on the "HFS I didn't get this portion wrong" instances. Getting pieces down requires the cooridination of two machines--your left and right hand. So your muscles are learning the fretting patterns, the picking patterns and the synchronization of those patterns together. It takes time, especially when you're new to the instrument. 

When practicing pieces of music, I tend to play a challenging measure/passage over and over to GET that down before moving to the next challenging measure. Often I end up having to move to different areas of the neck to seamlessly put difficult passages/pieces together. It is just the process of being a musician, as you grow you'll know/understand your limitations and the needed repition isn't weeks upon weeks.

Also, professionals practice until they can't get something wrong and hacks practice until they get something right (once).

Derek


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