Learning to play is different from learning to write. As a mostly self-taught guitarist, and almost entirely self-taught programmer, the most difficult thing,

Learning to play is different from learning to write. As a mostly self-taught guitarist, and almost entirely self-taught programmer, the most difficult thing, both in programming and music, is writing. The main advice is always to keep creating; but creating what? As a guitarist, I started out reading tabs for my favorite songs, and perfecting my performance. The most fulfilling experiences for me were getting together with someone, and improvising. Writing music is artistic, rather than functional, so improvising works. Writing software is not art. You need a problem to solve before you can write anything. But what problem do I focus on? The hardest thing for me was always finding a project to exercise my skills. Take SQL for example: If I want to learn SQL, and how to administer a database, I need data to put in it. I need a reason to query that data. I need a purpose, however trivial, to implement software, just so I can practice implementing software. That is the hardest thing to find on my own.