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Funnily enough I got the exact same situation happen. My wife got me a guitar as either a nice decoration piece or something I could actually use if I wanted t

Funnily enough I got the exact same situation happen. My wife got me a guitar as either a nice decoration piece or something I could actually use if I wanted to. I never had the opportunity to learn that when I was a kid, so I tried to learn it. Quickly I realized I'd need to practice at least an hour a day for years before I could play one single song from my favorite band. It just made me quit after a few months. Worst part is that I knew that when I started. I told myself "I'll practice just a bit and when I'm 50 I'll be good at it". The problem is that I realized I did not enjoy practicing it every day. Drills, exercises over and over. It seems to me I enjoy the idea of being a person that can play the guitar well, but I don't really enjoy the journey to that.

mendigou 5y ago
I'd recommend getting a teacher or someone who can plan your drills that forces you to play songs at your level. I'm no prodigy and could play stuff in a few months (heavy metal), maybe a year. But that's only because I played actual songs along with the drills.
manmal 5y ago
Sounds like you need to set intermediate goals. When I started playing the guitar, I asked my teacher „Do you think I‘ll be able to play anything from Muse soon?“ He was like „Uhhm maybe, if you practice super hard? But let’s focus on getting this Smoke on the water to sound absolutely sick!“ For a long time, my only goal was to make the finger exercises sound good. Play them with a metronome and push the number higher and higher. Integrate little licks into the practice routine, keeping pace with the metronome. My guitar teacher was _extremely_ motivated and this was contagious. Before I knew it, I could easily play most pop songs and many rock songs. I didn’t even notice when I became able to play Muse because my interests had shifted by then. I joined a band and stayed with them for 5 years… (Addendum) … until I quit because having two little kids doesn’t mix well with a highly motivated band on the side. I guess I also had kind of a music playing burnout because the band was kinda toxic. Haven’t touched the guitar for two years now, but I‘ll probably pick it up soon again, and learn new songs. Maybe record a reinterpretation of some electronic music I dig. Or make electronic music with guitar elements, like the late Daft Punk or something.

mendigou 5y ago

I'd recommend getting a teacher or someone who can plan your drills that forces you to play songs at your level. I'm no prodigy and could play stuff in a few months (heavy metal), maybe a year. But that's only because I played actual songs along with the drills.

manmal 5y ago

Sounds like you need to set intermediate goals. When I started playing the guitar, I asked my teacher „Do you think I‘ll be able to play anything from Muse soon?“ He was like „Uhhm maybe, if you practice super hard? But let’s focus on getting this Smoke on the water to sound absolutely sick!“ For a long time, my only goal was to make the finger exercises sound good. Play them with a metronome and push the number higher and higher. Integrate little licks into the practice routine, keeping pace with the metronome. My guitar teacher was _extremely_ motivated and this was contagious. Before I knew it, I could easily play most pop songs and many rock songs. I didn’t even notice when I became able to play Muse because my interests had shifted by then. I joined a band and stayed with them for 5 years… (Addendum) … until I quit because having two little kids doesn’t mix well with a highly motivated band on the side. I guess I also had kind of a music playing burnout because the band was kinda toxic. Haven’t touched the guitar for two years now, but I‘ll probably pick it up soon again, and learn new songs. Maybe record a reinterpretation of some electronic music I dig. Or make electronic music with guitar elements, like the late Daft Punk or something.