Do you feel sometimes overwhelmed by what you want (or think you need) to learn?

General Music Discussion
#1

Hi

a bit of additional information on myself to clarify the intent of this thread (I hope this is the right place since the topic is not exclusively theory or technique related).
I play for over ten years now, my biggest influence was Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom. I was around 12 or 13 years when I discovered them Follow the Reaper was the newest record and I found this whole melodic style very intriguing. Back then I didn’t think much about music theory but rather was very focused on the fast lead playing and wanted to become the fastest guitarist in the world (I think a few people here can relate lol).

Over the years, I got into the territory of this fast playing, I can play a few Children of Bodom solos, but I should practice more to get everything cleanly…but that is another topic (I am 28 years old now but my technical ability to play stuff like that only developed on the recent years). Additionally I developed a taste in other music, more complex stuff. I am a big fan of Opeth for example. I never focused on music theory and just wanted to play. I tried to make fast playing and technique the foundation of my guitar playing but in the last two years I realized that technique can only ever be a tool to achieve a certain passage, but never the foundation. So I got into music theory as well, learned the major scale, the modes, chords, chord shapes…I tried to write songs to incorporate my growing knowledge, which sometimes turns out really cool and sometimes doesn’t because I don’t find the necessary creativity. I have a pretty good overview about a lot of stuff, intervals and sight reading to start with the more fundamental ones but also more advanced stuff like neapolitan chords, neoclassical harmony, modes of the harmonic minor or double harmonic major scale…but what sounds like a lot on paper actually turns out to be very difficult for me to use. I have to think really long about notes in a specific chord and where I can find them to arpeggiate them for example. The more I think about it the more overwhelmed I get by everything I have (or rather want) to practice, like improvising over a minor chord with different scales or improvising over a few chords and only using the specific chord tones of the harmony.
It is not that I know too little about music theory, I think I know a lot by know. But that is the point, that is all theory and not practice.

That is the one topic…the other one is, I still want to get to a high technical skill level to play like Paul Gilbert or even Muhammed Suicmez of Necrophagist. And seeing veeeery little progress over longer periods of time is not exactly helpful either.

I guess I should make some kind of practice plan to use my time more efficiently, but I don’t know where to start…sometimes I would like to have somebody to tell me “practice this, after that practice that, and when you are done start with this”. I really struggle to do this myself.

I always feel like I don’t have enough time to achieve everything I want to achieve and that burns me out a little bit at times. Which is stupid, because all of this should be a source of enjoyment and should help relax.

Anyone can relate? Or anybody has a good way of making practice plans?

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#2

It’s an issue of competition. Especially for males. We naturally want to be the best. And trying to overcome that is a lifelong process, but a worthwhile one to help you mature as a person.

Almost everything we do and care about can be reduced to sexual reproduction, we want to be the best most knowledgeable to look better than others and get girls. It’s very depressing if you think about it too much, but it is as far as I’m aware a fact.

I have to ask if you have other things in your life that give you status? A good job, other skills etc. I find others, me included who have taken to guitar/music and made it part of their personality for lack of better word, will suffer with this. It’s very natural, and will happen with any subject, take drawing for example,you make it one of your skills that you foucus on and you will develop the same overwhelmed feelings, others are so ahead of me… I have to learn so much… I see all the areas that I need to work on and because I know it’s going to takes years of hardvwork for possibly no reward socially, I’m overwhelmed.

Thats my experience on this and perspective. The only thing I can say to others and myself, is it really isn’t that important. Try enjoy the ride.

Another thing is when we look at others we think they know everything, yet most our fave players just jumped into it and owned what little they did know with enough confidence that from the outside they look like they know way more than they do. And only built their knowledge over a long period of time.

Most musicians really don’t know much theory at all. And if they know one thing more than you, you’ll think they know a 1000 things more.

It’s exactly like talking, you don’t need to know every word, it helps… But you don’t need it at all, just say what you feel honestly and with enthusiasm, and that trumps knowing everything.

#3

I’ve been there many times. It seems to be ‘par for the course’. A number of famous guitarists have noted that they never get to the point of ‘good enough’.

I think if you are oscillating between being frustrated with the time it’s taking to get better and thrilled with how far you’ve come then your on track…as long as you can say you’re better now than you were 6 months ago (random time frame…you choose one for yourself).

I pull myself out of it all by pulling up music that I can’t play and tackling a phrase or two, then incorporating it into my ‘usual’ playing’. Finding new ways to connect familiar shapes or patterns on the fretboard is pretty thrilling too…I think that part is endless, so I tend to just celebrate finding a new path to use as opposed to trying to learn them all.

#4

I can relate to this, absolutely. Abandoning the instrument completely, literally for decades, starting over and still not getting anywhere… I’m disappointed with myself and still can’t imagine how my favourite players got to the point where they are. I don’t know if my desire to become good at guitar will become less demanding, ever. I can achieve 130bpm sextuplets, every day, and 145-150 sextuplets on my good days since this March, but whether it will become stable or just a mirage, who knows.

#5

Talking to myself here:

We need small, well-defined, achievable goals every day. We also need some easy wins in every practice session.

When I follow this, my guitar playing makes me happy, or at least “positively focused and engaged”.

When I have too many vague goals - well - see title of this thread.

@gabrielthorn , reading your comments, and being familiar with your playing, I think you need to give yourself a clear, achievable musical goal in addition to the more technical and somewhat sterile “playing 6s at 150bpm” goal. I have the impression you are just giving yourself harder and harder exercises day after day. That’s not bad in itself, but in my opinion it should not be the only thing you do.

Maybe try to record a nice song start to finish that only requires 80% of your technical abilities or even less (making up numbers here) :slight_smile: . Focus on making it sound good. Rock & roll!

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#6

Cool thread. Yes, it’s a constant balance between being overwhelmed with what I want to learn and what I currently know. What helps is just really trying to be disciplined and just focusing on the journey and not the end result. Motivation comes and goes all the time, but if you have good playing habits and discipline, it will carry you far. Also, one thing I did that helps me enjoy still playing the instrument is spend limited time on social media. Because that’s where you see all the super talented people of all ages post short clips of everything you want to do haha. Comparison is the thief of joy. Avoiding an overflow of instagram clips maintains my joy. Finally, Ive said it before and I will say it again. My top influences that got me into guitar and that I go back to from time to time (subjective obviously) really can’t do all the technically difficult stuff. Slash, for example, and also my all time favorite isn’t that hard to copy licks from and become proficient with, but if you can do stuff like him live most people will love it.

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#7

Thank you all for replies! There were a couple of comments which were very helpful for me (and I only realized that my opening post is full of weird formulations and mistakes - shouldn’t write something when I am too tired).

Basically what @Thegent says is spot on I would say. That is a constant changing feeling. Yesterday I was feeling a bit down because of everything I don’t know/can not do yet. I took some time to think about it and let my thoughts flow with a nice cup of coffee and today I feel the exact opposite: I feel kind of proud of how far I have come.

@gabrielthorn I can totally relate to what you are describing, although I would say I am past the point of worrying about my overall playing speed. A year ago or so I still though about those exact numbers. On a very good day I got that notorious Paul Gilbert pattern to about 155 bpm (although at this speed I can neither feel nor hear if it is 100% clean…probably it isn’t). I didn’t try this recently though, but I have to say if I look back to how far I have come: that speed is craaaaazy fast! If you would have asked me four years ago I would never have believed that I can even move my left hand at this tempo.
But before I stray to far from what I wanted to say regarding “past this point”: I worry more about incorporating “fast playing” into my own style. And maybe this is because I hit a wall to much, but I consider 175bpm regular 16th notes “fast playing” now and am totally happy if I can pull something off cleanly at this tempo :smiley:
After all, I highly doubt that I will ever be a Paul Gilbert on stage…in the sense that I can pull those stunts that I am able to perform at home. I doubt that I will get there…but we will see!

@tommo This answer was so helpful because it reminded me on how often I forget to see the overall “big picture”. Sometimes I am so aware of what I can not do that I completely forget to have fun with the stuff I can do. Which is a lot I would say.
Well, instead of brute forcing my way into playing Technical Difficulties cleanly (still stuck at the intro, but I would consider that the hard part besides the ending) everyday, I should take some days in between to do something more easy which I can still enjoy. Recording is a good idea…I think I will start with something easy like Crazy Train :slight_smile:
At least this gives some kind of results and helps me to focus on clean recording.

@carranoj25 I am glad that I don’t use any form of social media (with which I mean the “big” ones like FB and Instagram, if you count YT and this forum this wouldn’t be true :smiley: ), but I would agree 100%. This is not only intimidating at some point, but also consumes time which I would rather spent otherwise on a lot of days. And yeah, I think I have a great discipline on some days, but I should definitely make some kind of practice plan to help me spend my time more efficiently.

@WhammyStarScream If I am being honest, the first few lines of your answer confused me a bit, but I get your intent. And I agree that I want to be good on the guitar (at least in part) to impress other players/people in general. I know that I WANT this for myself, but earning some kind of appreciation is always a source of motivation, at least for me. I play in a band and, without meaning to praise myself here, in a technical sense I would outplay our other guitarist. I don’t see any kind of competition here, since we play in a band because we want to have fun making music (which should after all always be the #1 goal…which I forget myself about every so often) but getting positive comments on my playing from him or other guitarists in general is always nice and definitely feels amazing. Some kind of reward for your work and spent practice time.
I have to say, I also have what you describe in other areas. Job-wise not so much (although I am proud of where I work now - not bragging, only happy that I was able to study something difficult, in the sense of happy with myself), I don’t care a lot about what others think about my job (here in Germany we have a saying, translated if would be something like “everybody is boiling with water” - so I don’t feel special is what I want to say). But another hobby of mine is calligraphy, and this is an ongoing obsession. On some days I think I don’t have the time to do this properly and want to drop it, on other days I hate the thought of dropping this hobby entirely and think I have plenty time, but should spend it more wisely. But the main reason for doing calligraphy of course, is having a nice handwriting which others do enjoy. Sure, I enjoy the execution and the learning process in the sense that I take time for myself and have a cup of coffee while practicing calligraphy, but getting nice comments on that is - like with guitar playing - at least a noticeable factor.

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#8

Try to imagine if no one on the planet was a musiction but you. I would think this overwhelmed feeling would go away.

Or if you were the only person alive on the planet, would you even keep playing at all?

I think these kinda thoughts can help us focus on to the aspects we really want to improve on. It takes it to it’s base form, and from there you can get a bit of perspective on whats making you feel overwhelmed and possibly help you stop feeling it. I doubt anyone will ever have all the knowledge and skill, so it’s a lost battle already, but if we can just enjoy the process of learning more, things will work themselves out.

I like the Bruce Lee quote: It’s like a finger pointing to the moon, don’t concentrate on the finger, or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory.