Trouble playing

Technique Critique
#21

Do you ever just play through entire songs in the daylight? And I mean like a regular song, rather than some kind of shreddy technical prog opus. Just something that’s more “doable”.

It seems to me that this would be more of an opportunity for setting yourself up to succeed. I’ve only seen you demonstrating with aimless noodling shreddy licks…and this is by no means a judgement of the music you’re playing…it’s just that without being inside your head, it doesn’t really sound like anything to me and perhaps the only redeeming quality would be if it were impressively and amazingly in perfect sync…which is currently what you’re struggling with.

So my suggestion is to take some of that pressure off and just play something that you can really “nail” in a wider variety of settings. The idea is that it might help you feel a little better and comfortable about your playing and give you more confidence to overcome your struggles.

I know that I can’t begin to understand what you’re going through with this, but I’ve kind of been observing your story from a distance for a while now and I would love it if any advice I could give would be helpful to you.

Good luck!

3 Likes
#22

This is what I thought immediately when seeing this video.

Man, clean your room.

1 Like
#23

@jax, interesting issue. Do you experience this with anything else besides guitar? Difficulty concentrating/not being distracted? Also, what about anxiety in general?

1 Like
#24

I have anxiety disorder and ADHD but as far as I’m aware I never had this problem till of two years ago

1 Like
#25

I was suspecting ADHD to be honest given the above thread, but didn’t think it was right to ask outright. I have 2 daughters - one diagnosed autistic and the other very likely autistic and ADHD. During the past year it has been both fascinating and terrifying seeing how anxiety, sensory overload, cognitive processing deficits and other issues impact everything in daily life. So maybe you are experiencing some sort of sensory overload with your surroundings and its taking your attention away - given that your room has all of your cool/interesting/meaningful stuff in your room it might be worth trying to practice in a less stimulating environment… a room that holds very little interest. If this guitar issue is a relatively new thing, then maybe you need to make sure you aren’t suffering a bit of burnout at the moment. I agree with others in this thread about making sure that you don’t put yourself under too much pressure.

Obviously, I’m not a professional in ADHD and/or anxiety, so maybe take my thoughts with a pinch of salt, but I think its worth taking the time to make sure that you priorise your health before guitar - your guitar playing will thank you for it. On the positive side, you know you can play more accurately if conditions allow, so there is definitely a way forward.

2 Likes
#26

I will do that thanks.

#27

Please let us know how you get on as I’m genuinely interested. Thoughout the journey with trying to understand my daughter’s issues I have come to realise that I do have a number of ADHD traits myself and I wonder how much these impact on my life and guitar playing…

edit: (both positively and negatively) For example, I can hyperfocus, but my memory for remembering songs/parts can be dire - one of the reasons I think why I have practically no repertoire! :rofl::sob:

#29

Alright s,o I finally got me some glasses going to try it a couple of days however I noticed like a small diffrence than what I said previously its snall.

#30

I have the same problem. I have been not looking at my hands and that seems to be helping a lot. Might work for you.

#31

tried tje glasses for a week no avail so no looking at my hands