I get frustrated with my playing a lot too, though many have said I’m a good player. But because I’m not evh or Jason Becker I get upset.
At the end of the day… no ones paying me… It’s a bit mental to get frustrated. I started guitar because I loved guitar music, then I got caught up in the rat race trying to shred. I am always trying to get over that. I know how you feel slyvai 
I think your playing is great.
Thanks dude, exactly how I feel, people used to tell me I was good years ago, but now it’s just my mum so that maybe doesn’t count 
I guess I had some fans when I was in a band but I lost interest and got sloppy as time went on, was more interested in getting wrecked and getting laid I guess, so I got some criticism for playing badly which was deserved really but knocked my confidence.
Maybe I was built up a bit too much and for some reason I thought I could get drunk and high all week and then just pick up the guitar at the gig without any practice or warmup and be as good as Vai, which of course ended badly a lot of the time.
I know it’s crazy to get so frustrated as I’m too old to be famous and no one’s really listening. I seriously have to think about laying off because I get so angry and wanna throw the guitar through the window somedays, it’s not healthy.
But most of the time I do love playing and the challenge of improving and trying to play like my heroes still keeps me going I guess. Also I like to annoy my neighbours 
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One thing I learned from video games (and real life…) , is when you got everything, completed everything, are at the top. You lose the drive to even bother. The old saying “it’s lonely at the top” is so true.
I am trying to realize that the fact I do have things to improve on, is what life is, and makes it worth living. If I can control my ego and be humble then life gets a lot better.
I’m a bit of an egotistical bitch tho so it’s a work in progress lol. I’m very interested in Buddhism for those reasons. But my environment is rat race central. And it can be hard to believe that where I am is ok, when I’ve constant fear of missing out. But thats life right
Your posts make the forum more enjoyable for me. Gives me stuff to work on. I’m still struggling with that run, but it’s fun
What I am currently doing is just playing various motifs and creating an atmosphere for myself, personally. It really helps me get over playing fast.
I don’t want to go off topic but I saw your frustrations in myself n hope I can at least convey that your frustration is very relatable. Playing for myself is something that I found grounds me a lot and lets me realize I am actually achieving what is meaningful to me.
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Well, I did not stop practicing at all but since covid times kicked off, I started drinking more and more. After joining my band this year (nobody else drinks there, just one member, occasionally) I started to drink even more - although there was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life this time.
I think I made progress on the guitar (it was the only thing I did apart from sleeping and getting super drunk every day), but I felt like I’m falling apart both physically and mentally. I decided to quit drinking for at least half a year (not even consuming beer occasionally) and see how it goes after that. I’m not saying I won’t ever drink again, but 40%+ drinks are a no for me. I don’t want to kill my liver before I can play Train of thought. And I see some hope I can make it one day.
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@gabrielthorn well dude I can relate as I’m in a constant battle with similar issues.
What I can say is that your progress on the guitar has been amazing I just can’t believe you only started playing a year ago, you are way better than me and a lot of players I’ve known. You have a natural talent that not many players have so you should feel good about it and continue to nurture it, could lead to some great things.
I think we all feel that way at times. I feel that way about so many things in my life certainly, not just guitar playing. Waking up every day realizing you aren’t where you want to be or should be is a tough pill to swallow for me.
I can certainly relate to this as well.
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For sure me too @Fossegrim, myself I’m never content with where I am.
I had a high pressure job that I worked hard to get myself into and it was too much, trying to keep up with everyone around me day after day month after month year after year made me ill towards the end. But a year after taking redundancy I find myself missing it and find myself without purpose, so I’ve been trying to get back to work again for some time, not to mention that there’s financial needs to meet.
Ideally I would work 3 days a week but that’s not possible in todays society and I know I would struggle to limit myself to 3 days anyway once I get going unless the employer enforced it.
Striking a balance is the key but very difficult with everything going on in all our lives, too many variables, expectations and responsibilities.
@SlyVai I can see both sides in that maybe it drives some, staying hungry as they say, but then the other side where you never get to enjoy anything because your constantly worried about what your next move is going to be, and a feeling that time is running out for you.
Work/life balance? What’s that? You hear that a lot, but the reality is that most people don’t have the luxury for it. That’s for people with the resources and power for that kind of balance. The expectation for the rest of us is that you spend the majority of your waken life doing something you don’t really want to do, with people you can’t stand, and the other sliver of the time either asleep or considering whether or not you have time to make yourself dinner. Pretty dark, but….
In a more related question to original post, what does your single string picking look like?
I completely agree @Fossegrim you are right, unfortunately, and that’s what I find unacceptable no matter what your job is. 8 hours a day out of 24 sounds acceptable but is not when you take into account everything else and even the weekend is influenced by Monday morning looming on the horizon and lack of sleep during the week.
That’s why I think a 3 day week is the ideal. Won’t happen in our lifetime tho I doubt, maybe 4 day week or very flexi working hours but not 3 day week.
I’ll record my single string playing and create a new thread I think, this one is getting a bit long. If you could find the time to critique it I would appreciate it. I do have problems with synchronisation though, for certain phrases, like Yngwies single string 4s, like for example
-5-8-7-5-5-8-7-5-
that’s something I have recognised and it’s never only a left hand problem, mostly is I guess, but the different tension of the strings when you change from one fret to another does affect picking I find.
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@SlyVai thats why I mentioned it, I want to see if we can sort out your picking, and that’s why I mentioned that. If you find that you feel jumpy or spastic or uncontrolled like you indicated, you will see it there too. I’m thinking there is just something small. I also think that there are some things you might have to train yourself to ignore too.
Hi @Fossegrim,
I haven’t forgotten, but I’ll have to try tomorrow to record some single string stuff my hand is bad today and I wanna give it a break.
@SlyVai take your time. Are you generally okay with the fours licks? The reason I ask is because those tend to be a little trickier on the left hand, and I don’t want you to have to focus too much on what that is doing for this. If you have a repeating single string lick you can play relatively well, choose that one. It doesn’t have to be super fast or anything.
Hi @Fossegrim,
I did a quick video for you with some single string playing, I hope you can see it ok, if not I will try and get a closer one for you.
Any help you can give would be appreciated, I was going to post on a new thread but I didn’t want to make a big thing out of it.
This week I did a bit of experimenting with elbow playing and it seems quite good, but as I am used to playing USX stuff it was a bit weird but was good on single string, seemed more consistent and uniform.
I notice that when I slow right down on the low strings to try and fix issues there I use my elbow to go slow and get a consistent picking motion, but then when I speed up I go back to wrist again, which I find hard on the lower strings E and A for sure. This also happened when I tried to speed up the elbow playing in general I found, using my wrist is a hard thing to get out of but I’m not convinced that I should or not anyway.
I do have a problem with my wrist for sure though, sometimes I can’t articulate it fast enough or cleanly enough and I sometimes mess up the escape stroke with too much of a ‘twitch’.
@SlyVai I’ll take a look at it as soon as I get back from the grocers. Also feel free to PM too if your more comfortable with that.
@SlyVai Im going to try and make a video for you because it will probably be better for me to show you while I explain instead of just write a post. Generally I think that wrist thing you have going on is actually pretty ideal though, and I’ll bring it up in the vid.
Do you anchor on the bridge at all? To me your picking looks great, looks like you’re floating a lot tho?
I find anchoring the palm solidly on the bridge creates a perfect leverage point to get tighter picking.
Yeh good point dude you are right, I try to anchor on the bridge but on the Strat I find it harder.
I also find that if I hang on to the whammy bar it stabilises things on the whole but limits my escape motions slightly. Not that I see that as a solution just it’s something I notice when I’m trying to play Vai stuff and hanging onto the whammy bar because it’s loose on the Strat so dangles and is hard to grab.
You ever tried anchoring with the pinky? It took me awhile to get used to it, but now its very natural and helps stabilize my hand a lot if I’m semi floating or doing a gypsy jazz type picking. I notice you’re half way there using the pinky gliding on the body. Might just take you sticking it out.
Be like Dr evil lol
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yes, I was doing that before more prominently, on the Strat at least, and you can still see the remnants of it yeh, I tried to stop it but never really could.
I will try it again if you think it’s worth it. It’s one of those trial and error things, that did work for me for some amount of time but I sort of felt it was limiting in other ways and restricting my wrist movements so I made a point of dropping it.
What worries me most is, although I have had years of not playing, all of my motions and bad habits from years of playing before, like twitchy escape motions and my dodgy wrist motion, are so burnt in I don’t know if I will be able to change them. I have tried, but nothing sticks. I have the feeling the best way forward is to make some small changes but I will have to concentrate really hard to get them to stick I think.
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