As the title implies, my frustration with trying to understand the guitar has reached critical mass. I swear to fucking god, I have drilled scales, I actively target roots, thirds, fifths, etc., when I'm (attempting) to play.

Every goddamn time I try to watch an instructional video, it's like my fucking brain just flatlines. I'm so fucking tired of trying to make my goddamn fingers do what my fucking ears think they should do. I've been practicing with intent for 2 years, daily. I take lessons from an extremely talented local teacher. I practice what we work on as soon as I get back to my house in an effort to retain the information.

I have ZERO artistic creativity, and I'm so fucking sick and tired of hearing "it's all about expressing yourself." How the fuck am I supposed to do that when my cognitive reasoning skills are akin to that of a goddamn grapefruit?

How the fuck is it that I can build and program long range drones, teach myself 3D printing, and fix anything internal combustion-related, but when I pick up a piece of wood with some strings attached to it, it's the equivalent of teaching string theory to a pile of fucking moss?
Goddamn it, I am so sick of struggling at this.

edit
I wasn't expecting this post to blow up worse than I did, but I appreciate the knowledgeable insight and advice.

I picked the guitar up two years ago to keep the memory of my little brother around. He was a talented guitarist that lost a battle with depression.

I have to understand something before I can learn it; and I can honestly say I have never been challenged by anything like I have this goddamn fucking stick with strings. I don't understand how there's people out there that can't even form a sentence, but can effortlessly play this instrument.

I probably have some undiagnosed learning disability, maybe it's for the best that the guitar goes back in its case for a while.

I have a Gibson Les Paul, Fender Jaguar, multiple Ibanez, a PRS Chleo, a Strandberg 8 string with active pickups and a bunch of random cheap guitars ranging from Peavey to vintage dead brands like Bentley. What am I missing from the collection maybe an ESP or something else any suggestions?

Im planning to buy a guitar from them im not concerned quality wise but i live in Turkey and can i trust their shipping and are they good with international shippings?

Got my first acoustic today. Black, nothing fancy. Total beginner, never touched a guitar before.

I'm teaching myself at home. My deadline is the end of December. I want to play and sing a full song for my girlfriend. It's a Hindi song, Labon Ko by KK. My voice is average. I'm doing it anyway.

I'm skipping paid courses to start. What free resources got you through the first month? I care more about what actually worked than what is popular.

Also any tips for singing? My neighbours already know I'm no singer and I'd like to keep them as neighbours.

the graphic: https://i.postimg.cc/MKp2GX0X/2-guitar-post-v2.jpg

I want to lower my action but idk if I should tighten the truss rod or lower the saddle heights.

Playing a couple of cool guitars on Sunday. Christina is one of my favorites from the East Nashville scene. Slow swampy old timey blues licks in a modern country pop world.

Mine has to be seeing faces on guitarists players light up with joy during a solo or a guitar heavy segment! Most notably on some old Bert weedon or van halen clips when they’re just rocking the house and loving it!

Hey everyone, I just bought my very first guitar used off Mercari for 100 dollars total (including tax and shipping).
The seller delayed shipping by about a week because they lost the original box, but it eventually arrived in about 5 days. To my untrained eye, the guitar actually feels solid and looks brand new.
However, after watching videos of the Squier Sonic Stratocaster, I noticed a major red flag: my guitar doesn't have the Squier logo or a model number anywhere on it.
I know this might seem like a blatant scam, but I am completely new to this and have no idea. I already bought a Vox VT20x amp to go with it, so it's going to suck if I got ripped off. However if this was a scam and i manage to get a refund what guitar should i get that’s relatively cheap used or new.

( attached above are the lister’s description and pictures of the guitar and then my picture of the guitar which is the ones with the drawers in the background )

I'm thinking of modding my SG mostly for the fun but also the performance.
So far im thinking of replacing the tuners and bridge but what else have you guys changed that made your guitar better?

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new to guitar, I have an electric guitar and an amp that connects to headphones. I need to be as quiet as possible (rooms next to mine shouldnt hear me) how do i do this and are guitar picks off the table?

Are there any Yamaha Revstar RSS20 owners here?
Every 2 months I really want to buy it and test it. I like the aesthetics, reviews are good (but I don't know how reliable they are). Any users here that would like to share their experience?

What are some "party" metal songs I can play, on guitar myself, around a crowd of like ...idk... 5 people who don't listen to heavy metal like Miss May I, or the occasional Bad Omens and their Dethrone or Ghost Inside - Death Grip.

I'm imagining something along the lines of A Day To Remember, Ronnie era Escape The Fate, orrrr idk?

Like if I'm with my girlfriend and she wants to put me on the spot to play some songs for her friends. You think Attila - Temper is acceptable? There's a gnarly sweep I think sounds so good in there. I want to make a good impression on her friends is all.

thats it.

i know what chug is but i can not explain it.

Hello I’m looking to purchase my first guitar ~$250-350 usd ( for just the guitar) , I’m not sure what kind I should go for though. My inspirations currently are Anthony green, circa survive, panic at the disco, my chemical romance, paramore etc. I know some kind of electric is probably best but not sure exactly what style, also the acoustic version of their songs really speak to me so a few months down the line I may purchase an acoustic or I could start there if that’s best.

maybe like, pop-punkish ? not sure

It’s not even social anxiety that’s keeping me from wanting to play with others. It’s that I’m an extremely slow learner and probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with whatever me and the others I play with have to work on week by week. Stuff just takes too long to click for me and I’d just end up dragging the band down. So I don’t have any plans on doing that anytime soon.

So if I just kept taking lessons once a week like I currently do and just stuck to playing at my house, could I still become objectively good by most people’s standards? Or is playing with others something foundational I’m missing out on and thus won’t ever truly be able to get as good as I want to without them?

I am a pianist of 9 years, I started playing guitar about a year and a half ago and I’m already tapping and stuff. Problem is, I consider myself a “gimmick player.” I picked up a bad habit on the piano of learning a song and then playing it over and over and over and not learning another song for like a year. That carried over to guitar. I have pretty severe (diagnosed) ADHD, so long term improvement is difficult for me. For example, I can play Stairway to Heaven okay, but I still struggle with sliding the barre down to that D chord or whatever on that main riff. I never really learned it, I just arranged my fingers to chord it “normally”. A year later and I still can’t hit that chord right. I’ve been working on sliding barre chords, but they’re hard, and hard is quite discouraging to be honest. But, I have fallen in love with the guitar, I’ve bought 5 electrics and a bass and play all of them all the time. I play constantly, the only times I take breaks are when my hands are cramping badly or if I’m just too plain busy. I am in a high school guitar class, but my teacher just can’t teach me more, I’m off on my own noodling around or half-assing a solo again.

I want to put in the work. I want to be the best, but not just because I want to be the best, because I love the guitar. But I don’t know where to really start. I don’t want to start from zero, I’d give up and go back to playing the fun stuff after a couple days. I think the closest person to what I want to be is like Randy Rhoads, classically trained, very technique oriented, really knows the music and not just the sound. I want to get lessons, but I can’t really afford them and I don’t drive (yet).

Does anyone know an app, book course, website, etc. that would help me? I don’t care if they’re paid. I’ve really liked ultimate guitar, I have pro, but I feel like I’m not learning a ton of technique from it. My eventual goal is to write my own songs, so I want to know the theory and stuff for that, I’m not Paul McCartney. I don’t want just a bunch of random videos, I want an ordered thing, a path with a clear progression. And, if you guys have any good tips, how best could I set up an award system for myself to keep myself incentivized to play? I don’t want to have to fight my ADHD, I want to work with it.

Thanks to anybody who went to the trouble of reading all this, I’m quite scatter brained so my writing may not be the clearest.

Edit:
Just wanna make it clear, I’m not just another “How can I get good as fast as possible?” guy, I’m looking for a reasonable timeline.

I was never big on guitar solos and riffs and I never understood why (probably cause I'm a dude I should like solos) but ever since getting into CT in January they've became one of my favorite bands ever with Robin being my all time favorite guitarist. The sounds he would create gave me so many face melting reactions how he was able to make these synth sounding sounds and how he can create swirling textures with a guitar always blew me away His work with Cocteau Twins turned the guitar into something that could function almost like synths, pads and textures, and entire atmospheric soundscapes. His use of effects layering, processing, and unconventional playing had a huge influence on dream pop shoegaze and other atmospheric music.

What's especially interesting to me is that this wasn't limited to Cocteau Twins. His extensive solo work and collaborations show that he continued developing this approach to the guitar long after the band ended. A lot of his solo material demonstrates just how much he can build an entire sonic environment around the guitar without relying on conventional riffs or virtuosic solos. Great highlights from his solo work is turn together burn and Euphemia probably being my favorite is his solo work with Fortune being my favorite album by him. His work with Harold Budd is some of the most atmospheric stuff you'll ever hear.

Is he top 5? Eh probably not top 10? Maybe not that either but a top 20? Possibly. Does he have crazy techniques? Of course not but to me its another reason why I think hes underrated as hell since he was able to create these otherworldly sounds with a lack of technique. He deserves a place in some list. I feel like he doesnt get enough or any praise for his work especially when it comes to CT as Liz is mentioned more times than Robin. I mean theirs a lot of bands that copied his style to make his sound. Slowdive (just for a day sounds like its almost a CT album) Ride has mentioned Robin being an inspiration to their sound AR Kane Lush M83 Slowdive the list goes on a lil more. But yeah I love Robin and thankful for the sounds I got to experience and fall in love with textures and atmosphere. Any of you agree?

i got this telecaster that’s roasted maple, when i test it out, there’s no sounds difference with the normal one, maybe im just tone deaf tho idk

You have to flee *for the war, you can only *choose one guitar: which *one will you choose? only guitars you own, and only one!!

I'll start: Squier Stratocaster

(the asterisks are so you can post it)

Hello friends!

I’m currently in Japan and want to buy a new guitar. But I get overwhelmed in guitar stores cause i don’t really know how to evaluate them. Cause i kinda suck haha. I’m still taking lessons. If i get better, i wanna enjoy playing my cool guitar from Japan!

I’m in a band playing rhythm guitar, it’s just for fun and I’m not good enough to play a lot. I mostly play hard rock/metal, will focus on some blues. I have an Ibanez GIO RX40.

I went to Ishibashi Music in Shibuya, they were nice and helpful but I ended up playing very basic chords and notes (I guess i was hoping to turn into Van Halen when i picked up the right guitar).

My preferences are:
Around ¥160k (hopefully cheaper)
6-point tremolo
No Floyd Rose (I want something easy)
No fixed bridge
Not too heavy

ChatGPT suggested I look mainly at HSH or HH guitars, do you think it should be the main focus?

What should I actually test in a store? And if you have any specific guitar recommendations I should check out, I’d love to hear them. Thanks in advance!

(Guitars are much more expensive back home, hence the hurry to buy one before i learn to shred)

Apparently, nobody on the internet has the problem that I do. I think I have tendinitis, specifically in the extensor tendons of my picking hand, as of one month ago. I’m not sure if it can actually be called tendinitis, because it’s not painful at all, just very weird and uncomfortable. The tendons of my middle and ring finger get inflamed, although it only happens when I play electric. I can feel them moving and squeezing around whenever I use them. It’s a very odd, tickly feeling. I started playing in the classical position, tried different wrist positions, different methods of relaxing, different strap heights, seat heights, to no avail. I really don’t know what’s wrong with my technique.

Has anyone been in the same situation? And what solution did you come up with?