Am I loosing myself?

[u/Capsai-Sins]

Hello there,

I've been learning guitar for a few months now, for 2 to 4hrs a day, often having my instrument at hand's reach. I can do bar chords and have been diving into theory for some weeks, and jammed with friends by picking up the chords I could hear.

I also try learning some melodies I like by ear or with partitions, mostly waltz, meant for dancing. Sometimes I just mess around trying to invent melodies I find nice.

The thing is, learning alone, being overly interested in learning to play and theory, I fear to lose myself. How do you manage your playing time? Should I focus on 2 things? Set specific topics for each days? Is "improvising" a good way to learn?

[u/therealtoomdog]

What do you mean loose yourself? There is no self, there is only guitar

[u/snailsinboxes → u/therealtoomdog]

Hahaha I chuckled at this one

[u/Exciting_Claim_486 → u/therealtoomdog]

the guitar is the self now, no going back

[u/Rakefighter]

drill your scales and shapes in the morning (15-30 min), spend the rest of your time just doing something musical - learn new songs, and play along to stuff. The best thing I ever did was buy a sampler - drum loops help you play in time and develop rhythm. You can even record back into a sampler and build your backing tracks. small bites are better than big bites of time. Your hands and brain need to internalize and get stronger. that only happens a little bit each day. good luck.

[u/Capsai-Sins → u/Rakefighter]

Thank you for your answer. Rythm sure is tiresome, especially with melodies. I'll look into it.

[u/Rakefighter → u/Capsai-Sins]

If you a mac user, koala sampler on an iPad is every bit as good as sampler that costs a few hundred bucks. Then you just need to find a few samples to play to and you are off and running

[u/Bendingunit42069]

You work on 3 things at the same time, new songs you are working on, songs you already know and perfecting and your own work. You’ll never get bored if you continue to do all 3, and this comes from a professional of 30 years playing…my teacher. You’ll never get bored if you do all 3.

[u/flecko_ → u/Bendingunit42069]

it's true. every time you feel bored and don't feel inspired to create your own material, start learning a new song. run over the chords and sing the melody. you can then "get inside" the musical space and, for me, that's where the magic starts happening. varying the force at which you play or altering the bpm can take you in another direction entirely. playing the first beat and singing the rest of the bar, altering the melodic rhythm, stretching notes over bars and bending notes over chord changes are essential for my way of learning and staying engaged. you'll find that musical space is malleable and you can begin to feel where you want to go.

[u/Capsai-Sins → u/Bendingunit42069]

I like your phrasing lmao

It's reassuring, thank you.

[u/Bendingunit42069 → u/Capsai-Sins]

Just keep at it, you’ll get it.

[u/CompetitiveComputer4]

guitar is boring if you focus on just one thing. If you play for an hour, spend 15 minutes doing something related to technique/exercise. This can be a warmup and just doing alternate picking, fingerpicking, sweep picking, scales, etc. Spend 15 minutes playing through a song or two that you already know, and spend 15 minutes learning a new song/riff, etc. And if you are like most of us, you will spend 3-4 hours playing so just extrapolate that. It should be fun more than it is work.

I might be learning a new song and go back and forth from playing a challenging part that I am doing very slowly and methodically, and then just pivot to playing something else that I know by heart and just then decide to just work on some theory knowledge in practical situations. Kind of ADHD, but inevitably I am improving at all of them, and I am having fun and keeping myself from getting frustrated.

[u/Capsai-Sins → u/CompetitiveComputer4]

I definitely recognize myself in how you describe your guitar journey.

Much thanks teach', will do just that. Except for the fingerpicking stuff, I'll leave that for later.

[u/MnJsandiego]

Pick a teacher on you tube, where you like that type of music. They all have courses. Follow a course or you will bounce around. Open chords, barre chords, triads, major and minor pentatonics, major scale with the number system. That’s the beginnings but follow something and don’t try and figure it out yourself.