everyone is better than me

Jangle_Jamie

Crisis of confidence, but everyone seems to be amazing at guitar. Inspiring - yes. Intimidating? Yes!!!

pdg

This seems to be a common modern-day affliction. There's always some 10-year- old on youtube who can play better than anyone else ever could. Being aware of the greats like never before, we compare ourselves to them. Maybe we forget that the point is self-expression and authentic communication. I like to think that a goal is to make the guitar "transparent," so that the player communicates his or her feelings directly to the listener (as opposed to communicating what you can "do" with a guitar).

flaco

I feel you! Even when I play something that follows the chords ok I feel like everyone else around me is way better!

paulmcevoy75

I think the answer to this is another question: are you playing guitar because you enjoy it and enjoy the process of practicing and getting better, or are you playing guitar to wow other people with your skills?

If it's the former, and it should be, than it doesn't matter how good anyone else is. If it's the latter, you're not going to enjoy the process very much because you'll be waiting until you can impress someone else, who might not be impressible.

Jangle_Jamie

I was about to say 'ignore my post, I'm miserable today'. It's about making great music, but that's in the ear of the beholder! I wish I could wow others with my playing, and by others, I mean other players.

wim

Buco

You wowed me every time you posted something. No BS.
The only time I'm bothered when someone is a really excellent guitar player is when that person is excelling at something else as well. That's when I'm like "no fair, do you really have to kickass in more than one area of life".
But otherwise I'm just motivated to play more when I hear something inspiring. And that's the thing for me when I have a desire to match up to this and that player. It's not so I can impress, it's because they inspire me.

marcelodamon

I admire what PDG, flaco, Buco, Wim, and Paul had to say. The feeling of someone playing "better" than your current level of playing is subjective of course, and in the end, as it was stated, it is about "making great music".

Be true to yourself, as a player, and, in my humble opinion, the best thing you can do for yourself to be able to communicate effectively with other musicians, is develop your ear as best you can. Now, while perfect pitch almost universally cannot be learned as an adult (aside from some recent research at the University of Chicago which shows it may be possible with pharmacologic intervention to reopen the period of heightened neural plasticity that we all had from ages 1 to 6), relative pitch can absolutely be learned. I have both, and think that, from a purely improvisational point of view, that relative pitch, being able to accurately play what you both feel and hear over the chord structure of a song, is far more important than the circus act of naming pitches.

Additionally, and this is something I was just talking to my wife about today (as she is an artist of multiple mediums), I feel it is of the utmost importance, as well, to practice efficiently and focus on things you currently cannot play, hear, and/or do. Without constantly pushing your boundaries, both in terms of your ear training, and the physical act of playing guitar, then you will not make leaps and bounds in your playing progress. This seems to be the common element in those that are quite far ahead of others (often with less years with the instrument). Look at Bireli through the years, traversing many styles, and always improving. The same can be said of Antoine Boyer, and countless others.

I play many styles myself, and have my practice routines planned out as such (even in spite of being an emergency medicine doctor) to get the most out of my limited time available:

Monday - Gypsy Jazz
Tuesday - Classical Guitar
Wednesday - Straight Ahead Jazz
Thursday - Flamenco Guitar
Friday - Shred/Fusion
Saturday - Brazilian Guitar (6 and 7 string)
Sunday - Guitarra Portuguesa

Now for most of these styles, I will simply transcribe. Having perfect pitch makes this easier of course, but as above, even if I didn't have that, I would still rely on my relative pitch to do so. Jamey Aebersold and David Baker stated in a summer camp I went to when I was a kid, that the more focused and organized your practice sessions are, the more progress you will make.

Finally, as I am getting long-winded in this response. Guitar is a very physical instrument, so it is up to you to always edit the amount of physical force you are using when playing. When I studied classical guitar at the university, the minimal force / minimal movement principle was also taught and reinforced. Only use the minimum amount of both to produce the quality of sound you deem appropriate out of your instrument. Waste no movement nor exert any extra force. To reinforce this idea into your practice routines, get a mirror and observe your hands when fretting and picking. Remove all extraneous movements and excessive force. Then, with whatever your transcribing, slowly, but surely get the phrase, solo, or piece up to speed. Many years ago, I spent an inordinate amount of time transcribing Django, and particularly early Stochelo and Jimmy Rosenberg; since they play the fastest. I moved on to transcribing Bireli and some of the more modern masters once the issue with technique was out of the way. I have the same practice mindset for all other styles I play.

Don't de discouraged. The slogan for gypsy jazz, if you haven't hear it already is: "The first 30 years are the worst"!

Indeed Mr. Holdsworth, indeed.

lorenzop

I'm about 3-4 years into this GJ, and starting from only knowing a few cowboy chords - so GJ has been a rude way to begin with guitar.
I know I'm not the worst player ever because I'm better than I was a year ago, maybe even better than a month ago.
I'll admit that sometimes I pick up the guitar and wonder if I've ever actually played a guitar before - it feels so foreign.
And often I have the sentiment . . . Ok, Ok I'm missing something here, I must have skipped something, I've got to start over . . .

lucky

We've all been there mate - it's very easy to be intimidated by players with fantastic chops but they will have put the hours in. The best players I know stay up until the small hours playing, and play while they are eating their breakfast.

Ultimately, maths is the downfall for most of us. If you practice for 1 hour a day (I can barely manage half that these days ...) you'll have 365 hours down in a year. Someone practising 8 hours a day will will have 2920 hours in the same period.

But it gets worse. The mythical number to aim for is supposedly 10,000 hours for complete mastery. The other guy will have that down in just under 3 and a half years, at which point you will still be at 1277 hours - which is less than your competitor played in his first six months.

You will get there eventually though - it will only take you 27 and a bit years to catch up with your rival. Even if you up your game to 3 hours a day, you're still looking at 10 years.

This is probably why folk say that the first 30 years are the hardest.

The best example of this recently is Christiaan van Hemet - when he first starting posting here, I don't think he could play the guitar at all, or not much. He talked about his routine, basically committing himself to (I think) 6 hours practise a day, and now he's a master.

Of course if you are playing 8 hours a day you're definitely doing something wrong!

The moral of the story is - don't be too hard on yourself. You can play 8 hours a day if you really want to and get to guitar nirvana pretty quickly. Or you can do what the rest of us do and you know, have a life, and get together with mates and a beer and play some tunes from time to time.

voutoreenie

Great thread. Love this from Marc:

The slogan for gypsy jazz, if you haven't hear it already is: "The first 30 years are the worst"!

But seriously, it's a good reminder that we're always students, even the masters. Paul is so spot on with this as well:

are you playing guitar because you enjoy it and enjoy the process of practicing and getting better

Playing GJ/rest stroke and learning this style is arduous and learning it can feel almost Sisyphean...certainly felt that way to me at first, especially between all the knuckle blisters on my right hand and trying to navigate between the huge chord voicings until they became natural. But even then, I still found joy and not only in how enjoyable playing swing music is but also learning the technique - no matter how small or large, each/every breakthrough provided endless motivation to persevere even when I felt like everything I was doing sucked. And now, almost 8 years later, I'm finding even more joy in playing swing and refining/adding to my technique than ever.

Anyway OP, I too think you sound fantastic in everything you post on here and even if you want to throw it into a river sometimes, keep playing that damn guitar! All us sickos need to keep uniting, especially when we're feeling at a low point in playing...so to that end, looking forward to the next time you post something!!