Overwhelmed?

[Ricky B]

Being new here I was wondering if anyone else has felt overwhelmed joining this site. Every lesson is an “oohh I want to play that” moment and I’m having a really hard time focusing on sticking to a particular lesson until I have it down. I’m getting irritated with myself just jumping around and not really mastering anything I’m learning. I’ve been thinking of just keeping track of the lessons I really want to learn based on posts here in the forum but that list would grow so quickly and so large I’d be in the same boat. I’m joined here to truly learn how to play, and I don’t feel I can do that jumping lessons like an idiot..anybody else experience this?

Topic

[charjo]

Ricky,
This is an internet wide problem for me and many others, I’m sure. I think you have to stick with one lesson until it’s 80-90% there and reap the benefits of the concepts within it. Maybe get one lesson a month down to your satisfaction if you want to take part in the challenge. A lesson often becomes easier to play when you come back to it later. Brian has some concept lessons, eg. CAGED, arpeggios, melody from chord shapes. Reviewing those lessons might help make learning new lessons easier. Good luck. Too much choice, not a bad problem.
John

[Dana L]

I’m just a beginner and I was like that before I joined active melody. Jumping all around on youtube and felt like I was getting nowhere fast. Almost quit a few times. when I joined here I just started picking out the lessons that sounded good to my ear IE ep291. I like pretty sounding songs and that’s why I wanted to play guitar is for that type of music.i’m not interested in hard rock and roller stuff. So what I do is to pick out some I really want to do and put them in my favorites and do one at a time. So when I get these down I’ll start looking for something new not until then. hope this helps .
Dana

[Billy]

Oh yeah, sounds very much like me.
A magpie flitting from one shiny object to another, I never did get myself sorted out and I’ve not picked a guitar up in quite awhile now to learn a lesson..someday I’ll get back in the swing of things..

..Billy..

[JoLa]

Yes, Ricky, absolutely! The internet wide options got my head spinning before I found Active Melody! I also kinda feel like that with all the awesome lessons here, there are many that I have started and I keep jumping into new ones all the time.

What helps me the most is the monthly challenges, I have been doing them consistently from the very beginning (July ’17), and that’s what drives my progress. Each challenge is a project with a due date and I just have to do it no matter what. Nothing else will get me to practice a lesson as much as the monthly challenges.

Now, practicing just one lesson for the whole month would be also boring so while I am working on the monthly challenge, I also have other lesson projects at different stages. That also really helps because in order to really feel comfortable with a song, I need more than a month’s worth of practice. In fact, there are some that just stuck with me and I play them on a regular basis for more than a year now and still need to work on those. So that’s a never-ending process but I try to keep it fun. Of course, I still get “distracted” by the new gems that Brian just keeps putting out there but that’s ok. As long as I make it a point to just dedicate my focus on 2 or 3 lessons per month, I know that I’m getting somewhere.

And nothing is more satisfying that putting the project together as “final” which means recording it for the showcase or challenge submission. In fact, that’s when I tend to “polish” the performance the most – when I am trying to record it the best way possible. It takes me 20-25 or more takes, sometimes even on multiple days to get it done but the focus and dedication I muster at that time pays off in the long run.

I love what the internet allows us to do these days hence we are all here but it is also a curse. You just have to find your method, the driving force that will keep you on the track. For me, it’s the monthly challenges and “projects” with other people. I’ll be curious to see what works for others, too.

JoLa

[Richard G]

Hi JoLa, To answer your question and continue this thread …. My driving force generally comes from one or more of Brian’s weekly lessons and not necessarily the Challenges. If I hear a lesson that inspires me, I just have to learn it to a level or standard that I’m happy with. (90% plus)

As you said, there is definitely an advantage in learning a few numbers at a time to prevent staleness and tedium. If I see/hear anything on YouTube that ‘strikes a chord’ (no pun intended) and are not ready to give it any justice I will save it to favourites and come back to it later, much in the same way as the ActiveMelody lessons. Needless to say, the favourites list gets longer.
So Ricky, you are definitely not alone in this respect.

Richard

[Canada Moose]

“Option paralysis”: too many choices makes it hard (or impossible) to make a choice. I’ve had it bad for a long time.

Like Jola said, the monthly Challenge helps to focus my efforts, but what happens is I hear a piece of music somewhere or a new lesson and it captures my attention but before I master (and record) it something else comes along and I get diverted into the new project without finishing the other project. The internet has amplified this problem.

The only advice that ever helped me stay focused on 1 project was this:
– it doesn’t matter what song I choose to learn right now; there’s always a million other songs and any one’s as good as another; all that matters is i’m learning and playing and enjoying what i’m doing.

I wish I could follow my own advice.

[sunjamr]

Several years ago I made a list of my favorite lessons – ones that I wanted to keep in my permanent repertoire. There are 20 lessons in my list, and every few months I spend a couple of days and play through all of them. I tried to get a representative sampling of different styles and genres, such as classic 12 bar blues, soul, jazz, funk, minor and major key stuff. The problem is, Brian often comes out with a new lesson that I like better than one of the examples in my repertoire list. So I have to drop one off my list and add the new one. But that’s OK with me, because I never totally forget the lessons that have fallen off my active repertoire list, and I can relearn them fairly quickly if I want to.

Sunjamr Steve

[Ivan]

Hey Ricky, try sticking to the monthly challenge and choose one other lesson that peaks your interest. This way you’ll have one lesson (the challenge) to add to your repertoire every four weeks. The other lesson can be be a floater that can dropped, switched or completed according to your your interest level. This way you’ll have 12 months of structured challenges that will raise your skill level exponentially and a bunch of bits and pieces that you pick up from your bouncing around lessons. It will add up in the end.

Ivan

[Ricky B]

Thanks everyone for all the helpful advice, it’s always nice to know you’re never alone in feeling a certain way.

[Klickitat Jim]

Attention deficit is easy these days. 40 minutes a week noodling then 40hrs of pedal/amp/guitar reviews on YouTube. Most of us have well detailed plans to be guitar gods… some day… but right now “I wonder what’s new on Andertons?”

Everyone is different. Different learning methods, different motivations. Goals etc. I started over fresh about a year ago. Gave myself new rules. 1. Its a hobby, has to be fun. 2. Its just for me. No pressure. 3. Any time spent enjoying music is better than 99% of the other distractions in my life. So it doesn’t matter how good im getting if rule 1 and 2 are met.

I started the new journey by learning theory. Not all of it, but enough. I put it away at Modes… Theory helps me because I’m a guy that needs to know how and why. Not just what.

Active Melody came along and I’ve gotten a lot out of it. Once i was able to play-ish a few tunes, i started trying to make my own tunes.

Im at another wall right now, and its my current objective. Learn the dang fretboard. Using CAGED, im committing daily time to really learning (getting it in my fingers) the 7 main chords, in all 5 shapes, where the 1,3,5 triad is in each shape, and the surrounding maj scale and maj/min pents. Im using simple tunes to do this. Like an 8 bar blues in D but using all C shapes, then A, then G, etc. Slow going, but getting somewhere with it. I’m finding the current popular method failing me… pattern 1, pattern 2 etc. Like most people, Im able to go to any E or A shaped bar chord without thinking. I am trying to get to the point that i can do that with all 5 shapes, any chord, without too much thought, and also just know what the appropriate surrounding notes are.

I think it will get me over the hurdle i face. Memorizing songs just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Meanwhile, when im not drilling my CAGED stuff, i need to work on my ear and figuring out rhythms. So i am going to take a swing at transcribing out some easy oldies. Might help my lick-cabulary too.

Cheers
Jim

By the way, gear videos aren’t ALL bad… my playing hasn’t improved drastically, but at least I’ve gotten better gear. New Martin, new Strat, new Blues Jr Tweed, new pedalboard. All of it Rule 1 and Rule 2 complaint;-)

[Author]

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