Am I doing this to myself?
I have to admit it. For the greater good of the blog, the loyal Fretheads that come and read my rants on being focused and having the right attitude, blah blah blah, and for my own sanity I have to be up front and honest. As much as I’ve been trying, I’m just not feeling my studying right now. Neither my guitar practicing/learning or my language studies have been doing well recently.
The hardest part is that I’m not sure what it is. I’m motivated, I concentrate when I’m doing the work, and I feel like I’m working on the right material. But I just can’t seem to get over the hump.
I just can’t make the connection fire. Some synapse in my brain is playing the hand-slap game with me and I’m losing every time.
So what do you do when you’re moving backward?
Normally at this point in the post – after the commercial break of clicking on the “Read More” link I have some answer already laid out where I can give you some advice on staying motivated and pushing through. But today, I just don’t have it. The problem is not trying to come up with ways to break out of the routine; I don’t think my routine is inherently bad. I have plenty to work on, and as I mentioned earlier I think I’m going about it the right way. The problem is that I just can’t seem to retain any of what I’m working on.
Though it’s not guitar-related, I’ll give you an example. Every Sunday morning I go to the local Thai temple for a language class taught by one of the monks. The class is expository, which means it doesn’t generally follow a week-to-week progression. If someone comes in with a question we head down that path. If not, the monk will pick a topic and roll with it. This teaching method is very Buddhist in nature and works well. (My martial arts classes are generally taught in the same manner.) In the class I can read Thai the best. I know all of the rules for creating the sounds, I typically help everyone else out with the answers when people are confused, and sometimes I have to clarify what the monk is teaching because of a language communication issue.
But my vocabulary sucks. I can’t memorize words to save my life. One guy in particular is blowing right past me in the vocabulary/speaking aspect and it’s pissing me off. Not pissing me off that he’s doing well… it’s pissing me off that I’m not progressing as I think I should be. I know I study a lot more than he does, but it makes me wonder if I’m studying the right way. I can’t understand why – being so good at reading and knowing the rules, etc – I am struggling so much to memorize the words.
Guitar has been the same way recently. Memorizing jazz standards has been kicking my ass up and down the street and I can’t seem to get past it. I practice and practice and practice and yet I still can’t get some songs under my fingers.
I also wonder if I’m in my own head too much. Am I worrying too much about the rules and the technical details? (That goes for both Thai and guitar.) Am I doing something, studying/practicing some way, that is putting too much of a restriction up and thereby making it impossible for me to break through to the other side?
This one will hit you on the way out
Now, I absolutely know about how it takes time, how everyone learns different and goes at their own pace, yadda yadda yadda. I get it; heck, I write about it here on Fretterverse all the time. I’m always the one telling other people not to give up and stay motivated. But there comes a point for almost all of us when we just want to throw the stuff out the window and give up. I’m just about at this point right now.
Now it’s a question of “where do I go from here?” I feel like I’m doing the right stuff but it doesn’t seem to be sticking, so am I really doing the right stuff after all?
And so today I’m flipping the switch. I’m turning the tables and looking to you guys for information, suggestions, and advice. I’ve exposed my own dilemma and am circling the wagons to see what our small yet totally awesome Fretterverse community can come up with.
Any and all advice is welcome. The entire community will certainly benefit from the discussion, which is why I’m talking about it in the first place. If you have an idea or a thought, please share it.
Thanks!
Loading ...
Hey, I can definitely relate to that. Happens to me once in a while. What I suggest may not be good for the practice routines, but for me it works – just take a break. Trying to learn very hard can be overwhelming, especially for serious musicians that have to internalize everything. But taking a break can help.. I think you wrote a post about it.. so you may have tried it already, but if you haven’t – go for a walk, play monopoly, go to sleep, go to swim.. sometimes the inspiration to go back and play is out there.
Good luck!
You suffer from smart kid syndrome. Really the issue at play is called the point of diminishing returns. Follow the string here. Students that are smart pressure themselves with that label. They rely on it when there is a new skill to pick up or a technicality to be mastered. To master said art, they study and study ad infinitum. This tactic was widely used for folks of our educational generation. This is where PDR comes in:
This may help you understand that block and bust it.
Your brain is like a shovel. Your task, like wet cement. At first your are moving and carrying all you need. As time goes on, the cement hardens on the shovel and you are carrying less and less. Eventually, you are carrying a heavy load of stuff you already know and you are only smushing the new stuff around and not picking it up. (Read as hours of memorization yielding three new words total)
Wash your shovel off, Josh. As a teacher, my advice is study for 10 minutes short of your limit. Even if you are feeling the material. Take a completely unrelated break. Sub guitar part in for language and vice versa. Chunk it up and you will get results. I tell my kids this all the time. Those that listen do better on exams than the crammers. Stay golden Pony Boy.
- Gaskill
What do i do is simply learn a new song. My lastest songs: Painkiller (and the solo, oh yeah now i can play it) and Indians by Anthrax. Enjoy playing some super fast and super difficult solos like Friedman’s solos from hangar 18 (when my friends saw me playing them they were like “whoa…”
Cheers.
Yep, take a break. You’re trying too hard. Let yourself go until you feel the passion again. You might think “what if I never find the passion again?” nah, don’t worry about it, in fact I reckon it would be a real challenge for you to even let it all go for a while
Not even a holiday – that’s just the same thing but in a different direction. Most people would benefit from a holiday, but some people simply take their normal modus operandi and swing it over to the holiday. Same same.
Do nothing for a while, forgive yourself, and before you know it passion and gusto will return; it just will.
JAW
JAW recently posted: Drummer and Something…
My experience of language learning is that it consists of huge long plateaus during which time you feel that you’re not going anywhere punctuated by occasional exciting moments of understanding at which time you think that it’s all too easy. Both of these states of mind are delusions. Just keep plugging on. Language is natural human communication, not an academic exercise.
Have a good day, boonsong
Boonsong recently posted: Not Cowardly Cowering Cows
Great question… and it’s something I think we all deal with sooner or later. And I agree with what Gaskill says, some people (myself included) THINK to much about learning and that slows us down sometimes. But everyone always plateaus every now and then, no matter what you are training at: language, guitar, running faster, losing weight…
So I know in the case of running faster or lifting more weight at the gym, it helps to change up your routine. I am not sure what that means for guitar practicing, but what if you tried to compose a song or two? Or study a different style for a while? You have to give your brain a break every now and then and let it process what you are trying to learn in the background.
For languages, one of the best ways to learn (that seems to be missing from your routine) is by listening. Memorizing vocabulary and grammar can only get you so far. Why don’t you give your brain a rest and find some Thai language videos on YouTube to watch? Or listen to some Thai songs and let the words sink into your brain?
And most importantly, don’t beat yourself up because you are not progressing as fast as you want to / think you should. (And that’s my advice for both me and you!
I just read my comment and have to put a P.S. How about learning some Thai songs on the guitar? Teach your fingers some new moves and your mouth some new words!
As I said, JAW, it’s not even a case of motivation, it’s a case of just not making any progress. But, I totally get what you are saying. I’m as passionate as ever with both my music and my language studies.
@Gaskill – you are a wise man, Mr. G. I absolutely love the wet cement analogy. I think your advice is great, and it’s something I definitely don’t do. Kind of like the “eat until you are 80% full” approach. I will definitely give this a shot. Thanks a million!
@Ariel – I make sure to take breaks during my practice sessions. Even if it’s a bathroom break or a drink break I absolutely do it.
@Stuart – I listen a ton. Thai music on the way to and from the train. Thai TV at night when I can steal the boob tube from my wife. When I have long traveling I put on Thai language CDs and listen and sometimes speak along with them.
Thanks to everyone for your advice. I really appreciate the suggestions and the motivational words. Keep going, keep going, keep going!
Josh, I meant taking a long break. Like, don’t play guitar for a couple of days. As I said it may harm your progress a little but I believe that when you’ll come back you’ll do much better.
I hope “huge long plateaus” isn’t too long; that would be awful. Thanks for the advice, Kun Boonsong.
ขอบคุณครับ
I wrote something a while back on being “stuck in a rut” – http://www.learnelectricguitar.net/learn-guitar/stuck-in-a-rut
On my blog I tend to gear my writing more towards people who have been playing a matter of months than a matter of decades, so I guess I’ve deliberately simplified my thoughts in that post. Nevertheless, there’s a chance you might find something to take from it?
More generally, my view is that learning guitar can require a balance between consistency and novelty. To keep improving you need plenty of both. Those of us who write to help others tend to stress the importance of consistency and discipline while mentioning the importance of variation and novelty only in passing, or not at all. We do this for very good reason, because we can see in almost all cases people that want to learn their guitar aren’t improving because of procrastination or lack of focus. When you’re still new to playing guitar, pretty much everything you tackle is a novelty, so that side of things more or less takes care of itself. However when you’ve been learning a little longer, after you make some steady gains, you can find yourself stuck in a rut and feeling frustrated. This lack of progress, and the accompanying frustration can seem completely inexplicable, because you’re maintaining the steady practice schedule that’s served you so well in the past. For those who are guitar teachers, guitar bloggers, or otherwise used to helping others with their playing, the problem can become compounded, because we apply our own usual advice for others to our own situation, and then find that it doesn’t work because we have the right answer to the wrong question.
So maybe, if you’re not getting anywhere practicing jazz standards, maybe it’s time to try something completely different? I saw in an earlier post that you recorded some ambient music, and doing that seemed to give you some satisfaction in its own right, as well as giving you a new way to think of your jazz playing.
As for learning Thai.. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. When I travel I usually make a point of learning just a few basic phrases, numbers from 1 to 10 etc, but when each time I’ve been to Thailand I haven’t even got a proper grasp of “hello”. My uncle lived in Bangkok for 16 years and yet still had trouble with the language.
Anyway, these are just a few thoughts that occured to me, take from them what you will
Jim E James recently posted: Learn the electric guitar to get laid
Thanks, Jim. I have written about the same kind of advice, so it’s interesting that I’m finding myself at this frustration point. I have tried all of my own tricks and still no luck. I think I’m going to take a few of the suggestions from you guys and see what I come up with. Most importantly I just have to stay focused and keep going.
Nothing wrong with just noodling around
Yeah, I took a long break once – seven years. I posted about it. I don’t think I’m ready for that; I would just rather noodle around than stop practicing or studying at that point.
I’m on a Jazz break for a while. Got a rock covers gig coming up, then a Gypsy Jazz gig the lunchtime after – going to be interesting ….
Good luck, Mick. Sometimes that kind of genre break is great.
Well, what I am going to tell you to do with Thai is to have some baroque music playing in the background. Bach, early Mozart and stuff like that. Pachebel’s “Canon” would be great as well. You are working one side of your brain too hard and need the other to help you along. The music does this. Don’t turn it on really loud. Just make it background music.
Yes, I have tried that. I’m not thoroughly convinced that the method works, but it’s certainly NOT a distraction for me to have Baroque music playing in the background.