or any other instrument. It's a sad realisation.
OK, some people think I am amazing at guitar/piano, but the fact is that I am missing some fundamental skills:
1) poor motor skills in terms of accuracy
2) poor memory recall
I looked at the detail in iTunes, and there is an instrumental song that I have been trying to play for years and years. The play count for the backing track is almost 2000 times, and yet I am still nowhere near getting the short widdly bit right (it's probably 6 seconds tops!). I will never have accuracy, it isn't in my mind and fingers unfortunately.
And remembering stuff. At the start of lockdown one I decided to do a simple arrangement for a piece of piano music that is less than 3 minutes long. I got it all worked out in a couple of weeks, it's just chords with some melody thrown in. 10 months on and I still can't play it through without forgetting something. It is BLOODY frustrating!
These two flaws are annoying as I clearly have some ability in other areas, but at my age (57) nothing is going to improve.
Satriani's Always with Me song, I have wrestled with for a decade. I have never got past the legato run at 1.10. I simply CANNOT remember the notes from one day to the next.
I've never played in a band, and I never could have to be honest, can't learn songs or play with accuracy for solos!
So yeah, this is just me crying into my (non-alcoholic) beer, watching people on Youtube playing difficult stuff effortlessly. Still, not giving up ...
Self-absorbed introspective rant over, my cage beckons ...
Comments
I’ll never a great or even a good player but I’d be lost without the ability to play; it provides an escape and relaxation.
I think, roughly speaking, what happens is you join a band/ jam night/ online project or whatever and your standard accelerates up to that point. It then flatlines and either that's fine because you are doing what you want or you do something else that challenges you and your standard goes up another level. I'm sure Joe Satriani started out playing Louie Louie and Mustang Sally. Much harder in many ways to be disciplined enough to do all that stuff alone.
One of the motivating factors that got me into playing in front of an audience was watching dreadful live acts in pubs and clubs and thinking I could do better. I'm not kidding, many of the bands/singers/guitarists I've seen over the years should really have been told at some point that they were wasting their time, but some folk have such lack of self awareness.
Being critical of yourself is an essential part of any artistic endeavour, that's why getting your stuff out there in some way is so important. You'll never convince yourself that your playing is up to scratch, but others will tell you and believe me, most folk set the bar pretty low. You have to bear in mind that if you can play three chords on a guitar you will be streets ahead of 99% of the population.
Forget Satriani, what I would do is find something very simple that you can play with confidence and record it. Then play it randomly to friends/family without telling them who it is and see how they react. That way you don't suffer the anxiety of live performance but it just might give you a bit of a lift, and convince you that you're not as bad as you think.
You can play both guitar and piano? You're clearly considerably more talented than me. Once I accepted that I'll never be a great guitarist and just decided to enjoy the ride and learn at my own pace, I offloaded a lot of the pressure I was putting on myself and progressed more successfully. I too have a dreadful memory and frequently forget stuff I used to know. Don't beat yourself up over it mate, try to enjoy the surprise when muscle memory kicks in and your hands take over what you thought you'd lost. I used to compare myself to contemporaries who I now acknowledge are simply more talented and who I could never compete with. It was quite a revelation when I stopped doing this and I'm much happier now. I hit brick walls all the time when learning new songs, but I eventually get there, even if it takes me hundreds of attempts to get something right that others pick up really quickly. I'm also in my fifties and I watch my teenage son pick up stuff far quicker than I do. I'm actually pretty proud to see this. What I can offer him is advice, learned from experience, and help him avoid the mistakes that held me back. That said, I started playing guitar in my teens, got put off when friends turned out to be more talented, and gave up for many years. Then I found that playing in later life gave gave me a perspective that I lacked as a young man. I'm a better player now than I was in my 'prime'. I bet you're a whole lot better than you think you are.
Some days everyone feels like that! Most people play for their own enjoyment, the challenge and a love of music and the instrument.
People enjoy fishing even when they don't catch any fish!
Anyway, you probably are quite good.
https://www.facebook.com/benswanwickguitar
I can play reasonably quick stuff when I put my mind to it, but playing guitar is not effortless for me - it takes a huge amount of hard work for me to play anything at all. By which I mean it basically consumes all of my brain's processing capacity just to string a few notes together. I have absolutely no idea how most guitarists seem to be able to have on-stage presence beyond standing still and staring at the fretboard, much less singing at the same time.
So yeah...for me, my limits in terms of playing aren't physical the way they are for most folk, they're mental. And no matter what I try to get past that, I haven't been able to in 36 years of playing.
I was clearly on something of a Covid downer yesterday, hence my pitiful rant!
Clearly I was way off base saying that I'll never be any good at guitar, just look at my videos and you will see that I can play the stuff I play pretty well. I think that I was just venting my frustrations at the ceiling that I hit technique-wise, which is lower than I'd have liked by a long shot, but actually a lot higher than 99% of the population (who aren't guitarists!)
On the plus side, right now my improvisation has never been better. Yes, it's no big deal compared to a lot of you guys but I'm pleased that it is at a high point for me, (albeit with my bastardized blues one-scale-fits-all approach!).
Onward and upward! (and I'm not giving up on that Satch track!)
Comparing yourself to a professional, especially to ones near the top of the technical tree is always going to be frustrating and for many an unobtainable goal. I guess the healthy pov is to aspire, but for those times you can't pull it off, just look for the benefits that the attempt has brought.
I guess it's these aspirations that drive us on and for some enable them to become technically amazing players. But even these guys hit a ceiling eventually.