Are you satisfied with the progress you're making?

I don't mean in a career/money sense, I mean in the sense that you feel that your singing/playing/songwriting is improving.

Because I'm not satisfied. If I had to release a compilation of the songs I've written and recorded in the last few years, I'd call it "Three Years Of Middle Class Whining"

I don't worry about singing and songwriting. My piano playing has suffered greatly from neglect, I'm thqnkful I still remember how to sightread music, and can pick a melody out by ear. My guitar playing is really improving - I'm at least the equal of most of the guitar players I know personally, except my former guitar teacher - there are a ton of guitarists (some much younger than me) on youtube that put me to shame, though. Basically, I can do anything on electric except sweep pick, and I can do pretty much anything I want on the acoustic.

I started to teach myself how to use digital recording software lately, the few pieces I've recorded sound pretty damn good.

you sound pretty satisfied

i wouldn't say i'm exactly "satisfied" with my drumming but i'm a lot more aware of and okay with my limitations. i'm still practicing and getting better, and i feel confident about playing in the bands i'm in.

i'm a terrible singer & songwriter but not really trying to change that.

i wish i could say yes but any progress i've made has been unbelievably slow. barely writing or playing for the last couple of years hasn't really helped.

I'm trying to write and record as much as possible. I'm aware that improvement isn't linear, it's more "plateau then a step up". By continually working I'm hoping to make the plateaus as short as possible.

How long have you all been playing your respective instruments? I've been taking guitar/piano lessons for about two years, and I'm now wondering if I'm hitting a wall that I can't -- and shouldn't bother trying to -- overcome. I do enjoy playing and especially reading music. I'm just not very good, I fear. (Sorry if I'm an outsider dropping into an insider's discussion).

Been playing piano off and on (mostly off recently) since I was 6, guitar for about 10 years.

I guess since I decided a long time ago that I'd never be a professional musician, I haven't really focused on songwriting, choosing instead to focus on becoming as technically proficient and versatile at one instrument as possible for personal satisfaction. Aside from entertaining my wife, it doesn't serve much purpose, and noone really knows about this aspect of my personality except really close friends. I feel like I'm almost at a certain level where I should do something - record a lot more, get involved with a band, or something - or all this practicing will seem pointless.

As for hitting a wall - I feel like I'm always hitting a wall, but with persistent practice I break through them fairly quickly, often without noticing I've passed them.

two years is way too soon to expect to be really good, i think.

i've been playing drums for about 13 or 14 years, although i think it's different when you pick something up as an adult (probably harder in that you're playing catch up, but you're also more experienced at learning skills etc). i mean, the time i spent playing in high school was valuable but i don't think i practiced very seriously.

I didn't expect to be really good by this point. I just wonder if I'm spinning my wheels. To be fair, I've moved into the forth book (of 10) from the Royal Conservatory of Music's guitar program. But TBH, I don't know -- aside from what my instructor tells me -- if that means anything or if I'm really progressing.

maybe you should play with some other people, just for fun? soooo much different than playing alone.

It took me a lot longer than two years. Played guitar since I was 16 for three years, then put it to one side for a while - big regret actually. Then I picked it up again ~10 years ago. But there are problems with noise restrictions in this building, even using headphones, so far far less practice than I would like. Practising keyboards obviously doesn't have that problem, and I've been playing keys for about 20 years on and off. Probably most piano players could run rings around me, but I can pick out someone else's tune (or compose my own) fairly easily. Songwriting was something that I started messing around with in '91. In the last ten years I've been getting more and more serious about trying to write as much as possible. I've only started singing in the last three years, out of necessity at first because it seemed that was the only way that my songs were going to get recorded. Right now it's the real weak point.

Progress at anything artistic is also really subjective. Like when I was just starting out at guitar, I was absolute crap, but it would have been still been cool if I started a punk band or something at that point.

The best advice I ever read about making progress playing guitar was in a book called "Guitar", by Dan Morgan.

"Whatever you do, don't be discouraged. If you are, play a record of your favourite guitarist and remind yourself that he was once precisely at the same stage you are now - and after all, he's only human, isn't he?"

^^^ (sorry for the gender exclusivity, but it's a word for word quite from a book written nearly 45 years ago)

quite = quote

It took me a lot longer than two years. Played guitar since I was 16 for three years, then put it to one side for a while - big regret actually. Then I picked it up again ~10 years ago. But there are problems with noise restrictions in this building, even using headphones, so far far less practice than I would like. Practising keyboards obviously doesn't have that problem, and I've been playing keys for about 20 years on and off. Probably most piano players could run rings around me, but I can pick out someone else's tune (or compose my own) fairly easily. Songwriting was something that I started messing around with in '91. In the last ten years I've been getting more and more serious about trying to write as much as possible. I've only started singing in the last three years, out of necessity at first because it seemed that was the only way that my songs were going to get recorded. Right now it's the real weak point.

― snoball, Monday, January 5, 2009 5:10 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Our musical paths sound pretty similar - have you thought about what you'd like to ultimately achieve with all of that songwriting and recording? is that just a hobby bordering on obsession like me, or do you want to actually try to do something with all those songs?

I like the "play with other people" idea. Would help, I think.

My goal has been to read and write music, and understand music theory. I don't need to be a very good player to accomplish that.

My goal is to get to the point where I can listen to my stuff without going "aaaarrrrrrrrrrgggghhh!!!"

^^ i have the same goal. i feel like i've almost reached it in terms of learning how to structure/arrange songs and play guitar altho the sound of my own recorded voice will probably always do that to me. been playing guitar for 14 years, played piano for 6-7 years when i was younger, and drums/bass for a few years in my early 20's. trying/wishing to learn tenor sax altho i never practice.

in terms of making progress, the biggest thing for me was being asked to play in this really tight rock/soul band that was above my skill level (about 3-4 years ago) - had some embarassing stretches in the begninning where i just wasn't keeping up, but it ended up forcing me to improve really quickly

I've gotten about 100x more patient as a guitar teacher, so that's progress. I still find it difficult and wish I were doing something else a lot, but there are times when it's decent and even enjoyable.

I've been playing with other people again in the last 6 months after years of not being in bands - job, family etc- and my guitar's definitely improving. Particularly tone and dynamics (oh and realising when not to play) It's not exactly complex stuff, but then again, I don't think pinched harmonics and two-handed tapping and sweep picking and whatever would suit our twee little indiepop band...

i've been playing guitar for 15 years or so, don't really feel like i've progressed much in the last 10 years in terms of technical ability. maybe i've gotten a little better at lead stuff. i could definitely stand to learn more about scales but for whatever reason i have trouble motivating myself to memorize a bunch of different scales

my singing has gotten a lot worse, mainly because the band has reduced the number of shows we're playing compared with a couple of years ago so i've just lost a lot of power. when we do play shows, i lose my voice really quickly and feel like i can't sing as loud as i used to. it's annoying.

i think my songwriting has gotten better in terms of song structuring and chord progressions and whatnot, but this is mainly because i think i've gotten pickier in writing songs, in not wanting to using "boring" chord structures or whatever. but i think sometimes this makes me skip ideas that could work because they are too "easy." i've gotten a lot lazier about writing lyrics but i have forced myself to rewrite bad lyrics until i'm happier with them, which is something i haven't done in the past

i am so lazy :(

but as far as being satisfied, i mainly care about songwriting. i'm never going to be a great melodic singer, and while it would be nice to be able to spontaneously play awesome solos it's not really a priority. i mainly just wish i was more prolific in terms of songwriting and didn't have to basically force myself to sit down and work on songs

Gah, I suppose I've played drums for nigh on 30 years! But it's sporadic. I had a halfhearted marching-corps stint at maybe 8 years old, played in mediocre bands pretty steadily in high school and college, but then fell out for perhaps ten years for various reasons (financial struggling, tiny apartments, no car). For the last five years or so I've played a lot to make up for lost time: jamming, gigging, recording.

But if I'm honest with myself I wouldn't say I am progressing. The lines I play are not that far off from what I would have done in 1987. Indeed, when I listen to recordings of my playing from the 90s, I'm sometimes surprised by a fill or flourish that actually sounds more creative and tasty than what I'm doing now. But my drumming suffices for the situations I'm in, so there's no real incentive for me to dig out the rudiments or listen to obscure afrobeat records in the hope of changing my ways.

On the guitar, um, I picked one up idly in my teens and plunked at it off and on. I still haven't gotten round to proper lessons, but I've certainly gotten better over time just from moving my fingers around a lot. I'm able to write songs on it and play it respectably (for my purposes) in a band setting or for a bar gig.

So the short answer is yes, inasmuch as I'm able to produce the sounds I hear in my head and give the the songs I write adequate accompaniment. And it's not as if an average Sunday-night bar audience needs to hear polyrhythms or blindingly fast scales or whatever, so again, I don't feel an obligation to "progress" in a linear sense toward a nirvanic state of virtuosity.

I don't know about achieving nirvana or anything like that, I'm not trying to get a high standard of playing/singing to be a virtuoso. My reason for wanting progress is so that my stuff actually sounds closer to how I imagine it. Instead of the feeling, probably familiar to most musicians, that "this song sounded great in my head, but it sounds so crap on tape".

i'm in roughly the same boat as n/a except not in a band. been playing guitar since i was 14, and i think it's only been in the last 4 or 5 years that i've been at a point where guitar playing has some sort of natural feeling now. def not a MELT FACES lead playa, but that was never an objective. ive learned a few things like making lush drones or repeating rhythms through delay pedals and such.

on the songwriting end of things, im happy that a few times a year i make songs that sound pretty tight, like i would dance to that if i heard that in a club/my car, or i would feel compelled to punch people if i listened to that. still cant sing in one take tho, that's my goal given space and time constraints (this is probably a bad time to disocver that i have pitch correction on garageband...oh, and writing lyrics that are more than just the same two lines repeated, hmmmm...

to thread question: yes. very much so. growing up, giving up the hardware fetish, and figuring out how to adapt to apartment life where the imac becomes the audio leatherman took a very long time. at this point i could probably carve you a really nice table with that leatherman, too.