Overcoming Frustration

By Mike Philippov

It is common for many guitar players to feel inferior and inadequate with their skills. This feeling can lead to depression and it also ruins any motivation to continue to practice and make music. Having experienced many of such moments myself, I would like to share several ways with you on how to deal with such situations when they arise.

Turn the frustration into motivation
This is one of the best things you can do for yourself. When you see or hear someone play who is much more advanced than you, the first reaction of most people is to think (or say) things like: “Well, there is no point in me trying to practice anymore because I’m obviously not good enough.” Let me tell you something: if you constantly say things like this to yourself, you start to actually BELIEVE that you do not have potential and guess what happens next? That’s right, you will stop practicing and you will never reach your goals. Self Destructive beliefs like this can destroy even the greatest amount of potential.

What if instead of whining about your lack of ability, you used that time to PRACTICE and say to yourself something along the lines of: “I know that I am not quite at the level I want to be yet, so WHAT CAN I DO TO CHANGE THIS?” Make a list of things you want to improve in your playing and get to work! If you are having trouble or feel like you’re not progressing, then you can make use of the abundant resources that are available to help you. A partial list of these things includes a good teacher, instructional books/DVDs, articles online (like the one you’re reading now), instructional web sites, online forums etc… Right now, guitar players have it easy. Back when there was no internet, you could not take lessons from teachers who lived in different states or even different countries, and could not access, within seconds, information about any guitar or music related topic. So we have more tools right now than ever to enable us to reach our full potential.

Do not compare yourself to other players
This might seem to go against what I just wrote above, but comparing yourself to other players is often not the best thing to do. Instead, you should continually ask yourself: “Am I closer to reaching MY goals as a player now than I was 6 months ago or a year ago?” The answer should always be YES! If it is not, then something needs to change about the way you practice. If you are familiar with my past writings, you know I do not believe that Natural Talent is a deciding factor in whether or not we become good or great as musicians. Instead, it all has to do with the Efficiency of Your Practice.

Other players have goals different from yours and this may lead them to develop skills that your goals do not require. For example, if you are a metal/shred guitar player and you’re watching a virtuoso country guitarist (or jazz guitarist or a classical guitarist) who inspires and impresses you with their ability, then you might feel inadequate. However, remember that they are playing in a style completely different from what you play and therefore they had to develop certain skills that are specific to their style.

If there is something that you hear a player of another style do that is inspiring to you then this might cause your goals to change slightly and you may feel the need to learn a little bit from another style of music. And this is perfectly fine. It can become somewhat of a problem though with some guitarists who are perfectionists and feel like they have to be masters of EVERYTHING related to guitar. Unfortunately most of the time this is not possible, simply because there are not enough years in a life to dedicate to mastering many different styles of guitar (you can “dabble” in a lot of styles but it is very difficult to become very good at many styles). So the point of what I’m trying to say is, when you see or hear a great guitarist play, do not feel inadequate, because it is an unproductive thing to do. Instead use that motivation to continue practicing and developing your skills to reach your goals.

Another thing you can do is think back to the time you first began playing guitar and how much progress you have made since that time. I guarantee that many of the skills you now take for granted, you only wished you could at one point only dream about. This is proof that your hard work is paying off. This is very useful to do during the times when you feel down and are upset with your progress.

Also do not forget that players who are making you feel “inadequate” very likely had been playing for twice the number of years that you have. Therefore, they had much more time to develop their skills.

Be Patient! Let me say this again: BE PATIENT!
It is tempting for the vast majority of guitar players to rush their progress. I myself am not perfect and I have done that in the past as well. When you start playing, you want to play the music that got you inspired to practice, however it is important to realize that progress comes with time! Now I am more patient and I constantly remind myself that the development of skills on guitar comes with time just like maturity and intelligence in human beings develops with age and cannot be gained overnight.

You can contact me at mike@mikephilippov.com I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. I reply to all e-mails.

Visit Mike’s sites:

www.mikephilippov.com
www.enigmatheband.com
www.myspace.com/grimthesweeper