Attempted the guitar again and too daunted to draw

[Markness]

I picked up my guitar last night to practice with it. Unfortunately, I still struggled with it and messed up while attempting to play certain songs.

Despite getting some inspiration to draw again after re-reading Chainsaw Man, I feel too daunted at the same time to draw again.

Am I too old (I am 35.) or possibly mentally impaired?

 

[Tony Ramirez]

I tried to learn the piano multiple times but I finally gave up. Many of my friends can play it great and most can even play the guitar which I never attempted. I think most people with ASD are not good with learning instruments.

 

[Fino]

It's tragic that art and the expression of oneself is meant to be a joyous, freeing experience and you've made it into a monster.

 

[Misery]

you've made it into a monster.

Yeah, this is a good way of putting it. @Markness, the only one stopping you from doing art or music is yourself.

Ya know, I was pretty darned frustrated with art early on as well... I kept trying to do things like how I saw others doing it, and it just kept not working.

Eventually, I was like "heck with it" and just started making things in whatever my bizarre style would be called. No need to do it a specific way just because others do it that way. As soon as I started doing it that way and thinking about it that way, then real progress happened.

You could do that too, with art. Sit down and just make something. Heck, just wave a pencil around some paper. Make spirals or blobs or, I dont know, surreal angular cows, just anything at all.

Art can be anything, it doesnt have to be whatever specific popular idea is going around the online "art community" or something.

Pencil + paper, just go for it! Experiment and see what happens!

 

[thejuice]

If 35 is too old then I'm doomed! Autism being a neurological development disorder probably means we're mentally impaired to some extent. But it might have it's advantages too.

Keep doing it, little and often I'd suggest. Keep expectations low and see what happens.

 

[Neri]

I'm 51 and I plan to learn guitar this year. I sing and play a bit of percussion. Just because it might be harder for us to learn new things doesn't mean we shouldn't. I took me many years to learn to sing well and I had to put in 1000's of hours, and I don't expect it to be different learning guitar. I've learnt a few chords in the past.
Also I am teaching myself to draw and paint and I'm 51. I did a few classes in painting and bought myself a "zentangle" how-to book to get started, because, like you @Markness, I felt too intimidated. Zentangling is a good approach for people like us, who are scared and really hard on ourselves and who have copped a lot of discouragement.
I don't think there is a "too old" to do art or music. You just have to learn to ignore that judgey inner critic voice, while you are getting started, because one can't expect to be good prior to a lot of practice; a lot of doing is required to learn to be "good". In other words, we have to be OK with sucking, before we can be "good" in our own eyes. I didn't like my singing for the first few years, maybe even 10 years of singing, before I started to think I was pretty good and I liked my own singing voice. I still think I'm not good at visual art, but, I want to get good so I'm going to persist. And I'm going to be not good at guitar for however long it takes to get good.

But any art form is very personal and there is a strong degree of subjectivity involved. Personally I like authentic, emotional music more than technically perfect music, and I like art that shows the unique perspective and personality of the artist more than technically or commercially popular so called "successful" art.

It's more about expressing yourself than conforming to anyone else's expectations or preconceived notions of what people might think is good or not good. Be creative to please yourself, more than anyone else, and if you learn to derive some pleasure out of it, other people are sure to pick up on that and enjoy it alongside you, too.

 

[The Pandector]

If 35 is too old then Im doomed! Autism being a neurological development disorder probably means we're mentally impaired to some extent. But it might have it's advantages too.

Keep doing it, little and often I'd suggest. Keep expectations low and see what happens.

I’ve messed with guitar all my life. Everything I do is self taught, but music has been my downfall. Not knowing I’m autistic left me expecting nominal returns on my investment of time, and I have always been frustrated by lack of progress.

Recently self diagnosed, I decided to take another run at it, but without any expectations of success; I figured out that, after decades of failure, I had come to enjoy the effort despite lack of progress. Somehow, letting myself off the hook and just playing has not only given me more enjoyment, but I’m making some progress. Put my acoustic down and bought an electric, easier for older hands.

If someone had told me a few years back that I would take pleasure in lowering my standards, I’d have laughed. Now, I think my low expectations are a healthy thing. I’m not a musician, after all, I’m a hobbyist.

 

[Rodafina]

I picked up my guitar last night to practice with it... messed up while attempting to play certain songs.

This sounds like a description of successful practicing.

If you could only remove this type of thinking:

Unfortunately, I still struggled with it...

You said you were practicing your guitar. That's what practicing is... playing, messing up, trying again.

Spoiler

... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again.

 

[thejuice]

i doubt many are naturals

 

[Masked Man]

You might consider that these two activities are not something you have any natural talent for. And that's fine - I have no natural talent for these things - and a lot of other things as well - therefore I don't obsess over them. I just find other things I can do and I like doing. It makes no sense to obsess over things I can't do. How does that make you happy?

 

[WildCat]

How long would you say that you've been practicing either of these skills? As in, an estimate in terms of hours spent on each? Do you know of anything that would limit your ability in both of these areas? How much effort are you putting into it? Kind of hard to answer that question without some more information, and it's probably too early to say whether or not you can be good.

You're not going to be skilled at something just like that, not with a few hours, not with a few hundred hours, maybe not even with a few thousand hours. Art and music are very complicated skills that can take years to master, if that, and you'll not only have to practice, practice more and practice even more than that to reach a threshold of what could be considered "good", you also have to start getting comfortable with the idea of making mistakes. LOTS of mistakes. All this is assuming you want to be good, in which case you'll have to dedicate plenty of time to both.

When you keep reinforcing the idea to yourself that "I'm no good at this, so I should quit", it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy, and that's what I'm seeing here with these kinds of posts. Your attitude is playing a huge part in that, so until you start making adjustments on that end that's how it's going to be.

 

[AndyFBlues]

I've dabbled with the guitar for over forty years. I'll probably never become a great virtuoso, but that has never been a goal for me. One has to practice to get and stay good at it. I've worked with many professional musicians over the years, and they treat it like a job in that they practice on a regular schedule. As with any skill: use it or lose it. As for age, one is never too old to learn something new.

 

[tree]

I picked up my guitar last night to practice with it. Unfortunately, I still struggled with it and messed up while attempting to play certain songs.

Despite getting some inspiration to draw again after re-reading Chainsaw Man, I feel too daunted at the same time to draw again.

Am I too old (I am 35.) or possibly mentally impaired?

This looks like you're expecting perfection.

You're shocked that playing the guitar involves making mistakes.

You feel disheartened that drawing requires some imagination & effort.

When was the last time you picked up your guitar to play?
Or pencil to draw?

How often do you enjoy doing either of these activities?
Enjoy. Not approach them as if it were a test, upon which hinges Life & Death.
It sounds like you expect that time will magically improve your performance.

It's not the passage of time that can improve your performance.
It's what you do during the time.

 

[vergil96]

I'd reccommend trying something easier first, as easy as it gets. Then increase the levels of difficulty and length of the songs gradually. You don't have to learn the whole song right away either, you can learn just the verse or chorus, which consists or something like 3 chords. Then build on that

 

[Xinyta]

This sounds like a description of successful practicing.

If you could only remove this type of thinking:


You said you were practicing your guitar. That's what practicing is... playing, messing up, trying again.

Spoiler

... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again
... and again.

This looks like you're expecting perfection.

You're shocked that playing the guitar involves making mistakes.

You feel disheartened that drawing requires some imagination & effort.

When was the last time you picked up your guitar to play?
Or pencil to draw?

How often do you enjoy doing either of these activities?
Enjoy. Not approach them as if it were a test, upon which hinges Life & Death.
It sounds like you expect that time will magically improve your performance.

It's not the passage of time that can improve your performance.
It's what you do during the time.

I think these two posts are the most poignant, @Markness

Those also feed into what I discovered too.

If you want to start any kind of activity/hobby, you must have the right mindset. Expect to make mistakes, and move beyond them.

No person is just going to be born with a talent they can automatically just pick up and do, without mistakes and failures.

Natural talent exists, but it needs to be refined. But quitting because you are struggling, only adds to the miserable cycle you've stuck yourself in. Don't let those negative thoughts rule your approach to things.

 

[Dagan]

Guitar is glorious. I couldn't take to the ABC's of music notation, but once I learned tablature, it was a revelation. Tablature is the way to go for making learning and playing well known songs super easy. After 35 years, now, I still compose and play my own music more than I ever learn to play something else, though. I find sounds in almost anything I do daily, I can hum something into a bit of an earworm and then I get to the guitar and hammer it out.

Acoustic guitar is harder on you for starting out because of the scale, string types and string tension on such guitars. It's always that way. Just the same, if you start out like I did, play your acoustic for about 30 minutes every day for about 3 months...you will have developed stronger, faster fingers and callouses to prevent the strings hurting anymore...and if you switch to electric guitar / strings, you will find that it's butter compared to acoustic guitar.

It requires routine and discipline to start, is all. I promise you - 30 minutes a day - 3 months - tablature sheets - you will have it beat. Also, always remember that guitar tunings are already all over the place per all styles of music out there, so if you have to tune different and make your own chord styles, so be it. There are no wrongs.

 

[Fino]

You seem to imagine that there's some sort of end goal that you fear you will fail to achieve, but the end goal is the process itself.

 

[The Pandector]

You seem to imagine that there's some sort of end goal that you fear you will fail to achieve, but the end goal is the process itself.

Agreed. But @Dagan makes a great point about getting as quickly as possible to a point of hearing yourself produce music. Good encouragement to make that initial investment in discipline, before you actually do see a return.

 

[The Pandector]

Guitar is glorious. I couldn't take to the ABC's of music notation, but once I learned tablature, it was a revelation. Tablature is the way to go for making learning and playing well known songs super easy. After 35 years, now, I still compose and play my own music more than I ever learn to play something else, though. I find sounds in almost anything I do daily, I can hum something into a bit of an earworm and then I get to the guitar and hammer it out.

Acoustic guitar is harder on you for starting out because of the scale, string types and string tension on such guitars. It's always that way. Just the same, if you start out like I did, play your acoustic for about 30 minutes every day for about 3 months...you will have developed stronger, faster fingers and callouses to prevent the strings hurting anymore...and if you switch to electric guitar / strings, you will find that it's butter compared to acoustic guitar.

It requires routine and discipline to start, is all. I promise you - 30 minutes a day - 3 months - tablature sheets - you will have it beat. Also, always remember that guitar tunings are already all over the place per all styles of music out there, so if you have to tune different and make your own chord styles, so be it. There are no wrongs.

Always only played acoustic, but aging hands and too long between practice stole the fun. Recently bought an electric and it has rejuvenated my enthusiasm for playing. Always just strummed to chord charts, but am now having success with tabs. So, yeah.

 

[Dagan]

Acoustic strings are always differently wound / different metals. They are more dense, rigid and rather unforgivingly tense. Electric strings are quite softer metals involved. I have, once long ago, played the nylon kind of acoustic strings. It was just weird to me, and they still hurt my fingers more than the electric ones. There are a silk and steel kind of strings lately, though. They may be the best new thing. Worth a shot.

My amp is a guitar modeler device on my desktop lately, also. It allows for any sound I could ever want, so do know that we have reached the tech status that electrics can competently sound like acoustics, finally, should that be the only sound you desire. I will say, though, that when you have such a seemingly plethora of sounds available to you, you will get lost in playing the guitar more...and next thing you know, you are putting in more practice...and getting better...discovering more...gaining technique and timing more. It's just a big help overall.

I'm US based, and my modeler is the Headrush HX5. If I want to use it live into a cab or straight into the PA system of the venue - it's no problem and still sounds awesome. It models guitar and bass equipment quite precisely. There are several options for modelers to choose from, but I did my homework and settled on the Headrush HX5. Were I located in the UK or such, though, I would have gotten the Valeton GP200, as I feel that's the equivalent. If you are one to go big / full on / top notch modeler no matter the cost, though... Neural DSP Quad Cortex or Kemper Profiler. Basically, if you were the lads of Sleep Token or lads in Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! and touring extensively to the point of needing constantly changing impedence, plug in types, taking a beating being moved from venue to venue...that's why you'd want the Neural or Kemper ones. For all of the rest us, even seriously recording at home and may play out locally here or there...the Headrush or Valeton models are more than enough.