When Your Best Isn't Good Enough, What Do You Do?

 What now, you may ask.

Beginning guitar students have lots of doubts in the beginning, and it can be very frustrating. Let's say your guitar teacher has given you a song you really like, you've practiced and practiced and it's just not coming together. What do you do now? Have you reached a plateau, or are you not going to play any better?

Analysis, but not too much.

The first step is to record yourself and listen to what your playing sounds like. Is it as bad as you thought? Better? Worse? Be a critic, but don't beat yourself up over it. Listen with an open mind and be objective. Think about whether the whole song sounds bad or whether it's certain spots that you continue to have trouble with. Play the recording for your teacher so you can get a second opinion.

Ask for your teacher's honest opinion.

Any good guitar teacher will be honest about the good and points of your playing, so ask for his or her opinion. Maybe the song is too hard for you at this point in your development and you need to acquire more skills. I had a 10 year old student who wanted to learn Crazy Train after he'd been playing for only a few months. He insisted he'd "practice real hard", but the my bad news for him was that he just didn't have the technique down. It's hard to accept the fact that you can't play what you want to play, but like anything else, you need to be prepared to wait.

Trust your teacher or your gut instinct?

I've had students who get advice from so many different sources it makes things worse instead of better. Keep in mind that not everyone teaches the same way, and not everyone learns the same way. I let my students give it a shot, but if after a few weeks the song isn't fun anymore and they've hit the proverbial brick wall, it's time to step back and learn the techniques you'll need before you attempt the song again. Not ready to give up? More power to you, but again, don't be afraid to learn something that's a little easier to play.