music

I understand your frustration and want you to know my completely personal opinion but I'm going to explain it through my own experiences.

As every aspiring lead guitarist does, I loved Van Halen. Their verses and choruses weren't very hard to learn once I got the basics down, but obviously the solos would have to come later. Anyway, I loved "Ain't talkin bout love". I found some tabs and learned the intro after a week and I had it down. It never sounded perfect but it was super fun to play.

A couple years later I found that the tabs I learned were entirely "wrong" from someone who learned it the way EVH actually played it. That guy thought the way I played it was way cooler than the way he played it. All the notes were the same but it was more technical and apparently more impressive looking, and he wished he could play it that way I did.

There are so many ways to play every song note for note, but only one way to play it "correctly". That correct way may be easy, or it may be hard, but if it sounds good, it is good. The wrong way can make you a better player and sometimes learning "wrong" can be a good thing.

If it's so hard that you are getting frustrated, you can always bench it for later, find easier ways to play it, find more technique based lessons on how to play it, or break it into smaller parts and practice those small pieces until you have the dexterity.

Another opinion of mine that Marty Friedman said best is "learning a song perfectly is a hobbyist's goal." There's so much nuance to every guitar players style that there's little chance you will ever sound exactly like them. Even the greatest guitarists can only get close to emulating another great guitar players sound. If you focus on sounding perfect, you most likely won't progress very far and it won't happen very quickly. The concepts are key.

Learn to strum the chords, doesnt have to be perfectly strummed. If it's a G-C-D progression, even if it's fingerprinted, just strum along. Maybe add some embellishments. Maybe use your ear to add some harmony, or try to come up with your own chord shapes.

As for self doubt, you're most likely going to have to live with it, so get used to it. Are you going to be the next EVH, Hammet, Rhoads, Yngwie, Tosin, Holdsworth, Guthrie, or Lane? Most likely not. They're freaks of nature. Can you make beautiful, insane, creative music that is all your own and exactly what you want to hear? Absolutely. You'll likely even surprise yourself with how good you get when you let the pressure of being perfect go.

The fact that you even asked about how to get better shows you want more, and you're willing to ask the questions to get there. If any of this sounds patronizing I apologize and don't mean it as such. I just don't know what level you're at with your playing and knowledge, but I wish you the best, and if you have any questions about anything guitar related you can feel free to message me and ask. 🙂