is guitar the hardest instrument to be good at

[JOHN MATRIX]

i swear ive been playing for 7 years now and i feel like im still at an intermediate level at best...
maybe its just me that sucks?

[ronbrgundy]

I heard you have to play it like all day every day .. I think that was in that desperado movie

Cool name.  I have a couple of commando theme songs on my workout playlist. 

[brooklynbruiser]

I find setting even fifteen minutes a day of true practice does wonders. Find your weaknesses and focus on those. Instead of playing the same familiar riffs and scales, find something new (like a song or speed training) that interests you and spend your fifteen minutes a day solely working on that. After your practice, you can go back to effing about.

Like anything worth it, it takes discipline.

[smoothasf]

easy answer 'practice' isnt about learning songs over and over or scales.  It sounds like you spend all your time learning other peoples songs and not growing as a guitarist.  Learn leggato, scales, modes, sweep picking, harmonics, pinch harmonics, how to use the wah wah properly, speed excersises. 

I was stuck in a rutt after 12 years.  I did this for a year and went back to learn the songs i couldnt play and they were all just made up of variations of these exercises.  Guns and roses songs that i couldnt play before came with ease, i learnt every one of the songs i liked in under a week.  November rain, dont cry tonight, welcome to the jungle, sweet child of mine, the godfather theme, patience, live and let die, knocking on heavens door and the estranged.  I played these so easy it was if the were just chords.

now im stuck half way through malmsteens arpeggios from hell, but that again is just because of technique and is awkward playing style.  the exercises are more important than playing songs

[JOHN MATRIX]

easy answer 'practice' isnt about learning songs over and over or scales.  It sounds like you spend all your time learning other peoples songs and not growing as a guitarist.  Learn leggato, scales, modes, sweep picking, harmonics, pinch harmonics, how to use the wah wah properly, speed excersises. 

I was stuck in a rutt after 12 years.  I did this for a year and went back to learn the songs i couldnt play and they were all just made up of variations of these exercises.  Guns and roses songs that i couldnt play before came with ease, i learnt every one of the songs i liked in under a week.  November rain, dont cry tonight, welcome to the jungle, sweet child of mine, the godfather theme, patience, live and let die, knocking on heavens door and the estranged.  I played these so easy it was if the were just chords.

now im stuck half way through malmsteens arpeggios from hell, but that again is just because of technique and is awkward playing style.  the exercises are more important than playing songs

ha! i gave up on that one a long time ago. i think its cause i set my standards too high...been 'working on' Cliffs of Dover and Trilogy Suite since almost the beginning and i still sound like a total noob. been working on the first 2 minutes of Sails of Charon and still cant play it up to speed. Been working on sweeping arpeggios for at least 5 years and still consistently stumble on most of them. thats the hardest guitar technique to master IMO

[YoungBlood]

The hardest part of playing the guitar for me is getting used to the fingering positions for a new piece or riff I'm playing.

Visualizing and memorizing (not merely saying "this note is here, and that note there") are a HUGE part of ANY instrument, but especially guitar.

When you learn the notes, and how they relate to keys or the sounds of chords, it makes things far easier. And like smoothasf said, focus on your weak points. If you have 20min to practice in a day, spend 15 of them on something you don't know/weak point. Then use the remaining 5 to do something you know/love...leave it on a good point till the next time you can pick the axe up.

Also, when you're practicing, you're training your mind/fingers to do certain things. So when you practice scales in conventional ways (say always starting on Ionian then onto Dorian Phrygian  and so forth, your fingers will gets bias on where it's starting and stopping. Not a good idea for a person who wants to create music. Maybe it's good if you want to do the same things every time, but my mind gets complacent quickly, and I hate stopping on the root after EVERY phrase- shows lack of imagination.

Here are some ideas to change things up a bit:
1) start on your Dorian mode, and when you get to the 3rd (phrygian) in the next octave, continue up to the third on the higher register, and come down, but on the Lydian (4th) as you descend, stop and turn around and ascend again up to the fifth mode (Mixolydian).

2) Stemming from #1, practice arpeggios from different inversions/positions. But again, instead of starting from the root of say a G9 arpeggio (G-B-D-A), mix it up and start from the 3rd (B) and go up in order from there. Once you get this down, you can vary the order in a number of ways, and then when you get really good, go around the cycle of fourths (fifths) and use different arpeggios in the same method(s).

3) This next exercise, you needn't even need an instrument. Just pick one note and figure out the relationship to every key. Don't go easy on yourself, pick something odd like F#. You can mix up how you pick the relationship (cycle of 4ths/5ths, half steps, whole steps, tritones etc...). Example: F# is the 6th (Aeolian) of A, 2nd (dorian) of E, #2 of Eb and the augmented Fifth of Ab etc....

Joe Pass had a really cool idea of using scales/arpeggios and chords in one shot too...

[smoothasf]

heres some fun for you in between.  this is a piano cover of november rain, i play it over and over putting the lead guitar on it soems fucking awesome

[240 is Back]

play 30 min per day with traditional, actual practice.

Then spend 60 or 90 minutes each night just noodling while watching tv or listening to radio.  As a kid, I could play every commercial and TV show theme by ear, just from screwing around subconsciously while watching.

To this day, I am one of the best in town at sitting in and playing 4 hours of music i've never heard.  TV improv trains your ear really well and makes your hand strong and fall into the right positions automatically as well.

PS I thought trumpet was WAY harder than guitar to play haha... I started guitar in maybe 7th grade... by 9th grade I was playing garage shows, by senior year I was playing bars... I had to sit outside until right before we went onstage (since I wasn't 21)... now I do New years shows for 20k people.  Filling in anywhere and everywhere.

[_bruce_]

Lots of good info here.

I think violin is way harder - fret-less hell.
Bought one(used and cheapo) and after 2 hours I threw it against the wall.

To really improve I would suggest a 4 hour a day practice for at least 6 months.
Then scale back and restart.

And as stated before - perfect your style... whatever that may be.

[Butterbean]

I think violin is way harder - fret-less hell.
Bought one(used and cheapo) and after 2 hours I threw it against the wall.

lol!