Re: chords chords chords, learning chords.
If chords are tough, try focussing on tunes for a while. If you can learn to pick melody cleanly, your hands will get a lot more comfortable on the instrument, and you'll feel more accomplished. More like the jump to chording is temporary step back that you know you can solve, once you get your muscle memory adjusted. This is likely easier for someone like me, who comes from melody-oriented Irish music.
And muscle memory matters. If you're smart, you're used to learning intellectual things quickly and easily. Music seems simple. It's easy to get the intellectual part of any new musical skill in an hour or two. If you're used to getting there and then thinking you've won, music will be very frustrating. There's an intellectual component, but music is primarily a physical, not an intellectual skill. You need to get the moves into ballistic memory - into the nerves in your arms and fingertips. If you need to wait for the thought to travel from your fingertip all the way to your brain (and back) where your powerful intellect can jump in & help, you'll never be fast enough. Intellect can never train muscle memory. The only thing that works is repetition. Intelligent, accurate practice to be sure, but practice overall. This is slower than smart people like to learn things, IMO.
However, a little patience goes a long way. Regular practice (or simply 'regularly playing') and a willingness to suck for 6 or 8* weeks will get you started. All you need to do from there is to keep going. I'm living proof that sufficient determination can compensate for very little innate talent.
** Weeks of effort. Let's say 35-40 actual sessions of at least 20-30 minutes each. It's better to practice often than to practice long. You're far better off playing a new piece and quitting while you're still getting it right than playing for an hour while it turns to mush. But keep going as long as you're having fun. You're doing it for teh fun, remember?
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
C.S. Lewis
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