Ever get discouraged?

[Jeff Metz Jr.]

I am thinking pedal steel all hour s of the day. I listen to steel radio all work shift. When I'm home I'm playing , studying, browsing the forum, etc. But some days I just can't touch the darn thing. Is that just the way it goes? Some days I just feel like I know what I'm going to do when I sit down at the steel so I don't even bother. It's weird because most days I can't get up from it . Does this happen to any one else?is this just because I'm just beginning? Frustration maybe?
Please chime in
Thanks

[Ian Holman]

Hey Jeff,
I also am a beginner, been playing for over a year. I go through periods of time when I'm frustrated or burnt out with the psg, so I'll take a break. You have to remember that you're doing this because you enjoy it and that it is a challenge. And because it is challenging that means you're going to hit a wall now and again, and again and again. As much as I do believe that you have to work through these periods of frustration, I also know that sometimes part of the process of "working through" is just to hang back and give yourself some time. More often than not, by the next day you'll be ready to start at it again. And just as a side note I've been a visual artist for over 20 years and I go through the same process with that as well.

[Raymond Eicher]

Jeff,
After forty-plus years of playing and teaching I can say that what you're experiencing is a "plateau". These peaks and valleys in your musical life can be dreaded or appreciated. With age and experience you'll learn to sit back and enjoy the levels you've achieved to this date. You'll also know that right around the corner is the next great learning experience.
It might be a song you hear or a steel player you've just discovered or just a simple lick that catches your fancy.
Since I know you, I'm aware of how far and how fast you've risen to the levels that you have. I think you should be proud of that and excited of what lies ahead.
You finally have a great steel guitar to explore and see where it can take you too!

My own advances came from playing with other musicians. Get out of the practice room and use what you know. Recording or live gigs will inspire you and let you know where you have to work harder.
Just take a deep breath, enjoy the moment, hang around with people that you love and those who inspire you. Each and every plateau comes and goes.
Ray

[Ollin Landers]

All the time...........

I've been playing on and off since 1990 when I got my first Maverick. Then I sold it. A few years later I bought another and I got inspired. I sold the Maverick and bought a 70's Emmons P/P. Lost interest needed the money sold it in 2000 and in 2004 bought a BMI. Sold it bought a Zum U-12 in 2005. I then went almost 6 yrs without playing at all. 2 yrs ago I started back and I've not been able to stop playing almost daily.

If you don't feel inspired to play then it's time not to play. So the secret is to find what motivates you and inspires you to play.

I have a goal to work toward and I try not to get burned out. I am in a band that practices weekly and plays a gig about twice a month.

I am consistently being asked to learn new songs or play the existing songs just a little better. It's really no fun putting all that time into practicing the instrument if there's no one to share it with.

Find what inspires you. Then I think most importantly even as a beginner find a band, a friend, church group or someone to play music with. Let them inspire you and you can also motivate them.

Then when those times come that you don't feel like playing don't beat yourself up about it. Take it as a time to rest and recuperate. Then find some inspiration.

[Jason Putnam]

I have those moments all the time. But mine is more I'm stuck in a rut doing the same things over and over and not improving any. It is frustrating.

[Bob Hoffnar]

There is no substitute for practice. If you want to play well you it helps to practice hours a day. Every day no matter what.

In my case I don't concern with myself with my moods. I practice anyway. It makes my self loathing and laziness have less meaning. I might still feel frustrated but at least I have put the work in to improve. If I am not having fun when I practice I am in a fight to get better that I intend to win.

There is so much to learn and enjoy. Picking, intonation, chord vocabulary , scales , songs, rhythm, reading, ear training..... It is an endless hopeless struggle. Why in the world would I let a passing mood get in the way ?

[Michael Hummel]

These are all great answers! I too go through the same trials and tribulations. For me, if there happens to be a few days where I don't have time, or can't make time to practice, when I finally get back at it, I seem to be way better! I think we need to give our brains time to file away the information from all the work we did.

Well at least for my aging old brain!

Mike

[Curt Trisko]

Some days I'm too tired from work to do anything challenging on the steel, so I just sit in front of it and play what I feel like or just experiment. I never feel burned out, but I also don't push myself when I'm not in the mood.

The result is that in the year-and-a-half that I've been playing, my development has been uneven. It seems like I'm ahead of the curve in quite a few areas, but am still rudimentary in others. I've begun trying to correct for this by doing exercises in my deficient areas that are bone dry and boring, but it's not so bad.

If you're asking my advice, I'd say that unless you have concrete goals, such as playing in a band by a certain date, to make sure you put your love of the instrument ahead of your strict discipline in learning it.

[Russell Adkins]

Playing music is a never ending journey, there is always something to learn , things that you will find interesting and things that will bore you , you will get tired of playing that same ole thing and want to throw it out the window then all of a sudden something will strike you and inspire you to keep at it. Like a roller coaster ride up and down you go , you will find things that you can play easy and things that are hard for you , Ive found in my journey that my persistence is a key to learning anything that you want to learn , we all have music inside of us , its a God given gift for humankind and if we choose to accept it , it can be a wonderful thing in our life if its put in proper perspective .

[Terry Winter]

Back in the 70's when I started I got a beginner steel and had no one at all even close to help me and a now friend of mine sent me some Lloyd green tapes and Jeff Newman material(way over my head) but I then knew all my chord positions and pedal uses and after a couple of years got into my first band where I was asked to play steel. Wow this helped hugely... self taught some steel passages in songs and was motivated to play quietly background right up to instrumentals. Now there is material all over the place at all levels and I still and always will be learning new things!

[Richard Sinkler]

Heck. I have been playing 42 years and there are times that I get discouraged. You just have to think positive and get past it. If you love the instrument, and it sounds like you do in your post, you will get through it.

[Jason Lynch]

I asked exactly this same question on the Pedal Steel page on facebook. and got the same, encouraging answers, I'm glad to say. I've taken a break for a couple of weeks, and just started getting back on it again. Chin up, my man!

[Tom Gorr]

First, I think by your description - you're saturating yourself with steel guitar in too many areas of your life, and subconscious could be reacting against this kind of overload. The brain doesn't like overload of anything. Balance is important.

I went through a lot of ups and downs in practise with my old E9. I decided that a U 12 was going to inspire me and keep me moving forward, so i bought one.

So, when I'm tired of nashville licks and such, I just click in the E lever, and a whole different genre of music opens up...SWING!

I'm spending 80 percent of my time with the E-lever pushed, playing old big band swing, christmas songs of that genre, etc. Just finished a few practises learning Jingle Bell Rock, an awesome christmas tune for the B6 side of the instrument. I figured out my own version of it just following my ear. Not difficult, really, and sounds great. Works some interesting chord progressions and melodic passing tones.

I see you have an Emmons PP 12, that should get you there in spades of tonal perfections - if you haven't spent a lot of time exploring the b6/swing side of the U12. Might be something to add to the musical balance.

[Eric Dahlhoff]

After playing guitar for 40+ years I took up steel a few years ago. When I get frustrated or burnt-out on what I'm doing, I try to switch to something else. Sometimes I only practice riffs & scales. Sometimes I only practice intros & solos. Sometimes I just jam to band-in-a-box or a random song.
But of course the most fun is playing with other people!

[Lane Gray]

But of course the most fun is playing with other people!

Also where the most progress happens.

[Ian Rae]

Tom Gorr is right about overload - the brain needs a balanced diet or it gets sick, and it needs time to digest.

As a player and teacher of the trombone over many years I know that the learning curve contains frequent plateaux of the kind Raymond Eicher mentions. The remedy when you're feeling uninspired is to focus on the mechanical, non-musical things, which incidentally helps with the first problem. I have no data on how many hours I have spent doing lip slurs and tonguing exercises that no passer-by would recognise as art. But it's all skill in the bank and still more fun than washing the car.

My two penn'orth (approx. 3 cents).

[Glenn Uhler]

When you hit a plateau (or a brick wall), go to Plan B. For example, get some new lesson material that's a little beneath your level of playing. Start to practice that material until you master something new. That will get you out of the rut you are stuck in, and you will look at the earlier material ina new light.

[Bill L. Wilson]

I like to switch up, and practice playin' Bass, Guitar, or even an old 6string Banjo I bought a couple of weeks ago. I haven't touched my Emmons all week, but tonight I'm lookin' to put the picks on and gettin' after it!

[Michael Coggins]

Hi Jeff,
I’m a beginner also and some days it’s a real effort to practice. The thought of sitting down to scales, muting exercises and alternate picking etc is just a total downbuzz! My way around this is to put some music on and just play along with it. No matter how badly I play (not quite in tune, a wrong chord here and there, wrong pedal) I always seem to learn something from it. You can also do the exercises along with the music and it doesn’t seem like such hard work.
I also agree with Ollin, Raymond and Lane that playing "live" with others can be very inspirational.
All the best……..we’re all behind you!
Mike

[Brett Day]

I don't get discouraged or frustrated with the steel. I'm almost to fourteen years on steel now and I don't get discouraged or frustrated. I do take breaks every now and then, and while I take a break, I do a little thinkin' about what songs to learn next. In 2002, somebody had asked me if I'd stopped playin' and I told him I hadn't. I was recovering from a bruised left hip, so it was hard for me to move to my pac-a-seat from an office chair. After steel guitar shows, I just kinda leave my steel in the case, but then I start listening to songs to get ideas for steel parts.

[Niels Andrews]

Reece Anderson told me that sometimes the best thing you could do if overwhelmed learning is to take a break and let your brain catch up. My idea of a break from PSG is go play my lap steel or Reso, or Weissenborn, or Strat, jam some blues, jazz . Keeps my head into music.

[Roger Rettig]

At this moment I don't care if I never see another steel guitar. No doubt this will pass, but for now.....

[Gene Jones]

I never got discouraged with playing my steel guitar.

If you believe that, I have some worthless mineral properties that I would like to sell!

[Don R Brown]

I'm a bit less than 2 years in and IMHO the important thing is to keep it enjoyable. I set myself a minimum of a half hour a day practice. I have done that. Some days I really feel good with it and may spend 2 or 3 hours. But on days my mind is not focused, I don't try to push beyond that 30 minutes and I don't feel guilty about that.

Sometimes I feel I'm making progress, other times no. And as you probably have discovered, the bum days hit when you least want them to. Had a guy stop over a couple weeks ago to give me another lesson and it seemed my skill level chose that day to regress about 3 months. Oh well.

Hang in there, remember the main object is to have fun.

[Brett Day]

I think taking a break sometimes is okay, but the best thing to do during these breaks is to keep music in mind. Even when I take a little break, I'm still a steel player who is enjoying other things in life, in addition to steel guitar. Giving up is not an option-have fun with steel guitar, even when you feel like your playin' ain't as good. There are some days when I've played for over thirty minutes and my left hand gets tired from holding the bar, that's when I take a break for the day, then get back to it the next day. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes-keep going and then when if you wonder what to learn next, listen to some new songs and practice with them