akiravalley

[akiravalley]

RECORD YOURSELF !!!!1!!

It will reveal everything you didn't know you were doing wrong. Even if you're 100% sure you're playing everything correctly. just TRUST me. This will make you a better guitar player/musician/whatever. Don't live a lie, lol

[akiravalley]

Being too hard on yourself & Self-awareness 3.26.25

I've been working on practicing a more advanced song. Since I was really inconsistent with practicing before, I didn't have well enough developed callouses. It hurt so bad to press down on the strings, but I still forced myself to play. I've been practicing one part of the song for 3 days and started feeling annoyed because I'm not perfect yet. Sounds irrational, right? Right, but 99% of us will feel this way at one point or another. I stopped and reminded myself that it's only been 3 days. And even then, I've made progress. I've realized various tiny errors and corrected them. I played through the physical pain of my tender fingers. If I could do all of that in 3 days, then what could I accomplish in another 3? A week? A month? An entire year? Every time you feel frustrated with yourself, stop and reflect on everything. Not just the big picture, but the little victories. Progress doesn't always make itself obvious, but it's there. Remind yourself that the only way you'd stop moving forward is if you give up. Self-awareness is probably the most important and most powerful tool you could have when it comes to learning something new. If you think you're not all there in that department, the good news is that self-learning is a nice way to develop self-awareness. It's a win-win!

[akiravalley]

I completely agree and understand your pain. I made a post about this earlier and I was thinking about the years before that where I wanted to learn again but just never did. As for making practice fun--this was something really important for me because if I'm just practicing 2 exercises and two scales everyday, that's boring. I want to learn songs, specific songs. So I learned techniques as a beginner through very slowly learning songs. By messing around and doing dumb shit. Trail and error. Experimenting. Before I started, I was way too stuck up on creating a strict routine that was scientifically the shortest fastest way to improve or whatever. But that's not fun or sustainable. I'm going to make a more detailed post about this later lol. Message me if you want! I understand you're learning a different type of guitar than me but it's still nice to talk to someone about the instrument.

being a wannabe instrumentalist with no true drive is actually hell 👎

every time i listen to a really really freaking awesome guitar solo or performance in general my heart starts to hurt so fricken bad because I WANT TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT BEAUTIFUL TOO!!! I WANT TO DO THAT TOO!!!!!!! 💔

but i never ever fucking practice man. i just sit on my ass depressed all day…you would think a heart shattering guitar solo/melody like this would be like, motivating or something, but it just isn’t, because in reality, when you’re a beginner, practicing is just so repetitive and boring…after switching between two beginner chords over and over again several times a day, and playing the bass part from seven nation army like 35 times in a row, the magic of the instrument just kind of starts to disappear…😢

how do you get motivated to stop dreaming, and actually start doing?! when the progress is so painfully slow??? i just can’t do it!!!! ☹️

this time it was the guitar intro, outro, and solo in the song この世界に二人だけ written by ano, and arranged by regal lily. it’s not even anything that crazy, but the melody is just so beautiful. it’s sort of a simple creation, but i know couldn’t have done it myself, and i just can’t stop thinking about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and either way, if it wasn’t this song, it’d just be a different one. because this happens all the time. from ano, to number girl, to fucking jimmy hendrix, the dreaming never ends…

[akiravalley]

Consistent Guitar Practice 3.18.25

Okay going to be honest, because of finals and dead week, I didn't practice guitar for two weeks, but I am gonna make a comeback! Just need to rebuild my callouses. I started playing guitar (fingerpicking) in October, so it's been about six months. Realistically, that's definitely more like less than 3 months considering all the days I didn't practice (more often than not, I'd go 10+ days without practice, and when I was consistent--which was rare--it was more like a short practice session every other day). Despite this, I'm finding it extremely easy to learn songs. There is someone online who first inspired me to pick up fingerstyle guitar. I watched his cover for Black Widow, and I couldn't stop replaying it. I wanted to create that beautiful sound but I figured it would take me at least two years. It didn't, I learned how to play it last month, by ear, and by looking at the position of his fingers. NO NEED TO BUY TABS. I started learning another song yesterday (Habits [Stay High] - Tove Lo) and it took me about sixty seconds to learn the intro by ear. I was shocked despite myself lol. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Everybody's excuse is "I don't have time" but that doesn't mean they can't play a bit and still make progress. I'm shocked that I've gotten to this level despite the inconsistency and lack of motivation on many days. At the end of the day, it really narrows down to two things:

desire and fear. You want to pick it up and play, but you're afraid. You have time, you just say you don't to make yourself feel a bit better about not giving it a try. You just think you'll never be good enough, and you think by plucking for the first time, you'll be confirming your own doubts when you hear an ugly noise. Did you expect to sound angelic when you've never touched a guitar in your life? And even if you did try it, did you expect to succeed before you failed? It's okay to not be perfect, to not be consistent. You'll have a thousand failures before you succeed. Your snare string-slapping technique will sound like trash for a thousand tries before you start getting it right more and more frequently. And soon it'll be like second nature. You won't be able to not get it right. Like walking! Lastly, I think this mindset can be applied to lots of areas in life. Stop denying yourself your power! You have infinite potential

[akiravalley]

Hey There! 3.8.25

So...here's to yet another Tumblr blog. In all the years I've been on this site, the blogs I've had, most have been centered around lots of negativity and self-deprecation. While I'm all for vulnerability, I thought it would be nice to have a fresh start away from all of that. I made this as kind of a digital diary or a guitar-centered progress journal for me, and by putting it out here I'm not really hoping that anyone sees it. But...If anyone does happen to see this blog and find it heartening, then I guess it's more than okay to stick around!