When Is It Time to Move On?

All players, regardless of their status as a student, go through peaks and troughs, highs and lows in their playing and understanding of the wonderful instrument that is the guitar. This means that sometimes you will be content with your playing, and happy with the progress that you are making or the direction in which your playing has turned. Naturally this means that the opposite can happen – I am sure that we have all been there!

In this blog post I want to try and help you figure out when it is time to move on from a particular technique that you are working on, from a teacher that you have been learning with or a musical activity you have been a part of. 

Technique

When I was a young teenager, I was obsessed with the idea of sweep picking. I had seen a video of someone using this technique, and I recall my friend’s brother saying it was just a “fake technique to sound impressive” … my thoughts were that he was just jealous and I embarked on an ill-fated journey.

The issue that I had was that I was both trying to rush things (never a good idea!) and I was trying to do this without any guidance aside from the YouTube lesson offerings at the time; I did not have a guitar teacher myself for many years after I started playing! I just could not get it to sound right, flow smoothly how I knew it should. I soon found myself getting increasingly frustrated and upset to the point that it was putting me off playing the guitar. Thankfully, one day I came to the realisation that either it was not for me, or I should put it on the backburner for a while and revisit it at a later date. Just like returning to a crossword after a short break and with a fresh mental perspective can help you solve the puzzle, when I tried it a few months later I was much more successful (though maybe still not at the level I can imagine!). 

Many students that I have now struggle with the same few things. These are usually barre chords, bending and vibrato or just playing quickly – luckily they have me to guide them correctly!

Teacher

I pride myself on having a good relationship with each of my students, adjusted depending on their age and personality – I think that a student must actually want to attend a lesson rather than be forced, and a friendly rapport can only help with that, but there are limitations. A good teacher should always be friendly, but never friends with the student; professional, moral and legal boundaries must always be honoured. 

With that in mind, if you find that you simply no longer enjoy spending time with the teacher in the lesson then your ability to learn properly could be hindered. There should be no awkwardness and embarrassment within the lesson! 

It should also be said that a teacher should be able to teach by example, allowing you as a student to learn from what they can do in front of you as well as giving you the chance to learn from their experiences – I like the fact that I can teach my students through some horror stories and silly mistakes I have made so far in my career.  This means that if your goal was to become a gigging guitar player, and you are now performing more than your teacher, or at a higher level, is there anything else for you to learn?

The same goes if your level of technique exceeds that of the teacher, or what you want to focus on is not something the current teacher is able to help with. That being said, if you have a good relationship with the teacher, this is something you should discuss with them – a good teacher will understand the position you are in and will help you accordingly. A good example of this is a student of mine who loves metal – he loves nothing more than writing riffs and learning metal songs. As a result, his right-hand technique rivals mine, and he can keep up in terms of endurance. However, as a teacher I can see that he has become obsessed with this to the point of being blind to his shortcomings, which is something we try to work on whilst still encouraging what he is already great at. 

Musical Activity

I covered a similar topic recently with a blog post about doing free gigs, and there are some points from that post we can all learn from. To briefly expand further, you should try to think about your own career progression as well as staying loyal and supportive to your peers. 

Although it is an unlikely scenario, let us imagine that you are in a local rock band, playing shows here and there but always at venues not too far from your home town. You have a decent following online and a small group of loyal fans that are always at your shows – the chances are that you are not really making money in this situation but you are having a great time with people you consider family. You then get a message on Instagram, or an email, from a representative of a high-level, well-known band asking for you to join them for a number of shows, with the possibility of joining permanently – would you do it? 

Something similar happened to me whilst being on tour with White Coast Rebels – I was having so much fun with that band and travelling all around Europe playing some amazing shows (and some not-so-great ones!). I then had the chance to come to Japan and build my career here, and this is something that I figured would be better for my life in the long run. 

To echo one of the points from the other blog post, if the only reason you are doing a show is for money (we have to learn a living somehow, and our favourite genre might not always be the best earner!), and you are then fighting to get the money from the artist then should probably distance yourself.

Final Thoughts

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you are not having fun or any form of enjoyment from a musical endeavour you should seriously consider whether or not you want to continue putting time and energy into it. 

With the guitar specifically, and if you are getting a bit bored with it, you should work on finding something that excites you rather than just waiting to be excited. If you are truly having second thoughts about the instrument, consider transitioning to a songwriting-based pathway that uses the guitar as one of the tools. You might also find that you have a great time playing the bass guitar instead or switching to a different instrument family altogether. 

The main thing is that you are happy with what you are doing, and can see a logical pathway through which you can progress realistically. We play the guitar for the love of music, though how you show that love for music might change, it will always remain.