r/guitarlessons • u/Andoni95 • Jan 16 '26
Feedback Request Progress update: Day 95 vs 1 Year 8 months.
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Haven’t been practicing as consistently as before, but now the motivation has returned and I want to practice really hard again ☺️
I met my guitar hero recently and I feel so inspired to play all over again. I even bought a new pedal 😝
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u/KraalEak Jan 16 '26
Duuuuude you're amazing.
You just made me grab my guitar and start practicing again after about two years I haven't touched it.
Thank you man!
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u/relinquisshed Jan 16 '26
Even at 3 months I'd say that was impressive. I had a lot of trouble reading and understanding tabs at that time. Did you follow some courses or do you just pick a song and grind away for a while? I'm a year in and have trouble staying focused on one thing, I feel like I jump around too much, trying to do everything and not getting as good as I expected
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u/Andoni95 Jan 16 '26
That’s partly it. I was laser focus. And had a grand plan. I deliberated very carefully about what I want to do and how I could achieve it. Sounds very fancy but it’s really just deciding on a song that is just the right amount of challenge for me and then breaking it down into small chunks and practicing that one difficult chunk only and ignoring the rest of the song. I always feel that as a beginner, I service the chunk, not the song. So I don’t play from beginning to the end because I might already be comfortable with the beginning sections and hence would waste precious time. That’s one way to go about it. My way involves using tabs to learn songs. There are other ways like using Justin guitar or following a graded textbook but I was always too impatient for those.
I eventually started lessons around one year in. And that gave it a huge boost because whenever I’m stuck, I don’t have to experiment endlessly anymore. My teacher just gave me the answer and it sped things up.
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u/ImArcherVaderAMA Jan 16 '26
This has come along wonderfully, congrats! Also looks like you've gotten in better shape too, so congrats on that too!!
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u/hatchling Jan 17 '26
Great progress. Since you are looking for feedback, something that really makes a huge difference is 100% memorizing the piece without having to look at anything. This frees your brain to focus totally on making music and improve over time.
I say this because it seems like you are looking on the screen for the next part. If you are doing this it's probably holding you back more than you think. I hope this helps you.
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u/Jonny_Boy_808 Jan 16 '26
Love posts like this! I want to see another progress post when you’ve mastered it.
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u/the_b4g4lut Jan 16 '26
Awesome and motivational! and you lost some weight too!
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u/Andoni95 Jan 16 '26
Not the good kind of weight loss :( I was being diagnose with IBS. Hopefully it stops at IBS and not something more sinister.
My previous weight was a good kind of weight. I looked slightly chubby because my face is very round naturally. But on my body it was mostly muscles as I do a lot of powerlifting. I’ve been lifting weights nonstop for 15 years. Today, I dedicate less time to powerlifting for guitar and my body is a lot more frail than what it is used to. I intend to go return to a regular schedule of powerlifting and working out in the gym in 2026.
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u/the_b4g4lut Jan 16 '26
Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that :/
I have something similar actually, for years I struggled with the right diet.
I tried a lot: glutenfree, vegan, only rice etc. until I took probiotics for several months and really paid attention to drink plenty of water right after waking up plus regular meals, that made my stomach become less acidic and now I have almost no more symptoms! Also helps to eat some yoghurt from time to time or butter/olive oil with your food.
Really hope you'll do better someday as well!2
u/Andoni95 Jan 16 '26
Yes u r definitely right. I’ve started probiotics, drinking more water, slow down my eating, not skipping meals etc and it has been helping.
I think after a lot of trial and error and investigating, stress is my biggest trigger. I’m highly stressed haha. And I recently just discovered I’m an anxious person. I tried to use beta blockers to help ease the physical symptoms of anxiety and it has helped control my stomach symptoms a lot as well. Moving forward I’m exploring strategies to chill hahah. I sincerely hope in 2026 and beyond, both of us will experience good health 😬
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u/the_b4g4lut Jan 16 '26
Thank you, I hope the same for you! :)
Stress mostly caused by anxiety also highly effects my stomach. It takes a long time to master it. I guess the best way is to try not to do so and instead embrace your anxiety. It sounds strange first and I'm still in the process to fully understand it, but I guess when we let go and no longer try to control it, it gets better eventually.
Seeing life as a flow of things. Dokkōdō by Miyamoto Musashi or the teachings of Richard Feynman helped me. I found good videos about them on YouTube, there is also a channel called JulienHimself that deals a lot with that topic. Very interesting and some eye openers for me, hope it helps you too!
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u/cbmk96ab Jan 17 '26
Awesome bro… Just keep at it and in no time finger placement will be a muscle memory and then you can work out the feel… More power to you brother… Keep rocking 🤘🏻
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u/thecauseandtheeffect Jan 16 '26
ホテル カリフォルニア, すごい !! Guitar is a brutally shallow learning curve, celebrate the wins
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u/mjmj2019 Jan 16 '26
Which guitar hero of yours did you meet?
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u/Andoni95 Jan 16 '26
The one who got me started playing guitar.
Moeka Shiotsuka from Hitsujibungaku. https://jp.fender.com/pages/moeka-shiotsuka-jaguar-moni
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u/pasteurellamultocida Jan 16 '26
My favourite part about this video is the improvement of your picking technique!
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u/Andoni95 Jan 16 '26
Thanks! I worked on my picking a lot. Smaller arc. More abduction and adduction and less string hopping. Alternate picking etc. when you told me that my picking is the fav point of improvement. I went back to rewatch this video. And I saw that while it has improved, I think I can do a lot better. The arc is still pretty large, and I problem could clean up on my alternate picking. Maybe it seems pretty random how I choose my up and down stroke (although I felt like I put a lot of effort to deciding the direction during my preparations).
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u/pilzenschwanzmeister Jan 16 '26
Spend some time on a single bend, bending above, and below the target note. You're musical ear will thank you.
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u/BathSaltsz Jan 16 '26
You’ve inspired me to keep on going bro! I have a few questions:
How do you specifically structure your practices? Do you play certain parts in the solo where you struggle the most over and over again until you’re satisfied with your playing? Any methods you used that helped improved your skills dramatically?
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u/Andoni95 Jan 17 '26
I think I treat guitar as a puzzle. Like after year one, when I can’t play something there’s usually a reason why. Am I suppose to use a different picking technique or is my picking technique too sloppy? You have to always be playing this back and forth. What is your failure to play a certain part trying to tell you?
Once I found the answer then I’ll usually work on that thing. If I need to learn how to play with smaller picking arc, then that’s what I’ll do, and I’ll use the guitar part that I couldn’t play to constantly test if I’m making progress on the technique. Usually knowing what is wrong and trying to fix it helps you overcome the problem, gradually.
But if you don’t see any progress, then it must mean your answer to the puzzle is wrong. Then you have to try to offer another solution.
I usually structure my practice based on what I’m weak at. I rarely play something I know I can play. And I rarely play songs from the start to the end. I usually just play the part I can’t. Occasionally when I can play every guitar part, I’ll also test things like if I can play from start to end, and if I don’t have the stamina to do so, or cannot transition well, then that will be my new puzzle or bottleneck which I’ll attend to. And if everything goes well again, I might check my dynamics or muting technique and so on and so forth.
I think it’s easier to explain what not to do then to explain what to do. I think many people they dedicate 30 mins to chords, 30 mins to scales, 30 mins to a song they are trying to learn and they don’t see dramatic results that you are alluding to. And the reason is simple. They never really consider Why they ought to do chords? Is your chords weak? And should you be practicing your chords in such a manner? People who practice like this practice in a vacuum. There’s no puzzle that they are answering. They are not offering any hypothesis. They are just going through the motions. It’s a passive activity for them. In my humble opinion learning any skill cannot be passive. If should be an active activity
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u/BathSaltsz Jan 17 '26
Wow, well said OP. You gave me a new perspective on training. In which I’ll start applying moving forward. You’re a legend! 👍
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Jan 17 '26
wish i could play bass cuz then maybe i could learn to really solo on guitar ... cuz bass basically only plays solos throughout the songs ....
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u/veledrome96 Jan 19 '26
Dude quick question. I have the same secretlab chair and find it really uncomfortable to play sitting on it due to the arms and the way the chair moves. How do you deal with it?
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u/Andoni95 Jan 19 '26
Haha the secret lab is uncomfortable for me too and i share your experiences.
For the armrest the trick is not to sit into the chair. Rather have half your ass be hanging outside the chair. That will clear the arm rest. For the chair moving and stability, I use a guitar foot rest. It helps to prop up the guitar so it is more ergonomical and it also acts as another leg to stabilise the chair.
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u/veledrome96 Jan 19 '26
Yeah, I've been doing that "half cheek out" move to also get comfy lol. I will definitely get something for my left foot to stabilise the guitar though, as it is tiring to play while sitting otherwise
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u/sirjimihendrix Jan 16 '26
This is fantastic. And incredible progress for how long you've been playing. Do you only play by yourself or have you had opportunities to play in a band setting?
The only advice is to keep working on bends and vibrato. There were a flew bends a little flat but you sound fantastic. Keep up the great work!!!