Getting past the "good enough" mentality
Making sure your effort brings you closer to the player you want to be
Photo by Miikka Airikkala on Unsplash
For a while, I was stuck in the trap of playing just good enough.
I would learn a song, riff, or solo and get it to the point where it sounded reasonably good. Maybe 75% of the way there and, if I liked the music, I would play it all the time. But since I was satisfied with it being good enough, I never actually put in the extra work and practice to make it truly good.
At some point, though, I find my ears and taste evolved and my playing and technique didn’t.
I actually remember distinctly thinking, “I don’t play as good as I used to. I must be rusty and out of practice.” In reality, I played the way I always did. My physical playing didn’t keep up with my overall musicianship.
Now I spend less time learning new things and more time on that last 25% between good enough and truly good.
As a result, my ears are sharper and my technique is better.
The devil is in the details when it comes to good musicianship. For example, in a fingerpicking piece, I might not have paid attention to string noise while moving my chords around. I might not have thought much about the length of the notes and ensuring smooth articulation so I didn't cut anything off. I might not have adjusted where my picking hand is to get a warmer tone by being closer to the body of the guitar instead of the bridge.
These are just some examples that come to mind. But when you start to pay attention to these little micro-details, your playing elevates to a whole new level.
Learning guitar takes effort, but it's worth it.
Whether you want to learn songs, or composition, or shredding the fuck out of it, the guitar always takes effort. There's no getting around it.
The key is to make sure your effort brings you forward, in a meaningful way, to becoming the player you want to be. My best guitar playing experiences are scenarios like I described above - where I'm really making strides toward cleaner, more intentional playing. My worst guitar playing experiences have been drilling exercises or trying to keep up with a tedious practice schedule to improve.
Even if there is some connection between these abstract exercises and practice schedules and becoming the player I want to be, it's apparently not powerful enough for me to care.
Now, I always practice new skills and techniques by making projects
My new approach to guitar practice has made it easier for me really focus on that last 25% between pretty good and truly good.
The idea is simple: when you work in projects, the concrete, tangible artifact that you create just needs to be good. I'm not going to produce something I don't think is good, so I need to spend enough time working on the right things (that last 25%) to make sure my project is presentable.
It still takes effort, but I find the friction to actually sit down and do it is reduced. There is a reason for putting in this effort. It's to complete this project right here, to become better at the music I like, and to bring myself closer to the player I want to be.
Good stuff again.
There’s a catch-22 for self-taught guitarists. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on the littlest thing. You’re completely free in your choices. But with complete freedom and unlimited choices it can be incredibly hard to make up your mind about what to do next and then stick with it.
The self-taught musician is often missing out on guidance. I wish when I was starting out on guitar a more experienced player would have sat me down and told me what to do. Just someone to say, “Hey kid, do all these things in this order first. Get them totally right before moving on to this. And then you’re ready to do whatever you want.” Getting 75% of the way there is when something starts to feel really difficult. And that’s usually when the self-taught guitarist convinces themselves it’s time to move on to something else. Without a teacher you need a voice in your head telling you to finish what you started before moving on. I suppose we have to train ourselves to develop that voice and then learn to listen to it. The last 10% of anything always feels like the hardest part.