Patience, Patience

Do you feel frustrated with some part of guitar playing? Is there some area you’d like to improve? Do you ever feel discouraged with your progress? (I know—it looks so easy, right?)

The solution may be as simple as surrendering to the time required for the task. You could be lacking a critical foundational skill and need to set aside time to retrieve the missing key. Maybe you need to log in more repetitions of a difficult passage, or slow down (way down!) when you read an explanation about theory or decipher a TAB. Or, you might just have to give up expecting overnight results from you practice.

There are plenty of things we can do to expedite learning and countless ways we can bend or shape our thoughts and emotions to assist in our goals. But when they’re all said and done, we will still need a generous dose of patience to allow changes to settle into place and emerge in our playing.

You Can Do This!

Start by honestly seeking out the places in your playing that might benefit from surrendering to a slower tempo. It might be hard to recognize evidence of your own impatience, but if you tune in to your areas of discomfort or frustration, you’ll get a clue.

When you’ve discovered an uncomfortable area of your playing, prioritize it in your practice. Plan to devote a lot more time to it than you think should be necessary. If you’ve been playing a passage at 90 bpm, for example, and 70 bpm seems like it would do the trick, slow your metronome down to 50. Or, if you’ve read an explanation repeatedly and still don’t understand it, try reading it very slowly, one sentence or phrase at a time, out loud. The idea is to hone your focus, take your eye off the clock, and settle down long enough to dig deep.

My Road to Patience

I wrote this about my sometimes prickly relationship with patience. I hope it helps or encourages you in some way. But remember, we’re each unique. You may take a different route. Just keep going in the direction you know to be true and stay consistent in your commitment. One day you’ll wake up and realize you met your goal—and maybe even overshot your mark!