Teaching yourself an instrument is never easy, but there are a few struggles that every self-taught musician can relate to, so take solace in that fact.
1. You never know if you're actually any good
I can think that what I'm playing is in key and sounds really great, and then I hear it played back to me and realize it's terrible, but I can also come up with a strum pattern for a cover that I think is really boring and a friend will be blown away.
2. BAR CHORDS
A bar chord requires one finger to stretch out across all six strings of a guitar, while the other fingers hold separate strings. How does a finger even bend like that?! How does anyone learn this?!
3. Making progress in the skill is very hard.
So I can play any chord on the piano. How do I play individual keys? How do I keep them in the key that my chords are in? How do I pick on a guitar? HOW DO I DO A BAR CHORD?! SOS!
4. Sometimes you think you're better than you are and then you mess up and you're very embarrassed.
F major on the guitar is a bar chord. For some reason, on a full sized guitar, I can play this chord 7/10 times. But on my smaller, ¾ guitar, I cannot play this chord. I did not realize this until I tried to play something for my friends and it just did not happen.
5. It's hard to master a skill because you're interested in so many.
I’m learning the guitar, piano, and ukulele. I’m also practicing singing every day. Lately, I’ve found myself picking out the drum patterns and tapping them out with my fingers in the car. It’s easy to get stretched too thin and not be able to focus on just one thing at a time.
6. There are so many chords to learn.
A through G I got, but now there are minor chords, and there are sharps and flats, and I cannot keep up. Plus half of them are stupid bar chords.
7. Criticism makes you want to give up.
I've luckily had very little criticism, but after one incident, I didn't pick up my guitar for two months.
8. Your passion inspires you so much that sometimes you go a little crazy.
One time I was practicing a strum pattern without my guitar and my roommate thought I was having a stroke.
9. Failure of any kind is very discouraging.
I recently watched my very first video of me playing the guitar. Oh man, it is painful. I put it on private on YouTube for a reason. I’ve come SO far, but still every single time I dull a string in a chord I want to give up.
10. It would be even harder to begin lessons because now you know exactly what you want to know.
I don't want to learn how to play chopsticks or Beethoven or anything like that. I want to learn how to create melodies on the piano that stay in key. It's hard, and impolite, to walk into a studio with a list of learning demands.
11. People don't always take you seriously
On the piano, a C chord is typically played with the C key, E key, ad G key, in that order. But you can move it down and play the lower G key, C key, and E key in that order. Sometimes I'll move chords around and people act like I have no idea what I'm doing, just because that's not how they would play it.
12. One skill often suffers when paired with another
I like to think that I'm a decent singer, and I'm decent at the guitar. When I play guitar and sing, I'm always too focused on one of the two that I end up being fairly poor at both.
