Too Tough To Tackle

I do have teachers but that totals 10 hours a month and that's if they can make every lesson which seldom happens.  To get where I'm going that is not going to be enough so most of what I need to do, especially from here on out, will be self taught with the direction, technique correction and support coming from my teachers.  

Self teaching is hard, ​I melt down quicker than ice-cream in a heatwave when I can’t get my head around something. My normal approach when it happens is to dig my heals in and allow my pig-headed determination to take over - no matter how crazy it’s driving me (that and using lots of naughty words!). But sometimes I know to leave well enough alone and come back later.

The thing I find so hard is knowing when it's best to push through something and when to let it rest because they can both be right - and they can both be wrong 🤔. I dont have any answer to that but I do have a couple of tips that really help me when I'm struggling that I thought I'd share in today's post.

Leave on a high

I make sure I break on a good note (pun not intended!), if I need to I will simplify what I’m doing and target one small area until I feel I’ve done something a little better – then I make myself stop. Its easier to come back to a tough challenge in a positive frame of mind.

Come back soon

Keep the momentum going, it's hard to restart once you've gone cold on the subject.  How long I leave it varies between 10 minutes, a few hours or (rarely) a day – it's important to ensure my head is in the right space. I use the time in between to think about the problem. Sometimes being away from it allows me to see it more clearly.

Bite sized chunks

One other thing I do is stop/start learning, I will work for a certain amount of time (say 10/20 minutes), take a few minutes to think about what I’m doing and relax, maybe enjoy a quick cuppa, then push on until I feel stressed & repeat. I take it in bite sized chunks, especially learning a new song, brand new technique or soloing over a track that’s stumping me ideas wise - that happens a LOT.

Think laterally

When I’m really really struggling, I stop trying to do the project itself and think about what specifically is bothering me – timing, hand movements etc and I target that, I slow it down so I can focus on technique.

Go find help

The internet is the self learners paradise.  When you're stuck use it, see if you can find some resourse that helps you.  Be careful though because it's easy to get flustered by the differing opinions and techniques but if you're stuck it can really help you see it from a different perspective.  I'm a big believer in learning from multiple angles and in multiples ways but I've already harped on about that so I won't do that now.

Here is a link to a few tips about self learning in general that I found really useful.

www.pickthebrain.com/blog/6-steps-to-effective-self-learning/

It’s not much but it may help you a little too - happy learning!