u/Wonderful-Bug-5083

This is not a routine and more just me sitting down every day at a random time and playing the same song over and over until I get frustrated, but I still I would like some advice. My main problem I'm having right now is it feels like my minds kind of in a frenzy while I'm playing. I get so focused on playing the song I somehow forget what I'm doing and suddenly I'm 3 measures behind. I think maybe I need a break? I was steadily progressing for about a week and half but recently it feels like I can play the song somewhat good then it just slowly gets worse from there or the complete opposite where I sound horrible then work my way to eeeh, kinda good? Like rhythm isn't really the issue for me anymore, the song I'm playing has the same strumming pattern throughout the entire song. I struggle with just polishing certain things like, strumming correct strings, landing the chord changes right so the strings aren't muted and small minor things that I usually wouldn't notice since I've been playing for only 4 months. But since I've been actively putting in the effort everyday (for the most part) its really easy for me to notice theses things and feel frustrated. I also am fighting a minor sinus infection so that probably explains the more weird cognitive things that have been happening like skipping bars or in some cases completely forgetting what the hell I'm even playing and just general sluggishness when playing.

More details into what specifically I'm doing:

I practice the same song until I get bored of it or I feel like physically at my current skill level I cannot get any better at the song. For example, songs with barre chords, cant do em yet. I usually will follow tabs or make my own tabs to follow. Ill play the section of the song I'm currently working on with the tabs at slow and manageable tempo so I can play everything fluently with little to no mistakes. Then Ill switch to a recording of the actual song on yt and play along with that at a slightly faster tempo, still slow enough that i can play it but faster than the tabs so i can challenge myself. Id repeat this back and forth between tabs and songs over and over for about 15-30 minutes, sometimes multiple times a day everyday or every other day. This was seeming to work really well for the first week and half. Recently though I've been in a rut, I feel slower than when I first started out, I was started to slowly increase the speed I was playing at and now I'm starting to slowly decrease the speed since I'm struggling to keep up to the song now. Is this a normal wall or is this a sign that I'm burning myself out? Have you guys experienced anything similar to this? What did you do to combat this? I'm fine switching over to a different song for a bit but I really think this could be my first song and honestly even if its offbeat, messy and you can barely hear the chords I'm playing, a playthrough of the entire song would be awesome. I'm just a little worried that I might actually be over practicing and lowkey obsessing over completing the song just for the sake of finishing what I started, I'm still enjoying myself and playing the guitar though so maybe I am just crazy.

I know there are alot of people who come here for more serious things so apologies for this im just not sure what to do. My grandmother died of natural causes last month, she also had dementia and it was very bad the last few times my mom got to visit her. My moms a single mother of 4 (5 technically but thats a long story) and if used to her life being fulfilled through work and other things. She cannot sit still and is very ADHD, our house is constantly a mess and our family has a history of hoarding so its not necessarily dirty, just very cluttered. Anywho, with the loss of her mom shes been going through alot, ive been trying to help her in anyway i can, doing dishes helping with yard work, organizing when i can, if i can. But recently she's been saying concerning stuff, she told me today in the car, she misses her mom and thinks shes going to have a nervous breakdown. Shes also hoarding her moms old stuff, she came home with a tahoe filled to the brim with shoes an clothes from Grandma's house. I wanna respect her grieving process but i also know this is just gonna contribute to the mess shes already dealing with. I wanna be there for her but i dont know what to do or how to help. For those who have lost there parents, what helped you? Is there any advice you can give me for comforting her? Me and my grandmother weren't that close so its really challenging to comfort her when i cant even fathom the amount of loss shes dealing with since i really didn't know my grandma.

Here to add to the other hundred post to remind people to just be patient. The biggest hurdle ive had to climb recently is dealing with patience. Or really lack of it, i tend to get really hard on myself and doubt my ability to learn guitar and other instruments in the future. Im 18, which is young but compared to other people my age who have been playing and have been around music since elementary, im definitely behind. But even though i feel insecure about these things sometimes what's helped me has just actually enjoying playing. I and other people on this sub can tell you this is such a huge help. Some days when im angry and sad and moopy i dont even work on technical stuff i just strum to strum. Recently the past 3 days I've just practiced the same 5 measures of a song just because thats all i wanna do. My point is to not overthink about having a perfect practice routine in the beginner phases, do everything you can to enjoy playing as much as possible. Then once your committed, things like a solid practice routine will come to you naturally because you'll actually want to play daily and focus on your skills.

Of course a good routine, music theory and all the technical things are gonna take you far if you start them as soon as possible. But having fun and playing with other people can motivate you to play daily because you want to and not because your just checking off boxes until you reach a goal. Play the guitar because you love to play guitar, not because of the gear or the cool riff or for a 30 second clip for the Internet.

We got a new washer and dryer set because the old one was making a loud whistling noise and kept leaving our clothes damp. The new one we recently purchased is having the same issue but now theres a more troubling problem. The last time i came home to check on my clothes in the dryer, not only were they damp but they also smelt like smoke. The dryer its itself and the surrounding area also smelt like smoke as well. Ive stopped running it and have taken the clothes out. With the little research I've done i think it could lint build up in a vent? The dryer is new and the lint traps and always cleaned after each wash, it does seem to be completely full after each dry. But the area around the lint trap is pretty empty. Another thing of note, water and condensation build up around the dryer door and in the lint trap. Im not sure where else to look or if i can even access what i need to without calling for help which isn't ideal since my moms out of town due to a family emergency. Do these symptoms seem like a simple fix or something serious?

My ap lit teacher in highschool read this book to us, i dont remember exactly what it was about but the main plot was about a dude and girl and their relationship with each other. Some key plot points i remember are in the beginning of the book the teenage boy who is the main character is at some mall thing on the moon (its one of those scifi dystopian books) and someone hacks into the worlds mainframe or something like that. Everyone in the story is controlled by the government through technology so if someone hacks into said technology it causes people to see things and hear things and shit just goes wonky. The hacker situation isn't a huge part of the plot from what i remember but more of B plot thing that happens in the background of the main story. I remember the book ending in basically an apocalypse, i wanna say it was a bomb that killed them all but im not positive. One thing i remember specifically from the ending is the boy running to the girls house and finding her dead? I remembered enjoying the book heavily and a huge theme in the book was the governments control over people and what they does the the average citizen. Another big theme was how knowledge challenges conformity. Is this ringing any bells? Also the cover art for the book was red and didn't really have much else going on i just remember a bright red color.

Edit: Just remembered another thing!! Something that stood out to me about the book was they talked really funny, it was like broken up English. The best way i can describe it is imagine talking to a 6 year old who learned how to speak English purely from social media. They can speak for sentences but some words are just wrong or relapsed with weird words that sound similar but mean different things.

One thing I didn't expect to challenge me so much when learning is the metronome lol. I know I just gotta practice more especially since I've only been at this for about 3 months now almost, but man is it annoying to just be a mess and completely off beat. I always practice with a metronome, I'm good with scales but when practice songs I struggle a lot even with simple songs with just down strums and bends. Its like ill have it for a little bit and then I change chords and lose the beat entirely, or sometimes ill lose it in the middle of playing one chord. Its really frustrating but on the bright side when I do finally play on beat it feels great. I also play at slower speeds. I try to play it slow enough that I can play and still sorta sound like the song when possible but sometimes ill find myself slowing it down so much idek what im playing anymore. I also get confused on when i should be set the metronome to play quarter notes or sixteenth notes. Sometimes a song will sound like its using sixteenth notes but then it turns out its actually just be 4 quarters notes really fast so then when I slow it down there's to much space between the quarter notes so it sounds awkward. To combat this I set the metronome to play 16th notes but then I run into the whole being offbeat problem. Am I overthinking this? Probably. But this music shit is really a foreign language to me and I'm slow and need things explained to me right so I don't overthink weird bs like when to use quarter or 16th notes on the metronome. This also does scare me a little bit though because I want to play with other people eventually but I'm nowhere near at level yet anyway so I try not to think about to much. I don't really think there's much advice I can be given on this since the only way through with most things is just practice. But if you have any or relate in any sense and like to share your thoughts that would be appreciated. At least I will know I'm not alone and just dumb lol. Ty for reading another dummy's rant.