Good days/bad days

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The Practice Group

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For/to help beginners/improvers indulging in deliberate practice to improve their banjo playing. An open group.

88 Members, Created 11/6/2017 -

Administrators: AndyW (owner) , Boadicea , WayneConrad

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From Banjojono on 2/19/2019 5:56:23 AM

I was thinking the other day after having a bad practise session. I think there is something we all need to remember. If your like me, when you have a bad practise and feel your slipping back instead of moving forward, you beat yourself up and become a little disheartened.
Looking at my 1 year old, watching her learn new things is a slow process but she is learning, and we all learned slowly. As an adult we put pressure on ourselves that we should learn quickly and expect things like learning a new instrument to be mastered in a few years.
I've been learning banjo for 2 years and have improved a lot from my first steps picking. However as things become more complex I find what I could play one day, I may not play very well another or completely mess it up, hitting wrong strings etc and I become frustrated and think negatively. Then I look at my daughter mastering new things slowly but surely and I'm reminded that it's a long road but I will get there and should just relax and enjoy this learning process and let things happen in their own time.
So anyone else like me, who beats themselves up over frustrations of not being able to play things faster enough or we'll enough. Take heart and hang in there. We are all in the same boat and will all get there one day. Enjoy your instrument and the learning curve.

6 Comments
	WayneConrad says: 2/19/2019 6:11:53 AM This is great encouragement, and so true.
Deleteme says: 2/19/2019 9:38:00 AM Keep the hope alive ...
	pickn5 says: 2/20/2019 8:43:33 AM Your going to have a bad day now and then. Just remember, a lot of tunes sound good played at slower tempos also. Just think how many people you know that can't play the banjo, then smile. Enjoy the journey.
	AndyW says: 2/27/2019 1:52:30 PM The way the brain works means your always going to be better after a good night's sleep. That is a great comforter during a frustrating practice session. It also means learning banjo is by it's nature a slow gradual process. Much patience is required. Those who have held on through the early stages of clawhammer likely have that patience though.
Spartysam says: 2/28/2019 9:23:02 AM How true. I experience those same days. However, what keeps me going is that experience of when you play a tune just right. I am stilly taking lessons - it forces me to practice and to talk with someone about how to do better. In my lessons, I usually play a tune that I have been working on. I would remember when I begin to learn the banjo, my picking was horrid. This week, I played Red Wing and Sad-Eyed Sadie for my instructor - I nailed them. The feeling that I got was beyond belief. That is the feeling that I work on achieving. That is how I get through the bad practices.
	Judith511 says: 3/2/2019 6:56:32 PM I have been playing around 2 1/2 years now and I find the same things Some night nothing sounds right. I practice with the Strum Machine and I can't get it together so at some point I just put it down for the night . Next night it sounds great. I guess it is all about the learning :)
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