So for the past three years, I have been actively working to learn how to play the guitar. My view on what this means has changed over these three years.
When I first started, I wanted to learn to play chords so I could play campfire songs. My first year or so was with a teacher who taught me exactly that. He would occasionally insert music learning or technique learning but I would resist it and back we would go to songs.
After a while though I realized that my memory of campfire guitar players was clouded. In the beginning, I thought that playing campfire songs was playing the hyper simple versions of any song. I was wrong and realized this when I revisited my memories. Guitar players that were comfortable playing campfire songs were often very skilled yet never in your face about their skills. Yes, they would play simple songs with chords but they would also have complex strumming patterns, finger picking, actual guitar riffs and other elements that made the songs more interesting and fun.
So I changed teachers and began learning technique, music theory, and a more complete view of guitar playing. At first, it was great but after a short time I had an issue. I stopped having a focused practice.
About a month ago, I began the process of refocusing my guitar practices. I defined ahead of time what I was going to work on. I defined the length of time to practice. I either picked a time when my family wasn’t around and asked them to respect my practice time. About 2 weeks ago, it started clicking again and I feel like my progress forward is more definitive rather than haphazard.
It does seem that you can take 10 years to learn something but if you put some mental focus and effort behind it you can greatly shorten that time and be more satisfied with your day to day progress.
Don’t make up fast in your mind to learn the guitar and always be sure that regular and constant practice makes a good learning. Be patience and don’t hurry up.