I have been playing guitar for 8 years and played a bit of bass too. I’m at the point now that I just don’t seem to be improving on the guitar, my fingers are too slow and clumsy. My head tells me to just concentrate on bass as I do pick things up quicker and find fingering the bass to be much easier too. My heart says what about the love you have for 80s metal guitar sounds, don’t give up.
The thing is, I am 55 and just enjoy playing along with the music I love which I can do far better on bass and I really enjoy it.
I was playing bass for about 2 years before I picked up guitar. I find the 2 compliment each other. I say stick with both. Play what you’re feeling that day. We’re (mostly) all hobbyists. I’m almost certainly going to die some day as a shitty guitarist, but I’m going to have fun getting there.
I agree with @faydout, stick with it. Guitar is much more like going to the gym than bass, i. e. you need a ton of repetition to nail those small movements.
Here’s things to try:
Change the position of the fretting hand thumb. Usually lower behind the guitar neck.
Learn to play without looking, it frees up speed because… looking takes (a lot!) of time
Really just learn songs you like. Stick to the artists you enjoy. Forget about anything else.
Build a repertoire that you can play for fun. In between practice sessions, you can boost your morale by rocking out to those songs.
You can do it!
PS: Of course, @Barney is an expert in optimism. Age is just a number that (hopefully) keeps going up.
Why not both? I’d give to have the guitar fingers. It’s a start stop for me because each time I take up guitar my fingers just in pain then I rest them too long and cycle repeats. Never had enough escape velocity
On the topic of guitar, for us bass players used to big strings, is going with the heavier gauge guitar strings to learn helpful vs the full on cheese slicer stings of the standard 9-10s?
To speed that process up, soak them in rubbing alcohol for a few minutes before playing.
The callouses really help with the smaller strings. Many beginning guitarists tend to start with light gauge strings, like 9’s. Especially if you’re doing any bends, it makes it a lot easier.
Age is just a number that (hopefully) keeps going up.
