Skipping difficult parts of a riff

I’ve been bashing away for about 6 weeks now and completed most of the B2B course ( all except the slap :grimacing:) so now I’m attempting to play along with songs I like using tab( I’m sorry @PamPurrs ) .
My question to ya’ll is simply if you hit a part you’re struggling with do you grit your teeth and master it or do you skip it initially and try to improve over time?

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Skip it. Come back to it later.

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It is really hard to enjoy something when it starts getting frustrating. Especially when I get tired. It is always suggested to sleep over it and come back to it but man there is about a 22 hour gap between two playing sessions for me!

I usually push to get the slow work out done and go through the medium (and fast if I can bare) just to see if any interesting suggestions are made. If I didn’t particularly enjoy the song I skip it after slow.

But skipping part of a RIFF that I did not have to do so far…

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That’s what I’m doing @howard but sometimes I feel like I’m letting myself down if that makes sense? There’s a couple of Metallica songs I’m trying to master and I’m not too bad until it starts moving back and forth up the fretboard.

I know exactly what you mean about skipping stuff if you’re not enjoying the tune @Fahri I did , however, make myself do all the riffs on the B2B and I will go back to the slap lessons at some point.

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Oh keep coming back to it as time goes on! But don’t let it block you :slight_smile:

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Skipping a section might be an option, another one could be to focus on the more difficult sections one at a time. Go through them slowly to get the technique to work and speed up things afterwards.

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The way I kee going back to it at the moment I think the neighbours may get it before me @howard :joy:

I keep forgetting I can slow it down on Songsterr :neutral_face: Thank you @Krescht

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I will go back to all the songs as soon as I go through it once as well. I am at Module 12 now and can’t wait to go try the Slapping actually. Was it so hard for you?

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@Mac, I tend to just work with the tab first. No stress needing to follow a rhythm. I just practice the fretting and only go to the next step (playing along a slower speed) once I feel confident enough.

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Yeah , I really struggled once I started moving across the strings and popping. I get a better sound out of the bass I built but not the SR .

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I’ll certainly be giving it a try tonight :+1:

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I think the idea is to not allow it to become frustrating.
There will always be stuff you can’t play. Every musician knows that they will never “master” their instrument to the point where they can make it do anything they hear inside their head.
But if you can “visualise” yourself playing it, but actually playing it doesn’t quite work out, then going through the process of mastering it (starting slow!) should be fun, not frustrating. Just remind yourself that there’s no deadline, you won’t have to play this on stage tonight…

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Hi @Mac,
Sometimes I think it’s easier to play easy songs to get strength and develop dexterity.
Metallica’s music based on the stuff have, black album, master of puppets.
There is some serious bass content on them.
If you are playing the easy stuff but struggling with the hard bits that can be frustrating.
If your happy to keep plugging away, if not try something easier for now, and go back to this stuff later.
Cheers Brian

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Damn,that’s what my missus said :scream::joy:

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Grit your teeth, this will help you improve the most, it also gives you a lot of satisfaction when you finally got it down
Playing things in your comfort zone is good for maintenance, but will not improve your playing

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Your missus is right. I think it was said already but just to reinforce the sentiment again: I don’t think you are letting yourself down by recognizing something is too hard for you and boiling it down to a simpler version or leaving it out.
To the contrary: I think you would be letting yourself down if you forced yourself to do something you obviously haven’t got the skill for yet.

Of course if you only play things you are very comfortable with you won’t get better at new things. So you should get out of your comfort zone from time to time but not so far that it’s impossible to play for you. It should be hard to play and if you see the possibility that it becomes easy to play continue practicing it.

So in my opinion there’s a relaxed comfort zone for playing and then there’s a “possible to learn” zone above that that is okay to try but further above that is the: “you aren’t skilled enough to really learn anything from this by trying”. I think one should try to keep to the first two zones.

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There is an opposite side to this story as well. When I start a module I check the lesson names and if I notice that I am going to learn a song that I already am familiar and I like, it gets me super excited.

Well no surprise to say that the couple of hours I spend on the song are delightful and much easier in most cases. Then next day I move to the next lesson and after a couple of days I notice that all those songs that gave me joy are already behind me!

I can’t wait to go back and play them again!

For some super favorable ones I went through the bassless fast tracks (MP3s) and played them a few times even. But my desire to finish the course first time around is overwhelming!

No time for stopping to smell the flowers! I have a mountain to climb!

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Me trying to hit the syncopated notes at the right time in an unknown practice rythm: A mess
Me trying to hit the syncopated notes at the right time in Feel Good Inc: 99%

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I had the same with Roxanne. I even nailed the looparound!

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I managed Roxanne ok if I really concentrated and counted lol
I did find Song for my Father ? tricky :crazy_face:

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