Have you ever felt frustrated while trying to learn guitar, piano, or singing?
Have you ever felt frustrated at your self for continually making the same mistakes?
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with so much to do that you could not find time to practice?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then read on. This article will provide you the strategies to overcome frustration and overwhelm. Overwhelm is one of the number one reason students quit taking music lessons and give up on their musical goals. When a student feels that they sound bad, do not know what to practice, how to practice, or do not have enough time to practice consistently, they often experience overwhelm.
Overwhelm leads to self-doubt, which is the number one enemy of progress. As long as you doubt yourself, you will continue to feel stressed, frustrated, and stuck. There is good news. You can overcome overwhelm. And when you do overcome overwhelm, you feel confident, excited, and you make massive improvements, which leads to further confidence, excitement, clarity, and accomplishment.
Imagine if you felt confident, excited, clear, and accomplished every single day. How much you would accomplish and how happy you would be? Imagine if you improved massively every time you invested even one minute to practice your instrument or your singing. Most people don’t practice or at least don’t like to practice because they don’t see the fruit of their labor. And they have not formed a consistent practice habit. Then they make excuses and say that it was a busy week or they didn’t have time. When you learn to overcome overwhelm, you will never need to make excuses again.
The key to overcome overwhelm begins and ends in the mind. You can become the musician and the person you want to be. There are two keys to overcome overwhelm: simplify and visualize.
Whenever you are stressed or overwhelmed, simplify. If you have a busy day and don't think you have time to practice, then break your practicing down into bite size pieces that you can do in 1, 5, 10, or 30 minute chunks. Focus on just one very specific thing you can improve, even just a little. If you are working on a difficult song, break it down into smaller and smaller parts. If you are playing piano or guitar, just use one hand or play more slowly. If you are singing, then sing at 50% volume or just focus on one musical element i.e. the pitch or the lyrics or the rhythm. You get overwhelmed because you are trying to think about too many things at once.
Keep it simple and reward yourself with small victories. Then you will build momentum, build confidence, learn more quickly, have more fun, and feel much better about yourself.
The second effective strategy to overcome and prevent overwhelm is to visualize vividly, what and who you want to become. Visualize what you want to sound like. Without a vision, you will lack the motivation to even try. Frankly, learning music is way too difficult if you don’t want to learn and if you don’t have a vision of what you want. If you like music and if you want to learn, you already have a huge advantage. Your desire to become a better musician and a better person can propel you to do whatever it takes to make your musical dreams a reality.
Exercise 1: If anything were possible, what do you want to be able to do on your instrument or with your voice? Don’t limit yourself. And don’t try to be realistic yet. Simply write down in as vivid detail, what you want to be able to do.
Exercise 2: After you have completed exercise one, focus more specifically on one specific song or technique you want to learn. Write it down.
After completing exercise 1 & 2, you will have a better idea of what you want to accomplish. You can do these exercises regularly and repeat exercise 2 every time you want to learn a new song or set of songs. The clarity you gain from these exercises will give you a boost of clarity and motivation, which will protect you from overwhelm.
To overcome overwhelm, remember to simplify and visualize.
Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can start pursuing your musical goals by hiring a qualified music instructor who can empower you to reach your goals much faster than you could on your own. If you are struggling with overwhelm while trying to learn guitar, piano, or singing, contact me at Josh@jropro.com. I will help you to become the confident musician you want to be.
To learn more about how to sing, play piano, or to play guitar, find a music teacher near you who specializes in teaching students to master this art. You will benefit greatly from guitar, piano, or voice lessons from a master instructor.
If you live near Troy, Michigan, go to www.jropro.com to receive a free assessment lesson at the J-RO School of Music. Make your musical dreams a reality!
About the author
Josh Ross is a professional musician and the founder of the J-RO School of Music in Troy, MI. For the past decade, he has empowered his students to reach their musical dreams and to experience incredible fulfillment through music. If you are interested in taking guitar lessons, piano lessons, or voice lessons in Troy, MI, then contact Josh at www.jropro.com for a FREE Assessment Lesson.