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I was working on the Country Blues set of lessons about 6 months ago or so because I really like that style of music and it is also an appropriate type of music for me to play in front of friends/family that doesn't necessarily involve me having to sing so much, not a strong point. Fingerpicking songs seem appropriate for me to learn because the melody line can come out as well as the harmony.

Anyway!, I got as far as Mississippi Blues, and it started to challenge me quite a bit, (chewing gum and walking type of challenging). I want to revisit that lesson set in the near future and I am looking for advice on how to practice when it's hard, when I want to put the guitar down and play something easier instead of continuing on. I was getting about 1/3rd of the way through mississippi blues before the challenges started and the frustration level started to increase.

So just generalized advice I guess on fingerpicking in general (I'm more of a strummer, but as I said, I want to fingerpick better), and also advice on how to motivate myself to keep going when it gets hard. I remember when I couldn't play bar chords at all and I thought it would never happen, but I just kept practicing and I eventually got it and its no problem at all to play them anymore (most anyway, some are still tough and have room for improvement, but I can get through them).

Thanks in advance. And as feedback, I love the site, I've become such a more accomplished player because of it and also the music theory and rhythm teaching/learning has been awesome and I'm glad that you teach the way you do because it all comes together in my mind and also in my playing/rhythm and I believe I get a much deeper knowledge of how to play but still have fun while doing it.

- Jorma

My only advice would be: the frustration is part of learning. Just try to accept it and work through it. Recognize it as a sign of progress.

An analogy I like to apply to a lot of different things: A beginning meditation student once insisted to his Zen teacher that he, the student, was hopeless because he couldn't focus. Stuff kept jumping into his mind to distract him. And the Zen master said: Well, if you could focus your mind without effort, you wouldn't need to learn how to meditate! That's what meditation is -- learning to focus, not just perfectly doing it every time, which would be a waste.

In other words, frustration is part of learning -- anything, really, but definitely guitar. The more you see the difficulty and frustration as *helping* you learn, the easier it will be for you to not let those things stop you. They're there to *serve* you, if you simply allow them to.