Fact: Music is easy. Fact: People complicate it.
Look at it this way, if you wanted to study the ocean, I would think that at some point in your studies you would get overwhelmed by the information out there about the ocean. Music is the same. There's a huge amount of information about music, and at some
point we complicate it to its 6th dimension.
So it doesn't surprise me to find that there are so many good-average musicians/artists out there. It's not their fault; it's just that we like to skip thru topics in order to get that "new cool riff" or "new arpeggio" down and performing it ASAP.
Not being able to keep up with lessons is a common problem, especially if you're studying with someone that always gives you new things to work on.
The solution for all of this is simple.
Practice one topic at a time and really master it! At the very least, get comfortable in what you're practicing to where it becomes second nature.
"But, I have so many things to learn!"
Yes. There are a lot of subjects we're going to learn, but it's useless for me to teach you 89 different things in 89 days if you end up never being good at any of them.
I recommend that to really improve in whatever you do, soak up all the information and really 'get into it' for a week. If you feel you need more time to improve on what you're studying do it for two weeks, a month, take as long as you need!
The more you practice that one subject the better you're going to get at it.
Good luck and remember to have FUN!
Have any questions? Please feel free to email me.
Oscar Ortega is a professional guitar player from Guatemala City but currently living in Boise, Idaho.
Oscar has been teaching and performing professionally for over 10 years and is the rock instructor for OurMusicNation.com.