Why I Keep Failing to Learn Guitar

Three attempts. First one was in 2013. Then again a few years later. Then more recently. Each time I got about two months in before something happened — a new job, a move, a kid. The usual. At my best I got through most of Twinkle Twinkle without messing it up. Not great.

The problem isn't that I don't like guitar. I do. I like the sound of it, I like what it represents, I like the idea of being the kind of person who plays guitar. That's the first problem — I was doing it for the idea of it more than the reality of it. (One thing I have learned since: the Free Library of Philadelphia has an instrument lending program that would have made my first attempt cost $0 instead of $500. Whether that would have mattered, I have no idea. Probably not. But it would have been a smaller experiment to fail.)

The second problem is harder to admit: I genuinely cannot tell the difference between adjacent notes. C and an E? Different. I hear that. C and C#? No idea. The interval is too small for my ear to register. Not a dealbreaker, but a real problem — it means I can't self-correct by ear. Every chord shape has to be pure muscle memory because my ear won't tell me if it's wrong.

Third problem: consistency. Guitar requires daily practice, even just fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes a day for a year does more than an hour once a week for a year. I know this. Every guitar teacher I've had has told me. Knowing it and doing it are different things when your day is full of things harder to skip than guitar practice.

So here I am. Three attempts deep. Still not playing guitar. Maybe try again in five years when the kid is older. Or just accept that some things are for the idea of them, not the reality. Guitar is pretty from a distance. Less so when you're failing at it again.