Want to Stop Trying to Control Everything? Learn How to Play the Guitar
You’ll start creating beautiful melodies only when you stop pressing the guitar strings so hard.
My friend always knew what he wanted in life. He wanted to move abroad, study film, create movies that inspire people, and eventually give back to the world.
But that plan was close to fully destroyed after only a few months of carrying it out. There were too many unexpected variables that compromised the well-thought plan.
The drastic change of having almost full control of his life to none was not a pretty sight. He was frustrated with how little control he has.
At the time, I was learning how to play the guitar, and with both occurrences happening together, I learned one of the most important things in life that all of us should keep in mind:
You’ll start creating beautiful melodies only when you stop pressing the guitar strings so hard.
When we try to learn to play the guitar for the first time, we will press the guitar strings as hard as we can.
We think that we can produce a clear sound by doing so. We put even more pressure because we unconsciously think that we should fight the tension of the guitar strings.
Most of the time, we’ll be greeted with silence when you strum the guitar. If we’re lucky, then we’ll probably get a muffled or distorted sound of the chord we’re trying to play.
Similar to us when leading life, most of us need to have control. We are scared of how unpredictable life is, so we grip our sense of control as tight as we can because it gives us a sense of familiarity. It makes us feel safe.
However, in reality, we have zero control over what can and will happen in the future.
In college, I was once in a group that bad-mouthed me to others about how I didn’t do any work when I was the one doing 97% of the work. It was upsetting, but I didn’t think much about it.
If I had confronted them, they would probably spread more lies. So, instead of trying to control them, I showed how knowledgeable I was about our assigned project in front of the class.
My group members? They embarrassed themselves badly.
Here’s the thing. If you practice playing the guitar regularly, you’ll learn that you don’t need to put too much pressure on the guitar strings to produce a clear sound. But you need to put your hand and fingers in the right position.
Eventually, you’ll learn how to play beautiful melodies.
What Happens If We Keep On Pressing the Strings Too Hard?
1. You’ll hurt your fingertips
It’s normal to have calluses because of playing the guitar. But the pain shouldn’t be because of you putting too much pressure on the strings. It should be because you’ve practiced for a long time.
Trying to control everything, especially the uncontrollable, will only end up with you getting hurt and be disappointed every time.
2. It will slow down your playing
When you play the guitar, you want to be able to play beautiful melodies with smooth chord transitions. But giving too much pressure on the strings will only hinder you from doing so.
You’re straining your hand and fingers. So, naturally, it also takes much more effort for you to change the positions of your hand and fingers.
Trying to control the uncontrollable will only slow down your life and stop you from meeting your full potential.
Imagine yourself wanting to exercise outside. You’ve only walked a few feet when it starts to rain. Now you have three options:
- To keep running.
- To curse at the rain, hoping that it will stop.
- To go back in and do something else first.
Letting it go would be the first and third option while being stubborn is the second option.
Nothing good would come out of the second option. You wouldn’t get your exercise, and you would have to push your other plans back.
3. You won’t be able to produce the right sounds
When you put too much pressure on the guitar strings, you won’t be able to produce consistent-sounding notes. Some will sound muffled, while others will be a bit distorted. And when you’re tired, there’ll be no sound.
You’ll get frustrated.
The problem is that you’re stressing yourself out, but you’re focusing on the wrong thing. So, the effort you’ve put in is useless.
Final Thoughts
Having a sense of control is good. It gives you clarity on what you want to achieve, and it acts as a sort of safety net for you.
However, wanting to control too much will only wear you down.
- You’ll end up hurt.
- You’ll only slow yourself down.
- You’re putting unnecessary stress on yourself.
Just like the way you want to produce beautiful songs, by playing the guitar right, you’ll be able to do so in life too once you let your grip on control a tiny bit looser.
Put enough pressure on the guitar strings and be mesmerized by the melodies you can produce.
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