The Steve Stine Podcast
The Steve Stine Podcast is about more than just music — it’s about life, faith, and finding meaning in the everyday. Join Steve as he shares honest stories from decades of experience as a musician, educator, husband, father, and believer navigating the highs and lows of life. Each episode offers heartfelt conversations about purpose, spirituality, personal growth, and staying inspired — even when life gets messy or uncertain.
Whether you’re picking up a guitar, walking through a season of change, or just looking for encouragement to keep going, you’ll find something here to lift your spirit. With special guests, personal reflections, and real-world insights, this podcast is for anyone seeking a deeper connection to their creativity, their calling, and their faith.
The Steve Stine Podcast
The Day I Almost Quit Playing Guitar Forever
Two pivotal moments almost made me quit playing guitar – These challenges taught me valuable lessons about persistence, plateaus, and reconnecting with passion after difficult times.
• Progress isn't linear – plateaus are normal and require persistence
• Practice consistently but efficiently – "practice on the days that you eat"
• Balance learning new challenging skills with things you can already do well
• Life circumstances like grief can temporarily disconnect you from playing
• Think of your guitar as a friend you want to talk to daily
• Set realistic, progressive goals to move forward efficiently with your playing
• At 55, I'm mindful of making the most of my time with guitar
If you're struggling with your guitar journey and need guidance, check out the GuitarZoom Academy. We can help you move from where you are to where you want to go.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
All right. So today we're going to be talking about the day I almost quit playing guitar, and there's actually two days I'm going to talk about, or two life instances, if you will. One was a skill and one was a life situation, and so let's start with the skill one. So I'm hoping that this will kind of identify with some of you in terms of, a frustrations you have in your life and, b how to continue, even though the struggle sometimes seems really really frustrating and at times even overwhelming. So number one was when I was a kid, learning how to play again, born in 1970. So I started playing in the early 80s.
Speaker 1:Growing up in Fargo, north Dakota, there wasn't a lot of guitar instruction. You know people you could go to that sort of thing. So basically and this was right before guitar magazines started becoming really popular Now I did use guitar magazines and stuff like that later on to help me kind of learn a little bit as best you can with, you know, trying to read. You know songs and whatever it might be. But in the early days, you know, I learned how to play some chords out of a book. I would go to my local guitar store and you know they would show me little things here and there, whatever it was, but mostly it was ear training, like I would put on records and try and learn the beginnings to songs. You know this was back would have been like Back in Black Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Def Leppard, high and Dry not High Romania, but High and Dry, some of those albums. That's where I started trying to kind of cut my teeth on learning how to play by ear.
Speaker 1:Now how much of it was right, I have no idea. I mean, I'm sure some of it was in the ballpark, who knows. But I do remember being introduced to bar chords and not understanding major or minor and what major was or minor was or anything of the sort, just trying to get that stupid bar to press across all six strings. And you know I've learned G and C and different things like that and I had some single note picking skills and whatever. But these bar chords were. You know, I played power chords but bar chords were new to me and I started trying to play the six string bar chord. Again, I can't remember if it was major or minor, maybe it was both, but I could not get that bar to press on all six strings. Now, when I teach bar chords to people, there has never been a student that I've had that takes as long as it did for me to learn how to play bar chords. Now I like to credit myself a little bit that I'm involved in that and maybe I can help them a little bit more on, you know, wrist placement and elbow and how to bar and all that kind of stuff where I didn't have any guidance on that.
Speaker 1:But I couldn't do it, like I couldn't play it, and I got so frustrated with guitar playing. You know I could do these other things but I couldn't do the bar and it made me want to quit playing guitar, like I just I I hit a wall and I couldn't break through that wall with these stupid bar chords and you know I started getting so frustrated that I just wanted to be done playing guitar. And the long and short of the story is that I continued playing these bar chords, practicing them, couldn't get them, couldn't get them, couldn't get them, couldn't get them. And then all of a sudden one day I grabbed the guitar. I came home from school, I grabbed the guitar and I could do it and there it was, and it probably took me two months. I mean I don't know how long it took me. It was persistence. Thank God I didn't stop playing before I actually got there.
Speaker 1:But I often, you know, tell people when you're learning how to play something like the guitar, it's not like every day is better than the last day. It's not always that way, maybe holistically, or, you know, in your motivation, or something like that. But certain skills they just require repetition and time. If you're doing it right, if you're doing it the most optimal way. Now I guarantee you that I was not doing the bar chord the most optimal way, you know, moving my elbow in a little bit, turning my wrist a little bit, using more of the side of my finger than the front of my finger, all of those kind of things. You know, it wasn't a concept I was even thinking about. I was just trying to make the stupid thing. But once I was able to make it, I was able to go back and start thinking about why it was that I was able to do it versus not being able to do it before. And, to be completely honest with you, that was a pivotal moment in me wanting to learn how to teach guitar. Down the road is because I had this analysis revelation in my mind of how I was able to do it from a point of not being able to do it prior. My earlier point was this plateau thing.
Speaker 1:So sometimes what happens with guitar playing? You know you're using a metronome, you're trying to work on a particular technique and it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. It's just sitting there doing the same thing over and over and over and over and you're getting really, really frustrated and then all of a sudden you can do it, but you gotta outlast the plateau. And again, if you think that every time you grab the guitar today's gonna be better than yesterday, today is not always gonna be better than yesterday. Sometimes you're gonna struggle with that and you have to get used to that.
Speaker 1:Now you don't want every single thing that you're doing on the guitar to be that much of a struggle every single day, because then it would probably get overwhelming. You know this is why you want to build small things and then bring in new things, so you might be building these chords. Therefore, you're playing these songs and you're feeling the forward motion in these songs. You know, maybe they're not perfect, all that kind of stuff, but you can feel that there's forward motion. And then there's something else over here that you're working on, that you're not feeling that forward motion like my bar chords were, and that's okay. Again, you're going to be persistent and you're going to be consistent on it and continue to try and develop that until you can get past that.
Speaker 1:So, long-term, short-term, it's very important to think about that and organize what it is that you're working on. Are you working on the best things that you could be doing at this moment to get to where you want to be, right, or are you just kind of working on random things all over the place? You know, because you watch this video and somebody showed you this thing, and so you really don't have any sort of game plan, you really don't have any sort of direction, you're just all over the place. Well, that can get really frustrating too. So the next thing for me and this has happened a couple of times in my life is just you, life situations that happen and you, you wind up getting very overwhelmed by stress, um, you know, anxiety or work or whatever it might be, and for me, work has never been a big issue, simply because I was always able to fit in time.
Speaker 1:I always tell people practice on the days that you eat. Yeah, I'd rather have you practicing 10 or 15 minutes a day than none. You know, some people have an all or nothing attitude. I try not to allow people to do that. I would rather you pick it up every single day for a little while and make actual progress, work on things that you actually need to be working on, as opposed to just grabbing it and kind of noodling on the guitar or something like that or practicing things that aren't necessary. It's hard to make progress that way. It's hard to see forward motion when you do that. But sometimes life is bigger than that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you get into situations where you're dealing with life struggles. You know my dad passing away. There was a while there when my dad was sick and before he passed away then I didn't pick up the guitar for a while and then when he did pass away, I was actually there when he passed away. It was a pretty traumatic situation and I did not go straight to my guitar. That is not what I did, and so it took a while to build that relationship back. And there's been other situations in my life where that's happened, where you know they're just profound situations that happen in your life, but you've got to find a way back to the things that you love.
Speaker 1:When something you know bad is happening in your life, you've got to find a way back to the people, back to the, you know, situations that that make you connect, reconnect with, uh, the things that made you feel good. And so for me, you know, after my dad passed away, it was definitely something that I had to come back to, obviously, but it's not like that was on the forefront of my mind was well, I got to get my 15 minutes in. That was the last thing on my mind. And so, you know, after time passed and I came back, of course everything was fine, and it's not like I lost all my skills or anything like that. I did not. I just reconnected and started working again. And there's been other times in my life that that's happened, and this probably happened to you too.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying don't, you know, put the bike in the shed and forget that it exists, like if you got to get off the bike for a while and do something else, that's fine, but then jump back on and if you're in a good space, try and stay on that. You know I always tell people like the guitar, think of the guitar as being like your friend. You know you want to develop that relationship to where you want to talk to that that friend on a daily basis, because it makes you feel good. Even when it's frustrating, it still makes you feel good. And so for me that's what the guitar is and hopefully for you it's the same thing. You're going to get frustrated with certain skills or certain things that you're learning on the guitar.
Speaker 1:Don't get that to be so consuming that you don't work on anything else, because then it could become very overwhelming and then life itself oftentimes can become overwhelming and you might have to take a little time off and that's okay. Just ease back into it, get to know your friend again. You know, reach out to your guitar and start. You know maybe you don't just jump right back on technique and theory and modes. Maybe you just start playing some stuff or get together with a buddy or go see a band or whatever it might be, to kind of get you reconnected and move from there.
Speaker 1:So for me, guitar playing has always been not just about the physical and comprehension of playing a guitar, but it's a psychological thing where you really have to want to play. You have to love to play, even on the bad days. You got to love to play and you have to develop that relationship. That that's what's going to keep you playing for the rest of your life. You want to develop those goals, understand what you're doing and why you're doing it, to get to where you want to go, so you're not wasting time.
Speaker 1:You know, at the recording of this thing I'm now 55 years old. I hope I'm around for a long time yet. I would. I would love that to be true, but I also have to face the fact that there's I mean, there's an expiration date. So at some I want to achieve those goals. I want to get to where I want to get to, not because I'm pretending, not because I want to. You know be, you know, an astronaut. Okay, I can already play guitar. What are the realistic goals that I can set for myself? To get to the next level and then make a choice from there to the next level and then make a choice from there to the next level. That's how you keep efficiently moving forward with the guitar.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, just wanted to let you know that, hopefully, if you're struggling with anything, whether it's something within the guitar, something outside the guitar, something in your life. You can find a way to balance those, but don't ever give up playing your guitar. Don't do that. And finally, if you do need some sort of help, if you're really struggling with your guitar and it's just driving you crazy, you can always head over to GuitarZoom, check out the GuitarZoom Academy. You can set up a call with me or one of the other instructors and we can talk about the Academy, see if it's something that fits you. You know it's a financial commitment, it's a time commitment. There's no, you know, shortcuts. We work together to get you from where you are to where you want to go. And if that's something where you're like, man, I'm just sick of spinning my wheels and I want to make a change, then reach out to us. Let's have a conversation and see if it's something that would work for you. So, take care, stay positive and I'll talk to you soon, okay.
