Evaluating my journey in 2025 · The Practice Room

Evaluating my journey in 2025

Hey everyone,

Taking a page (or 5 more likely) from

's book here to evaluate my journey last year. It will be a huge chunk of text, so feel free to ignore it ;-)

I am mostly posting this for myself and maybe there is some helpful feedback or there is something that someone else can learn something from this.

Thanks!

Ivo

My Guitar Journey in 2025

The Good

----

**Overall**

The best thing is: I have most certainly improved! While I really think I am still a bit away from what I would personally call an Intermediate Guitar Player, I do not feel I am really a beginner anymore. Above all, I feel more confident. There is still no chance in hell I would play in front of people, but if my partner walks in the room I won't stop out of shame.

**My playing**

Purely looking back at some earlier recordings for the VIP community -- I wish I had made more! --, I am less 'stiff'. It actually sounds like music every once in a while. I pick up new songs and techniques faster than I did at the start of the year. Also, I played pretty much every day for 20+ minutes on average. Sometimes even 2+ hours in a row. So finding time is not a challenge.

**Technique**

Me and barre chords have been a bit of a love/hate relationship for the year. At first Bm was my easy go-to, then it was F and Bm was just the worst and now I am at a point where I hit them well more than 90% of the time. And, being less stiff (dare I say 'musical' in playing) helps hide some of the potential flaws, giving you time to adjust. Sure, it is not perfect, but it is perfectly listenable. Most of the time.

Playing scales / solos is slowly getting there too, my fingers feel less and less like weird hotdogs with a mind of their own and more "nimble". Playing (improvising?) pentatonic scales to a backing track at 70-80 BPM is going pretty decent.

**Scales & Fretboard Knowledge**

It feels way less intimidating to look at the neck. I am starting to "see" spots (like the root notes / octaves) and I think I understand CAGED properly.

The Bad

---

**Playing a single f..ng song**

I still cannot play a song without listening to the record. It is almost driving me insane. It just feels like I cannot ride a bike without training wheels. If a demon would hand me a guitar and I had to play a song (imagining Tenacious D - Tribute here) I would be doomed.

**Practice & Focus**

I am sure my ADD tendencies do not help, but I am constantly going to new songs. Actually practicing a song is just not happening. I am not sure if I am looking for instant gratification or something, but practicing mindfully to improve is just not something that happens.

**Overall**

Honestly, if I would have been doing this evaluation in 2024, I think the list would be much longer. Last year I would have worried about strumming, timing, lack of knowledge, lack of confidence and much more, but right now I really feel I got most of the basics down. Not that I am a guitar god by any means, but I feel the foundation is there and now it should be possible to build on top of this. If only I could actually play without training wheels!

The Ugly

---

**Goals? What goals?**

I just do not follow through on goals! I can set them, but nothing happens. Last year I wanted to make 4 "songs". I made 2. Last year I wanted to learn to play without those damn training wheels. I did not. It is just bizarre. Especially because other goals have been achieved. I am in the best shape of my life because I do go to the gym 4 times a week. It is just a bit of a bummer though, because I did join the VIP community to become better. But I did not invest enough time in that and I think that is a bit disappointing.

**So, what is going on there?**

I recently started reading Atomic Habits and I think there are some interesting pieces of content in there that might provide a clue. One of the things the author says is that "identity" plays a big part in the whole habit thing. For example, you can probably imagine the difference between someone saying "I am trying to quit smoking" versus "I am not a smoker". Or another example from the book: "I want to learn an instrument" versus "I want to be a musician".

One key thing I notice about myself is that I just really do not feel like I am a "musician" or that I have the drive to be one. You could argue that it does not matter, but I feel like it might be a clue to why I would follow through or not. Like I mentioned in earlier, I do not want to play in front of people. So the question then is: why do you care if you can "perform" a song? You might as well just play along to a song and have fun. And that is exactly what is happening, time and time again.

What's next?

---

So... now what? That is a good question. Even though I seem to struggle with follow through on goals, especially when it comes to the musical kind, I created Guitar Goals 2026.

The main goal is:

**By September 1st 2026, I will perform 5 songs (3 strumming, 2 fingerpicking) with vocals, without backing tracks, at open-mic readiness level.**

To clarify, this does not mean I am doing an open-mic! F that. But the hope is that this will at the very least encourage me to follow through on practicing those songs.

**Does it work?**

So far, it does absolutely nothing for me. I have spent maybe 10 minutes in the first 2 weeks of the year practicing the songs without training wheels, not even singing along. But let's see if writing this down creates a bit more accountability for the future!

9 comments