Don't get discouraged - it just takes time. Which none of us want to admit.
By now this is common knowledge, but when it was originally researched it was big news, despite how obvious it seems in retrospect:
By the age of 20, elite musicians put in over 10,000 hours of practice.
So to use Alan's crawl, walk, run analogy...figure 3,000 hours of crawling.
But wait, there's more bad news!
If the neural synapses used during this 10K hours aren't well-developed by puberty, your potential as an elite instrumentalist is pretty low. Start playing an instrument in your late teens, and you're never going to reach the potential you might have had. The older you are when you start, the more difficult the task of playing well because adults' neural pathways are very difficult to change.
I'll use myself as an example:
I've been playing piano since age four. I'm pretty good on keys. A piano keyboard feels like an extension of my brain. I had my 10,000 hours on keys by the time I was 14-15.
I started guitar at 17. I will never be an elite guitar player. This is something I accept, although I do practice and no doubt have put more than my 10,000 hours on the instrument in the intervening 40 something years. A guitar still feels less natural to my brain than a keyboard. For me, a perfectionist, this is crushing!
Still worse news:
Not everyone can be elite even with the 10,000 hours because something called
Talent isn't equally distributed among individuals. I sure wish I had more!
It's a cruel world. But still a fun one.
Enjoy the long crawl anyway! You don't have to be a badass guitar player to really enjoy playing.
Crueler still:
You can't simply walk into a store and buy great tone.
I know, you disagree.
After all, you love your gear. But think about it more deeply.
Sure, you can buy
equipment.
But really good tone is the result of years of crafting the feedback loop from brain to hands to instrument to ears to brain. That feedback loop is the difference between hearing a piece of gear and hearing a great tone. It's why you can buy a Strat and a Clapton Amp, play the same notes, and still not sound a damn thing like Clapton.
Tone may not be in the hands, but it's damn sure in that feedback loop that includes the brain, hands, instrument, ancillary gear, ears and back to brain.
You can put a new player on the best equipment, and the results will not raise the hair on the back of your neck. But put a great player on that equipment, playing the very same simple notes, and the resulting sounds will be glorious, because the great player can work that feedback loop to produce what his/her brain intends.
Of course, a better piece of equipment will make nearly anyone sound better. But equipment isn't tone. Equipment is potential. It can't do anything unless the player can reach into and unlock that potential.
