It makes sense.
Playing any instrument has its ups and downs and that’s simply the way it works. Normally, the process goes something like this. Hmm, I want to play guitar because it looks cool. Now the chain reaction starts. The first step is to find a guitar. Steel six-string acoustic guitars are cool, but they play a little harder than an electric. Another option is a classical nylon string guitar, which is easy to play and nice on the fingers while you develop calluses.
Now, just banging on the guitar may work for some styles of music, but most of the time it doesn’t. So, that means either you need to take lessons from a friend, an instructor or teach yourself through watching YouTube videos. Is one method better than another? It depends on how quickly you want to learn guitar and what your goals are. Playing around the campfire requires less effort than playing live at a venue.
Let’s talk about my path. Elementary school classical guitar lessons and reading sheet music. Playing bass in a pop band at 14 (same bottom strings as a guitar EADG, just tuned one octave lower). Bass lessons one summer at Eastman school of music. College jazz band playing bass and various pop/rock bands playing bass. For the last 8 years I have performed as a solo acoustic musician playing six-string steel guitars. Why am I telling you this? Because even after all my experience, I am still learning. Here is what I discovered.
My strumming technique uses more arm motion than wrist motion. I am working on changing over to more wrist motion to provide better strumming control. This involves relearning muscle memory. I will not be able to do it for all strumming, as some of my songs require arm motion to get a specific percussive sound. I really like the tone of picking strings over the sound hole of the guitar, but it requires me to plant my forearm on the guitar body, which does not lead to precision picking. I am changing over to wresting my palm on the bridge plate, which provides more picking control. It’s a brighter tone, but still pleasant. Again, this requires retraining my muscle memory to do this.
All this relearning is because I discovered that I could play better and more accurately by changing my technique. Sometimes, change is good and it’s never too late to learn (or relearn something a different way).