Lachlan, the thing with music is that we are all at different parts in a musical journey and because of that i wouldnt necessarily advise to compare your playing to someone elses. We all have our moment where we feel shit, and in all honesty, I’m experiencing other things outside of music to see what I truly want to do. Im 26, Ive played for 13 years and I still feel I dont know what Im doing with life. There are people on this community who have been playing longer. You could be playing guitar from as little as a few days right up to literally decades, however despite these differences in practice, do you know what we all have in common? Is that we are always learning, and we are always developing our skills, not just in music but in everything else also! We always subconsciously raise the inner bar in our mind, and our own definition of what makes a guitar player great, will change and get very detailed due to the way we learn and grow. This is not failure, Lachlan. This is you wanting to grow. However this means, you gotta work it out. Definitely learn what makes you happy. Theres nothing wrong with down picking metallica riffs. Hetfield is a f***ing monster and a rhythmic machine. Power chords are cool. Most chords have a form of a power chord in one shape or another. The pentatonics are wicked aswell! Take a look at Zakk Wylde if you get the chance. This guy is pure fire on the guitar. You can get so much fuel out of these 3 techniques.
Definitely stick to learning things that make you happy. Maybe look into flamenco as you so mentioned. Ive tried it, its wicked fun! Even though Im crap at it! And absolutely take a break from things, take a pause, breath in, breath out, and try again.
