Music theory classes were my favorite subjects in college, because I loved being able to systematically break down, analyze and describe the musical flavors that were interesting to my ear such as the dissonances commonly found in Jazz, but now I feel really disheartened with my playing.

Im primarily a guitarist and had to take keyboard subjects as well as part of my undergraduate degree.

I get really frustrated, discouraged and disheartened when I play because I feel like my ear and my knowledge are far beyond my actual playing ability, and I'm definitely being highly critical of myself. I also know that I can theoretically teach these advanced concepts, but putting in the work to be able to fluently visualize various scales, arpeggios, etc on a specific instrument is definitely overhwelming, all the more with two different instruments such as the guitar and piano, and dont forget the actual mechanical/motor skills required to proficiently play these concepts that are visualized. It just seems really tedious.

I guess the difference is akined to understanding a language's grammar rules vs being able to actually speak and apply the grammar learned proficiently and fluently.

Recently since graduating, I've made it a goal to sharpen my playing to be able to express what my ear hears as well as what I understand about theory, but its just been really a challenge.

I understand it'll take some time to get things to translate into my guitar, key playing, but yeah I was wondering if anyone else had similar sentiments.