my playing....did i reach the end?(its gonna be long)

[apostrophe]

ok heres my story......

 

when i was a senior in HS i got my very first guitar. i wish i could remember what it was. i got it in a pawn shop in philly, paid 50 bucks for it. its action was so high i couldve stored important files under the strings. i didnt know anything about guitars at the time. i learned some chords and thought i was alright. i went away to college and it served me well. when i was a sophomore i bought an alvarez RD-10(which i still have today) and i thought it was the greatest guitar ever made. my former unknown guitar became known as "the stunt guitar" and had a permanent residence in the corner of our apartment and we used it to toss beer caps into the soundhole from across the room, trying to make it past the G and B strings, as they were the only ones left. it traveled with me to various places until the day after my graduation my friend and i gave it proper death by dropping it from a 3rd story window.....held together quite well i might add. back to the alvarez....it was great. i played in a couple bands(with a PU), and jammed all over town. but then i reached a peak. having never had formal lessons i felt as though i had reached as far as i was going to get. i repeated the same songs. the same licks over and over. i wasnt advancing. i was in a rut. then, i moved out of my apartment, and into my parents house. depression sunk in and i didnt play for almost a 2 years!! i got engaged and moved in with my fiancee, and started playing again. at first it was hard....i was so sloppy and rusty. but then it all came back. i got good again but alas, i reached another rut. so here i am, with a takamine EG523SC jumbo on the way, and im wondering, how can i get better? i always tell people i know how to "work" a guitar, as in i can play along with any song, i know all my chords, i can play scales and sound alright, but i dont know how to "play" my guitar. how can i get better? how can i learn? how can i break free of this damn rut?

[TaylorFishin']

I and most every player alive can relate to beind stuck in a rut! Some of these ruts can be long and deep and take months to get out of.

I think each invidual must find out what kind of player they want to be. Some are totally satisfied with singing and strumming a few chords to back up their singing. Others must play lead with a band backing them to get fufilled. Yet others want to become solo fingerstyle players.

You must decide where you want to go with your playing. Set reachable goals and work extremely hard to obtain them. I think one should always try to play things that are just out of reach to consistantly get better.

One thing that will benefit any player at any level is to learn music theory and chord theory. I'm not speaking of being able to sight read piano music. But more of what chords go in what keys, how those chords are constructed and what notes can be played in those keys. It's not very fun, in fact can be quite boring, but I've seen mediocre players become much better with a little knowledge of music theory. (I hope to become one of them)

If anyone has any secrets for getting out of ruts quickly, I sure hope they share with the rest of us.

EDIT : One thing I forgot to mention is all the post's I see of people telling others when they get to a hard spot in a song they just change the song to meet their ability. DO NOT DO THIS! Take the time to learn the technique that is required to play the song correctly! How can one improve by just doing the same old thing everyday? One of my favorite quotes is " A fool is someone who wakes up every morning, does the same thing as the morning before and expects things to be better".

Scott

[apostrophe]

some good words taylor! thanks. yeah, what i want to become as a player is in the jazz vein. my friend of several years, also a guitar player was over the other day. he hadnt heard me play in quite some time and he commented that he could hear me leaning towards jazzier chords and licks. i love rythym. i want to move in the direction of grant green, wes montgomery......very jazzy, funky and easygoing, with a lot of blues thrown in for good measure. i love the blues. i love it funky. hence the tak jumbo. that had exactly the sound i was looking for. even my fiancee, who has an incredible ear for music, noticed that lately ive been playing very jazzy sounding chords. perhaps im breaking free and i dont even know it. id like to take some lessons though.....

[apostrophe]

grant green happens to be my second favorite guitar player of all time. he can ride a groove like no one else. he falls only behind the great frank zappa. for me, theres no one else....frank is my everything!

[Bluesfrog]

William Hung is my favorite musician.

Try some new tunings.

[Cams]

I, too, was stuck in a rut about 18 months ago after having been playing for about 12 years. I progressed quickly in the first three years but it got kind of boring after that and all I was doing was learning more pop songs and strumming them at gatherings. Others seemed to enjoy it but I was getting bored.

What got me back into it was buying a good guitar and, by extension, discovering the Internet forums. I knew nothing about guitars and went to a store that had nothing better than a Seagull. I came home to do some research, discovered the AG forum and a month or so later ended up with a Lakewood guitar. Thereafter my enthusiasm took a quantum leap and has continued to improve week after week. I find the taking part in the forums to be encouraging and a big boost to my enthusiasm.

Something else that helped me out was to start recording myself playing. Firstly, it's really useful to get to listen to yourself playing as you will hear things differently to the way that you hear them when you're playing them. Secondly, sharing recordings over the Internet helps a lot for two reasons: your forum peers will assist you with feedback, and you'll practise more to get that elusive 'perfect take'.

And the final thing that has helped me: altered tunings. Trying new tunings can really give you something new and can feel like the the gateway out of a rut. I first started with Open G (or a variant thereof) when I looked up the tab for a Joni Mitchell song. It was This Flight Tonight, from Blue and the page is here:

http://www.guitaretab.com/m/mitchell-joni/12679.html

There are loads of web sites out there with lists of altered unings and chord charts so give that a try and see if it helps you out of the rut. You could even start dabbling in DADGAD and try out some Celtic tunes. If that's a new genre for you, you may just find it enchanting as I did! I now keep a guitar tuned to CGDGAD for the Celtic tunes and knew as soon as I tried that tuning that it was one I'd stay with. It just seems right for me somehow.

One other thing worth mentioning is the concept of remote lessons. It may be that you're not sure whether there are any good teachers in your locale, or maybe there are but not in the sort of style you're interested in.

Many guitar players offer remote lessons and this can be a great way of learning from someone whose name is already 'out there' and plays material in the style that interests you.

After I discovered the concept through Howard Emerson, I approached El McMeen to ask whether he'd be interested in taking me on. He agreed, and we did a lesson using video which worked really well. I sent him video clips of me playing and he reviewed them extensively; he now knows my level of ability well enough to be able to tailor our next lessons to suit me. With the proliferation of broadband these days, more and more artists are offering remote lessons, so try approaching an artist that encompasses the style you want to play and see whether you can arrange something. That will most assuredly take you to the next level!

Keep playing!

[Fuzzbomb20]

I think the whole different approach thing is a good idea. TRY FINGERSTYLE. From where I am now there is a world of music left to grasp. Just listen to people likr Don Ross, Eric Roche, Tim Sparks, Tommy Emmanuel...