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I fucking suck.


mattyk

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Posted

I suck at the guitar and it's ruining my life.

 

 

Well, I mean...I'm not going to commit suicide, but {censored}...it depresses the {censored} out of my how much I suck.

 

And it's not for lack of trying, I practice like a mother. 3 plus hours at least everday for the past 3 months. I've been playing for five years total, and I have an alright chord vocabulary, I can play kinda fast, my accuracy is ok at best, my tone is alright sometimes, my phrasing sucks ass. I can solo slow blues alright, but that's about it. I know some arpeggios, scales and some basic theory (keys, sharps, flats, chord spellings for some basic chords).

 

What am I doing wrong?

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Posted

What is it that you want to accomplish? What are your goals as a player?

 

If you don't have any specific goals, then it's impossible to have any kind of direction to what you're doing. Without direction (or focus, if you prefer), you'll just wander around the instrument, working and slaving, but to no end. If you DO know what you want to accomplish, then it's just a matter of figuring out what it's going to take to get there.

 

 

Do you enjoy playing?

 

It sounds like you're getting burned out. Take a break. Put the guitar away for a week...2 weeks...a month. It won't kill ya! Sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away and refresh yourself. Take the time to listen to types of music you don't normally listen to...listen to players you've heard about but never heard play...whatever habits you've got that have put you in a rut, change them! (at least for a while) Then, when you come back to the instrument, hopefully it will be fun again.

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Posted

The only real way you can improve your phrasing is to play with other people as often as you can. Jam along to your favorite CD's or invite friends over who can play. Its not something that can be taught, you have to learn it on your own, find out what works for you.

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Posted

Hey thanks man,

I put together a practice routine that includes at least one new chord type and arpeggio each day, plus some time allocated to just jamming and all that.

And as for being burned out, I don't think i'm quite there yet. Everyday I get home from work and my strat is the first thing i reach for.

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Posted

Ok, I have some things to say on this subject.

First, I've never met a guitar player - or artist, or artisan, or anyone who takes pride in their work - say they were satisfied with what they were doing. That's perfectly normal. If you ever say to yourself, "I am the best I'll ever be," put the guitar down and punch yourself in the face. There is ALWAYS room to improve, I don't care who you are or how much you think you know.

As for goals, Auggie is 1000% percent right. Your goal may be simply to play in a live setting and not bring everything down. I have a friend who, when he started out, his goal was to rule the world. No {censored}. He wanted to be the best damn guitar player to ever lay hands on the instrument. He's been playing for about 16 years now. Is he the best? Hell no. Not even close. But he still plays every day, hours at a time, because he loves it. It's his life. And he gets better all the time.

Progress is a strange concept. You don't notice it when it happens. Only afterward can you say, I'm getting better. Plus, the longer you play, the less noticable the progress is. It seems to come in plateaus (sp). I find that I don't get better for a long time and then a moment of inspiration hits and I suddenly understand something and it opens new doors for me to fail at walking through until I've practiced and practiced them.

Burned out? Probably not, but a break might do you some good. My band takes a break from regular practice sessions about a month long every six months. It sort of renews the vigor with which we play. The last time we took a break, when we came back, we played the best we ever did. And I have no problem believing that after the next break, we'll sound even better.

Jamming with other people: get yourself in a band. I don't care how much you suck. Jamming to a record is great. I do it for hours on end. But, nothing compares to the trial-by-fire concept. Get in a band, get a gig, play in front of people. It's embarassing to suck in front of other people - especially when they're not your friends and family - but there's no better way to improve. Playing live forces you to improve. I kinda feel that the moment you can change batween a couple of chords, you should get into a band. There are people out there who study and study the instrument and learn theory to the extent that they could teach the greatest classical students in the world. But, many of them could never play with other people, have no idea how to do so because all they did as sit in their room and practice.

What kind of music do you want to play? You said you can solo over a slow blues tune. Do you want to play blues? If that's the case, I wouldn't worry about speed or accuracy, or even a large chord vocabulary. The basics are all you need for this kind of music. The hardest thing about playing the blues is conveying feeling. A master can play one note and make you cry, laugh, or howl.

This goes along with the goal thing.

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Posted

Well I think your problem may be too much practise. I've been playing guitar on and off for about 15 or 20 years. I've never taken a lesson, but I did go through a point where I was up in the wee hours practising scales like a madman...however this was years into my playing. My point is that you should get to know your guitar on an intimate level. Practise is not very intimate...practise can be fun, but truthfully it's more work than anything. What I did was just pick away...in fact I knew how to solo way before I could even play a series of chords. So just grab your guitar, and play a few notes that sound warm, with some nice substain...find a groove and build off it...if you want to take a break...take a break from practising, and just solo...at first it may sound off...but stop mid stream and find the notes that sound good then keep on playing. Stick with the blues for starters and work on some simple scales, but whatever you play, be it 3 or 5 notes...feel them, let them ring, let each note reverberate within you...get a sense of the feel of your guitar's sound, its amazing how much depth you can acheive by simply bending the notes. This is something that I've noticed that is lacking from alot of guitar solos these days and thats feel. Sure they're lightning quick and full of technical wizardry, but they aren't very deep. As an example, listen to some of David Gilmour's solos...they're full of emotion and character...lots of feel.

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Posted

yeah,

I realized that the best way to get better is never stick to old forms, as soon as you master something, approach it at all angles, and learn it throughly, then immediatley move on to something else.

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Posted

who ever said getting stuck in a rut was bad?

about two years ago (when i was 13) i discovered Jeff Buckley, and was instantly captivated by his style. All I listened to his performances and studio tracks for about a year and a half. all i played was his stuff. For a year and a half. everything i did revolved around playing Jeff Buckley (seriously, my marks failed at school from staying up to three in the morning) I actually wagged school a few times so i could stay home and play. at the end of it, what had i gained? Well, i could play nearly every jeff buckley song, rip off his style completely, had some sort of grasp on his singing style (though i would never be able to mimic him!!!) . Now most of that is totally useless, but i learnt so much from his. the hard way. stuff that i didnt really understand untill i started learning theory. syncopation, timing, rythym why some chords go from this one to the other and scales etc. It was quite a wierd way for a young musician to learn stuff, but hey it worked.

maybe immersion in one thing isnt so bad.

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Posted

Keep playing until your fingers BLEEEEEED!

Don't worry, i've bee playing for about the same and i still suck.


What i do is look for a "Jam clip". Many people post 'em around (atleast i think they did) and try and jame to that using the "Chords" and the "scale" : penatonics arepgios dorian ETC
that helped me improve a lot, but maybe that's just me.


Many of the elder people here have a lto of good suggestions, don't listen to me.

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Posted

We all SUCK!! myself included, welcome to the club.
Let's call it Club Suck?

Anyhow, I don't think beating a dead horse is the answer, sometimes you can punch through a rut but if you are trying too hard and it is not working give it a break. Go to the gym, go for a mountain bike ride, get laid, go hang gliding, listen to some different music, invent a cure for world hunger, go live life and have some fun. You will be surprised how beneficial that can be.

Feel good, play good.

MH

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Posted
Originally posted by Mr.Hanky

We all SUCK!! myself included, welcome to the club.



If I what I'm working on at any given moment doesn't constantly remind me of how badly I suck, then I'm not challenging myself enough. Nuthin' to get upset over...it's motivation to keep getting better. :cool:

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Posted

A good way to get out of a rut is to broaden your musical horizons. I felt stuck not so long ago, but then I saw a Allman Bros. concert on TV and was floored by the playing of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. Since then, I've been motivated to take my playing to the next level and go beyond useless minor pentatonic noodling. I've since improved my knowledge of theory and learned many new soloing techniques, as well as improving my phrasing tenfold. In short, listen to some music that you don't normally hear and maybe you'll be inspired by one of the players.

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Posted

i would say, if you can solo over a slow blues ok, then stop soloing over a slow blues. one of the traps that many people fall into during their practice routines is to always play what they can already do well - they spend hours every day practicing and never get any better, because they never move onto something new.

set yourself some new challenges and break them down into long term goals and short term goals and focus on the short term goals - these must be reasonable and achievable - and once you've achieved them, then move on.

some examples of long term goals might be - i want to be able to play jazz / metal / country etc and solo effortlessly over this type of music. i want to be able to compose music in that particular genre. i want to be able to solo in any key etc etc etc

then break these down into short term goals, like - i want to be able to play the major scale in every key. i want to write a new chord sequence every day and a new song every week. i want to be able to bend a note up a tone on the top three strings and have it pitch perfect every time etc etc etc

part of the skill of practicing is figuring out what these short term goals are - we all have the pretty much the same long term goals, but our short term goals will be very different and totally individual. part of the skill is identifying the weaknesses and strengths in your playing and tailoring your practice routine accordingly.

sim

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted

I read someone's reply above that said to set specific goals. They're right. People spend countless hours sitting down with the guitar messing around, playing the same stuff over and over or learning one song after another and never really think about what it is they want to get out of playing. Sure everyone wants to shred but how are you going to get there? Plan out a strategy of attack that very specifically defines what it is you want to improve in your playing: Is it fingerpicking, is it theory, is it speed, is it writing or composing? Focus on one goal at a time and take it slow and start basic. Also you should start listening to different types of music, even stuff you may think you don't like. Hope this helps.

Adam Long

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Posted

Sounds like you practice too much and don't play music enough.

Pick out a melody and improvise the f*** out of it. Change meter, throw in accidentals. Funk it. Rasta it. Be Bop it. Metal it.

Play for the music. Play for those phrases that you do get right.

Oh yeah. Drink lots of coffee.

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Posted

Playing with a band is good advise.

The only thing that I'll add is that the best way to learn to improvise is to play other people's solos. Yes, it sounds weird, but it works. It teaches you new phrasing that wouldn't be natural to you. Basically, it forces you to play and think like someone else.

You do this enough with different people and you'll find your own style.

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Posted

First off, let me just say that Auggie Doggie's first response made me laugh, as well as your reply of that you guess you shouldn't use swear words in thread titles, and will avoid that in the future.

Anyway, you mentioned that you've got a strat. These things are powerhouse guitars and you can become immune to simple and beautiful melodies with them. In other words you can make nothing sound like something if you fool around with a strat long enough.

Maybe you should get an acoustic and mess around with one for a while. It would be a humbling experience compared to your strat since you'd have to settle for six strings and twenty frets, and whatever you can bring to the instrument in terms of talent and mindset. There would be no effects to fool with and you wouldn't be able to do a three note bend, for example.

But you would appreciate the ease of conveinence of not having to plug in. You could play it ouside on a sunny day, pick it up for just a minute, only to maybe right away put it back down again. It wouldn't give you noise hangover and it would sound much different from what you're used to, and there's a lot to be said for the soundbox overtones of a well tuned acoutic guitar.

Essentially, you'd get back to the basics. There's a lot of satisfaction to be had from just evenly strumming full chords and adding a few nearby runs. With this sort of mentality, your playing would get out of any session rut you may be having.

And when you go back to play your strat, you'll have a new outlook on things and you'll become a more well-rounded player.

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Posted

I suck too but to a greater or lesser degree than yourself

One piece of advice that works for me is to stop using distortion for a while.

It will teach to to be more articulate.

It will also teach you that you can often be more effective saying things using fewer, but very expressive, notes.

Once you master a few runs and phrases completely clean (you can use reverb and chorus if you like) switch to distortion again and you will be amazed at how good you can play compared to before.

I had to do this when every musician in our church band left but me. When you are the sole instrument accompanying the singers then playing distorted does not work. It used to cover up a lot of sloppy playing and I relied on it like a crutch.

I am so grateful to have had that crutch yanked out from under me.

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