Do you like the way your playing is going?

[Engl Kramer]

My playing has always been (in my twisted little mind) tight chugga-chugga with soul and toanz. - Less is more.

The last couple of years I've definately improved through more practice as a result of having better gear and my improvement spuring me on.

 

It seems lately though that my playing seems to have grown legs and is heading in a more 'shreddy' almost Nuno, squeeley 'ooh look at me' direction.

 

I'm playing more lead cos I finally got a guitar with a good selection of sounds - but it seems like I've temporarily forgotten how to grind the riffs.

 

I'm gonna buy some heavier strings and maybe a bridge pup if this carries on.

 

What about you- is your playing behaving itself?

[stevenjuel]

i suppose i cant complain. Iv really switched up my music tastes since this time last year. It went from primarily punk to reggae and stoner metal with a bit o blues thrown it. as of right not im working on getting my reggae rhythm down and i started on learning the blues last week.

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

I've gotten better with vibrato, both finger and whammy vibrato, and my improvising abilities have improved.

 

It's a slow process, but I'm on the right track.

[scuzzo]

Rhythm is coming along fine..

lead.. still not happy

bends ok

chordal kinda things.. ok

but still searching for some ideas

[metalheadUK]

No, not really at the moment.

 

My musical life in general is going pretty well...I'm in some great bands, I've made some great friends, and I'm getting some interesting jobs.

 

But from a playing point of view, I'm getting pretty frustrated.

 

I'm sure it will sort itself.

 

[Engl Kramer]

No, not really at the moment. My musical life in general is going pretty well...I'm in some great bands, I've made some great friends, and I'm getting some interesting jobs. But from a playing point of view, I'm getting pretty frustrated. I'm sure it will sort itself.

 

Really? Whats frustrating you, dude?

[robertkoa]

Yes- after decades,I finally have the chops I've always wanted for lead( and a "new" alternate picking technique that sounds like sweeping but can be more rhythmic,and faster ) BUT now I have to go back to writing/finding cool chord progressions etc. and pretty soon or within a year I'll have to put out a CD and videos and the competition is the very talented top people.

 

And nobody's buying music especially instrumental music, so I'm a bit worried that it might just go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and not sell or be received well.

 

And this far down the line after all these decades it's very difficult for a non gifted but still creative player to come up with some fresh stuff we haven't heard ( 10 times ) before. The one thing I have going for me is most people aren't playing a real lot of new rhythm stuff....we'll see.*

 

I have a feeling people might want my stuff WITHOUT lead guitar on it so they can solo over it- so I'll have it both ways on CDs /downloads.

 

 

OK - I feel better and I didn't have to pay for a shrink - HA!

[humbuckerstrat]

I've accepted my limitations.

[lp_junkie]

After 35 years of doing it, I think I got my basic style down solid.........

 

My experience works for me, and when collaborating with my current band mates our combined ideas definitely do push my playing in different directions than I would go on my own, both rhythmically and melodically.

[Elias Graves]

I feel I'm sounding much less "mechanical" these days. It's very exciting.

 

EG

[metalheadUK]

Really? Whats frustrating you, dude?

 

I just feel like I could be more interesting and less predictable in what I play.

 

I also would like to say more with less. I'm no shredder, but I think I do have a tendency to clutter things up, too many notes saying far too little.

 

It's not an angry frustration....the sheer breadth of people I'm playing with usually means my ruts are short lived!

 

Anyway, I've got CSMs custom shop JB Strat and Vintage Super Reverb here at the moment, soon as I've got a "quiet" day in regards to other people being out, I'm gonna give that amp a good seeing too, and see how my guitars sound through it, and I'm looking forward to that!

 

[Orange Jackson]

I do. I really dedicated myself to learning as much of the technical side of things as I could, and working to make it second nature so that I didn't have to think about it when I was playing live. That was 15 years of work. Now I'm moving into just playing, breaking rules, being free on the neck, and composing. I'm having a great time with it.

[Hubert Stumblin]

Yes.

 

I've been learning new things both technique-wise and harmonically. It also seems that lately whatever I want to learn I seem to be able to do it with just a little bit of effort. I'm not saying that everything and anything would be easy. But I've been pleasantly surprised lately how quickly I've gone from hearing something and thinking: "Wow, that's cool. I'd like to learn how to play that." to the point where I've got it figured out.

 

Sure, there are still days when I pick up the guitar and think I can't do anything right. And that's when I realize that I'm tired or not emotionally in a good place at the moment or whatever.

 

But for the most part I'm in an upswing in my playing.

[lp_junkie]

my rhythm playing owes a lot to Brad Whitford and Malcolm Young but my lead style is best described as melodic chaos, owing a lot to Jimmy Page.

[blingdogg]

I wish my lead playing was better and that I liked playing it more. These days I just love playing rhythm and chords.

[bisticles]

I just recently joined a band with gigs coming up, and have been handed a 2" binder full of stuff to learn. Lately I've been able to do stuff that I never thought I'd be able to pull off, so that's pretty cool.

[rummy]

I've come a looooooooong way since that 14 year old kid trying to rock out to Led Zeppelin and AC DC.

[nuke_diver]

No, not really at the moment. My musical life in general is going pretty well...I'm in some great bands, I've made some great friends, and I'm getting some interesting jobs. But from a playing point of view, I'm getting pretty frustrated. I'm sure it will sort itself.

 

 

Seriously dude?

 

I aspire to play like you do you seem to do everything you try well ...blues/rock/funk/jazz/shred...I would love to be so flexible...

 

As to the original question...obviously no I am not happy. I have improved...practicing will do that but I'm still behind the curve and time is ticking...I am not pleased at all with my ability to come up with interesting rhythms though my rhythm playing seems to be in advance of my lead playing which is mostly mindless noodling

[Faber]

No - it is evolving entirely too slow, not least because life at the moment leave me little time to play anything other than the songs I have to perfom on the the weekends.

 

OTOH it is evolving in sort of the right direction - my leads are getting more melodic and I'm slooowly getting better at playing through changes while sounding Rock rather than Jazz

[meandi]

I'm getting better, in a steady kinda way.

I schedule & try to play 2 hours a day...it's starting to pay off.

 

OP...at this point, I'm a marginal player at best, & I've found that it's natural, when you learn a new technique, to want to show it off a bit.

After a while, you learn another new thing, & the previous new thing becomes an intregal part of your growing musical vocabulary.

[Brown Rug]

Better, in that I'm not ashamed of playing in public. But deep down, I still think I can do better.

[DL2]

It's hard to keep momentum going sometimes. It seems I have bursts of creativity and motivation to learn new songs with boring, frustrating periods of apathy in between.

[Engl Kramer]

Sorry guys.

You ever post a thread only to have it slip off the page like a wet kipper and then discover days later that you have ignored everyone that took the time to reply?

 

Sorry folks.

 

I feel a little better about my playing today as I had a recording session with my band that went very well for me.

I played a lead/effect part on a recording years ago that I always felt was 'me' and was a style I would like to develope.

Anyway I managed for the first time to play something with a similar feel that went beyond what I created on the original recording.

 

It made me happy:)

 

It will hopefully only be a couple more months until the new album is finished and I'll be able to subject you guys to my 'genius':freak:

[metalheadUK]

Seriously dude? I aspire to play like you do you seem to do everything you try well ...blues/rock/funk/jazz/shred...I would love to be so flexible... As to the original question...obviously no I am not happy. I have improved...practicing will do that but I'm still behind the curve and time is ticking...I am not pleased at all with my ability to come up with interesting rhythms though my rhythm playing seems to be in advance of my lead playing which is mostly mindless noodling

 

I think the odd period of frustration is part of the game to be honest...but you'll be OK.

 

You have the commitment and attitude and you will get there, I bet!

 

Thanks as always for your kind comments...always makes things feel better, and I had a play today and I was much happier!

 

[WRGKMC]

Maybe its time to hang it up?

 

I been playing 45 years since I was 9 so I know nothing about hitting dire straits. (not the band but them too) I can say I never fail to enjoy playing or come up with new leads, riffs and progressions. I also expanded my playing to keyboard bass drums, Fiddel and others. You get out of playing what you put in.

 

There is no such thing as a gifted musician. Theres a difference between a guy who puts in major hours playing and the asshole who thinks he can do it without the practice. All you see from the audiance is a guy who can burn the guitar neck and the other guy who looks like a flaming clown trying to fake it.

 

If you put in a half hour practice a day you may have 5 minuites of good playing when it counts. If you put in 4 hours a day, you may have 2 hours of peak playing on stage. Thats all there is to it. Hard work and dedication to playing. Good people skills working with others doesnt hurt either.

 

 

When a musician starts feeling like theres less and less they can take from others musically by copying others, then its likely time for them to turn the page and start writing to give back what they can through writing. Even if its your own renditions of others writers songs, its better than just being a sponge the rest of your life. You shure as hell will learn ten fold.

 

I made the most progress in the past 25 years when I started writing and recording non stop. This freed me from what others did and became my own man so to say. I did play covers for years though and still play out with a cover band maybe once a month just to keep in shape. Learning others technichiques and scales and all is part of the learning game.

 

Lately I been perfecting dual note leads. Its something I messed around with before, but I've come up with a whole new way of using them it in place of chords an hope to have a whole new style emerge from it.

 

Playing my own stuff in my original band is a hundred times more gratifying and exciting then any cover band can be. We've gotten so good at writing together we can write an original song on the spot and record it in a single take with virtually no rehursal. I hear the chord pattern once and thats it. Of course we add to it after the fact as we throw ideas at it, add bridges or breaks if they dont exist already, but thats all decorantion.

 

 

The best complement you can get is, "It reminds me of someone but I just cant put my finger on it" I dont want to be anyone but myself at my best anymore and have no idea whose hot and whose not. It has zero interest for me any more. Being at my best does require keeping in shape especially as you get older. You just dont heal as quickly as you did as a teen.

 

So if you're getting stale, maybe its time to find some new players to work with, or get into writing/recording, play with another establisher band. For others, maybe its time to put the toys away because you just havent got what it takes to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and bust ass taking things to the next level? Feeding off others praise especially mom, pop, family, and chicks, wont carry you through the rough times and they are the ones likely holding you back from finding a much stronger foundation to build on. Find it and get to work.

 

Sorry this was a littel long. Hopfully its worthwhile for those needing a kickstart.