9 years of wasted time?

[jgcable]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

I think I know what your problem is.
You consider playing the guitar "practice"
You should stop focusing on practicing and start PLAYING.
Good is a relative term. If you are good enough to play in a band that doesn't suck, you must be pretty ok.

Here is the straight talk from good ole Johnny G:

If you love playing and have been practicing correctly and consistantly and taking lessons from competent instructors for the last 7-9 years and you still can't play a guitar solo I would put the blame 100% on your instructors.
Some guys have great ears and can pick things up on their own. Some have a gift but most guitar players have to be taught how to play lead guitar. Heck... everybody can play decent rhythm guitar with no lessons but unless you have a gift or an ear you need to be shown how to rip on the guitar by a teacher.
I am NOT OF THE OPINION that some players are just not cut out to play lead guitar. That is crap. 100% crap.
If you are bullshitting us regarding your practicing habits you have yourself to blame (you sound sincere). If you are committed and LOVE PLAYING THE GUITAR you need to dump your teacher, dump the instructional videos that aren't working for you and start searching for a new teacher or a new instructional video to get you going.
Here is a SERIOUS recomendation for the first instructional video to get you ripping solo's in no time.
Hot Licks.. Arlen Roth Master of the Telecaster.
I won't go into too many details but I will tell you that this video is jam packed with useful learnable licks. Is he metal? Nope. Can you use most of these licks with any style of music. Yep. Can you learn many if not most of them even though you suck playing solo's? Absolutely.

The bottom line is bro.. if you love playing guitar that is the only thing that really matters.

Check back in. I'll help you out. I love spreading the gospel of shred.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

[ QUOTE ]
If you are bullshitting us regarding your practicing habits you have yourself to blame (you sound sincere). If you are committed and LOVE PLAYING THE GUITAR you need to dump your teacher, dump the instructional videos that aren't working for you and start searching for a new teacher or a new instructional video to get you going.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, not bullshitting. I do practice everyday, Some practice days are more intense than others. Whether I was practicing correctly or not is different, but then, what is correct.

Another instructor may do it, another instructional video may do it, but this is a road I've traveled before.

I truly don't want to stop, cause its what i look forward to when I get home from work, I'm just disgusted with my progress.

To continue on, at least in a learning mode, I would probably need see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Last night, my guitar sat in front of me plugged in, but I never picked it up to play it. Instead, I just glanced at it now and then, almost with a 'you let me down' kind of look.

I do know another instructor John, whos played with Ozzy before and also, one of his co-instructors JD, a bass player who was a former member of BLS. I've talked to John before and he's aware of my frustration. He's invited me, but I haven't did anything.

I didn't want to leave this instructor I was with because of his knowledge, but as I said earlier, he's a jazz or Joe Pass type player. This is my last month with him though.

I'll check into the Arlen Roth video.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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your trying to hard....

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Could be. Sometimes I dissect thing farther than I should, but then, how long should it go on?

[Tetsuo]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

Don... Same here the thing is just ease up and relax.

Frusciante is a the child of professional musicians and was classically trained from birth on up...

Don't play the guitar as work and explore something new take a few weeks off and learn som crazy Jazz stuff...

I Personally love quiting ever band I am in bands always burn me out

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

[ QUOTE ]
Don... Same here the thing is just ease up and relax.

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I'm not in a relaxed state right now, but eventually I will be and then I can rethink things.

I know I'm whinning a lot, but after nine years of day after day physically and mentally working with the guitar, then to look back and measure myself, at least in my case, is demoralizing.

[Tetsuo]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

Measure yourself next to me and you will feel great!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Actually come to think of it I am 10 years in (well longer than that but since I got serious) and you can play better than me most likely...

Don't try to quantify your work in this this is art and as long as you enjoy playing don't worry about progress... We all have different gifts on the guitar too so your progress on certain aspects might be much better than you think

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

Great avatar!

[jgcable]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

[ QUOTE ]
Measure yourself next to me and you will feel great!!!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Actually come to think of it I am 10 years in (well longer than that but since I got serious) and you can play better than me most likely...

Don't try to quantify your work in this this is art and as long as you enjoy playing don't worry about progress... We all have different gifts on the guitar too so your progress on certain aspects might be much better than you think

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct. We are all sponges. I learn from every guitar player I come into contact with. Great or not great, we all have a unique style which makes playing guitar so frikkin cool. I am sure there are things that you play on guitar that are awesome that take for granted .

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

my problem don was wathing all 62 of my guitars dissappear due to a smack addiction that , well, in my case could be called not a monkey but a "king kong on your back" is more like it. i got so used to playing high that when i got off the junk i just sucked on guitar and lost the fire for it. well, i am now done with all the blubbering as i have not played in just about 2 years. i WILL score some kind of real charvel strathead and a gk250 and work my way back. i learned to play without the junk habit, i just needed an extra long break to get my life back together and my company that i started is actually starting to explode. i have the want to play and that's what hit me a few weeks ago. i really want to playnow, it's just hard when your equipment is a tennis raquet and your amp is a toaster-lol
xanax are good for relaxing but i'm done with those now too as i can sleep at night again easy. "nobody ever has it as good as they want it" that's a quote from Legba who changed his name to scratch from the movie crossroads. and it's the truth, but since i hit bottom i now see that i don't need much in this world to be happy. do what yyou feel, but don't lose your love for the music.

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

You know, one thing that helped me, was that I stopped listening to all guitarmusic, period.

I went on a search for electronic music, trance, house, techno, etc... That broadened my horizon incredibly and gave me new and fresh insighst into music, rhythms, melodies and stuff like that. And one day I heard techno with guitar in it, and the love came back. Nowadays I listen to just about everything (both guitar + electronic music, no MTV crap or something though) and that in turn has had a positive effect on my love and energy of the guitar.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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i just needed an extra long break

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It may be what I need to do. I think the way I learn the guitar is more of a quest than an enjoyment. You know how some people like to take apart a car engine just to examine the parts and what they do. That seem to be my approach to the guitar and music. How it works, almost like crossword puzzle, if I'm making any sense. Maybe years of that have burnt me out. I don't want to lose the music, because I've invested all this time into it, but I probably do need to take break.

[Newc]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

Since the big question here is do you want to keep playing, only you can answer that.
Can you look at it as fun and not as a competition, even against yourself?
Can you approach it without the "Gung Ho GI Joe be the best or go home" attitude you said you've always had for sports and such?

If you're not having fun, then you're not doing what you most wish you were.

Try moving to Bass and leave the guitar alone for now. Bass will not only strengthen your rhythm skills, but will also help you sort out the mystery of melody.

Music is not a mechanical or technical device. It's not 100% math. You have to have that "something" that can't be bought, sold, or taught.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

[ QUOTE ]
Can you look at it as fun and not as a competition, even against yourself?
Can you approach it without the "Gung Ho GI Joe be the best or go home" attitude you said you've always had for sports and such?

If you're not having fun, then you're not doing what you most wish you were.

Try moving to Bass and leave the guitar alone for now. Bass will not only strengthen your rhythm skills, but will also help you sort out the mystery of melody.

Music is not a mechanical or technical device. It's not 100% math. You have to have that "something" that can't be bought, sold, or taught

[/ QUOTE ]

Approaching it Gung Ho is the way I approach it, but unlike sports, building things or accomplishing something I want to do, I haven't been successful like that with the guitar. Hence the frustration.

Moving over to different instruments is something I've also did. This past weekend I joined my old band onstage and played guitar for a couple of songs, bass for a couple more and also the harmonica.

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Music is not a mechanical or technical device.

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Your right, but my nature is to approach it like that. It's a task to be accomplishent and this is how to do it kind of attitude. As I watch myself type these words, I also realize this approach isn't working. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Tetsuo]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

Don I think your playing will improve when teh Yankee's start playing better [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

[ QUOTE ]
Don I think your playing will improve when teh Yankee's start playing better

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[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Holy Crap. I never even made that connection. [img]/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] It's Tom Gordon. Instead of playing the guitar the right way, I want to hold it like a baseball bat and blast the TV.