Reteaching Myself: Help?

[SausageofPower]

So, I'm one of "those guys." I love the guitar, love to play, can pick up tricks fairly quickly (pinch harmonics, two-handed tapping, showy crap)...but in truth, I suck. For rhythms, I'm repetitous as hell. My solos are crap too. I've played for a long time, off and on, but I've never taken instruction or adhered to the various "do it yourself" lessons out there.

I wanna learn, but I'm admittedly hard pressed to find something that's exactly my speed. Things are either too advanced, or just as often they're too damned basic or scattershot and I get frustrated and go back to my usual playing. I've thought about taking lessons locally, but the handful of instructors I've talked to at local music stores honestly come off as pricks that I'd wanna slap 5 minutes in. They'll try and tell me about the greatest thing they've heard that I need to listen to, and more often than not it's the typical avant-garde stuff that I'm not interested in.

With 30 in sight, I wanna go back and refine my learning process. I've read here and seen people get a lot of help, so I figured I would ask: What's my best route? I'm capable, but my attention span admittedly is finite. I need to correct my technique, as I'm sure it's holding me back, so I'm thinking of a refresher course on the basics. From there, my biggest weak link is probably my lack of knowledge with theory. Speed I'll get to, as I'm not too worried about it for the immediate time being.

Sorry if I'm vague here, but I'm just getting the process started. Over the next 18 months, I'd like to revitalize my playing so I'm at a point where I can steadily add onto it and have a pool of cohesive knowledge to draw from, as opposed to a bag of tricks.

[xenophobe]

Pick a somewhat technical song that you're really familiar with and find the power tab and learn it properly?

I really hadn't played for more than 10 minuter in a sitting for more than the last half decade. I've been playing a lot more lately, but I've forgotten so much stuff. I've always only played original tunes and have only had to learn a handful of covers.

So for my practice benefit, I decided I wanted to learn a new song, so I picked an old Carcass tune that I've always wanted to play but never bothered trying. There really isn't any difficulty for me to play the notes, some of the positions push me out of my comfort zone and it's so fast that getting up to speed has been a bit frustrating. But I wanted a song that would push me, that has awesome riffs and a really cool groove.

And yeah, you're being really vague at what you need to work with.

Oh, and if you're mostly self-taught, theory will probably fuck you up worse than not.

[Vass]

Find some friends to bang around with. Seriously. Even if nobody is any good, it will make you all better. Your rhythm playing at the very least will improve out of necessity. Plus it will be fun!

[Hellbat]

Find some friends to bang around with. Seriously. Even if nobody is any good, it will make you all better. Your rhythm playing at the very least will improve out of necessity. Plus it will be fun!

+1

I still suck, but playing with others has improved my playing by a great deal, and it's generally fun.

[veemagic]

To me it sounds like you're looking for more fundamentals. Instead of going to music stores and trying their guitar teachers, see if your town has a conservatory. You might find just the types of classes your looking for, and they will better match your ability.

[DonP]

I suck too. Is there stuff on youtube that's helpful?

[Jayster]

Everybody can always get better, the whole I suck thing happens to all of us(sometimes from being in a rut, which it kinda sounds like you're describing?). Play with other people/musicians every chance you get, no matter what they play(piano/horns/guitar/drums) ~ This is the best teacher for 2 major reasons.... 1) you will immediately find where your weaknesses are(thus being to pinpoint your solo practice routines). 2)It is far more fun to play in this type of setting!!!! If you don't have anyone to 'jam' with, tune up to one of your favorite albums and tackle that(1 song at a time, if the solos are to difficult/play the rhythms and slowly work out the solo parts at another time).

The biggest obstacle IMHO is when we stop having fun with playing and music, sometimes the best thing for me has been to put the guitar away for a couple of months until I get inspired to play again(which normally comes from seeing some shows, or meeting more musicians).

Hope this helps some, it works for me..... but, I still suck too!

[SausageofPower]

Pick a somewhat technical song that you're really familiar with and find the power tab and learn it properly?

I actually tried that with a couple of tunes, but I found there were multiple versions and none of them sounded exactly right. Even "official" tab books seem off from time-to-time. Plus, I guess one facet (to work towards eliminating the vagueness) I need to work on is my ear.

And yeah, you're being really vague at what you need to work with.

I know. I was sitting here trying to think of a way to phrase it and figured, "Meh, what the hell. I'll just post it this way and fill in the gaps as the thread keeps going."

Oh, and if you're mostly self-taught, theory will probably fuck you up worse than not.

Maybe. That's always been a fear of mine. I'm honestly not going for the Paul Gilbert level of playing/theory, but I'd love to have a better command of being able to take what I hear in my head and lay it out on the fretboard.

Find some friends to bang around with. Seriously. Even if nobody is any good, it will make you all better. Your rhythm playing at the very least will improve out of necessity. Plus it will be fun!

I actually have done this a bit, but most of my friends that play are horrible at making plans. The main guy I know got divorced, so he's out of the game for a bit.

To me it sounds like you're looking for more fundamentals. Instead of going to music stores and trying their guitar teachers, see if your town has a conservatory. You might find just the types of classes your looking for, and they will better match your ability.

True. You might be right, I'll have to look into this.

I suck too. Is there stuff on youtube that's helpful?

There is, and that's been my main "classroom" to be honest.

I think my main problem is probably that I need to stop falling into the same rut with my playing and just kick myself in the ass to learn the fundementals (veemagic nailed it) that I've neglected for ages.

And thanks Jayster, you posted while I was typing this but you're right. I'll just start tossing albums on until I find someone else to play with.

[VanHoosen]

I'd suggest you learn C major (ionian) in all 7 boxes, 3 notes per string. Get those 7 boxes down and the fundamentals really start to open themselves up to you. Also, you'll inadvertently learn all 7 modes that way - so instead of knowing just the C major scale all over the neck, you now know D dorian, E phrygian, F lydian, G mixolydian, A aolian (natural minor), and B locrian. And I'm sure you know that the boxes all stay the same - IE you can play F major using the same patterns you used for C major. I'd also really recommend learning basic intervals and ALL of the notes on the neck.

Albums and tabs are good for learning how to construct riffs and phrasing, but without an understanding of basic scales you're not really going to be able to fully connect the dots.

[Sukkoi19]

While doing my latest degree I took a non-music major string instrument coarse at the local community college. Learning in the college environment with actual deadlines really helped me. I found that just learning how to find the relative minor and major while playing in a certain key by itself opened up my lead technique. From there all the modes started to fall into place. The absolute best way to improve rhythm is to play in a band in my opinion.

[veemagic]

Just to chime in again. I think everyones suggestions are right on. They all have one common theme that none of us can ever lose sight on. Find new ways to KEEP LEARNING. Whether its by formal classes, guitar store teachers, music books, in a band situation, jamming with friends, all of the above, or any combination. You're job is to keep the flame lit, and find new ways to spark it when it needs it. The best way I have found is doing whatever I can to get out of my current comfort zone. Don't do what your used to. Stop it. Try something completely different for awhile, and watch what happens when you come back to it. It will feel like an explosion. Like you felt when you first started playing and couldn't put it down.