on the verge of quitting guitar...

[mazhar]

hello everyone...ive been playing for over 6 years now...and one would think that i should be able to shred all over the place but for some reason my playing, in terms of improving reached a standstill about a year ago and my picking is still sloppy, im stuck in the same harmonic minor or major scales and i just cant churn out any different sounding riffs no matter how hard i try. at this point ure prolly thinking i havent tried hard enuff to learn new scales etc...but i have. but its like im glued to my current style...which frankly im not fond of...i listen to stuff like CoB but come out with riffs like freeking hammerfall. its so frustrating that im beginning to think i dont have what it takes to be a good player. as far as technique goes i started sweeping 2 years back and i STILL have to stick to arpeggios i already know (which are quite cheesy) and i just keep modifying them a little...u have no idea how pissing off all this is...i mean 6 years!!! dammit shouldnt i have been playing vai etc???

[Burn]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

do you drink much?

[mazhar]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

if that was a joke, im not going to humor it. if u were serious, no i dont.

[Burn]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

well, I'll tell you what. I have tapes and two demo cd's to prove that for some reason, high or drunk, I play better shit, faster, with more inspiration. I'm not telling you to go be a junky, or become a drunk, but I know if I'm going to write with a band, i'm usually drinking when I walk in.
fyi, for what is worth, I've been playing guitar for 9 years, in and out of quite a few bands. I for one don't want you to quit playing, and I don't even know you [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
So i'll start here: Are you in a band? if not, then start there, I can't tell you how it helped my playing.

[jjw]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

Perhaps you need a Teacher/instructor to push you in the right direction.Sounds to me like your not learning enough new stuff to change and improve your playing.An instructor will see this and give you stuff to work on that will take you to the next level.Listen as well to more styles of music,perhaps that alone might inspire you to learn other stuff.Set your self goals by learning songs that you struggle to play now.As for drink and drugs imrpoving your playing mentioned by Burn above!i wouldnt sugest you follow his advice..lol..If i had a drinker turn up for work with me i would show him the door-depends on what bands you play i spose!If its easy rock with easy pentatonic trills you can play stoned off your face-but if its more TECH then your timing will suffer.

[sonicsamurai]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

ditto on the band front i only be playing nearly 2 years now and since i joined a band after 6 months my playing shot up and i can knock off Dokken solos with ease already. A good idea is to get yourself in a covers band coz that way you feel like your achieving something coz ur learning songes every week like clockwork and you know you can play this and do the solo for that no probs - it makes me feel so much better about my playing

[mazhar]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

ive been in a band for 6 years as lead guitarist...we covered stuff from lamb of god to old sepultura to children of bodom to metallica...so the band angle has been tried and ure all right 100% it really did push my playing...but im into virtuoso playing and technique and i just feel very incompetent about it...i can even sweep tap during solo runs and all but it just doesnt feel like ive been playing for 6 yeaaarrss! but i guess i need a instructor now...i was fooling myself by thinking i could get around without one....thanks alot everyone.....appreciate it.

[jgcable]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

You need a good inspirational teacher. Lots of players need to be schooled. Its more common then the ones that don't.
If you can't find a teacher, buy every instructional video you can get your hands on. Something will click eventually. Your in a rut... we all have been there.

[Burn]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

I told him "don't do drugs" what more can you ask for? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
+infinity on the teacher, how old are you?

[diablomozart]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

a teacher is a good bet...also you mentioned feeling sloppy...break your playing down to basics...pay attention to your right hand more...eliminate any wasted movements in the picking and fretting hand...basically, start over...do things like simple one and two string alternate picking exercises until you are blue in the face, then do them some more...then move on to other scales...basically what you are looking for is a "reset switch" in your playing as you have grown physically comfortable in the style you have even tho you dislike it...worse comes to worse...take three months off from playing...and then come back to it...also...when writing a riff or lick, try singing it to yourself and then finding it on the fretboard...this will open up new ideas harmonically as will learning piano...d.m.

[DCZX]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

Don't give up on guitar, but this is something different: try another instrument (piano, whatever) for a little while and come back, you'll learn a lot about playing you might have missed on the guitar. For example, since I've started playing bass on the side in a band, my sense of rhythm seems to be improving in my guitar playing.

[Newc]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

Practice typing, it improves speed and accuracy.

The drunk/high thing is more about relaxing the brain so you're not "thinking" as hard, but rather letting what you know how to do come out without the mental blocks of "ok, I'm doing this and now I'm going to do that and then do some other but I have to phrase it just right or it's gonna stink and then I'll get upset I wonder if I should quit altogether what's for dinner I'm starving what's on tv I'm bored".

I've been playing for about 20 years (got my first guitar at 16, but wasn't "good" IMO until I was about 23 - I could play 98 songs, mostly rhythm, all the way through from memory), and I still cannot play a lot or Iron Maiden solos, even though I was listening to them long before I started trying to play them. I can play them flawlessly if I'm half-asleep (caught myself doing that quite a few times [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]) but even if I know the notes and where they go and all that, I cannot be wide-awake and hit them half as good as I can if I've been up for 24+ hours straight and am literally asleep on my feet.

Learning new things may or may not help, but it's worth a try. If you're sticking to your favorite riffs and runs, it's because they're "safe" - you know them and can pull them off easily and get that instant gratification. That's understandable. I have a few runs that are my "favorites", but I know enough now about phrasing and such that I can use them in several places and not make them sound totally identical.

Then again, you say you've been playing only for 6 years, but how much of that time has been spent in earnest practice? Vai practiced 8 to 10 hours a day for years, not months. Zakk still practices 8 hours a day. How much did Rhoads practice a day? How much does Petrucci still practice a day?
They're not Gods, they're men. They had to learn how to do it just like the rest of us.

[Chuckracer]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

"Zakk still practices 8 hours a day."

Doing what? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

Well, he SAYS he still practices guitar 8 hours a day, whether he does or not.... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[nateb]

Re: on the verge of quitting guitar...

[ QUOTE ]
"Zakk still practices 8 hours a day."

Doing what? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Raising a beer to his head. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

-Nate