Do you ever get days where......

Ger the man

You feel like your not going to get any better as a player? Or you depend on the internet too much to learn from others. Or maybe you see a cool riff and you learn it and you say to yourself "I should have thought that one up myself"! Granted im only back playing a few months (had a guitar about 10 years ago). Any thoughts?

Dord

Yeah I have good days and bad days. Some days my hands just don't wanna move. Other days I've got a good thing going, so I just play as long as I can that day.

I've been trying to steer clear of tabs, I'm currently learning how to sight read and I'm finding it great, very interesting. Some things are just "clicking".

BTW I think this is a thread for the sub-forum? maybe Feylya can move it.

-=al=-

my finger independance is gone to **** latey, gota get practicing again, and learning songs ive goten lazy =/

leninbenjamin

every single day for the past 3 years. i've got the musical equivalent to writers block i think.

Doctor J

Everyone has bad days, just try not to pressure yourself into making big steps forward quickly and play for the enjoyment alone and you'll get through it.

Dord

I had one today at the worst possible time

NeMiSiS

Get out and jam with other people, I find you learn more things that way. They might be playing a riff or use some kind of technique, that you don't know how to play yet.. or have some kind of interesting style you can pursue..
I ask other guitar players lots of questions.. and other musicians.. probably to the point of being annoying

Or why not try playing a style you are not used to, like say try learn some really fast country stuff.. it may not suit your overall style, but you will defintly learn techniques or patterns you can incorporate.

Or if you play mostly electric, switch to acoustic while you practice .. or vice versa.

Keep rockin anyway..

TK

BobTheBeat

Considering the fact that youre only just back playing after a lengthy hiatus, I would say youre going to get those types of feelings more often than musicians playing regularly. Its a confidence thing really.

I had similar problems a year or so ago. I have been playing (drums) around 11 years now, and started teaching this time last year. I gave myself an awful hard time with doubting my ability,technique and overall musicianship. I couldnt quite convince myself if was good enough for anything. It took learning some new techniques and taking my playing to a new headspace, to build my confidence back up. What I also did was buy up a ****e load of books (just browse the likes of Amazon etc for reviews) and dvd's and commited myself to gleaming the best from both mediums. Through solid effort and dilligence I improved my playing immensely(comments from other musicians further bolstered this) and more importantly began to really enjoy the instrument alot more.

The whole experience gave me a thirst for more knowledge and an unbounding desire to constantly improve.

Short and sweet of it..., just believe in yourself!

Ger the man

Cheers! - I just bought a tab book last weekend and its excellent. I already had tab print outs from the net but this was much more accurate, DVD's can be pricey and some of them not so good either.

Malice

The last time I felt like I was having a bad day I made some fundamental changes to my regime. Firstly I switched my playing position. I normally play standing up so I sat myself down. Then I changed instrument. I normally play seven string guitar so I dusted down my six string which I hadn't touched in at least six months. Then I changed musical style. I normally play metal so I tore into some old Radiohead songs. Those three changes kept me occupied for a few evenings and, when I went back to what I normally play, it didn't feel like going through the motions, it felt more like a change from what had started to become a bit of a routine.
Depending on your setup you could use different effects. Normally I use distortion but the odd time I will dial in a few wierd sounding patches using different flanger/reverb/chorus settings. Sometimes you will stumble upon something that sounds great!
Lastly try different tunings. I recall an interview with Billy Corgan where he recommended this. If you're using E standard try switching to dropped D or dropped C# and vice versa.

fobster

malice_ wrote: »

Depending on your setup you could use different effects. Normally I use distortion but the odd time I will dial in a few wierd sounding patches using different flanger/reverb/chorus settings. Sometimes you will stumble upon something that sounds great!

I second this, I have some RSI problems that mean I can't play a lot of stuff. Firstly I lowered the string action and I've started using the flanger, phaser and delay effects on my Cube amp to fill up the sound, I can mix flanger or phaser with delay and get some cool sounds. Then I coupled this with some finger tapping because strumming isn't the greatest for my hands and bingo I'm making some music that I've now recorded and have on my ipod. It might be on a simple digital recorder but it's something to be proud of!

As has been said just experiment with different styles, techniques etc. and keep it fresh!

DeVore

I'm still learning (a lot) so most days its like "oh so THATS F#", but yeah, I keep hitting points where I feel "thats it, thats as far as I'm going to go. I've reached the ceiling". The funny thing is that I really want to be better at this instrument (piano) and I actually feel a pang of sadness, like I've lost a friend or finished a great book. Which makes me practise to see if theres anything more I can get from it and suddenly, boom, I get an avalanche of progress.

Then its back to the grinding practise to bed all that down

DeV.

supadude

yes every day im like that...i always depend on other peoples oppinions for stuff i know nothing about...i play the piano and learn a lot off the internet and youtube

brendansmith

Yeah, Sometimes you cant put a finger right. It makes you wonder why you bother at all. You put the guitar down and dont look at it for a day or two.

Then on your way home from work you listen to dimebag blast out 'the sleep' on your earphones and when the solo kicks in it makes the hairs on your arms stand up and the first thing you do when you get home is fire up the amp and get your power groove on.

I think everyone gets fed up of the lack of progress but when you are cooking you are reallllllly cooking and all of a sudden the technique/solo that had you bet seems to just happen naturally.

Dont push yourself when tired, it will always end in tears, go and have a biscuit and a watch of the tv instead.

Pyr0

Yeah I have those days too. Trying to play something and it just isn't working out as you've planned. I end up swearing at my guitar and don't go near it for a few days, we have a love hate relationship :pac:

I also have this strange issue with my picking hand, my hand hesitates to move sometimes when jumping into something straight away, like for example a gallop. Doesn't happen all the time and it's something that really hinders my picking but i'm working on it !

Mark2229

I know how you feel, when i first started playing guitar a few months ago i just seemed to pick up things very quickly but over the last few weeks iv been trying to learn scales etc, and i just seem to dread the whole process


Like i want to be the best i can be but when i think about sitting down for an hour or two a night and practise a certain scale over and over again it makes me not want to pick up the guitar and iv noticed that im lacking determination, it really sucks

OK-Cancel-Apply

OP you could try taking a break from it for a while. And then when you pick it up next you'll be flying and find ideas bursting out all over the place.

rgjmce

NeMiSiS wrote: »

Or if you play mostly electric, switch to acoustic while you practice .. or vice versa.

I done this recently, i start playing my acoustics 12/6 strings at sessions and then i went back to playing electric and it has made my playing better, it's always good to do this from time to time.

I remember when i just got my acoustic (i had electric too) my mate suggests i play the acoustic for a week without playing electric, it was hard to do at the time but it was totally worth, i improved massively because it and probably wouldn't have come along as quick as i have at guitar.

Nulty

From all the replies here I think we can sum up that when you get stuck in a rut or have hit a wall basically what you need is a change of scenery, right? Your confidence goes down when your bored of the same thing. Build it back up by doing some thing else (switch guitars, play something you enjoy, "have a biscuit":P) what ever works for you. Then you can approach the difficult task with new vigour and in a new light! Key = change of scenery:cool: