For the guitarists among us

Do you feel like, once in a while, you make a real breakthrough with your playing, or you suddenly notice the improvement?

For 8 years, I was in a band playing bass and probably neglected my guitar skills (guitar is my first love, bass comes after this- though I got well into it through the band).

I used to do pub gigs on guitar so was playing regularly- stopped doing that about 5 years ago in any kind of frequency. Just a couple of gigs a year, then nothing for 3 years.

So- at the end of 2006, just before I started biking, I quit the band and pretty much had last year off any serious musical stuff- I needed a break to 'find myself' with it all again.

This year, along with electronic stuff, I have started practicing guitar again and have started writing again. I'm well into a lot of music- from Beatles, Floyd, Stones to a lot of 'flashy stuff'- Van Halen, Satriani, Vai, Dream Theater etc. So I'm trying to really up the spec of my playing.

I started practicing on Thursday night, but as I was very tired, I couldn't concentrate on anything, so kept fluffing scales etc.

I've not been able to get past 115-120 bpm playing 16th notes when running scales/chromatic excercises. My fret hand just keeps getting in the way of picking when I take my fingers off the fretboard, when I come down the scale. I kind of end up pulling the note off, rather than letting the pick do the job, so I klutz it.

Suddenly I had a revelation- a simple one, but there you go- just lift my fingers up the other way- so I'm lifting them upwards, instead of pulling the strings downwards. MY GOD! What a difference immediately. Though I'm going to have to go back to 80bpm and retrain my hands, It's gonna make a whole load of difference!

I also ended up writing a song that night too- wow for creativity!

So there it is. I had to share this, as it was one of those profound moments!

Now I need to think of playing in a band again. Oh how I miss the gigs!

Aaaaahhh- it's good to rock!

Can you pass some of your success dust to me? Ive been to a Jazz workshop today (saxophone) and realised how crap I am...everytime I tried to solo using the scales and arpegios set by the tutor I went out of my comfort zone and it all went horribly wrong! Im fine if left to my own devices (playing totally by ear) but as soon as I try and apply theory it all goes out the window!

[Wideboy]

i picked up mine for the 1st time tonight in weeks, my twas loud

[northwind]

To be honest I'm as rotten now as I was a few months after I got my first one

Originally Posted by ArtyLady

Can you pass some of your success dust to me? Ive been to a Jazz workshop today (saxophone) and realised how crap I am...everytime I tried to solo using the scales and arpegios set by the tutor I went out of my comfort zone and it all went horribly wrong! Im fine if left to my own devices (playing totally by ear) but as soon as I try and apply theory it all goes out the window!

It's a b*gger when you start thinking about it, rather than just feeling it. isn't it? I learned a lot of stuff by ear and just piecing things together- then I started working out scales and I'm looking at modes at the moment and am finding I understand them as a scale, but I need to learn the chord theory that goes with them too. There's always something more!

My main thing when reading guitar tab at the moment is learning the timing stuff- some of the more widdly stuff I'm learning (slowly!) has a lot of notes in a bar and they're often polyrhythms- so 5 notes to a beat, that's tied over to triplets and other extra complications. It's well hard to learn off the page and get right, so I might have to really brush up general score reading, rather than just tab. Though it's quite exciting as I know it'll arm me with even more skills to do the do's!



I tend to find that if I'm practicing a particularly tricky bit and spend a session fluffing it, the next day it just works so much better. It's like the brain's had time for it to sink in.

Then- when something just clicks, it's like a light just switches on! Wonderful!

i started playing bass a couple of years back, but uni work kinda got in the way of practising. then in my final year i moved in with a couple of mates, one of which plays electric. started playing some ac/dc and i loved it! so i found a bargain on ebay epiphone sg les paul custom thingy, cleaned it up, sorted the electrics and im off! loving learning everything but.....picked up my bass the other day ans it is sooo much easier after playing the sg! finger movement is a lot quicker, smoother etc. loving it now! play both of them every night now, find its good moving from one to another.

I havent played guitar properly for a little while, but I tend to mix slap bass with acoustic flamenco strums. I haven't had an electric in a while but I was at the level where I could happily sweep pick up and down the fretboard, I've lost some knowledge of scales as I've been lax in my playing, I'd say I'm at about a grade 7/8 level though. I also like playing with different harmonics too, it's fun.

My bass playing has totally suffered since I quit the band- timing's well out. Think I should start practicing that more too!!

Originally Posted by thedonal

It's a b*gger when you start thinking about it, rather than just feeling it. isn't it? I learned a lot of stuff by ear and just piecing things together- then I started working out scales and I'm looking at modes at the moment and am finding I understand them as a scale, but I need to learn the chord theory that goes with them too. There's always something more!

My main thing when reading guitar tab at the moment is learning the timing stuff- some of the more widdly stuff I'm learning (slowly!) has a lot of notes in a bar and they're often polyrhythms- so 5 notes to a beat, that's tied over to triplets and other extra complications. It's well hard to learn off the page and get right, so I might have to really brush up general score reading, rather than just tab. Though it's quite exciting as I know it'll arm me with even more skills to do the do's!



I tend to find that if I'm practicing a particularly tricky bit and spend a session fluffing it, the next day it just works so much better. It's like the brain's had time for it to sink in.

Then- when something just clicks, it's like a light just switches on! Wonderful!

Im classically trained so read music/lead sheets etc - but I still need to actually hear the piece, get the timing etc - once Ive got the groove and the tune in my head I find the timing and chord changes come fairly naturally ...but then I forget the theory...argghhh I just cant do both!! but I know I have to if I want to progress any further.

I know what you mean about modes - just when thought Id got everything I need - Blues scale, Dorian, Pentatonic - yesterday Mixolydian got thrown into the mix (pun intended!!) Not only that but after years of playing Classical Arpegios I have to adjust to Dominant 7th Arpegios!

I must start doing what you do - practicing tricky bits very slowly to ingrain the finger patterns in my memory...I get so impatient I always try to play them fast straight away - Ive been trying to learn "Pick up the Pieces" (amongst others) and keep reinforcing the mistakes by playing at full speed!!

The conclusion I have come to though is that the even the best performers cannot just pick up and play something new - they have to work on it (I'll keep telling myself that anyway! )

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