what do you find the most difficult thing to do in your guitar playing?

siraxeman

For me i think its creativity.  I'd guess that's the case for most of us as we tend to spend more time playing other people's stuff? 
Sure I've written a few things over the years but it never seems to come easily.  I'm probably too self critical and dismiss a lot of my creations before they ever become completely finished works. as for songwriting thats even harder because i can't sing that good. And that's not being too self critical Anyway what do you feel is your weak area/s as a guitarist? 

Teetonetal

To not be lazy and repetitive. I play a lot of the same things all the time.

scrumhalf

Be competent, it's a never-ending battle.

tony99

siraxeman said:

For me i think its creativity.  I'd guess that's the case for most of us as we tend to spend more time playing other people's stuff? 
Sure I've written a few things over the years but it never seems to come easily.  I'm probably too self critical and dismiss a lot of my creations before they ever become completely finished works. as for songwriting thats even harder because i can't sing that good. And that's not being too self critical Anyway what do you feel is your weak area/s as a guitarist? 

I think I'm kinda the opposite, I'm ok creative wise, finding new directions to take and little ideas popping up, but when I try to learn something of somebody else's, a lot of the time I can get some of it but if there's a particular tricky bit I can't get then I go ah I'll come back to that

subsequently ending up knowing lots of bits of songs rather than the complete thing,

although this of course gave birth to my legendary GnR / Knopfler mash up medley

"sweet child of my swinging sultans"

spark240

I do much better stuff when adding to someone else's basic song, I find I can add licks, melodies etc much easier than coming up with my own songs.

also wish I could do String bends and vibrato better

Schnozz

For me it's memory - In my teens a Judas Priest song was harder to remember than something by Rory Gallagher because of all the 5th chords. I've struggled with this for years and I know it's due to lack of practice and/or impatience.

Roland

Learning new techniques. Most of my practice time seems to be spent learning and transcribing new songs.

GuitarZero

Creativity too.  I'm pretty good and working out and playing stuff I know but writing my own material I find extremely difficult.

JezWynd

Teetonetal said:

To not be lazy and repetitive. I play a lot of the same things all the time.

I do this. It drives me mad. My fingers form too-familiar patterns automatically. I break out of it using different sounds when I should put in the effort to learn new stuff.

olafgarten

I find it difficult to play Quickly, there is just a point where I can't play any faster no matter how hard I try. I've been trying to train myself but I just miss notes or don't fret them properly. 

HarrySeven

Everything.

Sassafras

Trying to get modulation effects to sound good.
Especially chorus.

Vibetronic

without a doubt, alternate picking. I have to be playing every day for a few days to get it decent. I think when I was younger I started mixing up alternate picking with economy picking, and it just sort of stuck. 

With the creative stuff I think it's a case of getting ideas down and working on them, and not caring too much what other people might think (or what you think they might think...chances are it's actually pretty good, and you're just too used to hearing yourself play). Also, some ideas may sound crappy at first, but once you start building up your piece they'll sound a lot better. I know what you mean about songwriting. I've done a fair amount now, but I tend to do leave the chorus and verse sections very basic so that the singer can come up with something and tell me to change stuff. I can't sing at all.

VimFuego

focus, I'm too easily distracted by new things to sample and learn rather than knuckling down and learning a few thngs well.

Jack_

Fitting into the spandex.

siraxeman

^^but you know that spandex stretches don't ya? The good stuff does anyway quite a bit...but yeah it does have it's limits! I do get funny looks sometimes when I go to the shops for milk or summat though in mine. When people look I just stare back at em and say "I'm a rock n roller man ". ;-)

axisus

Theory. I know nothing. 

Blueingreen

I've been rehearsing with a swing band playing from charts and it's really, really been a struggle.  In fact if I'd had a clear idea what I was letting myself in for I'd have said no.

The first problem is that the chord voicings in this style of music are completely different to the ones you use in any other style, including small band jazz.  At first I got the charts and tried to find voicings that fit the written chords, including trying to capture the flavour of the upper extensions, although it isn't physically possible to play them all.  That was slow and laborious and difficult. 

I then did a bit of surfing and realised that's not how it's usually done.  Normally swing guitarists use a limited set of voicings and avoid playing extensions higher than 7.  Mainly you use voicings on strings 3,4 and 6, often damping 6 so you have in effect 2 notes plus some dampened strings.

In many ways this makes things much easier:  the chord shapes are repetitive, there's only a limited number and with a bit of practice it becomes much easier to decide what to play.  But you are still using new, unfamiliar chord shapes and there's a learning curve in getting those under your fingers, especially since some changes are very rapid.

But the much bigger difficulty is remembering the charts.  Constant subtle changes and reharmonisation mean there's far less repetition than in other styles of music. Any other styles I've played, including some fairly complicated stuff like Steely Dan, or bands where I've had to memorise a bunch of solos note for note, the memorisation process has been much, much easier .  There's repetition in the chords, melodies stick in your head.  With this stuff it's variable yet samey. A lot of it of it is easy to play, but a  very hard to remember.

Obviously these charts are written for fluent readers, so remembering stuff isn't an issue for them.  But never having done it before I find it very hard to play and read a chart at the same time.  I keep glancing at my hands and by the time I look back at the chart I've lost my place.

End result is I've vacillated between two solutions.  Practice playing while focussing on the charts, or just make a big effort to memorise the stuff.  But mainly I've favoured just memorising stuff, because it's what I've always done and seems natural.

I've now had a couple of rehearsals where I've been embarrassed by my efforts.  I thought I'd got the arrangements more or less into my brain, but my memory of the intricate arrangement fails me, and if I momentarily forget the next chord I'm totally lost, sitting out big chunks of songs.

I'm still not sure whether to make a big push to get to know the stuff backwards so I can play it, go back to trying to use the charts as an aide-memoire, or throw in the towel and tell the band to get a guy whose experience is a better fit.

I really had no concept that this would be so difficult.

darthed1981

The biggest challenge I have (lack of genuine "talent" notwithstanding) is playing every day.

When I do, I get better, almost striaght away, but then I put the guitar down for a couple of days and my "feel" just goes.

I'm an intermediate player at best and my ear is crap, so I'm just another in the crowd really, love my guitar playing though

Sassafras

I used to have to fight the temptation to overplay. I had to remind myself that I was only there to serve the song, not swamp it.

BRISTOL86

For me it's all about the actual hand techniques. I have very odd fingers (overly flexible at the top joint and 'gammy' as my dear Nan used to say!)

I find some things that are considered simple basics very very difficult indeed. Barre chords are a constant frustration as where a normal person would have their ring finger relatively flat to the neck, that's physically impossible for me. There is a very pronounced 'scoop' between my top two joints when pressing down for a barre chord that really makes things difficult.